UCLA law Professor Khaled Abou El Fadl was standing near his
open door last April when he heard a thud. It took him a few
minutes to realize that a bullet was lodged into a book on his
bookshelf.
“The scariest thing about it is how quiet it was,”
he said. “With the silencer, all I heard was
“˜thump.'”
Abou El Fadl is used to getting threats. He is what many
consider to be a moderate Islamic scholar, speaking out against
militant fundamentalist Islam.
Abou El Fadl said though he has received threats throughout his
teaching career, the number and severity increased after Sept.
11.
“I was very outspoken in criticizing the way of religious
thinking that made Sept. 11 possible,” he said. “I was
very visible about it and very loud about it.”
Abou El Fadl is not the only researcher who has recently found
that pursuing academic or scientific research can come with
dangerous consequences. Faculty members who use animals as part of
their research have been the target of threats and protests, with
the intensity of these attacks escalating dramatically in the last
few years, said Roberto Peccei, vice chancellor for research at
UCLA.
Peccei said that when he came to UCLA seven years ago, protests
by activists opposed to animal research consisted mostly of yearly
demonstrations in Westwood. These demonstrations were nonviolent
and not targeted at specific people.
But about five years ago, the nature of these attacks began to
change, becoming more targeted and more violent, he said.
The threats and attacks turned more severe and personal after
the names and addresses of researchers were published on an
activist group’s Web site, where people were also encouraged
to picket investigators’ homes, Peccei said.
Peccei called this the “proximate cause” of the
intensified attacks, but also spoke of an atmosphere of violence in
which terrorism has become perceived as an acceptable means of
protest.
“As a function of the times, the events got more …
radicalized and they started targeting individual faculty
members,” Peccei said.
Peccei said researchers have received threatening phone calls
and had protestors show up in front of their homes.
He noted one researcher in particular who had a rock thrown
through a window of his home.
The worst of the reported attacks against animal researchers
occurred in July, when an animal activist group attempted to
firebomb the home of Lynn Fairbanks, a UCLA professor of psychiatry
and behavioral sciences who conducts behavioral research on
primates.
A bomb was placed at Fairbanks’ neighbor’s door and
failed to detonate. The Animal Liberation Front claimed
responsibility for the attack.
The attack lead Dario Ringach, a neurobiologist also using
primates in his research, to give up animal testing.
In early August, Ringach wrote an e-mail titled “You
win” to the Animal Liberation Front in which he stated that
he would cease his work with animals.
Consideration of his young children led Ringach to decide to
stop using animals as part of his research, Peccei said.
Last spring, protestors went to Ringach’s house while his
young children were home.
“These were demonstrators with masks, and they were
chanting and calling him a criminal,” Peccei said.
“(His) kids were very perturbed.”
Though Ringach was the only researcher to cease animal research
as a result of threats or attacks, Bill McBride, the director of
the Roy E. Coats Research Laboratories and a professor of radiation
oncology, said such actions “put fear into the minds of the
investigators and the public as well.”
“Terrorist acts make investigators wary of publicly
discussing their work,” he said.
Recently, the threats have also intensified for Abou El
Fadl.
An Egyptian newspaper started running stories claiming it had
documents leaked from the White House regarding alleged support of
Israel’s decision to go into Lebanon.
Abou El Fadl said these allegations were untrue.
In August, Arabic-language media published news that threats
were issued against Abou El Fadl by Iranian extremists in response
to this alleged support, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Abou El Fadl said he has no way to determine whether the
information was issued by Saudi or Iranian clerics, but does know
that his books are banned in Saudi Arabia.
Abou El Fadl receives threats from both extremist Muslim groups
as well as those he believes suffer from
“Islamaphobia,” he said.
“I will not condemn the faith of Islam people,” he
said. “Those who hate everything Muslim, … they want me to
say Islam is a bad religion.”
Though he receives threats from two sides, Abou El Fadl says
giving up his work is not an option.
“I thought very long and hard about this whole role of an
academic and freedom of speech ““ the obligation of a public
intellectual,” he said. “There is a moral obligation to
continue doing what I do.”
Both Peccei and McBride also said they had no intention of
allowing the attacks to interfere with the research conducted at
UCLA laboratories.
“We’re not going to be deterred by these
reprehensible actions,” Peccei said.
Peccei said it is important to promote dialogue and discourse on
campus to prevent such violence, as such attacks will not cease on
their own.
“Now it’s for animal research … (and) radical
Islam,” he said. “Next time it will be something
else.”