Students will not intern at Miami hospital

From left: Ayman Gheith, Kambiz Butt and Omer Choudhary appear on CNN's "Larry King Live" Monday night.

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Three medical students at the center of last Friday's daylong police investigation that closed a Florida interstate agree with the decision by a Miami hospital not to let them complete their internships there as planned, officials said Monday.

Officials at Larkin Community Hospital officials made the decision late Friday, citing an overwhelming number of threatening e-mails and phone calls that came in after the students were stopped on suspicion of carrying explosives. Though the students were later cleared and allowed to go on their way, a hospital official said now would not be the right time for them to complete their nine-week rotation there.

Monday, in a conference call with the students and their school, Ross University, the students said they agreed with the decision, said hospital president Dr. Jack Michel.

CNN NewsPass VIDEO Three Muslim medical students detained in south Florida tell CNN's Mark Potter they made no jokes or references to terror plans (September 13) Play video Eunice Stone says she heard three men discussing apparent terror plans at a Shoney's on Calhoun, Georgia. CNN's Wolf Blitzer reports (September 13) Play video   MORE STORIES Man in terror scare says woman is lying    EXTRA INFORMATION Gallery: Images from Florida  • Map: ' Alligator Alley '

"They are aware of our concerns, and they share them, and they feel that this is not the best time to, today or tomorrow, start a rotation at the hospital," Michel told reporters. "That does not mean that they're not welcome here. That only means that for now, we feel -- and they agree -- that this is not a good time to start rotation at Larkin Hospital."

Ayman Gheith, 27; Kambiz Butt, 25; and Omer Choudhary, 23, were en route to Miami Friday when they were pulled over in Collier County on the east-west stretch of Interstate 75, known as Alligator Alley.

Florida authorities had been told to be on the lookout for the men, who were traveling in two cars, after a woman reported she heard them make suspicious comments at a restaurant in north Georgia.

Police released the students after 17 hours and after they searched both vehicles for explosives and found none. The men were not arrested or charged.

Still, hospital officials felt the resulting media frenzy was "distracting" for the hospital and not conducive to a learning environment.

"We felt that the students' medical education would be adversely compromised due to the current national attention," Michel said.

"Bottom line, we want what's best for the students," he continued, "but I don't want any distractions from patient care."

Altaf Ali, of the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the students sought "normalcy" in agreeing not to do the rotation at the hospital.

"I think what they are doing at this point is trying to say, 'We don't want to rock the boat,'" Ali said. "What they're concerned about is the possibility there's going to be a gap in their placement."

Michel said the students will continue to be enrolled at Ross Medical School, on the Caribbean island of Dominica, and plan to meet with their dean once they return to school, Michel said.

"She will make sure that they are assigned somewhere to continue their training," he said.

Of the threats that arrived at the hospital, he said, almost all of them "commented on [the students'] ability to be physicians and whether we as a hospital should have our patients exposed to people like that."

Some contained slurs against Muslim-Americans, said Michel.