Ramadan Requests Temporary Permission to Enter U.S.

March 15, 2006

Source: Newsday

Wire Service: AP

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--muslimscholar-vis0315mar15,0,5360333.story

On March 15, 2006 the Associated Press reported, "A Muslim scholar suing the U.S. government over its refusal to give him a travel visa asked a court Wednesday to allow him to enter the country temporarily while the case is awaiting trial.

Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss citizen who teaches at the University of Oxford in England, had his U.S. visa revoked in 2004, shortly before he was scheduled to move to Indiana to accept a position at the University of Notre Dame.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing Ramadan, said the State Department excluded the professor under a provision of the Patriot Act that allows the government to bar entry to any prominent foreigner who has used his status to endorse or espouse terrorism... In court papers filed Wednesday, the ACLU asked a judge to issue a preliminary ruling that the government was wrong to bar entry to Ramadan based on the Patriot Act's 'ideological exclusion' provision.

The groups also asked a judge to allow the professor to come to the U.S. for several speaking engagements, including one in late April to attend a 'World Voices' festival sponsored by the PEN American Center, a literary and anti-censorship group."