FORT PIERCE, Fla. (CBS12) — A federal lawsuit accusing Indian River State College of wrongfully firing a Muslim adjunct professor after officials allegedly labeled him a terrorist threat is moving forward.
Syed Ammar Ahmed, who taught at IRSC for nearly five years, claims in a federal civil rights complaint that the college terminated him in March 2024 based on false information that he appeared in an “FDLE Homeland Security database” because of terrorist threats. The lawsuit says no such database exists and that the college never produced evidence of the alleged security alert.
Ahmed, a practicing Muslim of Pakistani ancestry, sued the District Board of Trustees for Indian River State College, IRSC President Timothy Moore and an unnamed Florida Board of Education member in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The complaint alleges religious discrimination, race and national origin discrimination, First Amendment retaliation and conspiracy to interfere with civil rights…