British Muslim (Senior leader) says he was denied entry to U.S.

[sabra]

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http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8571342/

British Muslim says he was denied entry to U.S.
Senior leader invited to speak in New York, detained upon arrival

LONDON - One of Britain's most senior Muslim leaders said Thursday that he was denied entry to the United States a day earlier, with no explanation given.

Zaki Badawi, head of the Muslim College, told The Associated Press he was denied entry when he arrived in New York on Wednesday. He had been invited to speak at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, N.Y., on "the law and religion in society."

The U.S. Embassy in London did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

No explanation was given for his exclusion, Badawi said in a telephone interview.

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[maddezmom]

1. updated link: U.S. blocks entry to leading moderate U.K. Muslim 28 minutes

LONDON (Reuters) - One of Britain's leading Muslim theologians has been refused entry into the United States just days after joining the chorus of religious leaders in condemning last week's London bombs that killed 54 people.

Zaki Badawi, the founder of the Muslim College in London and the unofficial leader of the country's Muslims, was refused entry at New York's JFK airport when he arrived on Wednesday and, after hours of fruitless talks, returned to England.

Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman Leah Yoon told Reuters in New York that Badawi was detained for questioning and told he would not be allowed to enter the United States.

"He voluntarily withdrew his application for entry to the United States after being presented with his options," Yoon said.

Yoon would not explain what those options were and would not say why Badawi was being refused entry.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050714/ts_nm/security_britain_imam_dc_1

[iverglas]

3. "his options"

They would be:

- leave voluntarily, withdrawing the request before it is ruled on

- exercise the right to a hearing when denied entry in response to the request, and be guaranteed, if unsuccessful, of never being admitted to the US in future

Leaving voluntarily is usually the wiser option.


Sometimes one just has to shake one's head and go home for dinner.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Wow - he's exactly what everyone says we need as a Muslim cleric

unbelievable he'd be kept out.

Badawi is, however, more than the acceptable voice of Islamic learned scholarship. As a pioneer of Islamic mortgages and insurance, his schemes, now backed by the Treasury, could soon transform the lives of British Muslims. Free from religious problems around paying interest, many more may soon be able, with a free conscience, to buy property here. Badawi has likewise revolutionised the training of Islamic thinkers in Britain, challenging the traditional inward-looking, rule-based education of most British imams with a broad, multi-faith training grounded in western philosophical study. It will not be easy for Osama bin Laden to hijack these updated, westernised Islamic scholars.

We meet at the Muslim College, which he founded in west London. His wife, Mavis, opens the door. She is a child psychologist whom he met in the 50s when both studied psychology at London University. He is small and confident, a little curmudgeonly but bursting with vitality. He carries battle scars: the Rushdie affair, Bin Laden, the war in Afghanistan and the Iraq conflict have all threatened to place British Islam beyond respectability. Yet at each turn he brandishes his Koran to rally his community around non-violence, tolerance and loyal British citizenship.

September 11 was "a violation of Islamic laws and ethics", he declared after the attack. He has urged Muslim British soldiers to obey their commanders against Saddam Hussein and ridiculed claims that 7,000 British Muslims would fight alongside the Taliban. "I said that if they could find seven, I would give them a medal. In fact, not a single British Muslim fought against the British forces - the only ones who went there were on humanitarian work."

When Bin Laden issued a fatwa on Americans, he dismissed it as being without religious authority and declared acerbically: "Fatwas have become a cheap business. Since Ayatollah Khomeini issued his against Salman Rushdie, everyone has opened a fatwa shop." It is 14 years since Bradford's Muslims publicly burned Rushdie's novel, The Satanic Verses. It set their community on a collision course with liberal Britain and brought Badawi to prominence as he urged Muslims to spurn the book but save the man. He broke ranks - leading him to fear for his own life - and declared on television that if Rushdie was being chased and knocked at his door, he would give him refuge.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,12780,875110,00.html

[maddezmom]

4. crazy shit...but then again

it's the US