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U.S.
refuses visa to Muslim scholar, Tariq Ramadan
By Tom Heneghan
Mon, Sep 25, 2006
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Tariq Ramadan
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A prominent Swiss Muslim
intellectual said on Monday the U.S. government had dropped charges against him
of supporting terrorism, but refused to scrap an entry ban.
Tariq Ramadan, now an academic at
Oxford University in Britain, said he had received an official letter
effectively clearing him of charges that kept him from taking up a teaching post
at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.
However, the letter from the U.S.
embassy in Bern explained the continued ban by saying he had contributed about
600 euros ($770) to a Palestinian support group, he said.
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"This is an ideological
exclusion," he told Reuters by telephone from London. "This is the only way they
can justify their decision after two years of investigation."
Ramadan, who has been a vocal
critic of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and its support for Israel, received a visa
in 2004 but Washington later revoked it on advice from the Department of
Homeland Security, which gave no reason for its decision.
He quit the post but fought to
have the ban lifted and his name cleared.
A federal judge in New York
criticized the government in June for holding up his visa application and ruled
it must make a decision in the long-running case within three months.
The American Civil Liberties Union
had sued the U.S. government in January on behalf of Ramadan and institutes that
had invited him to speak, arguing the government improperly denied visas to
scholars critical of the Bush administration.
The U.S. State Department
confirmed that it had denied Ramadan a visa, but said this had nothing to do
with his views.
"A U.S. consular officer has
denied Dr. Tariq Ramadan's visa application ... for providing material support
to a terrorist organization," said State Department spokesman Kurtis Cooper.
"The consular officer concluded that Dr. Ramadan was inadmissible based solely
on his actions, which constituted providing material support to a terrorist
organization."
Cooper gave no details about what
Ramadan did to trigger the denial, citing the confidentiality of the visa
application process.
The ACLU said it was considering
an appeal of the decision to deny Ramadan a visa.
Aid to
Palestinians
Ramadan said his contributions to
the French-based Committee for Charity and Aid to Palestinians (CBSP) were
apparently seen as support for the Palestinian movement Hamas, which Washington
has listed as a terrorist organization.
However, he said he had sent the
funds in 2000, long before Hamas was declared terrorist. He noted the CBSP was
legal in France, and that the French city of Lille had cooperated with it for
several years in charity projects for Palestinians.
In a statement, Ramadan said: "The
contents of this letter clear my name of all the allegations and accusations
brought against me since my visa was revoked.
"Everything that was said about my
so-called dubious relations, my meetings with this or that terrorist, my
teaching, my ideas and writings encouraging or justifying terrorism, my
double-speak -- none of that was mentioned."
Ramadan, who regularly condemns
terrorism and Islamist violence, provokes contrasting reactions from divergent
groups.
The Geneva-born intellectual is
popular among young European Muslims for his efforts to reconcile their European
and Islamic identities. His reputation in British and U.S. academic circles is
one of a moderate expert on Muslim affairs.
In France, officials and the media
see him as a radical who preaches hard-line Islam to Muslim audiences and
moderation to non-Muslims. He denies the charge of "double-speak."
In his statement, Ramadan said he
would continue to support the Palestinian cause. "If the price to pay for this
commitment is to never to tread upon American soil, I am ready to pay that
without the slightest hesitation."
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