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AMP Report – October 25, 2006
Three top Muslim scholars kicked out of the US
Three leading Muslim academics from Britain and South Africa were deported from the US last week. These academics are: Professor Adam Habib and Fazlur Rahman Azmi from South Africa and Kamal Helbawy, the 80-year-old founder of the Muslim Association of Britain. Civil rights groups have expressed dismay and outrage at the US action.
"The way visiting Islamic leaders are treated by American authorities can send either a positive or negative message to Muslims worldwide," CAIR spokesperson Ibrahim Hooper said in a statement. "So far, the message in this case has been negative."
Professor Adam Habib
Professor Adam Habib, executive director of the Human Sciences Research Council's Democracy and Governance Research Program, was questioned for more than seven hours at John F Kennedy International Airport in New York on Oct. 21.
His visa was then revoked and he was escorted back to a plane by armed guards and deported.
Habib told the South African Daily Dispatch that on his arrival in the US, officials pulled him aside and asked whether he knew any terrorists or if he belonged to any terror organizations. "They asked me if I was a terrorist and I said no. Then they asked if I had ever been in prison and I said yes, I was politically detained by the apartheid government," he said.
Habib's ordeal started on Saturday when he arrived in New York with an HSRC delegation scheduled to meet officials of a number of US institutions, including the National Institute of Health, the Center for Disease Control, the World Bank, Columbia University and some donor agencies. It came "out of the blue. I have a 10-year multiple entry visa issued three years ago. The last time I traveled to the US was in 2004 and I did not have any problems."
In 2002 and 2003 the Financial Mail described Habib as one of the 300 most influential black opinion makers in South Africa. Habib had visited the US more than 20 times previously for work and personal reasons - without any problems.
Fazlur Rahman Azmi
An Islamic scholar from South Africa has been denied entry into the United States, prompting questions from Muslims in the San Francisco Bay area who had invited him to participate in activities marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
On October 20, another Islamic scholar from South Africa, Fazlur Rahman Azmi, was detained by officials from US Customs and Border Protection when he arrived at San Francisco International Airport from London.
Azmi, who had made previous visits to the country as recently as April without problems, was questioned for hours before being denied entry and sent on a plane out of the country next day.
Michael Fleming, a Customs and Border Protection spokesperson, confirmed that Azmi was forced to leave the country after a brief detainment. "His application for entry into the US was determined to be inadmissible," said Fleming.
Kamal Helbawy
On October 18, Kamal Helbawy, a leading member of Britain’s Muslim community, headed to New York for an academic conference, was forced to leave his transatlantic flight without explanation by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The removal of Kamal Helbawy, the 80-year-old founder of the Muslim Association of Britain, came just minutes before his American Airlines flight was due to take off from London’s Heathrow Airport.
The move startled officials at New York University Law School who had invited Helbawy to be a featured speaker at a conference the organization had sponsored for Oct. 19 on the Muslim Brotherhood movement. “He’s a really respected guy,” said Paul Cruickshank, a fellow at the law school’s Center for Law and Security, which had organized the conference. “He’s very influential within the Muslim community in Britain and his name is recognized throughout the world.”
Spokesmen for the Homeland Security Department and FBI declined any immediate comment on why Helbawy, a British citizen with a valid passport, was removed from the plane.
Helbawy, an Egyptian-born Islamic scholar, was for years a leading spokesman in Europe for the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization founded in Egypt that some U.S. officials say is dedicated to spreading a radical brand of Islam throughout the world.
While not denying his affiliation with the Brotherhood, Helbawy described himself in a telephone interview to the NEWSWEEK as a moderate who has publicly denounced terrorism “thousands of times.” He also noted that he serves on the Muslim Council of Britain—a semiofficial British government advisory committee that works to turn British Muslims away from violence.
The incidents are the latest instance in which U.S. security officials have denied prominent Muslim leaders entry to the United States.
Last month, another Islamic scholar from South Africa, Ismail Mullah, was denied entry into the country when he arrived at Dulles International Airport for a trip to visit Muslims in northern Virginia.
Also in September, the government denied a visa to one of Europe's most prominent Muslim scholars, Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss citizen who teaches at Oxford University, contending he gave material support to a terrorist group. Ramadan's attorneys alleged the US government was using a charitable donation as a pretext for censorship. (Source media reports)
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