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NEW YORK - The United States government has denied a visa to Oxford University Professor Tariq Ramadan despite dropping its previous allegation that he endorsed terrorism, the American Civil Liberties Union announced today.
The ACLU, American Academy of
Religion, American Association of University Professors, New York Civil
Liberties Union and PEN American Center sued the government for preventing their
members from meeting with Ramadan and hearing constitutionally protected speech.
The lawsuit came after the government invoked the Patriot Act's "ideological
exclusion" provision to prevent Ramadan from accepting a teaching position at
the University of Notre Dame in 2004. The provision applies to those who have
"endorsed or espoused" terrorism, but government attorneys failed to produce any
evidence showing that Ramadan had done so.
"Although the U.S. government has
found a new pretext for denying Professor Ramadan's visa, the history of this
case makes clear that the government's real concern is not with Professor
Ramadan but with his ideas," said ACLU attorney Jameel Jaffer, who is lead
counsel in this case. "The government is using the immigration laws to silence
an articulate critic and to censor political debate inside the United
States."
In June, a federal court rejected the government's attempt to
indefinitely delay a judgment on Ramadan's visa application, and ordered the
government to grant the visa or explain why it would not do so. The court also
issued a ruling stating that the government cannot bar non-citizens from the
United States simply because of their political views.
This week, after more
than two years of investigating Ramadan and faced with a deadline imposed by the
court, the State Department offered a new pretext for excluding Professor
Ramadan: that he had donated about 600 Euros to French and Swiss organizations
that provide humanitarian aid to Palestinians-information Ramadan voluntarily
provided to the State Department months ago. Although the organizations are
legitimate charities in France, the Bush administration contends that the groups
gave funds to Hamas and has invoked a law known as the "material support" law,
which allows the government to exclude individuals whom it believes have
supported terrorism.
However, as United States District Judge Paul A. Crotty
noted, Ramadan has been a consistent and vocal critic of terrorism. In fact,
Ramadan was appointed by British Prime Minister Tony Blair to a United Kingdom
government taskforce to combat terrorism and was recognized by Time magazine as
one of 100 "innovators" of the 21st century. Time also labeled Ramadan "the
leading Islamic thinker among Europe's second- and third-generation Muslim
immigrants." Ramadan currently teaches at the University of Oxford.
"I am
deeply distressed by the government's decision to exclude Professor Ramadan, an
eminent and respected scholar, from the United States," said Roger Bowen,
General Secretary of the American Association of University Professors. "As the
court has recognized, no form of communication substitutes for in-person
dialogue. At this time more than ever, it is crucially important that academic
discourse remain unfettered, and the government has struck a blow against that
fundamental principle."
The American groups, which had each invited Ramadan
to speak with their respective members, say that the government is excluding
Professor Ramadan because it disagrees with his political views.
"The
American Academy of Religion is dismayed to be deprived of the opportunity for
discussion and exchange with Ramadan who was to address our annual meeting in
November," said Diana L. Eck, President of the American Academy of Religion.
"Ramadan is one of today's leading Muslim theologians and his voice is vital to
the contemporary discussion of Islam in the West. His ongoing exclusion sends
exactly the wrong message about America's commitment to the free exchange of
ideas."
The groups further criticized the government's use of the material
support law as a "six degrees of separation" approach to block Ramadan and
others from entering the United States.
"We are deeply disappointed that in
light of Judge Crotty's ruling the government sought the narrowest procedural
opening to deny Professor Ramadan a visa, and thereby to deny us the opportunity
our colleagues in Europe enjoy to engage him directly and debate his ideas with
him in the United States," said Larry Siems, Director of Freedom to Write and
International Programs at PEN American Center. "An overly broad 'material
support' law should not be used as a back-door route for ideological
exclusion."
The ACLU has challenged the constitutionality of material support
laws in numerous other cases. In a recent California case, a federal judge
struck down part of the statute as unconstitutionally vague. The government
appealed the decision to the United States Court of Appeal for the Ninth
Circuit. In a friend-of-the-court brief, the ACLU and a coalition of human
rights groups argued that the statute unconstitutionally interferes with efforts
to provide humanitarian aid to civilian populations in war zones.
In
addition to Jaffer, attorneys in the Ramadan case are Melissa Goodman, Judy
Rabinovitz and Lucas Guttentag of the ACLU, Arthur Eisenberg of the NYCLU, and
New York immigration lawyer Claudia Slovinsky. The lawsuit was brought against
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice.
A statement from Tariq Ramadan is online at: www.tariqramadan.com/article.php3?id_article=788&lang=en.
More information on ideological exclusion is online at: www.aclu.org/exclusion.
The ACLU
brief in the California case, Humanitarian Law Project v. Gonzales, is online
at: www.aclu.org/safefree/general/25628lgl20060522.html.
