Professor. Sami A. Al-Arian

Sami A. Al-Arian is the Director of the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA) and Public Affairs Professor at Istanbul Zaim University.

He received his PhD in Computer Engineering in 1986, and was a tenured academic in the US for two decades receiving best teaching awards at the University of South Florida (1993 and 1994) and several grants, as well as having over forty publications to his credit.

During his four decades in the US (1975-2015), Dr. Al-Arian founded numerous institutions and publications in the fields of education, research, religion and interfaith, as well as civil and human rights. He was a prolific speaker across many US campuses, especially on Palestine, Islam and the West, and Civil Rights. In 2001, he was named by Newsweek the “premiere civil rights activist” in the US for his efforts to repeal the use of Secret Evidence in immigration courts. In 2012, he was profiled by historians in the Encyclopedia of American Dissidents as one of only three Muslims in the US out of 152 dissidents and prisoners of conscience that were included in the series in the past century (along with Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali).  His US story was featured in 2007 in the award-winning documentary “US vs. Al-Arian,” and in 2016 in the book “Being Palestinian.”

Dr. Al-Arian has written several studies and numerous articles focusing on US foreign policy, Palestine, and the Arab Spring phenomena. His book of poetry on Spirituality, Palestine, and Human Rights Conspiring Against Joseph was published in 2004. He is also the author of The Arab Awakening Unveiled: Understanding Transformations and Revolutions in the Middle East, Washington, DC, American Educational Trust, 2013 (under a pen name) and The United States and Israel: From Enabler to Strategic Partner, IZU Publications, 2019.