Posted on 04/14/2006 11:39:19 AM PDT by LibWhacker
NEW YORK (AP) - A federal judge said he is troubled by government delays in deciding whether a Muslim scholar can enter the United States and may order authorities to make a decision.
A lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union accuses the government of manipulating the Patriot Act to try to silence Tariq Ramadan, who has been invited to speak in the United States later this month and twice later this year.
U.S. District Judge Paul A. Crotty said the State Department seemed to be taking a long time to act on a request by Ramadan last August to enter the country, especially since Ramadan's case had been active for more than two years.
''I've convinced myself that when the government wants to act, it can act quickly,'' the judge said at a hearing Thursday, noting that the government acted quickly in December 2004, when Ramadan withdrew a previous request to enter the United States.
''You jumped on it like a wolf going after a lamb chop,'' the judge said. ''I have the impression that the government steps on the brake and accelerator depending on what it wants to do.''
Assistant U.S. Attorney David S. Jones insisted the government was not trying to act slowly and the case was being taken seriously. ''It's not being put in a drawer,'' he said.
Jones said a decision was delayed because an interview of Ramadan in December identified eligibility issues that needed to be investigated.
Ramadan, a Swiss intellectual and visiting fellow in Oxford, England, has said he opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq and sympathizes with the resistance there and in the Palestinian territories. But Ramadan has said he has no connections to terrorism, opposes Islamic extremism, and promotes peaceful solutions.
Outside court, ACLU lawyer Jameel Jaffer said it was ''great'' that the government had backed off an August 2004 suggestion that Ramadan did not oppose terrorism.
''It's very stigmatizing to have the U.S. government saying you support terrorism,'' he said.
The judge asked both sides to submit written arguments by the end of April, which Jaffer noted meant that Ramadan could not attend this month's PEN American Center's World Voices Festival in New York.
The judge said Ramadan could still appear at the festival through electronic means.
Just make the decision. Just tell him to stay in his own damned country. We don't need him in the U.S. spreading hate as he trys to subvert our constitution.
ping
Has anybody informed the judge that "muslim scholar" is an oxymoron?
How did the Taliban spokesman get a visa to study at Yale?
Crotty, Paul Austin
Born 1941 in Buffalo, NY
Federal Judicial Service:
U. S. District Court, Southern District of New York
Nominated by George W. Bush on February 14, 2005, to a seat vacated by Harold Baer, Jr.; Confirmed by the Senate on April 11, 2005, and received commission on April 15, 2005.
Education:
University of Notre Dame, B.A., 1962
Cornell Law School, LL.B., 1967
Professional Career:
United States Navy Reserve, 1962-1968
Law clerk, Hon. Lloyd F. MacMahon, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, 1967-1969
Private practice, New York City, 1969-1984, 1988-1993
Commissioner, Office of Financial Services, New York City, 1984
Commissioner of finance, Office of Financial Services, New York City, 1984-1986
Commissioner of housing preservation & development, Office of Financial Services, New York City, 1986-1988
Corporation counsel, New York City, 1994-1997
Group president, New York and Connecticut region, Verizon Communications, 1997-2005
Race or Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male
NO!!!! So, what's the problem????
Stupid goobermint!
Keep the "scholar" the hell out of here.
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