I’m a bit confused by this op-ed in Asharq Alawsat. In it, Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed, former editor-in-chief of the paper and now managing director of Al-Arabiya TV, seems to be complaining that Arab students are not aware of the fact that they are being monitored by the US government while studying in the US. Students whose behaviors look suspicious are being denied re-entry into the US, he says. (I don’t disbelieve this, but haven’t seen such a stamp myself.)

But Arab media have been running stories since 2002 about how intrusive the USG is toward these students. Can it be possible that Arab students in the US are not aware that they are under greater scrutiny than before 9/11?

The 9/11 attacks, among other things, pointed to flaws in the way the US government monitored foreigners in the US. Students in particular seemed to disappear once they entered the country. There was no mechanism to ensure that the hundreds of thousands of foreign students were still in the schools they stated they would be attending on their visa applications. A student could—and many did—change schools willy-nilly. Several of the 9/11 hijackers did exactly that: they were supposed to be on one place, but were actually elsewhere.

As part of its response to address the weaknesses in the system, the USG started to demand that universities and other schools with foreign students (like flight schools) keep track of student attendance. It required the schools report to the government if a student was chronically absent from classes, a possible indication that the student was no longer in the area. Similarly, schools were required to report when a student transferred to another institution.

I’m not privy to any knowledge about government’s monitoring e-mail or Internet use. I suspect, though, that computerized ‘key word surveillance’ is being done as part of the anti-terrorism effort. There have certainly be enough articles in the global media about the use of the Internet as a tool for terrorism to suggest the rationality of such a program. Were I an Arab student in the US, I’d certainly be interested in not raising flags that drew attention to myself in an extremist-related context.

Are Arab students this clueless?

Why Do They Expel Our Students?
Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed

A stamp that bans reentry into the county has been placed in the passports of scores of Saudi and other Arab students who arrived in the United States to complete their university studies recently. Thus, these students were obliged to look for other countries and new universities in which they could complete their studies. They were expelled because they were caught red-handed practicing extremism, such as visiting extremist or anti-US political websites on the Internet, or engaging in ideological correspondence with extremist or anti-US groups. However, all their deeds did not reach the extent of committing illegal actions or engaging in terrorist relations. If this was the case, perhaps they would have been dressed in orange jumpsuits and sent to the Guantanamo detention camp.

The blame here falls on the parties that are sending thousands of young students to universities without warning them about the need to act in accordance with the new situation of foreign students in US universities. It is likely that foreign students are under continued surveillance and that their telephone calls, e-mails, and Internet usage are monitored. If it is proved that these students have a tendency to be exposed to, or involved in, hostile ideology, they definitely will be expelled. The United States considers itself at war with terrorism. Therefore, it will not allow any anti-US ideological or terrorist cells to be established on its soil. Following the 11 September incidents, the United States tightened the noose on Arabs in an effort to cancel the possibility of the existence of anyone who is linked to Al-Qaeda or who sympathizes with it. Nevertheless, the current US President has adopted a contradictory recommendation that calls for the need to reconnect with Arab and Muslim students. In the long run, this policy will help improve the relationship between both ideologies, as well as between peoples, taking into consideration that the majority is actually against extremism and terrorism.
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