Middle East studies in the News

Muslim Scholar Appeals US Visa Denial [on Tariq Ramadan]

Agence France-Presse
March 24, 2009

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gJOIobYlb-rXuomoTfQx67yj4K6Q

http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/7123

Civil rights lawyers appealed in court Tuesday against what they said was the US government's ideologically based decision to deny a visa to a leading Muslim scholar, Tariq Ramadan.

Attorney Jameel Jaffer, from the American Civil Liberties Union, told a three judge panel that the "government had "failed to identify ... legitimate and bona fide reasons for the exclusion."

Jaffer, ACLU national security project director, argued before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York that excluding Ramadan, a research fellow at Oxford University, also threatened free speech in the United States.

The appeal followed the decision by a lower court in December to reject the ACLU's arguments. If the appeal is thrown out, the ACLU could take its case before a bigger panel of judges, or possibly the US Supreme Court.

Ramadan was all set to take a teaching position at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana in late 2004 when he was denied the visa, despite two dozen previous visits to the country.

Initially the denial was based on an "ideological provision" allowed for under the Patriot Act anti-terrorism law, Jaffer said.

Only later was the visa denial pinned to Ramadan having donated 1,300 dollars to a Swiss charity, Association de Secours Palestinien (ASP).

The charity funded Hamas, the ruling Palestinian group in Gaza, which Washington designates as a terrorist organization.

Jaffer said that Ramadan had voluntarily reported his contributions to ASP and had no idea about the Hamas links. In addition, Ramadan's donations to ASP stopped prior to 2003, the year when the group was also designated a terrorist organization.

"We presented clear and convincing evidence that he did not know" while "the government has introduced no evidence whatsoever," Jaffer said.

Prosecutor David Jones said that barring Ramadan from the United States was a consular, not a court matter, and that Ramadan must have failed to prove he was not knowingly funding a group banned by the United States.

"If Professor Ramadan or any person wants to know why he was denied a visa ... there's nothing to stop that person going in and saying, 'you made a mistake,'" Jones said.

"There's nothing stopping him making that presentation to the consular officer."

Note: Articles listed under "Middle East studies in the News" provide information on current developments concerning Middle East studies on North American campuses. These reports do not necessarily reflect the views of Campus Watch and do not necessarily correspond to Campus Watch's critique.

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