WASHINGTON, 26 May 2006 — One should never, ever lie to authorities; and here’s why: Just four months into a five-year stay in the United States, Shaker Mohsen Al-sidran, 20, and his friend, 23-year-old Mana Saleh Al-manajam, experienced a harsh side of American life after deciding to board a yellow school bus last Friday.
The Saudi students were charged with trespassing on school property when they mistakenly boarded the school bus. A day after their arrest, a judge revoked their $250 bail to give Immigration and Customs Enforcement time to check the backgrounds of the two men.
The problems resulted from a language barrier.
“They have a very limited command of the English language,” Ahmed Bedier, director of the Central Florida office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations told Arab News by phone.
The two Saudis came to the United States via a scholarship program offered by Saudi Arabia to promote cultural understanding between the two countries. After spending the weekend in jail, the presiding judge, Circuit Judge Monica Sierra, decided what happened was due to a lack of understanding and not something more sinister that prompted them to take a ride on a school bus last week.
The men raised concerns among the students on the bus when they began speaking in Arabic. The bus driver, a substitute, called ahead, and deputies met the bus at Wharton High School and arrested both men.
Hillsborough County Sheriff’s spokesman J.D. Callaway said the two men were “evasive” as they answered questions. They first said they were from Morocco, Callaway said, and then Saudi Arabia. The men later told authorities they said they were from Morocco because they worried Americans fear Saudi Arabian men.
Ahmed Bedier, Tampa director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, CAIR, said the misunderstanding was the result of cultural differences and language barriers and that local authorities overreacted when they jailed the men and revoked their bail.
“The whole reason they got on the bus was because they wanted to go to the school,” Bedier said. “They had some time on their hands, and they like to look around the city. They don’t have their own transportation, and they saw the bus stop and thought there would be no harm in riding the bus.
“I explained to them about the yellow buses being exclusively for students of public schools,” Bedier said, “and they responded that, ‘We are students attending a public school.’” After some initial confusion, law enforcement officials learned the Saudis had been students since January at the English Language Institute at the University of South Florida.
They are among the 76 Saudi students learning English at the institute through a scholarship program announced by President Bush and Saudi King Abdullah last year. The program aims to boost Saudi enrollment in US universities, which plunged after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
“They went through the screening process like anyone else, and they are qualified to be in the program,” USF spokeswoman Lara Wade said of the two men.
On Tuesday a Florida Circuit Judge decided to release two Saudi students. The decision comes after federal and local authorities determined the students entered the country legally and were not deemed a security risk.
The case is not completely over. “There is still an outstanding charge of trespassing against them, it’s a misdemeanor, but we’re hoping that that charge will also be dropped,” said Bedier.
Asked if they wanted to return to Saudi Arabia after their ordeal, Bedier said no. “They want to stay in America.
When they were asked about their impressions of American now, they said: “America is a good country, but it’s difficult to get accustomed to the rules.”
