The University Days of Sami al-Arian

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With the Sami al-Arian trial underway, let’s revisit a statement he made denying he could’ve known Ramadan Shallah was the head of the terrorist group Islamic Jihad. In 2003 terrorism expert and author Steve Emerson said this about al-Arian’s denial:

“When Al-Arian said, `How could I know this person [Shallah] was connected to the Jihad?’ he knew exactly what was going on.”

How could Emerson so confidently say that? Well, one clue pops up in the Dayan Center Papers on the subject:

The soon-to-be leader of Islamic Jihad, Fathi al-Shiqaqi, headed for Egypt in 1974 after studying for his BA in sciences and mathematics at Bir Zeit University in Ramallah. It was in Egypt that he got to know a group of students who along with Shiqaqi and Sheikh ‘Abd al-‘Aziz ‘Awda became the founders of Islamic Jihad: Sami al-Arian (majoring in computer studies); Nafidh ‘Azzam (medicine); Bashir Nafi’ (exact sciences); and who? Ramadan Shallah (commerce.).

Note: In 1975 ‘Awda was expelled from Egypt for holding membership in a “radical Islamic society.” That didn’t prevent him from coming to the US to speak at conferences like the one in Chicago 1990 where he said, ““Now Allah is bringing the Jews back to Palestine in large groups from all over the world to their big graveyard, where the promise will be realized upon them.”

The Dayan Center Papers are from Tel Aviv University. Ask for Islam and Salvation in Palestine, Meir Hatina. Hatina is a lecturer in the Department of Middle Eastern and African History at Tel Aviv University. The statements on the founding members of Islamic Jihad are based on Arab-language sources such as interviews with the subjects, books, and other press.

Sherrie Gossett is the associate editor of the AIM Report.