Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Supporters Rally Behind Banned Muslim Scholar Tariq Ramadan

press release | 07.10.2004 13:43 | European Social Forum | Anti-racism | London

07.10. 2004, London


On Tuesday 12th October, supporters of the leading progressive Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan will converge on the American embassies in London, Paris, Brussels and Berne to demand that the Bush administration’s sudden and unexplained ban on him entering the United States be immediately reversed.

Delegations consisting of politicians, civil rights campaigners, trade unionists, students and prominent academics will present an international petition in each of the four European capitals calling for the scholar’s visa to be reinstated and the Bush administration’s assault on academic freedom and civil liberties to end. Signatories to the petition include the American linguist, Noam Chomsky, French feminist Christine Delphy, British MP Jeremy Corbyn, Chairman of the Jerusalem-based Alternative Information Center Michael Warschawski and French Social Scientist Francois Burgat.

The campaign follows the US Department for Homeland Security’s extraordinary decision in late July to revoke Ramadan’s work and residence visa, just two months after it had originally been approved by the same body. Professor Ramadan was due to take up an American University professorship teaching Islamic philosophy and ethics at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, a role he is currently performing by video-link from Switzerland. He has still not received any official explanation for his banning, although it was carried out under a new section of U.S. immigration law under the Patriot Act that enables the government to remove the visa of anyone it considers helping to endorse terrorism.

Speaking from his Swiss home, Mr Ramadan said: "My visa was revoked without explanation. Certain groups have exploited this decision to once again pour suspicion on my intellectual credibility. Any detailed examination of my work will prove the sincerity of my political and religious beliefs. I urge the American administration to re-investigate my case and I have no doubt that following a thorough and fair enquiry, my visa will be fully reinstated. Otherwise, it will be clear to everyone that it is freedom of academic expression that is the only thing under threat in the United States.”

Jeremy Corbyn MP, who will be among the delegation in London, said: “Now even well-respected scholars like Tariq Ramadan are being victimised, denying their basic freedom to pursue a chosen career path and in the process threatening all our intellectual and political freedoms. These are very sad times indeed.”

Corbyn will be joined by the London-based American citizen and Red Pepper writer, Mike Marqusee: “The US government's decision to bar Tariq Ramadan from the country is a betrayal of the American people. It is precisely Muslim voices like Tariq Ramadan’s that people in the US urgently need to hear. And it is arrogant, bigoted, baseless decisions of this kind that are profoundly damaging the reputation of the US around the world."

Tariq Ramadan will be one of the main speakers at the forthcoming European Social Forum in London, 15-17 October.

For ALL press enquiries, contact Asad Rehman at  rehmana@parliament.uk on +44.(0)79562 10332

To view the petition online, go to www.oumma.com or www.redpepper.org.uk

For background information on Tariq Ramadan see www.tariqramadan.com

Notes for Journalists

1. Tariq Ramadan is 42 years old and was born in Switzerland where he continues to reside. His father, Said Ramadan, was driven into exile from Egypt by Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1954.

2. He is currently Professor of Islamic Studies at Notre Dame University (Classic Department) and Luce Professor at the Kroc Institute (Religion Conflict and Peacebuilding) in the United States. He is unable to take up his post in person because of the ban on him entering the United States.

3. He grew up and studied in Geneva. He holds an MA in Philosophy and French literature and a PhD in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the University of Geneva. He has also received one-on-one intensive training in classic Islamic scholarship from Al-Azhar University scholars in Cairo, Egypt.

4. Professor Ramadan is the author of a dozen books and hundreds of articles, mainly on the role and situation of Muslims living in Europe and the West. These include: “Western Muslims and the Future of Islam” (2003); “Globalisation: Muslim Resistances” (2003); “Islam, the West and the Challenges of Modernity” (2004); and “Muslims in France: The Way Towards Coexistence” (1999).

5. The main objective of Ramadan’s scholarship is to show that a fresh reading of Islamic texts offers a new understanding of universal Islamic principles, which can open the door to Muslim integration into Western societies. He believes that not only is it possible for Islamic culture and Western culture to live in harmony but that this is already taking place at the grassroots level. Ramadan’s goal is to create an independent Western Islam, anchored not in the traditions of Islamic countries but in the cultural reality of the West. He offers a striking vision of a new Muslim identity, one that rejects once for all idea that Islam must be defined in opposition to the West.

press release

Comments

Display the following 4 comments

  1. AWL Allegations — Indpendent Left
  2. well now — trade unionist
  3. No influence — trade unionist
  4. Request for Reading / References — Independent Left
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech