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Former South Florida University professor Sami Al-Arian, who was deported from the United States to Turkey due to his terror links, discussed the arrest of Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil in a March 12, 2025 interview. He suggested that "American cherished principles have been shredded by this administration and previous ones" in order to "save Zionism from its inevitable fate." Al-Arian argued that even if Khalil were pro-Hamas, it is not illegal to support Hamas, but rather to provide aid to a terrorist group. He further claimed that the Supreme Court has ruled that a person can be a member of a U.S.-designated terror group but cannot aid it.
Sami Al-Arian was charged with conspiring to provide material support to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a U.S.-designated terrorist organization. He was convicted, served time in federal prison, and was deported to Turkey, where he currently serves as a professor of public affairs and the director of the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA) at Sabahattin Zaim University in Istanbul. On April 26, 2024, Al-Arian posted a photo of his wife, Nahla Al-Arian, at the Columbia University encampment on X – formerly Twitter. On May 1, he addressed the student encampment at the University of Chicago and on May 6, 2024, he published an op-ed in support of the anti-Israel campus activism on the website of Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency.
Jeremy Scahill: "Last Saturday night, Mahmoud Khalil, who is a recent graduate of Columbia University, who is a legal permanent resident of the United States, a Green Card holder, married to an American citizen – she's eight months pregnant – [was] snatched from his university housing, initially disappeared into the ICE system."
[...]
Sami Al-Arian: "It's incredible how American values, the American constitution, American cherished principles have been shredded by this administration and other former administrations, all because they are trying to save Zionism from its inevitable fate.
[...]
"Whether he [Mahmoud Khalil] is pro-Hamas or not, that's even still... By the way, it is legal in the United States to be pro-Hamas. There is nothing more protected... I remember during my trial, the judge himself said, you could be pro-whatever, what you cannot do is to aid them. I believe also that the Supreme Court said that in different rulings and cases, in which a person can even be a member, they can be a member of any group, but what they cannot do is to aid that group. So for him to say that he is a member of Hamas, even though there is zero evidence that that is the case, is just a slap on the face of this whole history. So what I think is going to happen, it's an attempt by them to please his donors, to please his benefactors, to please his Zionist friends. We've seen during the [Trump] campaign, people have given him hundreds of millions of dollars, like Bill Ackman and Miriam Adelson, and others."
Sami Al-Arian was charged with conspiring to provide material support to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a U.S.-designated terrorist organization. He was convicted, served time in federal prison, and was deported to Turkey, where he currently serves as a professor of public affairs and the director of the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA) at Sabahattin Zaim University in Istanbul. On April 26, 2024, Al-Arian posted a photo of his wife, Nahla Al-Arian, at the Columbia University encampment on X – formerly Twitter. On May 1, he addressed the student encampment at the University of Chicago and on May 6, 2024, he published an op-ed in support of the anti-Israel campus activism on the website of Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency.
Jeremy Scahill: "Last Saturday night, Mahmoud Khalil, who is a recent graduate of Columbia University, who is a legal permanent resident of the United States, a Green Card holder, married to an American citizen – she's eight months pregnant – [was] snatched from his university housing, initially disappeared into the ICE system."
[...]
Sami Al-Arian: "It's incredible how American values, the American constitution, American cherished principles have been shredded by this administration and other former administrations, all because they are trying to save Zionism from its inevitable fate.
[...]
"Whether he [Mahmoud Khalil] is pro-Hamas or not, that's even still... By the way, it is legal in the United States to be pro-Hamas. There is nothing more protected... I remember during my trial, the judge himself said, you could be pro-whatever, what you cannot do is to aid them. I believe also that the Supreme Court said that in different rulings and cases, in which a person can even be a member, they can be a member of any group, but what they cannot do is to aid that group. So for him to say that he is a member of Hamas, even though there is zero evidence that that is the case, is just a slap on the face of this whole history. So what I think is going to happen, it's an attempt by them to please his donors, to please his benefactors, to please his Zionist friends. We've seen during the [Trump] campaign, people have given him hundreds of millions of dollars, like Bill Ackman and Miriam Adelson, and others."
