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Associated Press – Sept. 25, 2006
No visa for Tariq Ramadan
By Larry Neumeister
NEW YORK - The U.S. government has rejected a prominent Muslim scholar's application to enter the country on the grounds that he donated several hundred dollars to French and Swiss groups that provide humanitarian aid to Palestinians, a civil rights group announced Monday.
Tariq Ramadan learned that his visa application was rejected last week, three months after a judge ordered the government to decide whether he can enter the country to speak before groups that had invited him, the American Civil Liberties Union said.
The Bush administration contends the French and Swiss groups, which the ACLU said are legitimate charities, gave funds to Hamas and invoked a law allowing it to exclude individuals whom it believes have supported terrorism.
Ramadan, who teaches at Oxford University, said in a statement that he was disappointed by the government's decision but was glad that the State Department had abandoned its initial allegation that he endorsed terrorism.
"I think it's clear from the history of this case that the U.S. government's real fear is of my ideas," he said. "I am excluded not because the government truly believes me to be a national security threat, but because of my criticisms of American foreign policies in the Middle East; because of my opposition to the invasion of Iraq; and because of my criticism of some of the Bush administration's policies with respect to civil liberties."
A message left for comment with the State Department was not immediately returned.
Jameel Jaffer, an ACLU lawyer, said the civil rights group would decide whether to pursue the issue through the courts once it speaks with organizations it represents that filed a lawsuit challenging the government's exclusion of Ramadan….
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/4212610.html
Sept. 25, 2006
U.S. Rejects Visa for Muslim Scholar
By LARRY NEUMEISTER
NEW YORK - The government has rejected a prominent Muslim scholar's application to enter the country, contending that he gave support to a terrorist group, but his attorneys allege the U.S. is using charitable donations he made as a pretext for stifling his views.
Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss citizen who teaches at Oxford University, was denied a temporary business and tourism visa Thursday "based solely on his actions, which constituted providing material support to a terrorist organization," said Janelle Hironimus, a State Department spokeswoman.
Hironimus said she could not reveal specifics about Ramadan's case due to confidentiality rules regarding visa applications.
The American Civil Liberties Union said the U.S. government notified Ramadan he was being excluded because he donated $765 to French and Swiss organizations that provide humanitarian aid to Palestinians.
The ACLU said the organizations are legitimate charities in France, but the Bush administration contends the groups gave funds to the Islamic militant group Hamas, and has invoked a law allowing it to exclude individuals whom it believes have supported terrorism.
The ACLU said the decision to bar Ramadan amounts to censorship.
"This case is really about speech," said Jameel Jaffer, an ACLU lawyer. "The government is using the immigration laws as a means of silencing and stigmatizing a prominent cleric."
Ramadan has said he opposes the U.S. invasion of Iraq and U.S policies in Israel and the Palestinian territories, but that he has no connections to terrorism, opposes Islamic extremism and promotes peaceful solutions.
He said in a statement he was disappointed by the government's decision but was glad that the State Department had abandoned its initial allegation that he endorsed terrorism.
"I think it's clear from the history of this case that the U.S. government's real fear is of my ideas," he said. "I am excluded not because the government truly believes me to be a national security threat, but because of my criticisms of American foreign policies in the Middle East; because of my opposition to the invasion of Iraq; and because of my criticism of some of the Bush administration's policies with respect to civil liberties."
Hironimus defended the government's policies, saying the United States "welcomes the exchange of culture and ideas with the Islamic world." She said that in the past three years more than 450 religious scholars and leaders, the vast majority of them Muslim, had visited the United States as guests of the U.S. government.
Jaffer said the ACLU would decide whether to pursue the issue through the courts once it speaks with organizations it represents that filed a lawsuit challenging the government's exclusion of Ramadan.
Ramadan applied for a visa last year that would allow him to temporarily visit the United States to lecture or attend conferences, as he had prior to 2004 when he had spoken at Harvard University, Stanford University and elsewhere.
When the State Department did not rule on the application, the ACLU brought a lawsuit on behalf of several groups which had invited Ramadan to speak to force it to act.
In June, U.S. District Judge Paul A. Crotty in Manhattan ordered the government to rule on Ramadan's application within three months.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/4213269.html
ACLU - September 25, 2006
Groups Condemn State Department’s Decision
to Deny Visa to Oxford University Professor
Who Criticized U.S. Policies
NEW YORK - The United States government has denied a visa to Oxford University Professor Tariq Ramadan despite dropping its previous allegation that he endorsed terrorism, the American Civil Liberties Union announced today.
The ACLU, American Academy of Religion, American Association of University Professors, New York Civil Liberties Union and PEN American Center sued the government for preventing their members from meeting with Ramadan and hearing constitutionally protected speech. The lawsuit came after the government invoked the Patriot Acts "ideological exclusion" provision to prevent Ramadan from accepting a teaching position at the University of Notre Dame in 2004. The provision applies to those who have "endorsed or espoused" terrorism, but government attorneys failed to produce any evidence showing that Ramadan had done so.
"Although the U.S. government has found a new pretext for denying Professor Ramadans visa, the history of this case makes clear that the governments real concern is not with Professor Ramadan but with his ideas," said ACLU attorney Jameel Jaffer, who is lead counsel in this case. "The government is using the immigration laws to silence an articulate critic and to censor political debate inside the United States."
In June, a federal court rejected the governments attempt to indefinitely delay a judgment on Ramadans visa application, and ordered the government to grant the visa or explain why it would not do so. The court also issued a ruling stating that the government cannot bar non-citizens from the United States simply because of their political views.
This week, after more than two years of investigating Ramadan and faced with a deadline imposed by the court, the State Department offered a new pretext for excluding Professor Ramadan: that he had donated about 600 Euros to French and Swiss organizations that provide humanitarian aid to Palestinians-information Ramadan voluntarily provided to the State Department months ago. Although the organizations are legitimate charities in France, the Bush administration contends that the groups gave funds to Hamas and has invoked a law known as the "material support" law, which allows the government to exclude individuals whom it believes have supported terrorism.
However, as United States District Judge Paul A. Crotty noted, Ramadan has been a consistent and vocal critic of terrorism. In fact, Ramadan was appointed by British Prime Minister Tony Blair to a United Kingdom government taskforce to combat terrorism and was recognized by Time magazine as one of 100 "innovators" of the 21st century. Time also labeled Ramadan "the leading Islamic thinker among Europes second- and third-generation Muslim immigrants." Ramadan currently teaches at the University of Oxford.
"I am deeply distressed by the governments decision to exclude Professor Ramadan, an eminent and respected scholar, from the United States," said Roger Bowen, General Secretary of the American Association of University Professors. "As the court has recognized, no form of communication substitutes for in-person dialogue. At this time more than ever, it is crucially important that academic discourse remain unfettered, and the government has struck a blow against that fundamental principle."
The American groups, which had each invited Ramadan to speak with their respective members, say that the government is excluding Professor Ramadan because it disagrees with his political views.
"The American Academy of Religion is dismayed to be deprived of the opportunity for discussion and exchange with Ramadan who was to address our annual meeting in November," said Diana L. Eck, President of the American Academy of Religion. "Ramadan is one of todays leading Muslim theologians and his voice is vital to the contemporary discussion of Islam in the West. His ongoing exclusion sends exactly the wrong message about Americas commitment to the free exchange of ideas."
The groups further criticized the governments use of the material support law as a "six degrees of separation" approach to block Ramadan and others from entering the United States.
"We are deeply disappointed that in light of Judge Crottys ruling the government sought the narrowest procedural opening to deny Professor Ramadan a visa, and thereby to deny us the opportunity our colleagues in Europe enjoy to engage him directly and debate his ideas with him in the United States," said Larry Siems, Director of Freedom to Write and International Programs at PEN American Center. "An overly broad material support law should not be used as a back-door route for ideological exclusion."
The ACLU has challenged the constitutionality of material support laws in numerous other cases. In a recent California case, a federal judge struck down part of the statute as unconstitutionally vague. The government appealed the decision to the United States Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit. In a friend-of-the-court brief, the ACLU and a coalition of human rights groups argued that the statute unconstitutionally interferes with efforts to provide humanitarian aid to civilian populations in war zones.
In addition to Jaffer, attorneys in the Ramadan case are Melissa Goodman, Judy Rabinovitz and Lucas Guttentag of the ACLU, Arthur Eisenberg of the NYCLU, and New York immigration lawyer Claudia Slovinsky. The lawsuit was brought against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
A statement from Tariq Ramadan is online at: www.tariqramadan.com/article.php3?id_article=788&lang=en
More information on ideological exclusion is online at: www.aclu.org/exclusion.
The ACLU brief in the California case, Humanitarian Law Project v. Gonzales, is online at: www.aclu.org/safefree/general/25628lgl20060522.html.
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