Distance Learning: Hamas's U.S. Education

In an effort to pressure the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, to renounce terrorism and recognize Israel, the United States has suspended hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinian Authority. But fortunately for the new Hamas-led government, its cabinet boasts well-trained economists, engineers and planners ready to tackle the fiscal straits. Where did they get that training? Start with Iowa.

Of the 24 cabinet members, four attended college or graduate school -- or both -- at U.S. institutions, and a fifth had a postgraduate fellowship here. Two other senior Hamas political leaders also earned advanced degrees in the United States.

They were among the hundreds of Arab students drawn to U.S. campuses in the late 1970s and 1980s, a time when the United States was trying to prevent the spread of the Iranian revolution in the Middle East. Some received subsidies through the U.S. Agency for International Development, and others won scholarships through the largely Saudi-funded Arab Student Aid International.

Finance Minister Omar Abdel Razek spent eight years in Iowa, first at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, where he graduated magna cum laude, and then at Iowa State University. Despite his continued opposition to the Bush administration's policies, Razek has fond memories of Iowa and of his Jewish first-year roommate. "They were the best four years in my life, actually," he said.

-- Mark Matthews

Former Middle East correspondent,

Baltimore Sun