Muslim scholar denied U.S. visa
Tuesday, August 24, 2004 Posted: 4:19 PM EDT (2019 GMT)
SOUTH BEND, Indiana (AP) -- Acting at the request of the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. government has revoked the work visa of a Muslim scholar who had been scheduled to teach at the University of Notre Dame this fall.
Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss citizen who has been criticized for links to Islamic militants and for remarks branded anti-Semitic, was supposed to begin teaching on Tuesday, the first day of the fall semester.
State Department spokeswoman Kelly Shannon cited the Immigration and Nationality Act, part of which deals with aliens who have used a "position of prominence within any country to endorse or espouse terrorist activity." Another section bars aliens whose entry may have "potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States."
Both sections were amended under the USA Patriot Act, passed after the September 11 attacks.
Shannon did not immediately say whether either section applied to Ramadan's case.
"We don't know a reason why either of those should apply to Tariq Ramadan," said Matt Storin, a Notre Dame spokesman. "He's a distinguished scholar. He's a voice for moderation in the Muslim world."
Shannon said the move came at the request of the Homeland Security Department.
Notre Dame appointed Ramadan earlier this year to be its Henry B. Luce professor of religion, conflict and peacebuilding at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.
Ramadan remained in Switzerland, and Storin said he would relay to him a message seeking comment.
Ramadan has been teaching at the College of Geneva and the University of Fribourg, both in Switzerland, and has gained a popular following among European Muslims in showing how Islamic values are compatible with those of secular European society.
"In many ways he has defined what it means to be a European Muslim," said Muqtedar Khan, a political scientist at Adrian College in Michigan. "He has essentially tried to bridge the culture gap."
However, terrorism expert Yehudit Barsky of the American Jewish Committee charged that Ramadan has tried to bring legitimacy to Islamic militants.
"We really had hoped the university had exercised more caution in bringing him over here," she said in a recent interview.
