Professor gets threats for Islamic views

MIKE CHIEN Law professor Khaled Abou el Fadl
has received death threats.

By Peijean Tsai
Daily Bruin Contributor

For Professor Khaled Abou el Fadl, the purpose of education is
to teach freely, but he has not been able to do so without threats
to his life.

Despite 10 phone calls, 20 written rants delivered to his office
and numerous other letters received since fall 2001, Abou el Fadl,
an acting professor of law, refuses to let the threats change how
and what he teaches.

“The reason we have professors, universities and tenure is
so that professors can speak (their) minds and not succumb to
temptation or fear,” Abou el Fadl said.

Abou el Fadl is a world-renowned voice in Islamic tradition. He
has written six books and numerous articles published in the Los
Angeles Times. He has also taught courses in Islamic law and Islam
at the University of Texas at Austin Law School, Yale Law School
and Princeton University.

The threats he has been receiving have been in response to the
opinions he presents in his Islamic law courses, public forums and
debates.

He challenges extremist viewpoints and the defamation extremists
inflict on the tradition, he said.

He also teaches students about the humanitarian nature of the
Islamic tradition and how extremists have misinterpreted and
corrupted Islam, he added.

Though he has received threats before Sept. 11, participating in
forums related to terrorism and the al-Qaeda network in Afghanistan
have not helped to reduce the number of threats on his job and his
body.

There is no pattern in the timing of the anonymous threats, he
said.

The majority of the threats come from “right-wing”
anti-Muslims who want him to “get out of our country,”
Abou el Fadl said.

Threats have included statements such as “I’m going
to kill you” and assertions about getting him fired.

Some of the people making the threats think he is offending
Islam, when he is really vindicating it, he said.

Abou el Fadl presumes that students are not responsible for the
threats “until otherwise proven.”

“It would break my heart (if students were responsible).
Regardless of whether students disagree with me, they
shouldn’t sink to this level. It would mean they’re not
getting anything out of their university experience,” he
said.

Abou el Fadl continues to receive support from students who stop
him on campus and thank him for speaking out, he said.

On Feb. 22, blood-soaked tissues were left in Abou el
Fadl’s locked office, but the incident turned out to be a
false alarm. A custodian had had a nosebleed while entering Abou el
Fadl’s office.

The last threat he received was a message left on his home
answering machine at the end of January.

The police have taken undisclosed security precautions in and
outside of the law school and have advised him on how to keep safe,
he said.

In addition, the law school has taken security measures to
protect other professors, but administrators would not disclose the
details for safety reasons, said Bonnie Seeberger, assistant to the
dean of the law school.

Abou el Fadl has also taken precautions by spending money on
personal security.

“I’m not going to sacrifice my son’s college
money (to pay for security measures) but now I won’t be able
to save as much,” he said.