Pastor Levels More Charges Against FAU 'Terror' Prof

Turning up the heat on Florida Atlantic University and a controversial faculty member, a Boca Raton pastor expanded allegations against the professor and demanded his dismissal.

Speaking to a group of 40 protesters and a gaggle of reporters outside the campus Thursday, Pastor Mark Boykin said Bessem Alhalabi listed future terrorist Sami Al-Arian as a reference when he applied for an FAU faculty position in 1996.

Alhalabi was a research assistant to Al-Arian at the University of South Florida, where the two collaborated on research papers. Al-Arian subsequently was sentenced to 57 months in prison for assisting the terrorist group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Alhalabi was not charged in the Al-Arian case, but Boykin said Alhalabi's ties to the Islamic Center of Boca Raton raise further concerns.

ICBR -- which Alhalabi co-founded and where he currently is a director -- received $600,000 in seed money from the Global Relief Foundation, Boykin said. The center, in turn, made a donation in excess of $16,000 to the foundation.

After Sept. 11, 2001, the U.S. government shut down Global Relief and froze its accounts, citing connections to Osama bin Laden, al-Qaida and other known terrorist groups.

"I find it to be the essence of folly to suggest that Bassem Alhalabi did not know that Global Relief Foundation was not a charity for al-Qaida and Hezbollah," Boykin charged.

Boykin challenged FAU President Mary Jane Saunders to fire Alhalabi for "cavorting with nefarious groups whose chief goal is the overthrow of our government."

Saunders' office reiterated its earlier statement (reported in our story here) and declined further comment.

Alhalabi took the occasion Thursday to announce that he had just applied for citizenship, according to the Palm Beach Post.