Hearing for Muslim Barred by U.S (banned for opposing Iraq occupation?)

[UpInArms]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/14/us/nationalspecial3/14scholar.html?ex=1302667200&en=9686e64ab72508a5&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

(free registration or try www.bugmenot.com)

Government lawyers clarified some mysteries yesterday and deepened others in the case of Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss Muslim scholar and leading European theologian of Islam who has been barred by the Bush administration from traveling to the United States since July 2004.

Papers the government presented at a hearing in federal court in New York revealed that, contrary to officials' statements, a clause in the USA Patriot Act that bans any foreigner who "endorses or espouses terrorist activity" was not the reason Mr. Ramadan's United States visa was revoked. The government also said it did not intend to bar Mr. Ramadan in the future based on that clause.

But the government also said that Mr. Ramadan's case had been and remained a national security matter, and that statements he made in recent interviews with American consular officials in Switzerland had raised new "serious questions" about whether he should be allowed to come to the United States.

<snip>

Mr. Ramadan's difficulties began in 2004, after he had been hired by the University of Notre Dame as a tenured professor. On July 28, 2004, the State Department revoked his visa without official explanation. A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security told reporters then that the visa had been pulled under the clause barring foreigners who support terrorism.

<snip>

After receiving a raft of invitations to speak in the United States, Mr. Ramadan applied again for a visa in September. He was interviewed twice by consular officials in Bern in December. In a recent interview, Mr. Ramadan said he had spoken openly about his opposition to the American occupation of Iraq.

...more...

[tocqueville]

1. Ramadan is very controversial in Europe for his extreme views

and have more or less failed to explain why he considers that beating of women is OK, sharia is OK and why only a "moratorium" should be imposed on the stoning of women in Nigeria...

so be careful with that one

Membership in the Muslim Brotherhood

"Tariq sometimes says that he is not a 'member' of the Muslim Brotherhood, as if one must have a membership card in order to be affiliated with the organization. On the other hand, during 1998 visit to Cairo, the spiritual guide of the Muslim Brotherhood said: 'The activity of Tariq and of his brother Hani is faithful to the organization's ideas.' Tariq Ramadan's views are clearly similar to those of the Muslim Brotherhood, even if his way of expressing them is Western. was shaped by the education he received in the house of Al-Bana's followers, and by the fact that he grew up in Switzerland and thus speaks native French, knows English well, and understands the mentality and ways of the West."

Corporal Punishment

"Tariq Ramadan condemns 'bad behavior towards one's wife' but does not condemn -beating because it is permitted by the Koran." In a November 2003 debate on French television in which he participated with the French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, Ramadan was asked about an article written by his brother Hani that justified the stoning of women. Ramadan did not say whether or not he objected to this sort of punishment, but said that he personally "called for a moratorium on the implementation of the punishment." He added that he hesitates to object to this punishment because he does not "want to lose credibility amongst the Islamists." <10>

Palestine and the Jews

"Tariq took no interest in the issue of Palestine, until Hamas, which is a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, became more prominent. At that point, his opinions against Arafat and the peace process became similar to those of Hamas. In a book he co-authored with Alain Gresh , he said that the destruction of the State of Israel is currently impossible in practical terms, so he supports the idea of 'one state' for both Jews and Arabs... as a step along the way to a solution."

"With regard to the Jews, Ramadan adheres to the Koranic position, maintaining that Jews willing to form an alliance with the Muslims are dhimmis..."

http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=ia&ID=IA26606

[independentpiney]

4. Islamophobes like Pipes and the Islamic fundies both hate Tariq Ramadan

for his universalist views. It seems to me if he's hated by both sides, he must be doing something right.

In my reading of his works, he does not consider the beating of women ok, as the memri article indicates. He says in his call for a moratorium on hudud:

..For Muslims, Islam is a message of equality and justice. It is our faithfulness to the message of Islam that leads us to recognize that it impossible to remain silent in the face of unjust applications of our religious references.
.. A still more grave injustice is that these penalties are applied almost exclusively to women and the poor, the doubly victimized, never to the wealthy, the powerful, or the oppressors...
..In resigning ourselves to having a superficial relationship to the scriptural sources, we betray the message of justice of Islam.
http://www.tariqramadan.com/article.php3?id_article=264&lang=en

I'm not Muslim, but I consider him one of the most inspiring people of our time. I'd recommend reading the (free) opendemocracy interview A Bridge across Fear http://www.opendemocracy.net/debates/article-5-57-2006.jsp
and browsing his site http://www.tariqramadan.com/welcome.php3 before forming an an opinion of him.

[tocqueville]

5. so beating and stoning women is "inspiring" ?

Ramadan is a fundie with an intellectual posture

".. A still more grave injustice is that these penalties are applied almost exclusively to women and the poor, the doubly victimized, never to the wealthy, the powerful, or the oppressors..."

so the problem is that some get off the penalty, not the penalty in itself.

moratorium ? do you know what it means ? it means "let's put a stop to the stoning, until we find out if it's islamic or not". It doesn't mean "it's an outrage".

Ramadan has been debunked in Europe and the articles I quote don't come from Pipes. Besides the fundies consider that "he is one of theirs" (read the article).

I could produce tons of similar material in different languages.

I have watched him many times on French TV, on debates and seen him causing outrage among secular moderate "Arabs". I cannot post the French debunking here, for the language problem. But you should see in the material you have access to what lies behind the words.

[tocqueville]

2. dupe

[Malikshah]

3. Ramadan is the target of the neocons associated with

Pipes, campus-watch, and the like.

MERIA, CAMERA, MEMRI are all suspect sites with regard to objectivity.

A big ole salt-lick is required when reading them and assessing their value.

But-- as Notre Dame is such a hotbed for Islamist radicals.... (i.e. He was to have worked there prior to the brouhaha, witch-hunt, tar and feathering that he received from the sites, etc.)

[tocqueville]

6. you don't have to be a neocon

to debunk him. Just read the editorials or culture pages of major European newspapers. The problem is that a lot of that stuff isn't in English.