Muslim scholar rouses support over visa revocation

Published: 2004-09-16

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A Muslim scholar whose visa to teach at the University of Notre Dame was revoked shortly before the start of the school year has roused the support of Christians and Muslims who say he would add a valuable voice to religious understanding. Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss Islamic theologian, was to have started work at the Catholic university in Indiana in August. In February, he was issued an H-1B visa, a category reserved for professionals. In late July, after his family had already shipped their belongings to Indiana, the State Department revoked the visa and told Ramadan he could reapply. The only explanation given was that the Department of Homeland Security had requested the action, according to Scott Appleby, director of Notre Dame's Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. Ramadan's situation quickly became the subject of news stories and editorials in the United States and in Europe. A handful of detractors suggested that Ramadan had links to extremists and that he was anti-Semitic. Others rose to his defense.

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