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September 25, 2006

US: Tariq Ramadan - Terror Supporter - Still Denied US Entry Visa

Tariq Ramadan (pictured) is a Swiss citizen, and regarded as an authoritative Muslim scholar. There has long been a controversy about whether or not Ramadan is a genuine "moderate", if such a creature exists, or if he is a supporter of extremism. His brother Hani Ramadan runs a Muslim center in his native Switzerland, the Islamic Center of Geneva, and is certainly no moderate. Hani believes that women should be stoned to death for adultery and has said AIDS was Allah's punishment for sin. (Try telling that to a child born with the disease). Tariq Ramadan is an executive director of his brother's Islamic Center.

Both Tariq and Hani Ramadan are the grandsons of Hassan al-Banna (1906 - 1949), the founder of the notorious Muslim Brotherhood (al-Ikhwanu I-Muslimin or Hizb al-Ikhwan Al-Muslimoon). Hassan al-Banna, who had been influenced by Sufi and Deobandi traditions, originally founded the MB in 1928 as a youth club, but allowed it to become a political entity in 1939. He said: "It is the nature of Islam to dominate, not to be dominated; to impose its law on all nations and to extend its power to the entire planet." Al-Banna was assassinated in February 1949, killed by Egyptian government agents in Cairo.

In 2004, Tariq Ramadan, who may be a moderate, or may be a chameleon portraying himself sometimes as moderate, sometimes as hardline, was banned entry to the United States. He had been due to take up a teaching position in Indiana, at the University of Notre Dame, which he had to give up. He had been given a visa, but this was revoked by the Department of Homeland Security, which did not specify the reasons.

He had previously lectured in the US, at Harvard and Stanford Universities and other locations, before 2004.

Ramadan was barred entry from Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Egypt, cited as an extremist, but in 2004, Time magazine said he was among the world's top 100 thinkers. Schooled in his youth in Egypt entirely within Islam, he has two Phds which he gained in Switzerland. One is in Islamic studies, and the other concerns the philosophy of Nietzche.

Ramadan was offered a fellowship at St Andrew's College in Oxford University, Britain. He took up the post in October 2005, just before the start of Ramadan. His wife and four kids were in tow. He planned to use his time at the University researching a book on "Islam and Europe".

He is controversial, and has been accused of anti-semitism, and of supporting suicide bombings. He said of the latter claim that "To explain is not to justify" and states that violence is anti-Islamic. (He obviously hasn't read the Koran and the Hadiths then, or is employing some Nietschian logic here).

Mike Whine, of the British Board of Jewish Deputies, has said of Ramadan: "He speaks with two voices, one for his European audience which appears moderate, and one for his Arab hinterland where he voices many of the demands of Islamists." Ramadan has been a vocal critic of the United States' unwavering support for Israel.

Today, according to the New York Times, Reuters via Swiss Info, and Associated Press via Chron.com and the Jerusalem Post, Ramadan announced that he has received a letter from the US Embassy in Bern, Switzerland, which states that he is still barred entry to the United States.

The letter said that he was cleared of any wrongdoing in his previous banning of entry to teach at Notre Dame University, but no reason was given for the revoking of the 2004 visa. However, the letter was specific about the reason why his current visa application was turned down by the US consular office on Thursday (September 21).

The reasons are that Ramadan gave a sum of money to a Palestinian charity, the French-based Committee for Charity and the Swiss charity Aid to Palestinians (CBSP), in the form of two donations. These amount to about $770. Ramadan is angry, and playing the role of a victim. He said: "This is an ideological exclusion. This is the only way they can justify their decision after two years of investigation."

State Department spokesperson, Kurtis Cooper, said: "A US consular officer has denied Dr Tariq Ramadan's visa application for providing material support to a terrorist organization." Janelle Hironimus, another State Department spokesperson, confirmed the decision, saying he had been banned "based solely on his actions, which constituted providing material support to a terrorist organization."

Ms Hironimus said the US "welcomes the exchange of culture and ideas with the Islamic world" and maintains that since 2003 more than 450 religious scholars and leaders, the majority Muslim, had visited the US as guests of the US government.

In January, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) brought out a lawsuit against the US government on Ramadan's behalf, concerning the visa refusal, and claiming his ban had been made because of his criticism of the Bush administration, and its support for the Iraq war, which Ramadan does not condone.

In June, U.S. District Judge Paul A. Crotty, a federal judge in Manhattan, New York, ruled that the government must make a decision on Ramadan's visa application, filed last year, within three months.

The government's decision has been made, and of his letter Ramadan said in a published statement: "The contents of this letter clear my name of all the allegations and accusations brought against me since my visa was revoked (in 2004).....Everything that was said about my so-called dubious relations, my meetings with this or that terrorist, my teaching, my ideas and writings encouraging or justifying terrorism, my double-speak - none of that was mentioned."

"I think it's clear from the history of this case that the U.S. government's real fear is of my ideas. I am excluded not because the government truly believes me to be a national security threat, but because of my criticisms of American foreign policies in the Middle East; because of my opposition to the invasion of Iraq; and because of my criticism of some of the Bush administration's policies with respect to civil liberties."

He said he would continue to support the Palestinian cause, concluding in his statement: "If the price to pay for this commitment is to never to tread upon American soil, I am ready to pay that without the slightest hesitation."

The ACLU maintains that the two charities to which Ramadan gave money are legal entities in France, where Ramadan has an office and has spent much of his time. The US government regards the charities which were assisted by Ramadan, Aid to Palestinians and Committee for Charity, act as conduits for the supporting of Hamas, which is regarded as a terrorist entity.

Ramadan is loudly playing the victim, and yet there is more to this case than meets the eye. On September 17, before the US decision was made concerning the visa, a report appeared in Emedia Wire, which also incorporated information found in an article placed on the weblog Terror Finance.org.

Above, mention is made of the Islamic Center of Geneva. According to Emedia: "two co-founders of the Islamic Center of Geneva, Said Ramadan (Tariq Ramadan's father), and Abu al-Hassan Ali al-Nadawi, were founding members of the Muslim World League in 1962, which is a Saudi NGO associated with Al-Qaida operations since 1988, and labelled as a supporter of terrorism by several governments. The U.S. government recently decided to take action against several offices of its subsidiary organization, the IIRO."

Despite Tariq Ramadan's claims that he is absolutely against violence, members of the Islamic Center in Geneva where he has a directorship do not feel the same way. One individual involved in the inception of this center is Muhammad Hamidullah who wrote that Jihad is allowed, in "spirit of sacrifice to impose the voice of Allah."

In 2002, Tariq Ramadan wrote a book called "Islam in questions", where he calls suicide bombing a "sacrifice" which "finds its justification in decades of accumulated suffering and Western passive responsibility."

In 1996 in an interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais, Ramadan said the Taliban regime was "exemplary" while condemning their abuses.

The evidence collected by Jean-Charles Brissard in Terror Finance.org is alarming. Tariq Ramadan has had links with at least six convicted terrorists or terrorist designated entities. These include:

In 1991 in Geneva, Ramadan convened a meeting attended by Ayman al-Zawahiri (then a leader of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, now deputy leader of Al Qaeda) and also Omar Abdel Rahman, who helped arrange the first bombing of the World Trade Center on February 26, 1993. At the time of the meeting arranged by Tariq Ramadan, Rahman was "spiritual leader" of Egyptian militant group Gamaa Islamiya (also called Jamaa Islamiya or al-Gama'at al-Islamiyya), which had assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981.

There is more, far more, and I can only offer my praise to the efforts of Jean-Charles Brisard.

It seems that Tariq Ramadan is shouting loudly that he is just another Muslim victim of George Bush. What I find sickening is that in Britain last year, in the aftermath of the 7/7 attacks which killed 52 people, the UK government included him in a secret consultation committee as an adviser. Though not a citizen of Britain, and despite being a closet supporter of terrorism, this Islamist actually was invited to help influence government policy. One of the anti-semitic proposals which was decided by the "Working Group on Tackling Extremism" in which Ramadan took part was the abolishing of Holocaust Memorial Day.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at September 25, 2006 11:34 PM

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