Posted on 01/25/2006 12:03:25 PM PST by LibWhacker
NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union sued the U.S. government Wednesday for preventing a Muslim scholar from entering the country, arguing that the government was using anti-terrorism laws as "instruments of censorship."
The lawsuit asks the court to find a provision of the Patriot Act unconstitutional and seeks clearance for Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss intellectual and Muslim scholar, to accept invitations to speak in the United States.
Ramadan was blocked from accepting a tenured teaching position at the University of Notre Dame when his visa was revoked in August 2004 because of a provision of the Patriot Act, said Jameel Jaffer, an ACLU staff attorney.
Jaffer said it was part of an effort by the federal government to bar foreign scholars whose political views might be contrary to those of the U.S. government. The provision blocks entry to the country for prominent aliens who used their status to endorse or espouse terrorism or to persuade others to terrorist activity, he said.
"We don't think there's any evidence at all that he has endorsed terrorism," Jaffer said. "In fact, there is overwhelming evidence that he has condemned terrorism."
The government had no immediate comment, said Megan Gaffney, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan.
The ACLU noted that Ramadan, a visiting fellow at St. Anthony's College at the University of Oxford, had accepted British Prime Minister Tony Blair's invitation to join a government task force to examine the roots of extremism in Britain.
"The government should not be using the immigration laws as instruments of censorship," Jaffer said. "Our concern is that the government is using this provision to manipulate and censor political and academic debate within the United States."
The lawsuit seeks a declaration that the Patriot Act provision is unconstitutional and a court order barring the government from relying on the provision to exclude Ramadan or any other foreign national.
Besides Ramadan, plaintiffs include the American Academy of Religion, the American Association of University Professors and PEN American Center, organizations which had invited Ramadan to speak in the United States.
Would they do this for a Christian...I think not? Time for the ACLU to be banned from this country, and sent Cuba for exile...since that's where it takes its direction form anyway.
ACLU - making the country safe for terrorists since 9/11/01.
Muslim Scholar? Is that like a Phd in Democratic Party Hate Speech?
Since when does the United States HAVE to let ANYONE into the country?
I'm sorry, the Constitution of the United States applies to US citizens, not hostile, hate filled foreigners.
bttt
Did they actually sue or is this part of the appeal process wherein all the immigration court remedies have been exhausted.
If all the immigration court remedies have not been exhausted then this case should be dissmissed to allow the immigration courts to hear the cause of action.
as always the media botches legal reporting to give max positive spin to the commies.
My question as well.
As far as I am concerned, there should be a moratorium on all immigration from middle eastern countries. Especially, countries with known terrorists. Reminds me of some msm show I saw a couple of years ago where they were interviewing a muslim "grad student" who claimed that he admired Osama Bin Ladin. He probably planned to suck off of our education system and then return to the middle east and use his knowledge to build WMD to be used against us.
ACLU: The enemy within
If this person doesn't support terrorism, that means that the law was imporperly applied.
Saying that it is unconstitutional on that basis is laughable, even for the treasonous ACLU.
This is more propoganda by the ACLU.
Most Americans who contribute to the ACLU don't know how radical its become. There was a time when this organization was a great defender of civil liberties. Today it's just another leftwing pressure group.
The irony is that, once again, the ACLU sues the United States government and the United States government will pay their legal fees. Paying people to sue you....
Tariq Ramadan
The French Muslim community’ estimated at anywhere between five and eight million people ‘ is totally indoctrinated and controlled by extremist organizations such as UOIF (Union des Organizations Islamiques de France), which is affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood, a notorious Islamist terrorist group founded in Egypt in 1927.
These fanatics control most French mosques and get financial support from Saudi Arabia. In fact, the Arab Kingdom is behind almost every mosque and Islamic center in France. For example, it was revealed in the French newspaper Le Monde (Dec. 2003 edition) that Saudi Arabia is going to finance the restoration of the Paris Mosque, thus exporting discreetly its extremist version of Islam, Wahhabism.
The most vocal advocate of Wahhabism in France is Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss philosophy teacher who happens to be the grandson of Hassan Al Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood. Ramadan has been very active in France during the past ten years, spreading his extremist views and becoming the unofficial voice of French Islam. He has now become a "star," appearing constantly on French prime-time television. Ramadan symbolizes the view, as Jacques Jormier, a leading French expert on Islam, puts it, "that does not modernize Islam but Islamizes modernity." The extent to which Ramadan’s brand of totalitarian Islam has gained a strong foothold in France can be seen in the plight of French Muslim women.
France's Wake-Up Call
Catholic Ping - Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
from NY Sun (august 2004):
"Here are some reasons why Mr. Ramadan might have been kept out:
* 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."
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/2043
We have less restrictions on who enters our country than any other country in the world. This man is a terrorist sympathizer, my choice would be to allow him in and arrest him immediately.
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