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March 18, 2009

Groups Call for End to Ban on Foreign Scholars
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Back in the United States, a coalition of academic and civil liberties
groups is calling on the Obama administration to reverse Bush
administration policies of banning foreign scholars under anti-terror
laws. In a letter released today, the coalition says the policy of
“ideological exclusion… compromises the vitality of academic and
political debate in the United States at a time when that debate is
exceptionally important.” The call comes ahead of a federal appeals
court hearing next week on the case of one of the most prominent Muslim
intellectuals in Europe who was barred from a teaching job in the United
States. The scholar, Tariq Ramadan, was offered a position at the
University of Notre Dame in Ohio in 2004. The Bush administration
initially barred his entry without explanation and then said it was
because he once gave money to a French-based Palestinian charity. The
charity is legal in France.



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