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ACLU Condemn State Department’s Decision to Deny Visa To Radical Islamic Scholar


Via ACLU:

    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.

Why the government chose this route I don’t know, but I’m glad they kept him out. As we have pointed out before, there is a lot more reasons why this man should be denied a Visa than the ACLU lets on. The sympathy driven drivel of silencing political debate is pitiful plea that leaves out way too many facts.

    He has praised the brutal Islamist policies of the Sudanese politician Hassan Al-Turabi. Mr. Turabi in turn called Mr. Ramadan the “future of Islam.”
    Mr. Ramadan was banned from entering France in 1996 on suspicion of having links with an Algerian Islamist who had recently initiated a terrorist campaign in Paris.
    Ahmed Brahim, an Algerian indicted for Al-Qaeda activities, had “routine contacts” with Mr. Ramadan, according to a Spanish judge (Baltasar Garzón) in 1999.
    Djamel Beghal, leader of a group accused of planning to attack the American embassy in Paris, stated in his 2001 trial that he had studied with Mr. Ramadan.
    Along with nearly all Islamists, Mr. Ramadan has denied that there is “any certain proof” that Bin Laden was behind 9/11.
    He publicly refers to the Islamist atrocities of 9/11, Bali, and Madrid as “interventions,” minimizing them to the point of near-endorsement.
    And here are other reasons, dug up by Jean-Charles Brisard, a former French intelligence officer doing work for some of the 9/11 families, as reported in Le Parisien:

    Intelligence agencies suspect that Mr. Ramadan (along with his brother Hani) coordinated a meeting at the Hôtel Penta in Geneva for Ayman al-Zawahiri, deputy head of Al-Qaeda, and Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind sheikh, now in a Minnesota prison.
    Mr. Ramadan’s address appears in a register of Al Taqwa Bank, an organization the State Department accuses of supporting Islamist terrorism. info from Daniel Pipes

I think we have plenty of professors here in America that get to speak their anti-American propaganda without importing another one. The ACLU’s attempt to paint this as some kind of civil rights denial is ridiculous. America should be thanking the government for keeping this professor with questionable ties to radical Islam from getting a Visa.

Glib Fortuna wrote about this a while back.

    The Bill of Rights does not extend to overseas foreigners not even present in our country, let alone those closely connected to international terrorists. Our Constitution does not guarantee a work visa for a foreign national who espouses jihad. The First Amendment cannot be interpreted, no matter how loosely, to require that a terrorist sympathizer be imported to the US because a group of Ivory Tower imbeciles demand to hear him speak. If it is interpreted such, Mumia Abu-Jamal must be sprung immediately to go on his speaking tour. The faculty demands their rights!

    As a sovereign nation, the US may deny entry to anyone for any reason pursuant to any binding treaties or other international agreements, which by the way, we may back out of if no longer in the national interest. I can’t imagine that there is anything that compels this nation to have someone who has regularly smoked-and-joked with the most putrid brand of international terrorist forced through customs.

    This case demonstrates yet another dimension to the dementia. It’s unsurprisingly hypocritical that the ACLU would represent someone who promotes Islamic law and education. What happened to their spirited defense of the sacred “wall of separation?” I guess their Hierarchy of Anarchy places the violent overthrow of Western Civilization above “women’s rights,” “gay rights” and “free speech.” (Except, when the “right” of free speech is taken to mean that the US must allow a terrorist supporter into the country so professors may hear him).

The real question has nothing to do with the government putting a silence to “political criticism”. The real question is why the ACLU wants this guy to teach his anti-American jihadist philosphies to our children.