Lawsuit challenges US exclusion of Muslim scholar
2006-01-26

Category Muslim Nations U.S. People Salman Rushdie Profession Scholars

A US civil liberties group has sued the government for using the Patriot Act as an "instrument of censorship," citing the denial of a visa to a renowned Muslim scholar.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), argues that the Department of Homeland Security's policy of "ideological exclusion" prevents US citizens hearing ideas whose expression is protected by the Constitution.

"Barring people from the country because of their ideas skews and impoverishes political debate inside the United States," said ACLU staff attorney Jameel Jaffer.

"The government should not be using the immigration laws as instruments of censorship," Jaffer said.

The clause in the Patriot Act targeted by the ACLU lawsuit allows the government to deny a visa to anyone it believes has endorsed or espoused terrorist activity or persuaded others to do so.

Named as a plaintiff in the suit was Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss intellectual and prominent Muslim scholar.

Ramadan has been denied a visa since August 2004, preventing him from assuming a tenured teaching position at the University of Notre Dame and from accepting speaking invitations inside the United States.

The ACLU, along with the American Academy of Religion, the American Association of University Professors and PEN American Center, insisted that Ramadan had never expressed support for terrorism.

Novelist Salman Rushdie, who is president of the PEN American Center, said Ramadan's exclusion illustrated that laws like the Patriot Act -- adopted after the September 11, 2001 attacks -- "may be serving to increase American isolation at a time when international dialogue is more critical than ever."

The lawsuit, which names US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff as defendants, seeks a declaration that the ideological exclusion provision is unconstitutional.