Vigil staged for Palestinian scholar

Al-Arian accused of aiding terrorists

BUTNER -- About 60 people held a two-hour vigil beside Interstate 85 on Saturday for an imprisoned former college professor accused of conspiring with Palestinian terrorists.

Sami al-Arian is being held at the Federal Medical Facility near Butner for refusing to testify in a terrorism-related case before a Virginia grand jury. On Jan. 22, he began a hunger strike to protest his incarceration beyond the duration of his sentence.

After he collapsed Feb. 13, the Federal Bureau of Prisons transferred al-Arian to Butner from a prison in Virginia.

Al-Arian's wife, Nahla al-Arian, said her diabetic husband ended the hunger strike Friday, at his family's urging, and tried taking liquid nutrients. In his weakened condition, he was having difficulty digesting them, she said.

"The most important thing is [that] his psychological state is healthy and fine," she said.

Khalila Sabra, director of the N.C. Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, said, "He's experiencing a living death. ... Until he's free, none of us are really free."

The Muslim foundation helped organize Saturday's demonstration, along with the Durham and Orange county chapters of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, N.C. Stop Torture Now and al-Arian's family.

Two of al-Arian's five children also took part in the protest, along with four other supporters from their hometown of Tampa, Fla.

Born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents, al-Arian, 49, grew up in Cairo, came to the United States as a student in 1975 and earned master's and doctorate degrees at N.C. State University in the 1980s. In 1986, he joined the faculty at the University of South Florida as a computer-science professor.

In February 2003, he was arrested in Tampa and charged with aiding Palestinian terrorists. At that time, the university fired him.

In December 2005, a jury acquitted al-Arian of eight charges and deadlocked on nine others. In May, he signed an agreement in which he pleaded guilty to aiding the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which the U.S. government regards as a terrorist organization. The agreement also said that al-Arian would be deported after serving an 18-month prison sentence.

With time already served, al-Arian's sentence is up in April. But it has been extended indefinitely on a charge of civil contempt after he refused to testify in an investigation of Islamic charities in northern Virginia.

"Al-Arian is in limbo," said Jerry Markatos, a demonstrator from Chatham County. "This is a notorious case internationally."

Others said their protest was about more than al-Arian.

Sabra said al-Arian is not a criminal, but "part of a political agenda" of a U.S. government "intolerant of the rights of Muslims, intolerant of the reasonable rejection of their Israeli agenda."

Demonstrators, some in prison-style orange jumpsuits, stood along a road facing I-85 at exit 189. They brought a tall "Leaning Lady Liberty" figure proclaiming "Bush Free Dr. Sami," along with signs calling for al-Arian's release and for support of Palestinians.

Passing motorists occasionally blew their horns, but it was impossible to tell whether in support or mockery. The morning's only incident was the arrival of several Highway Patrolmen warning protesters to stay behind the fence, after several climbed into the I-85 right-of-way to photograph the demonstration.

Organizer Margaret Misch of the Orange County Bill of Rights Defense group said the main goal was to gain attention for al-Arian's case.

"It's of concern the media doesn't pick up this cross," Misch said. "This is, to me, not just Sami, it's the concern we have for rights."

Protester Roger Ehrlich of Cary said his grandfather was a prominent Zionist in Austria who protested anti-Semitic policies after the Nazi occupation. The grandfather, Jacob, was arrested and died in the Dachau concentration camp, Ehrlich said.

"I see real parallels here," he said.

Nahla al-Arian said the event was heartening.

"It gives me hope the situation will change, injustice will end," she said. "I see in this place the conscience of America."