the rix mix

The American Academy of Religion reports that the United States government has again denied a visa to renowned Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan, currently Professor of Islamic Studies and Senior Research Fellow at St. Antony's College (Oxford, England). He was scheduled to speak at the AAR Annual meeting in Washington D.C. next month. Ramadan, a Swiss citizen of Egyptian descent, is a moderate, westernized Muslim. Much of what he says about religion is not what we secularlists (or Christian rightists) want to hear, & no surprise - he's critical of American foreign policy, which our President never wants to hear even from his own advisors. But Ramadan's views are shared by many thousands of loyal American citizens who are Muslims, & he's neither a fundamentalist nor a radical nor a supporter of terrorism, which can't be said about some of our native protestants. The United States first pulled his visa in 2004 because he gave money to a non-profit organization that one year later was determined to have terrorist links. Some of these organizations were operating here withI.R.S. non-profit status, & only became suspect when thoroughly scrutinized. Ramadan had already visited the United States dozens of times, & had even lectured at the State Department. The University of Notre Dame had offered him a tenured position & St. Mary's College had hired his wife, a Swiss woman who converted to Islam when she married Ramadan. The real problem seems to be that Tariq's brother Hari is not so moderate, & his grandfather helped found the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt back in 1928. It does us no good to close our borders & ears to an exceptional scholar & teacher like Tariq Ramadan.