CAIRO: Muslim scholar and leading Swiss-Egyptian Islamic reformist Tariq Ramadan, the grandson of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan Al-Banna, may yet be allowed into the United States following a recent court verdict.
A federal appeals court in New York reversed a 2004 ruling that supported the government’s decision to bar Ramadan from entering the country.
Ramadan had sought entry after being offered a tenured position to teach Conflict Resolution and Peace-building at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. However, the US government revoked his visa citing donations he had made between 1997 and 2002 totaling about $1,300 to a charity that the US later labeled a terrorism supporter.
The three-judge panel ruled on Friday that the government was required to present its reason for restricting entry at the time and allow Ramadan an opportunity to respond.
It was responsible for confronting “Ramadan with the allegation against him and afford him the subsequent opportunity to demonstrate by clear and convincing evidence that he did not know, and reasonably should not have known, that the recipient of his contributions was a terrorist organization, the ruling held.
Ramadan has said that he could not have known the organization, Association de Secours Palestinian, had links with Hamas, and he contributed to what he believed to be a legitimate humanitarian charity.
Professor of Islamic Studies at Oxford, Ramadan was ranked eighth among leading intellectuals in a Foreign Policy magazine survey. He has published and spoken extensively on the subject of Muslim integration in Europe, and has specifically advocated for interpretations of the Quran that can fit with the heterogeneous culture of the West.
In 1928, Ramadan’s grandfather formed the Society of Muslim Brothers as a social movement that would grow into Egypt’s largest political opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, banned by the government in 1954.
But as an academic, Ramadan has taken a different approach from that of his father and grandfather.
He said he was pleased with the court’s recent decision. “I am eager to engage once again with Americans in the kinds of face-to-face discussions that are central to academic exchange and crucial to bridging cultural divides, he said in a press release by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which has joined with the New York Civil Liberties Union to take up Ramadan’s case.
Proceedings have been sent to a lower court, but the ACLU said it hopes that the appeals court’s decision, along with the new administration, will facilitate their goals.
Indeed, Ramadan has been confident in the support he has garnered throughout the process.
“The US government’s actions in my case seem, at least to me, have been arbitrary and myopic, Ramadan said in a 2008 ACLU press release. “But I am encouraged by the unwavering support I have received from ordinary Americans, civic groups and particularly from scholars, academic organizations and the ACLU.
