THANK YOU, REVEREND MOON:

A Visa Revoked (Washington Post, September 7, 2004)

IN ITS ESSENCE, the State Department's recent decision to revoke the visa of Tariq Ramadan, a prominent Muslim scholar who was to begin teaching this fall at the University of Notre Dame, resembles visa decisions that the State Department hands out every day. Many of these seem capricious. Those who are refused visas are often not told why or are given explanations so brief as to be meaningless. Not surprisingly, U.S. visa policy evokes resentment around the world.

In Mr. Ramadan's case, however, there are a few important differences. For one, his work visa was revoked under a section of immigration law that refers specifically to terrorist activities. Spokesmen from the State and Homeland Security departments point out that this section refers to people who are a "public safety risk or a national security threat." According to the State Department, the decision to revoke the visa was made abruptly because "new information" came to light about Mr. Ramadan in the past few weeks. DHS, while confirming that Homeland Security officials were the source of at least some information, refuses to say what it was, referring callers to the State Department, which also refuses to "comment on the specifics of this or any other case."

The case is also different because of who Mr. Ramadan is: a Muslim scholar who has consistently argued for an Islamic "reformation" and a reconciliation of Muslim and Western cultures. Mr. Ramadan, a citizen of Switzerland, has lectured many times in the United States, including at the State Department and, he says, at events organized by former president Bill Clinton. Far from having an extremist or fanatical reputation, he is usually described as a leading moderate -- exactly the sort of person, in other words, with whom dialogue should be encouraged.

Mole or savior? (Arnaud de Borchgrave, 9/06/04, Washington Times)

Tariq Ramadan is radioactive. Speak to any Christian in the Arab world, and "roadkill" is the nicest thing you'll hear about him. For the left — especially the far left — the grandson of the founder of the incendiary Muslim Brotherhood, the most important Islamist movement of the 20th century, is just in from a little stroll on the Sea of Galilee.

For France's influential Jewish intellectuals — Bernard-Henri Levy, Andre Glucksmann, Bernard Kouchner — Ramadan is a dangerously skillful anti-Semite.

Mr. Ramadan was scheduled to begin teaching Islam, conflict resolution and peace building, at Indiana's Notre Dame University this month. It was to be a tenured post. But his visa was rescinded by the Department of Homeland Security.

In a televised debate with France's then Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy late last year, Mr. Ramadan declined to condemn "lapidation" — the stoning of adulterous wives as mandated by a strict interpretation of the Koran. Instead, Mr. Ramadan said he favored a "moratorium" in the practice.

A multimillionaire from the sale of countless thousands of cassettes of his mesmerizing sermons, Mr. Ramadan is lionized by the jobless, North African slum-dwellers that cling barnaclelike to France's major cities. The neo-Marxist, anti-globalization left has also hitched its bandwagon to his star-status in French-speaking Europe.

Forget the Islamic fundamentalist bits; ban him for being part of the French Left.

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 10, 2004 9:31 AM