Shallah, Ramadan Abdullah (1955–)

aka Ramadan Abdullah, Ramadan Abdullah al-Shallah

Dr. Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, a former part-time professor at the University of South Florida in Tampa, made national headlines in 1995 when he left his job in the United States to lead the militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). (The PIJ was founded in Egypt in the late 1970s by Palestinian students, but is now based in Syria.)

Born in 1955 in the Gaza Strip, which was then under Egyptian administration, Shallah taught economics at the University of Gaza in the mid-1980s. He received a doctoral degree in Islamic and Middle Eastern studies from England's University of Durham in 1990, and wrote many articles on the economics of Middle Eastern countries.

Shallah arrived in Tampa, Florida, in 1991 and spent four years teaching political science at the [Page 332]University of South Florida. At the university, he was a well-liked professor, known for being a soft-spoken intellectual.

Shallah also worked for a think tank called World Islamic Studies Enterprise (WISE). In several controversial articles, the Tampa Tribune called the think tank a terrorist front and its cofounder, fellow University of South Florida professor Sami al-Arian, the front man. The FBI opened a criminal investigation of al-Arian in 1995 to determine whether he had been funneling money to the PIJ or other terrorist groups. The long-running investigation was stepped up after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, but no criminal charges have been brought against al-Arian. After Fox television host Bill O'Reilly in September 2001 detailed al-Arian's ties to Shallah and accused him of being a terrorist sympathizer, the University of South Florida relieved him of his teaching duties.

Shallah did not publicly claim any link to the PIJ during his academic career, and his possible covert actions are unknown. The PIJ is a loosely knit, mysterious group known for its violence and its opposition to peace negotiations with Israel.

In October 1995, gunmen said to be working for Israel shot down PIJ leader Dr. Fatih Shaqaqi in the Mediterranean island of Malta. The group then named Shallah its new leader. Shallah spoke on the Palestinian Al-Quds radio during the November ceremonies to commemorate Shaqaqi's death, saying, “For us, the head of Shaqaqi cannot be equal to anything but the head of Jerusalem.” He also pledged to escalate militant operations against Israel.

In the spring after Shallah was named head of the PIJ, an unknown group called the War Purgers sent a bomb threat to the University of South Florida's campus newspaper. The letter demanded a public apology for Shallah's treatment and threatened to bomb a building and kill a professor. In response, the university moved up the date of final exams to enable students to be off campus by the date set in the letter. No attacks occurred, and a student pleaded guilty to the threats in December 1996.

During the escalating Middle East violence that began in 2000, the PIJ carried out many suicide bombings and other attacks against Israelis, and Shallah publicly endorsed the bombings. In December 2001, Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat called to stop the attacks, and Shallah told the London newspaper El Hayat that he would not follow Arafat's demand and planned to direct his organization to continue to carry out suicide bombings.