Reactions are mixed on FAU’s Boca campus surrounding the investigation of Fulbright Professor Mustafa Abu Sway’s alleged terrorist ties.
While some have the utmost confidence in their university, others are concerned. “It makes me kinda nervous that FAU might have let a terrorist come to our school,” said Andre Lopez, a freshman psychology major. “You’d think they’d be really careful who they bring here, especially now.”
Abu Sway, a visiting Palestinian professor at FAU’s Jupiter campus, is accused of having ties to the terrorist group Hamas and is currently under investigation by the university.
The allegations were initially made last October by Daniel Pipes in an opinion piece published in The New York Post and again last week in another article by Pipes and Asaf Romirowsky that ran in the New York Sun.
Although in October FAU was assured by the State Department that Abu Sway’s background check revealed no ties to Hamas, the university is now calling for further investigation by the State Department and the Fulbright program.
Dana Roberts, a junior political science major at FAU, said she doubts the university did anything wrong. “If he has (terrorist) ties like that, I don’t necessarily think it’s the university’s fault that they were not discovered,” she said. “I’m sure they did what they were supposed to do to find out about him before he came here.”
Clevis Headley, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Special Assistant to the Dean of Diversity at FAU, said he thinks the allegations are unlikely."I’ve heard these rumors,” Headley said. “But I really don’t think that FAU would hire anyone who may be linked to terrorism. When you consider Immigration and the backgrounds checks that are done, it just doesn’t seem likely.”
FAU Associate Professor of Political Science, Timothy Lenz, said politics definitely play a role in this controversy."It’s more politically controversial,” said Lenz. “The controversy is so great that it’s difficult to separate biases from truths. This isn’t the only university in the country where this sort of thing has happened.”
Andrea Hill, a senior anthropology major, said she doesn’t know when to take these investigations seriously. “This happened here a couple years ago after September 11th,” she said. “They thought this kid who went to school here was a terrorist, but found out he wasn’t.”
Hill said she’s not going to worry about terrorism at her school until something concrete is discovered. “I hear about (possible terrorists) so often, it’s like ok, another one,” she said. “And I’m sure we’ll hear more because that’s just the state of the world right now.”