January 30, 2007

American Muslim groups call for end to "harassment" of Sami Al-Arian

The American Muslim Alliance (AMA), Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA), Muslim American Society (MAS), Muslim Student Association-National (MSA-N), Muslim Ummah of North America (MUNA), Project Islamic Hope (PIH), and United Muslims of America (UMA) rush to the defense of Sami Al-Arian, an admitted member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Yet most officials and media talking heads will continue to assume that these are "moderate" groups.

"American Muslims Call Al-Arian Imprisonment 'Double Jeopardy,'" a press release from a coalition group, The American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections (AMT):

WASHINGTON, Jan. 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections (AMT), a national coalition of major American Muslim organizations, today said the new prison sentence given to former Florida professor Sami Al-Arian amounted to unconstitutional "double jeopardy."

Al-Arian recently began a hunger strike after being given a sentence of up to 18 months for refusing to testify before a grand jury in Virginia. He and his attorney say an early plea agreement freed him from further cooperation with the government. Al-Arian's supporters say he is being held in a rat and cockroach-infested prison and is being forced to wear dirty and inadequate clothing as a form of harassment.

In 2005, a Florida jury rejected federal charges that Al-Arian operated a cell for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Al-Arian later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was scheduled for release and deportation in April.

A lesser charge. See here what he really admitted to.