At the closing ceremony of the 14th Farabi International Award, Professor Sami Amin Al-Arian was recognized as a Distinguished Researcher in Islamic Studies by the jury committee, and his lifetime contributions to Islamic Studies were honored on Monday, July 10, 2023.

  Sami A. Al-Arian was born in 1958 in Kuwait to Palestinian parents who were forcefully expelled from Jaffa, Palestine, during the 1948 Nakba. He grew up in Egypt and left for the United States in 1975 to pursue his higher education degrees.
He received his BS degree in Electrical Engineering in 1978 with high honors. He also received his master’s and doctorate degrees in Computer Science and Engineering in 1980 and 1985, respectively.
Dr. Al-Arian was an academic in the United States between 1986 and 2003. He was also promoted, tenured, and received several teaching awards, including “outstanding teacher of the Year.” He received many research grants and published over 50 academic papers and technical reports during his academic career in the U.S.

Dr. Al-Arian has founded numerous institutions and publications in education, research, religion, interfaith, civil and human rights, Palestine, foreign policy, and international relations.
In 2001, he was named by Newsweek as the “premiere civil rights activist” in the US for his national efforts to repeal the use of Secret Evidence in immigration courts.
The US government prosecuted Dr. Al-Arian between 2003-2014 because of his activism and was able to beat the charges twice before leaving for Turkey in 2015.
His US story was featured in 2007 in the Norwegian award-winning documentary “US vs. Al-Arian” and 2016 in the book “Being Palestinian.” His book of poetry on Spirituality, Palestine, and Human Rights was titled Conspiring Against Joseph.

Dr. Al-Arian has been a prolific speaker and author of dozens of studies, articles, and book chapters on many topics related to Islam and the West, the Islamic Ummah, Islamophobia, Palestine, the Arab Spring, the Middle East, and American foreign policy. Some of his publications include The Arab Awakening Unveiled Understanding Transformations and Revolutions in the Middle East.
He also edited several volumes on many topics, including Civil-Military Relations in Muslim Societies, The Global War on Terror, Governance and Political Authority in the Muslim World, and Challenging Apartheid in Palestine.
He is currently working on many titles, including a five-volume book on the miracles of the Qur’an, The Tawhidi Paradigm, Vision for the Liberation of Palestine, and an autobiography.
Prof. Al-Arian is currently the Director of the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA) and a Public Affairs Professor at Istanbul Zaim University in Turkey.