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Mohamed Arafa had the pull of strong family ties and the possibility of being appointed a judge — a position that would have brought him great privilege — but he was not interested.
Instead, he chose to leave his home in Egypt and accept an invitation to come to America as part of a visiting scholars program organized through the United States Agency for International Development. He arrived in 2007 and has built an academic career that includes multiple degrees, many published papers, lectures and panel discussions, and teaching stints at such places as Cornell Law School, the University of Brasilia and, in April 2020, Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.
Arafa has called Indianapolis his home since 2009, when he moved here to pursue a Doctor of Juridical Science degree from Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law. Now an adjunct professor at IU McKinney, where he has a cramped and sparsely decorated office, Arafa focuses his scholarship on Islamic Law, human rights and Middle Eastern legal systems.
Arafa has lived in the United States for more than a decade and has no plans to permanently return to Egypt, but he still sees America through the eyes of an immigrant.
The rules and customs that natural-born citizens do not even notice, such as having to stand behind the line when riding the city bus, are fresh and new to him. Moreover, the ability to speak and think as one pleases resonates deeply with Arafa, particularly as an academic.
“From my travels, I have never seen such great freedom as in the United States,” he said.
Rule of law
Arafa began his studies in the United States at the University of Connecticut School of Law, where he completed a Master of Laws degree. He recalled that his introduction to American legal studies was rough — the professors talked fast and called upon the students for answers, the material was covered quickly, and the pressure and competition were very high.
In Egypt, he said, professors lectured, never asking questions, and typically the students read the material after class, not before. The most significant difference was that Egyptian students are required to just memorize the law, but American students are taught to write and think critically about the laws and regulatory codes.
Perhaps not surprising for a legal scholar, Arafa sees the respect for the rule of law as the underpinning of American success.
“I can tell you,” he said, “when you respect the law here, you will be respected, too.”
However, in recent years, he said he has seen an erosion in that respect. To him, the US has hardened its attitudes toward immigrants and lost its standing in the world as a model of democracy since Donald Trump was elected president. He thinks long-held common values and principles are being ignored, and, most troubling to him, he said US institutions are becoming fragile as respect for the law is declining, because officials are more loyal to the president than to the country itself.
“I start to see people stand with the president even if (his actions are) not acceptable,” Arafa said. “That’s common in the Middle East, but not in the United States.”
Spirit of the law
Since settling in America, Arafa has been occasionally pulled from the line in US airports while officials reviewed his passport and asked him questions.
Getting singled out chaffed a little, he said, nonchalantly adding that he believes he got extra attention because he is Muslim. Still, Arafa repeatedly emphasized that not only must immigrants follow the laws of the United States and maintain legal status, but also that the county has the right to secure its borders.
Even so, an incident about two years ago at a bus station in Valparaiso still gives him pause. A stranger asked him if Egypt is home to radical Islam. Arafa replied he was unsure what the man meant, saying radicals are everywhere, but Egyptians as a whole are not radical.
“It was the first time to hear that kind of tone in a conversation,” Arafa said. He added that even if those attitudes have been common, they were not openly discussed, but “now people say them because they don’t care, because the president encourages them.”
This contrasts with an earlier event when Arafa left his carry-on bag unattended at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport. He had gone to the restroom and returned to police officers, a barrage of questions and, finally, a ticket.
Arafa was “super, super worried,” calling the court daily. Although the clerk tried to assure him this was a minor thing and he could pay the fine by mail, he did not want the incident on his record. He flew back to Detroit to make his court appearance, where the prosecutor asked the judge only to impose a fine and leave Arafa’s record clean.
That the judge agreed still makes the law professor smile. He marvels, he said, at how the court evaluated his case individually and respected the law.
“I was so proud how the rule of law applied,” he said, “and at the same time, they used the spirit of the law itself.”•
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