A former UW-Madison comparative literature doctoral student and native of Egypt currently is stranded in Canada after visiting the country in an attempt to upgrade his temporary visa.
Mohammad Salama, assistant Arabic professor at San Francisco State University, was fingerprinted, interrogated and not allowed to return to the United States without security clearance.
According to Salama, one of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing's convicted suspects name was Mohammed Salameh, a factor Salama thinks may be preventing his return.
Salama taught a National Guard seminar in Madison in 2004, for members soon to be deployed to Iraq, and was supposed to teach two Arabic language classes and one literature course in San Francisco this fall.
His family and children still reside in Wisconsin, though they were scheduled to move to San Francisco this summer.
""My husband is stuck in a foreign country and paying bills there,"" Salama's wife Carrie told the Chronicle. ""I understand the system is trying to be protective of the country, but it's tearing apart our family.""
www.madison.com and San Francisco Chronicle contributed to this report.
