2004 - TARIQ RAMADAN (Islamic Scholar and Author)


Shortly before Professor Ramadan was to begin teaching at the University of Notre Dame, his visa was revoked. A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security claimed Ramadan was in a category of aliens who use their "position of prominence within any country to endorse or espouse terrorist activity." While Ramadan's prominence is not in question (Time Magazine called him the "the leading Islamic thinker among Europe's second- and third- generation Muslim immigrants"), he has consistently denounced terrorism. He has recently joined a task force created by the British Government to combat extremism.