Amerikanerne bør takke Tom Ridge for at han holder en mann som Tariq Ramadan ute fra USA, skriver Daniel Pipes. Men State Department har bedt Ramadan søke på nytt, et annet slags visum!

Det er ingen hvem som helst. Ramadan ble i april kåret til en av verdens 100 fremste vitenskapsmenn av Time Magazine.

Pipes lister opp en rekke anklagepunkter mot Ramadan i søndagens Tribune:

What’s up?

The Department of Homeland Security knows much more than I do, but it is not talking. A review of the news, however, gives an idea of what the problem is. Here are some reasons why Ramadan might have been kept out:

He has praised the brutal Islamist policies of Sudanese politician Hassan Al-Turabi. Turabi called Ramadan the «future of Islam.»

Ramadan was banned from entering France in 1996 on suspicion of having links with an Algerian Islamist who had recently initiated a terrorist campaign in Paris.

Ahmed Brahim, an Algerian engineer indicted for Al Qaeda activities, had «routine contacts» with Ramadan, according to a Spanish judge in 1999.

Djamel Beghal, leader of a group accused of planning to attack the U.S. embassy in Paris, stated in his 2001 trial that he had studied with Ramadan.

Along with many Islamists, Ramadan has denied that there is «any certain proof» that Osama bin Laden was behind Sept. 11, 2001.

He publicly refers to the Islamist atrocities of Sept. 11, Bali and Madrid as «interventions,» minimizing them to the point of near-endorsement.

And here are other reasons, dug up by Jean-Charles Brisard, a former French intelligence officer doing work for some of the Sept. 11 families, as reported in the newspaper, Le Parisien:

Intelligence agencies suspect that Ramadan (along with his brother Hani) coordinated a meeting at the Hotel Penta in Geneva for Ayman al-Zawahiri (deputy head of Al Qaeda) and Omar Abdel Rahman (the blind sheik, now in a Minnesota prison).

Ramadan’s address appears in a register of Al Taqwa Bank, an organization the State Department accuses of supporting Islamist terrorism.

Then there is the intriguing possibility, reported by Olivier Guitta, that Osama bin Laden studied with Tariq Ramadan’s father in Geneva, suggesting that the future terrorist and the future scholar might have known each other.

Ramadan denies all ties to terrorism, but the pattern is clear.

As Lee Smith writes in the American Prospect, Ramadan is a cold-blooded Islamist whose «cry of death to the West is a quieter and gentler jihad, but it’s still jihad.»

I rettferdighetens navn: Ramadan svarer på dem alle sammen:

Scholar under siege defends his record

Det er tydelig at Ramadan er vel innarbeidet i offisielle sirkler. Han tilbyr en ny visjon av muslimer i Vesten:

Anyone who has read any of my 20 books, 700 articles or listened to any of my 170 audio-taped lectures will discern a consistent message: The very moment Muslims and their fellow citizens realize that being a Muslim and being American or European are not mutually exclusive, they will enrich their societies. Since Sept. 11, I have lectured at countless American universities and civic organizations. The French consul of Chicago invited me in 2002 for a lecture trip in the United States, and I spoke at the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations. I was invited to speak at the U.S. State Department and spoke at an event organized by former President Bill Clinton and was invited again this year by him. I engage in similar activities in Europe and worked closely with Scotland Yard and many European governments.

If there were any truth to any of the malicious allegations that have been circulating, does anyone really believe that these international agencies and groups would not have prosecuted me?

The American public ought to know a few other facts about me. I take pride in my faith as a Muslim and the West as my home and birthplace and I make no apologies for taking a critical look at Islam and the West. In doing so I am being true to my faith and the ethics of my citizenship. Instead of mere theoretical criticism, I propose practical solutions to the challenges the world faces. I not only speak to ordinary citizens of many faiths, religious leaders and academics but also to politicians, world leaders and organizations.

Chicago Tribune | Why revoke Ramadan’s U.S. visa? How about his views?