Federal Judge Says Government Must Act on Muslim Scholar’s Visa Request

Posted on June 24, 2006

A federal judge today ruled that the government cannot continue to stonewall the visa application of Tariq Ramadan, a prominent European Muslim scholar, and that the government cannot bar non-citizens from the United States simply because of their political views. The decision comes in a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union challenging a part of the Patriot Act known as the “ideological exclusion” provision.

“Today’s ruling reaffirms that the government cannot use the immigration laws to silence and stigmatize its political critics,” said Jameel Jaffer, Deputy Director of the ACLU’s National Security Program and lead attorney in the case. “As the court recognized, the ideological misuse of the immigration laws has significant effects on the freedom of academic and political debate inside the United States.”

There is a lot more blather at the ACLU’s website. 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. This judge’s decision, and the ACLU’s position are dangerous and irresponsible.

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).

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

» Filed Under ACLU, News, War On Terror

Trackback URL

Comments

One Response to “Federal Judge Says Government Must Act on Muslim Scholar’s Visa Request”

kerwin_brown on June 25th, 2006 12:59 am

Last I knew the United States belonged to the people of the the United States and we could decide who we allowed to enter the United States and who we did not allow to enter the United States. That is one reason I vote in this country.

As a side note the U.S. Constitution specifically states one of its purpose is to “secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity”. Last I knew aliens unlike our own unborn children are not “We the People” or the decendents or “We the People”.