by Jack Lee
The Republican Senate candidate has drawn major criticism for his support of a radical Muslim professor. The Prof. Sami Al-Arian, contributed to Campbell’s unsuccessful campaign in 2000 for the U.S. Senate. On Sept. 26, 2001, when he was teaching at the University of South Florida, Al-Arian gave an interview to Fox TV host Bill O’Reilly in which he conceded that he had said, “Jihad is our path. Victory to Islam. Death to Israel. Revolution. Revolution until victory. Rolling to Jerusalem.”
Campbell issued a series of excuses for supporting Al-Arian and this has caused some concern among the Jewish voters, who say he’s not sufficiently supportive of the Jewish state and that he’s soft on terrorism.
According to an L.A.Times article, “Tom Campbell, the moderate California Republican who hopes to challenge Sen. Barbara Boxer in November, might make a good U.S. senator, or he might not. We don’t know yet because the campaign is just getting underway, and subjects from healthcare to taxes to immigration to foreign policy will all be part of the debate.
But at the moment, the participants are stuck on one subject: Israel. Bloggers on the American Spectator and Commentary websites have attacked Campbell, saying his record as a congressman in the 1990s suggests he is insufficiently committed to the Jewish state — and soft on terrorism. On Thursday, predictably, his GOP rivals weighed in. Carly Fiorina said she was “deeply troubled” by what she’d learned, and Chuck DeVore’s campaign called Campbell “a friend to our foes.”
Dr. Sami Amin Al-Arian was a resident of Temple Terrace, Florida, is a Muslim activist, and former University of South Florida professor of computer engineering, who pled guilty to multiple counts of aiding Islamic terrorists. He has since been charged with additional counts and is free on bond. He is subject to deportation once his sentence has been served.