Unable to match his intellectual skills, the French have launched a scandalous campaign to tarnish Dr Tariq Ramadan’s image. He has been falsely accused and put in prison. So much for French freedom and liberty!
Academic freedom, like most other freedoms in North America, has become a thing of the past. Not just the US but also Canada has been affected by a virulent strain of racism couched in the excuse that "things have changed" since September 11, 2001...
Whenever the issue of political and civil rights in the US comes up, we should remember first and foremost the case of Sami al-Arian. The Palestinian former professor of computer science remains in a federal prison in Florida despite having completed the 57-month sentence he was given in May last year (which included time already served in prison).
The long-running case of Palestinian academic Sami al-Arian, jailed in Florida since early 2003, accused with others of supporting terrorism in Palestine, appeared to reached a conclusion of sorts on May 1. The former professor at the University of Southern Florida was sentenced to 57 months in jail -- the maximum possible sentence -- after he pleaded guilty last month to a minor charge of giving support to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement as part of a plea bargain.
