FL wants to ban aid to students from "terrorist" countries

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-financial-aid-terrorism,
0,7527960.story?coll=sns%2Dap%2Dnationworld%2Dheadlines



http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-financial-aid-terrorism,
0,7527960.story?coll=sns%2Dap%2Dnationworld%2Dheadlines

Fla. Proposal Bans Aid for Some Students
By DAVID ROYSE
Associated Press Writer

April 5, 2003, 7:00 PM EST

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A bill before the Florida Legislature would ban state
aid to university and college students who are citizens of countries on the
State Department's list of nations that sponsor terrorism.
The proposal was drafted by state Rep. Dick Kravitz, who said he doesn't
like the idea that the United States is educating people who will return to
regimes that oppose America.
"In these hard times we need to put as much taxpayer money as possible into
programs for residents of the state of Florida who are citizens."
The bill would bar state aid from going to university students from six of
the seven countries on the State Department list: Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan,
Libya and North Korea.
Cuba is also on the list but was amended out of the bill. Florida, of
course, has a large Cuban population.
Muslim students say it unfairly targets them. Hadia Mubarak, the president
of the Muslim Students Association at Florida State University, says it is
discriminatory because most countries on the list are Islamic.
"What he's saying is if you're born in Libya or Syria you're more likely to
be a terrorist than anyone else," Mubarak said.
According to the Department of Education, state universities and community
colleges used $308,717 to provide financial aid to 822 students from the
original seven countries on the federal list in 2001 and 2002.
The bill has been approved by the House Higher Education Committee but still
needs the OK of four other committees.
Victor Johnson, public policy director at the Association of International
Educators, which promotes international education, said he didn't know of
any other states targeting aid to foreign students.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations calls students from the affected
nations "innocent bystanders," said Ahmed Bedier, the group's spokesman in
Tampa. "They have nothing to do with terrorism," he said.
Kravitz argues that students from terrorist dictatorships aren't poor and
may even be related to government officials.
"It is naive to think that any of them are not well-to-do or connected to
the regime in power," he said.

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