Sad Day at Notre Dame

Muslim scholar gives up visa fight


ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 15, 2004

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – A Muslim scholar resigned his appointment to the University of Notre Dame yesterday, four months after the Bush administration revoked the scholar's work visa before he could take up his teaching position.

"I'm abandoning the idea of moving to the United States," Tariq Ramadan told The Associated Press from Geneva. "I want to maintain my dignity."

Ramadan notified the university Monday, citing the stress on him and his family from the uncertainty of their situation, said R. Scott Appleby, director of Notre Dame's Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.

Ramadan, a Swiss citizen, was barred from working in the United States in August just days before he was to begin teaching at Notre Dame. The Department of Homeland Security cited security concerns but gave no specifics. Ramadan's work visa was issued in May.

Ramadan said yesterday there is nothing in his past to justify the ban and demanded U.S. authorities give details of its investigation of him in order to clear him of the "untrue and humiliating" claims that he was barred because of ties to terrorism.

"This is an obstacle to academic freedom of expression," he said.

The revocation of his visa sparked protests from at least four U.S. scholars' groups and led a U.N.-sponsored institution to issue an academic freedom alert.

Many of Ramadan's supporters believe the scholar's sharp criticism of Israel, the war in Iraq and U.S. policy in the Mideast was the reason for the revocation.

At the time, the Department of Homeland Security said the decision was based on "public safety or national security interests" and pointed to federal law applying to aliens who have used a "position of prominence . . . to endorse or espouse terrorist activity."