Sangat menarik komentar dia di bawah ini :
In his statement, Ramadan said he would continue to support the Palestinian
cause. "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."
By Tom Heneghan
PARIS (Reuters) - A prominent Swiss Muslim intellectual said on Monday the U.S.
government had dropped charges against him of supporting terrorism, but refused
to scrap an entry ban.
Tariq Ramadan, now an academic at Oxford University in Britain, said he had
received an official letter effectively clearing him of charges that kept him
from taking up a teaching post at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.
However, the letter from the U.S. embassy in Bern explained the continued ban
by saying he had contributed about 600 euros ($770) to a Palestinian support
group, he said.
"This is an ideological exclusion," he told Reuters by telephone from London.
"This is the only way they can justify their decision after two years of
investigation."
Ramadan, who has been a vocal critic of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and its
support for Israel, received a visa in 2004 but Washington later revoked it on
advice from the Department of Homeland Security, which gave no reason for its
decision.
He quit the post but fought to have the ban lifted and his name cleared.
A federal judge in New York criticized the government in June for holding up
his visa application and ruled it must make a decision in the long-running
case within three months.
The American Civil Liberties Union had sued the U.S. government in January on
behalf of Ramadan and institutes that had invited him to speak, arguing the
government improperly denied visas to scholars critical of the Bush
administration.
The ACLU said it was considering an appeal of the decision to deny Ramadan a
visa. A U.S. State Department spokesman declined to comment.
AID TO PALESTINIANS
Ramadan said his contributions to the French-based Committee for Charity and
Aid to Palestinians (CBSP) were apparently seen as support for the Palestinian
movement Hamas, which Washington has listed as a terrorist organization.
However, he said he had sent the funds in 2000, long before Hamas was declared
terrorist. He noted that the CBSP was legal in France, and that the French city
of Lille had cooperated with it for several years in charity projects for
Palestinians.
In a statement, Ramadan said: "The contents of this letter clear my name of all
the allegations and accusations brought against me since my visa was revoked.
"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."
Ramadan, who regularly condemns terrorism and Islamist violence, provokes
contrasting reactions from divergent groups.
The Geneva-born intellectual is popular among young European Muslims for his
efforts to reconcile their European and Islamic identities. His reputation in
British and U.S. academic circles is one of a moderate expert on Muslim
affairs.
In France, officials and the media see him as a radical who preaches hard-line
Islam to Muslim audiences and moderation to non-Muslims. He denies the charge
of "double-speak.
In his statement, Ramadan said he would continue to support the Palestinian
cause. "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."
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