S.F. STATE / Professor of Arabic barred from returning to U.S. from Canada / S.F. State scholar's visa gets canceled; case under review

Mohammad Salama, assistant professor of Arabic at San Francisco State University who is stranded in Canada while he waits for the U.S. to determine whether it will grant him security clearance and a visa. Courtesy Mohammad Salama less Mohammad Salama, assistant professor of Arabic at San Francisco State University who is stranded in Canada while he waits for the U.S. to determine whether it will grant him security clearance and a visa. ... more Photo: Courtesy Mohammad Salama Photo: Courtesy Mohammad Salama Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close S.F. STATE / Professor of Arabic barred from returning to U.S. from Canada / S.F. State scholar's visa gets canceled; case under review 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

An assistant professor of Arabic at San Francisco State University has been stranded in Canada for three months, unable to return to campus, after the U.S. State Department canceled his visa and began reviewing his security status.

Mohammad Ramadan Hassan Salama's troubles began in June, when he arrived in Canada for what he thought was a two-day stay to change his temporary scholar visa, which was due to expire. He planned to exchange it at the U.S. Consulate in Toronto for the more coveted O-1 visa, granted only to those with extraordinary ability in sciences, arts, education, business or athletics. By law, he had to go outside the country to get the visa.

But the Egyptian-born academic got a rude awakening June 20 when a consular official, without explanation, stamped "canceled" on his temporary visa and refused to issue another visa. Instead, Salama said, he was fingerprinted, questioned and told he could not return to the United States until he received security clearance.

"It was just a shock for me," he said by phone on Monday. "It is very Kafkaesque. They just say, 'We will contact you.' I am Egyptian, and Egypt is a very hot country right now that has produced terrorists. They disregarded my Ph.D., my scholarship. My marriage, my kids were blindly disregarded, and I was told I could not come back."

Janelle Hironimus, a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department, said she could not comment on individual cases. "The administrative process can take quite some time, so it is not something that we have control over," she said.

Salama, 38, began teaching at San Francisco State a year ago. He arrived in the United States seven years ago, has an American wife and two children, and received his doctorate in comparative literature from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

San Francisco State hired him last fall as its first Arabic scholar to help build its Arabic and Middle Eastern programs, which have become popular since 9/11.

When Paul Sherwin, dean of the School of Humanities, learned Salama couldn't get back from Canada, he had to scramble to find a replacement to start teaching two Arabic language classes and a literature course last month. Salama is now teaching one of his classes, a seminar on Arabic novels, online.

"We never expected this would go on so long," Sherwin said. "We have a Middle Eastern studies program that we are building. He is the language person who is essential to that program."

He said the university is putting together its spring schedule and doesn't know whether Salama will be back to teach.

Salama and his attorney have sought help from Rep. Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo, who is a ranking member of the House International Relations Committee.

"We understand that the Department of State, which acts as a funnel of up to 22 agencies, runs a variety of background checks and one of the checks turned up some question of his name, which may have matched a name on a watch list," said Lantos spokeswoman Lynne Weil.

When a name is flagged as a match with watch lists, officials from various departments may get involved to determine whether it is the same person or whether the reason for the flag is even significant, according to U.S. officials.

Salama said one of the men convicted in the first World Trade Center bombings in 1993 was named Mohammed A. Salameh.

"It is a very common name," he said. "This is laughable, just because my name is Mohammad Salama. If we look for somebody with the last name McVeigh, should we just arrest them and harass them? I really think this has nothing to do with me."

The most frustrating part of the situation is the indefinite timeline, said Salama's attorney, Clark Trevor of San Francisco.

"Given his age, given his country, given our current state of affairs on security, it is not surprising that there are delays; the problem is the uncertainty and the indefinite timeline," Trevor said. "It does not mean that Dr. Salama is a bad guy. He is the kind of guy we need in this country right now."