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SAMI A. AL-ARIAN is the Director of the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA) and public affairs professor at Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University. He received his Ph.D. in 1986 and was a tenured academic in the United States for many years, receiving several teaching awards and grants. 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, Al-Arian 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 of the Encyclopedia of American Dissidents as one of only three Muslims in the US, out of 152 US dissidents and prisoners of conscience in the past century included in the two-volume series (along with Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali). His US story was featured in 2007 in the award-winning documentary “USA vs. Al-Arian,” and in 2016 in the book Being Palestinian. Dr. Al-Arian has written dozens of articles and studies that were translated into many languages, 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.