Sami Al-Arian
.... Bruce Shapiro, a dismayed writer, felt Al-Arian was wronged in this situation. “The very institution of academic tenure was created to ensure that scholars feel free to speak out on public controversies, whether in or outside their official academic portfolio. What’s more, in a world haunted by terrorism, the stakes in the Sami Al-Arian case go beyond civil libertarian abstraction. If anything helps fuel terrorism, it is a sense that politics cannot work. ...Firing Al-Arian because of public hysteria over spurious charges turns the firing and hiring at USF over to a gang of hecklers and telephone thugs. And like the rearrest of his brother-in-law, it sends a disquieting worldwide message that democracy will betray those most clamoring for it.” [Shapiro- Pg. 4] His support for this claim is that tenure was created for this reason precisely. What is the point of earning tenure, he wonders, if it does not protect one against this type of situation? Shapiro believes that persons should be able to voice their opinions and beliefs freely without being penalized. That is supposed to be a theme of America today. It is a large reason why so many people move here to begin with. In this quote, Shapiro also addresses the idea of terrorism and what fuels it. While those in opposition believe that Al-Arian’s comments were making a bad situation worse, Shapiro argues otherwise. He blames political figures and their supporters for threats of terrorism, and believes that the termination of Al-Arian was just adding to the universal problem. Bruce Shapiro believes it was not Genshaft who made this rash decision but the public who dictated the actions of higher authority. A barrage of threats in both written and vocal form were overtaking the attention of Genshaft who naturally took the problem to heart. Shapiro believes that the community of and around USF was given too much power in this situation since authoritative figures were influenced so easily by their actions by being encouraged that these threats were effective. While it is true that the public did have a hand in this decision, Shapiro should not be dismayed. Political figures are created in order to represent their community. While this does not give the public entire power of decision, it absolutely should influence the situation. Genshaft and her supporters were merely taking the public’s opinion into consideration when making their decision of the outcome of this case. Since the issue does affect the community, it is very understandable that they would have an influential part of this decision. However, while Shapiro believes this is unjustified, Thomas Gonzalez, a legal consultant, believes the situation was handled correctly. His written opinion of the case reflects that the public should have quite an influence on the decision of the University. USF would not be there in the first place if it were not for the many students and supporters it has. Gonzalez not only believes that the concerns of the public were valid, but also called for. When innocent staff members are receiving death threats due to the voice of one of their colleagues, they have no responsibility to support him or her. Various threats were being sent to the school until it got to the point where officials were forced to shut parts down for the sake of safety. Gonzalez also believes this could have been completely avoided had Al-Arian used better judgement. USF’s main complaint was that the professor had not made it clear that he was speaking on behalf of his own beliefs and not those of USF. This is a very valid request for anyone to make, let alone a University who would obviously have to face public ridicule due to the situation. Al-Arian should have known this and used foresight to avoid it from happening. Gonzalez even refers back to Al-Arian’s contract to show how he had gone against it. “Dr. Al-Arian is subject to discipline because he has failed to fulfill contractual obligation made incumbent upon him by the collective bargaining agreement between the University and the United Faculty of Florida, specifically that part of the agreement which guarantees academic freedom but also provides that ‘[a]cademic freedom is accompanied by the responsibility to,’ inter alia: Indicate when appropriate that one is not an institutional represen...