{"id":2018,"date":"2005-12-13T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-12-13T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/?p=2018"},"modified":"2005-12-13T02:00:00","modified_gmt":"2005-12-13T07:00:00","slug":"al_arian_acquitted_but_court_of_public_opinion_still_out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2005\/12\/al_arian_acquitted_but_court_of_public_opinion_still_out\/","title":{"rendered":"Sami al&#045;Arian trial: Al&#045;Arian acquitted, but court of public opinion still out"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><table cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" border=\"0\" align=\"right\">\n<tr>\n<td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.altmuslim.com\/ee_images\/al-arian-aquittal.jpg\" border=\"0\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"right\">\n<div class=\"caption\">If the Patriot Act doesn\u2019t fit, you must acquit<\/div>\n<p><\/p><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>Though US prosecutors have scored many apparent <a href=\"http:\/\/www.montereyherald.com%2Fmld%2Fmontereyherald%2Fnews%2Fnation%2F13388786.htm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">victories<\/a> in terror-linked cases (thanks to immigration violations), there have also been numerous high profile <a href=\"http:\/\/www.altmuslim.com%2Fperm.php%3Fid%3D1232_0_26_0_C\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">defeats<\/a> of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.altmuslim.com%2Fperm.php%3Fid%3D1204_0_26_0_C\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">late<\/a>. Even so, none have been as huge a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.time.com%2Ftime%2Fmagazine%2Farticle%2F0%2C9171%2C1139813%2C00.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">blunder<\/a> as the acquittal on 8 charges (the remaining 9 were deadlocked) of Sami Al-Arian, the former University of South Florida professor that has been a fixture of anti-terror prosecutorial zeal for over 10 years (over 20,000 hours of conversations were <a href=\"http:\/\/www.counterpunch.org%2Fsugg11162005.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">tapped<\/a> before he was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.altmuslim.com%2Fperm.php%3Fid%3D935_0_26_0_C\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">arrested<\/a> in 2003). <\/p>\n<p>Along with two other co-conspirators, none were found guilty on over 51 charges, and Al-Arian\u2019s entire defense consisted of a single sentence: \u201cOn behalf of Dr. Al-Arian, the defense rests.\u201d The case was seen by many Muslims as punishment for his <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk%2F2%2Fhi%2Famericas%2F4505248.stm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">pro-Palestinian<\/a> views. \u201cThis ranks as one of the most significant defeats for the US government, for the Justice Department since 9\/11,\u201d <a href=\"http:\/\/www.csmonitor.com%2F2005%2F1207%2FdailyUpdate.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">said<\/a> law professor Jonathan Turley. \u201cThe Justice Department spent copious amounts of money and time to make the case against Al-Arian.\u201d Supporters celebrated the aquittal as a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.csmonitor.com%2F2005%2F1208%2Fp03s03-usju.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">defeat<\/a> for the Patriot Act and quickly <a href=\"http:\/\/news.tbo.com%2Fnews%2FMGBI2TIL6HE.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">called<\/a> for his immediate release (and not as a deportee). Detractors (where they could be <a href=\"http:\/\/news.yahoo.com%2Fs%2Fhuffpost%2F20051207%2Fcm_huffpost%2F011835%3B_ylt%3DA86.I0g9HZdDnqwAdhr9wxIF%3B_ylu%3DX3oDMTBjMHVqMTQ4BHNlYwN5bnN1YmNhdA--\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">found<\/a>) assailed the prosecutors, calling them \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.tampatrib.com%2FMGBI2IXP2HE.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">hapless stumblebums<\/a>\u201d who \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/pittsburghlive.com%2Fx%2Ftribune-review%2Fopinion%2Farchive%2Fs_402524.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">muffed<\/a>\u201d the case (because he was <i>so obviously<\/i> guilty). <\/p>\n<p>Said prosecutors are floating the idea of a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.orlandosentinel.com%2Fnews%2Flocal%2Fstate%2Forl-alarianfallout105dec11%2C0%2C1166138.story%3Fcoll%3Dorl-news-headlines-state\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">retrial<\/a> on the deadlocked charges, knowing the enormous amount of evidence nullified in the case makes it unlikely. \u201cThese are very, very difficult cases, and obviously we\u2019re disappointed in what happened in Tampa,\u201d said Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. \u201cWe believed this was a good case to bring.\u201d There is more to reflect on the motivation behind the affair, from the incessant <a href=\"http:\/\/www.johnsugg.com%2F2005%2F05%2Fan_honest_tampa.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Tampa Tribune<\/a> coverage to TV commentator Bill O\u2019Reilly\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.commondreams.org%2Fviews05%2F1207-37.htm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">finger-pointing<\/a> to the pre-Iraq war indictment by then Attorney General John Ashcroft hailed as \u201ca milestone in the war on terror.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Comparatively, the same attention has not been paid with regards to the (pre-Good Friday Agreement) <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sptimes.com%2F2005%2F12%2F12%2FColumns%2FWhat_s_a_terrorist__w.shtml\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">IRA<\/a>, when offensive or incendiary comments made by supporters of that organisation amid fund-raising tours in the US were unchallenged. In Al-Arian\u2019s case, the good news is that justice has been found (even though the system never really worked in the first place). The bad news is that much of his over-the-top rhetoric (Jews are \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sptimes.com%2F2002%2F03%2F26%2FTampaBay%2FTranscript_quotes_Al_.shtml\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">monkeys and pigs<\/a>\u201d and other such comments that have been <a href=\"http:\/\/tampatrib.com%2Fopinion%2FMGB8CZ5T3HE.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">glossed over<\/a> by supporters) is now a matter of public record, which may yet affect Palestine-concerned Muslims in the court of public opinion.<\/p>\n<p><i><\/i><\/p>\n<p>Zahed Amanullah is associate editor of altmuslim.com. He is based in London, England.\n<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A &#8220;controversial&#8221; Muslim leader is acquitted, but not before a drawn-out trial that burdened his family and brought embarassing statements into the light.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":531,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-briefings"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Sami al&#045;Arian trial: Al&#045;Arian acquitted, but court of public opinion still out<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A &quot;controversial&quot; Muslim leader is acquitted, but not before a drawn-out trial that burdened his family and brought embarassing statements into the light.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2005\/12\/al_arian_acquitted_but_court_of_public_opinion_still_out\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sami al&#045;Arian trial: Al&#045;Arian acquitted, but court of public opinion still out\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A &quot;controversial&quot; 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