What Salah has said about Middle East activities This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/255
August 25, 2004
MIM: Tariq Ramadan,,was scheduled to take up a professorship at Notre Dame University, until his visa was revoked under statutes which forbid entry to the US of someone who "used their position of promise to endorse and espouse terrorist activity." For evidence of Ramadan's terrorism ties see Dr. Daniel Pipes article: "Why revoke Tariq Ramadan's Visa?"
Revoked Visa Bars Professorship at Notre Dame
By Tom Coyne, Associated Press |
SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Acting at the request of the Department of Homeland Security, the US government has revoked the work visa of a Muslim scholar who had been scheduled to teach at the University of Notre Dame this fall.
Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss citizen who has been criticized for links to Islamic militants and for remarks branded anti-Semitic, was supposed to begin teaching yesterday, the first day of the fall semester.
A State Department spokeswoman, Kelly Shannon, cited the Immigration and Nationality Act, part of which deals with undocumented immigrants who have used a "position of prominence within any country to endorse or espouse terrorist activity." Another section bars undocumented immigrants whose entry may have "potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States....
...Notre Dame appointed Ramadan earlier this year to be its Henry B. Luce professor of religion, conflict, and peacebuilding at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. Ramadan remained in Switzerland, and Storin said he would relay to him a message seeking comment.
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http://www.danielpipes.org/article/2043
From www.danielpipes.org
by Daniel Pipes
New York Sun
August 27, 2004
It's not every day that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security revokes a visa issued to a Swiss-national scholar scheduled to teach at one of America's premier universities. But this has just happened, and it's a good thing too.
The Swiss scholar is Tariq Ramadan. He is Islamist royalty – his maternal grandfather, Hasan al-Banna, founded the Muslim Brotherhood, probably the single most powerful Islamist institution of the twentieth century, in Egypt in 1928. Tariq is a Swiss citizen because his father, Sa‘id Ramadan, also a leading Islamist, fled from Egypt in 1954 following a crackdown on the brotherhood. Sa‘id reached Geneva in 1958, where Tariq was born in 1962.
Thanks to his pedigree and his talents, Tariq has emerged as a significant force in his own right. Symbolic of this, Time magazine in April named him one of the world's top hundred scientists and thinkers. And so, when Notre Dame University went looking for a Henry R. Luce professor of religion, conflict and peacebuilding, it unsurprisingly settled on Mr. Ramadan.
Its offer was made and accepted by the beginning of 2004; a work visa followed in February. Mr. Ramadan bought a house, found schools for his four children, and dispatched his personal effects to South Bend, Indiana. He was supposed to start teaching a few days ago.
But on July 28, just nine days before the Ramadans were to leave for America, Mr. Ramadan was informed that the Department of Homeland Security had revoked his work visa. A DHS spokesman, Russ Knocke, later explained this had been done in accord with a law that denies entry to aliens who have used a "position of prominence within any country to endorse or espouse terrorist activity." The revocation, Mr. Knocke added, was based on "public safety or national security interests."
Of course, Mr. Ramadan dismisses the revocation as "unjustified" and due to "political pressure." He even blames me for the DHS decision.
What's up? The DHS knows much more than I do, but it is not talking. A review of the press, however, gives an idea of what the problem is. Here are some reasons why Mr. Ramadan might have been kept out:
And here are other reasons, dug up by Jean-Charles Brisard, a former French intelligence officer doing work for some of the 9/11 families, as reported in Le Parisien:
Then there is the intriguing possibility, reported by Olivier Guitta, that Osama bin Laden studied with Tariq'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, he is a cold-blooded Islamist whose "cry of death to the West is a quieter and gentler jihad, but it's still jihad."
These reasons explain why Americans should thank DHS for keeping Tariq Ramadan out of America.
But the story is not over: the State Department has in effect encouraged Ramadan to reapply for a different type of visa, making the recent developments probably just round one of a drawn-out match.
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/2043
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MIM: Update: The "drawn -out match" appears to be playing itself out in the pages of the US and European press:
See Dr. Pipes recent blog entry in it's entirety at :http://www.danielpipes.org/
Tariq Ramadan, the Chicago Tribune, and Me
My initial impression of the Swiss scholar, Tariq Ramadan, was a good one, as indicated by a positive review in the Middle East Quarterly of To Be a European Muslim: A Study of Islamic Sources in the European Context. But I watched with dismay as the revelations about Ramadan came out in late 2003 and by the time the New York Sun broke the story of his appointment at Indiana's Notre Dame University in January 2004, I was distinctly unenthusiastic, commenting that "Once again we see that the leftward leaning academy and in particular the Kroc Institute [at Notre Dame] has a soft spot for militant Islamic figures. Given what we are now learning about him, it would appear like others, he is playing a double game of hiding an Islamist agenda."
That was that until the Chicago Tribune broke the story last week that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revoked Ramadan's work visa to enter the United States, and the article quotes me worrying that Ramadan "is engaged in a complex game of appearing as a moderate but has connections to Al Qaeda." My statement was quoted in many places, including the front page of Le Monde. A follow-up article in the Tribune again quoted me."
------------------------------------------------------------
MIM: September 23, 2004 update from Dr. Daniel Pipes exposes Tariq Ramadan as a liar and phony moderate. www.danielpipes.org
Tariq Ramadan Exposed I wrote recently about Tariq Ramadan's "usual excuses for the pattern of extremism that follows him like a cloud" – and here is a most interesting example of this, made available to me by Lorenzo Vidino of the Investigative Project.
The Italian magazine Panorama interviewed Ramadan and posted the result on Sept. 13. Dissatisfied, Ramadan wrote the magazine, alleging that it misquoted him. Unfortunately for Ramadan, the interview with him was taped, so Panorama replied by publishing the following update by Silvia Grilli in its Sept. 23 issue (not yet online), titled "The art of ‘explaining' the killing of Jews":
L'arte di ‘spiegare' l'omicidio degli ebrei
After the publication of the last issue with his interview, Ramadan sent this letter: "Panorama attributes me unacceptable sentences that I never pronounced and that would lead people to believe that ‘it is comprehensible to kill children.' Nothing can justify the killing of children and the innocent and these acts are in contradiction with the principles of Islam. My condemnation is clear."
The interview with Ramadan was recorded. Here is the full transcript of his answer to the question of whether it is right to kill children and Israeli civilians because they are considered soldiers.
I don't believe that an eight year old child is a soldier. These acts are condemnable; therefore one has to condemn them in themselves. But I say to the international community that they are contextually explicable, and not justifiable. What does this mean? It means that the international community today has placed the Palestinians in a situation where they are delivered political oppression, which explains (not justifying it) that at a certain point people say: we don't have arms, we don't have anything, and so we cannot do anything other than this. It is contextually explicable but morally condemnable.
Saying that killing Israeli children is "contextually explicable" is tantamount to a "clear condemnation"? Justifying that there is no choice but to kill is a "clear condemnation" of the culture of death? Is it a "clear" position to say that an Israeli eight year old child is not a soldier, but his parents who ride the bus and get blown-up are soldiers? Who then are the "innocent" in Ramadan's eyes? Why did he not reply to this question, as did Magdi Allam [a prominent Italian journalist of Egyptian Muslim origins], that "human life is sacred"?
Comment: It's case closed on the matter of both Ramadan's being moderate or truthful. He is neither one nor the other. (September 23, 2004) Permalink
------------------------------------------------------------------------
MIM:Tariq Ramadan published a disingenuous and lame point by point rebuttal to Dr. Pipes' article "Why Revoke Tariq Ramadan's Visa?", one excerpt is unintentionally reveals Ramadan's Islamist weltaanschauung:
Excerpt from "Scholar Under Siege Defends his Record"- Ramadan responds :
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/oped/chi-0408310097aug31,1,224130.story?coll=chi-news-hed
"Along with many Islamists, says Pipes, I have denied that there is "any certain proof" that Osama bin Laden was behind Sept. 11, 2001.
Pipes distorts the facts by selective references. My post-Sept. 11 stance is clear. On Sept. 13, 2001, I put out an open letter to Muslims calling for them to unequivocally condemn these acts and wrote: "Do not hide yourself behind conspiracy theories: Even if we don't know who did it, you know as I know that some Muslims can use Islam to justify killing an American, a Jew or a Christian only because he/she is an American, a Jew or a Christian; you have to condemn them and to condemn these attacks." On Sept. 20, when investigations were still ongoing, I said: "The probability [of bin Laden's guilt] is large, but some questions remain unanswered. ... But whoever they are, bin Laden or others, it is necessary to find them and that they be judged."
---------------------------------------------------
MIM: In addition to engaging in bashing Dr.Pipes and blatant antisemitism. The Chicago Tribune has deliberately and falsely inferred that his criticism of Tariq Ramadan is an Israel and not terror related issue .
The Chicago Tribune editors went on the defensive with this convoluted reasoning in an editorial which stated that even if Tariq Ramadan endorses terror ,he still has some redeeming social value, and unless he starts calling for Jihad, his sympathy for Al Qaeda should be not be taken into account.
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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0408310093aug31,1,5639355.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Excerpt from the Chicago Tribune editoral: "A Muslim Scholar's Visa Revoked"
"Even if he did endorse terrorism, expressing such an opinion doesn't pose the sort of danger that the Department of Homeland Security should worry about. It's not illegal, after all, for Americans to express sympathy for Al Qaeda--or the Irish Republican Army or any other violent extremists. Only when such opinions veer into outright incitement to violence does law enforcement intervene."
---------------------------------
MIM:It should be noted that the Chicago Tribune religous affairs correspondent- Genvieve Abdo, who has been staunchly defending Ramadan, has a marked affinity for militant Islamists . Abdo recently spoke on "Muslims in the Media" at the Bridgeview Mosque Foundation, a known Hamas and Islamic Association of Palestine stonghold.
American Muslims in the Eyes of the Media - Mosque Foundation
When: Saturday, May 22, 2004 - 8:00 p.m.
Where: The Mosque Foundation, 7360 W. 93rd Street, Bridgeview, IL 60455
Speaker: Genieve Abdo, Religion Reporter at the Chicago Tribune, Author of "No God but God, Egypt and the Triumph of Islam."
Genieve Abdo is an expert of the moderate modern Islamic movement; she spent 10 years in her professional life in Egypt and was introduced to the real moderate face of modern Islamic movement. She
will discuss the impact of Media on Public Opinion, How is the American Media representing American Muslims and Islam, and what are the effective ways in dealing with the Media"
* Refreshments will be served.
http://www.mcrcnet.org/ENewsletters/ENews_details_2004.htm
------------------------
MIM: Below an excerpt detailing the charges levelled against one of the most recently arrested members of the Bridgeview Mosque Foundation, whose spokeman is Rafiq Jaber, head of the Islamic Association of Palestine, the American wing of Hamas.
(The Bridgeview Mosque Foundation is to militant Islam in the US what the Finsbury Park Mosque is to the UK)
Salah's description of his Middle East terror funding activities as a a "humanitarian mission" (click on box) is very similiar to Ramadan's attempts to portray his own terrorist affiliations as part of an innocuous academic enterprise.
"Mohammed Salah, the Bridgeview man who has long stood at the center of a federal probe of terrorist financing, was indicted Friday(August 21, 2004) on charges he served as a high-ranking operative for the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
|
What Salah has said about Middle East activities |
For 15 years, Salah recruited young volunteers for murderous missions, helped launder money through bank accounts scattered around the world, and hand-delivered cash to senior Hamas leaders in the Middle East, according to the charges announced in Washington by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft,,,
...The mood inside the Bridgeview mosque was tense Friday, said Berwyn teenager Mohammad Ramadan, who said he attended school with Mohammed Salah's son..."
http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/251
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MIM: Abdo's Jew hatred is not confined to spreading unsubtantiated propaganda and innuendo in the United States . In 1999, 13 Iranian Jews were arrested on trumped up charges of spying for Israel and threatened with execution. Abdo not only defended the Iranian hard line Ayatollahs ,she attacked the BBC, (in what might have been the first time the news organisation was ever accused of of coming out against blaming Jews), and insinuated that the Jews were guilty.
-------------------------------------------
News & Analysis: Middle East
By Chris Marsden
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/jun2000/iran-j13.shtml
Local Jewish leaders have called the (Shiraz) trial the worst event to befall Iran's 30,000 Jews in recent memory...
..."Two hard-line Shia Muslim Ayatollahs have said the death penalty should be
imposed if guilt is proven. There is every indication that Tehran's Mullahs
have mounted the trial to whip up Islamic fanaticism and anti-Semitism in
an attempt to bolster flagging support for their regime, which suffered
heavy defeats in recent elections, with the vast bulk of parliamentary
seats going to pro-Western elements around President Khatami."..
"..On May 5 of this year the Guardian's Tehran correspondent Geneive Abdo went
further still, denouncing Western coverage of the Shiraz trial for
allegedly showing an anti-Iranian bias and opposing any criticism of the
extracted confessions. She attacked the BBC and supported the complaints of
Iranian newspapers that in the Western media "there was an assumption that
the suspects were innocent"...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.iran-press-service.com/articles_2001/feb_2001/journalists_expelled_6201.htm
MIM:Multiple accusations regarding Geneive Abdo's lack of journalistic credibility, and claims of malicious distortion , were behind the 'expulsion' or 'voluntary departure' of her and her husband, Johnathan Lyons, the Reuters buro chief ,from Teheran. In a bizarre and perversely amusing twist, Abdo's mendacity and mercenary professional ambitions resulted in her incurring the wrath of both the Iranian government and that of the Akhbar Ganji , the jailed 'reformist' she interviewed . An opinion column written on the subject was entitled: "Ganji Victim of Abdo's Private Agenda"...
-----------------------------------------------
Excerpt from the article:"Expulsion of Foreign Journalists Confirms Two "K" Alliance"
..."What also begs analysis is the apparently symbiotic relationship the Guardian correspondent has entered into with elements in the conservative press and, unfortunately, in the judiciary long bent on sullying Ganji's veracity. This is a potent line of attack against an essentially defenceless Akbar Ganji, especially when it bears the imprimatur of internationally renowned news organisations like Reuters, the Herald Tribune and the Guardian.
"As documented above, she has victimized an already bloodied but unbowed Akbar Ganji to burnish her own reputation as the wannabe American journalistic authority on the Iranian reform movement. And this is not the first time she has misreported. Reform strategist Abbas Abdi, the student grouping Office to Consolidate Unity and the Iranian Jewish community has in the past been outraged by her egregious opportunism"...
---------------------------------------------------------------
MIM: The Iranian Press Agency published an article entitled : "Iran Daily Accuses Abdo of Victimising Ganji for Personal Purposes": One of the most revealing passages is the following:
http://www.payvand.com/news/01/feb/1009.html
"...But when Abdo continues the quote by asserting that "future events will act as a detonator for an explosion," the paper accused her of blatantly juxtaposing Ganji's words from a different part of the interview.
This gives the "distorted and sensational impression that Ganji is talking about bloodshed instead of political reform," examined the daily.
Although this makes a fascinating and incendiary reading as well s a highly marketable grist for her Iran book, the fact remains that here too, Abdo is falsifying Ganji's statements, hit out the paper.
Another point which begs analysis, "is the apparently symbiotic relationship the Guardian correspondent has entered into with elements in the conservative press and unfortunately, in the Judiciary," which the paper believes is "long bent on sullying Ganji's veracity."
This indicates a "potent line of attack against an essentially defenseless Akbar Ganji," it pointed out, especially when it bears the imprimatur of internationally renowned new organizations like Reuters, the Herald Tribune and the Guardian.
This is not the first time Abdo has misreported and it will not be the last, warned the paper, unless, it suggested, relevant officials deliberate on her right to continue working as a journalist in this country,"
However, it believed that expulsion in this case, would make her a "so-called media martyr", while the paper pointed out there is nothing heroic in what was published worldwide in her article of January 26..."
----------------------------------
MIM: In addition to speaking at the Bridgeview Mosque Foundation, a known front for the IAP/Hamas and haven for terrorists , more evidence of Abdo's blatant support for terrorist affiliates can be seen in this appearence she made as a speaker at the Muslim Public Affairs Committee conference in 2003 where she was billed at the "religion writer for the Chicago Tribune".. Fellow panelists Salam Al -Marayati and Hussein Ibish have openly voiced support for Hamas and Hizbollah . Other participants at the conference were linked to organisations with militant Islamist agendas.
The executive director of MPAC. Salam Marayati reflects Abdo's own attempts to blame Israel and the Jews for everything connected with Muslims .( see excerpt below citing Abdo's unsubstantiated charges in her Chicago Tribume articles which blamed unnamed "Jewish groups" as being behind Ramadan's visa revocation, a charge which was proven to be false ).
In 2001 Salam Al- Marayati executive director of MPAC ,"suggested that the State of Israel be put on the suspect list for the September 11 attacks".
http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/1121
-----------------------------
Hussein Ibish, Abdo's fellow MPAC conference panelist who was the director of the American Muslim Committee until becoming a journalist for the Lebanese" Daily Star' newspaper ,was described by Erich Stakelback in an article which was aptly titled:
"The Insane Rubbish of Hussein Ibish ";
"...Six years after his departure, the memory of Ibish's extremism still lingers at UMass. The school's Minuteman newspaper, dismayed by the mainstream media's open-armed acceptance of the tubby terror, named him "Jackass of the Month" for April 2002. The paper gave a damning explanation for Ibish's much-deserved selection: "Ibish represented the absolute worst of GEO, the Graduate Senate and the 'UMass Hamas.' It was Ibish's Developing Nations page in the Collegian that featured the infamous Arabic poem entitled 'Rita and the Rifle,' that ran paintings of terrorists with raised knives and hatchets, and described Hamas as being activists in the freedom struggle. It gets worse.."
(Click here for complete article)
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=6899
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Dr. Daniel Pipes explains the difference between CAIR and MPAC:
The Difference between CAIR and MPAC I am sometimes asked to characterize the difference between the two leading American Islamist organizations, the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Muslim Public Affairs Council. While they agree on many issues – impeding counterterrorism efforts and forwarding an Islamist vision of America in particular – they also differ in some ways.
MIM :An article about the American Public Affairs Council 2003 conference lists Genvieve Abdo as the religion writer for the Chicago Tribune, as a speaker on a "free press panel "which included Salam Al Marayti, and Hussein Ibish.
The event bore the unintentionally ironic title :
"The Intellectual Event of the Year"
http://www.pakistanlink.com/Community/2003/Dec03/19/09.html
..."Other issues that will be addressed in this year's convention include democracy, the free press and the 2004 presidential elections. Democracy in Islamic movements, erosions to American democracy and democracy in Islam will be addressed by speakers that include Dr. Gasser Hathout, MPAC board member, Geneive Abdo, religion writer (Chicago Tribune) and Pulitzer Prize winner Jack Miles..."
The control of the free press panel will feature speakers Amy Goodman host of Democracy Now on KPFK radio, Dr. Hussein Ibish from the ADC, Sarah Eltantawi, communications director of MPAC and Dr. Aslam Abdullah, editor of the Minaret magazine. The 2004 elections panel will be hosted by executive director of MPAC Salam Al-Marayati, Dr. Agha Saeed, the president of the American Muslim Alliance, Yayha Basha of the American Muslim Council and Rima Nashashibi who founded the Arab American Caucus of the California Democratic Party."
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Miner devoted an entire article to Genvieve Abdo's "wretched" and "sloppy" reporting and the blatant anti semitic and anti bias of both her and the Chicago Tribune entitled : "Unattributed Conspiracies"(.Miner discovered that French Catholic groups expressed concern about Ramadan's appointment to American officials, stating that he preached in militant Islamist mosques in poor suburbs of Paris ).
Dr. Daniel Pipes links to Miner's article it in a recent blog entry on the subject of "Tariq Ramadan, the Chicago Tribune, and Me".
Dr. Pipes also draws attention to Abdo's and the Chicago Tribune's erroneous claims that Jewish groups and Campus Watch were campaigning for Ramadan's visa revocation.
-----------------------------
Sept. 3, 2004 update: I am glad somebody noticed the wretched reporting by the Chicago Tribune's Geneive Abdo on the Ramadan matter. Michael Miner points out in the Chicago Reader (in an excellent article titled "Unattributed Conspiracies") that she begins her initial story on the topic by stating:
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has revoked a visa granted to Tariq Ramadan, a renowned Islamic scholar who is accused by some Jewish groups of being a Muslim extremist, effectively barring him from a teaching post he was to begin this week at the University of Notre Dame.
But Abdo never identifies who "some Jewish groups" are. Quite the contrary, Miner goes on to note that the best Abdo could do was this:
For example, Web sites such as Campus Watch, run by pro-Israel activist Daniel Pipes, seek to expose professors who allegedly hold anti-Israel views.
Miner correctly notes that Campus Watch isn't a Jewish group but "a Web site that calls out scholars it disputes...
...When Miner wrote Abdo for more information about the alleged Jewish activity, she went mum. "I do not wish to be interviewed for your article. In other words, I have declined comment. Good luck with your story."
Miner quotes one reader condemning Abdo's work as "sloppy, sloppy journalism" – and that's giving her the benefit of the doubt that her motives are not malign.
-------------------------------
Sept. 5, 2004 update: The Chicago Tribune ran a letter of mine today, "Unfair portrayal," commenting on its Aug. 31 editorial:
Philadelphia -- Your Aug. 31 editorial about Tariq Ramadan, "A Muslim scholar's exclusion," states: "Some critics regard him as an anti-Semitic apologist for extremism. Among them is Daniel Pipes . . . "
But my commentary in the Aug. 29 Tribune, "Why revoke Ramadan's U.S. visa? How about his views?" made no mention of anti-Semitism or of Israel. Nor have I raised this issue elsewhere in connection with Mr. Ramadan.
So the editorial was inaccurate.
In other words, the Tribune got it wrong again, and on the same theme. What's going on there? Permalink
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MIM:Besides Chicago Tribune journalists like Genieve Abdo , the newspaper itself enjoys a warm relationship with the local Arab and Muslim Community. In 2002 the Chicago Tribune was the only non Arab and Muslim newspaper to participate in a 'National Conference of Arab & Muslim Journalists' organised by Ray Hanania, a wealthy Arab businessman who bills himself as a journalist, media consultant, and author of a book called, "I'm Glad I Look like a Terrorist- Growing Up Arab in America," The conference was announced in an Arab business publication as:
" Market Watch" -Civil Rights to Be Explored at Muslim American Jounalists Conference" Chicago Tribune - Other Minority Organisations Expected to take Part "
The panelists at the event included speakers was Don Wycliff, the public editor of the Chicago Tribune . The paper also sponsored a panel on professional development in journalism and the media.
It is interesting to note that the Chicago Tribune is listed by the Chicago Muslim Arab business community to as" a minority organisation", which merited inclusion in a national conference of Arab and Muslim journalists.
MIM:The conference organiser,Ray Hanania, presents himself as a moderate Christian Arab ,but a recent a press release he issued regarding the Arab presence at the Olympics belied his facade and showed that he believes the media is "the public battlefield" for Jihad...
http://www.creators.com/opinion_show.cfm?columnsName=rha
FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, AUGUST 27, 2004, AND THEREAFTER
PALESTINIAN OLYMPIANS HELP WIN FIGHT AGAINST ISRAELI OPPRESSION
"The greatest pride I have as a Palestinian is not when a suicide bomber attacks and kills Israeli civilians, but when I see Palestinians and Arabs, despite the oppression of the West, participating and succeeding in major international events.
Just seeing the two Palestinian Olympians walk among the thousands of other athletes on the opening day of the Olympics brought me great pride, and also confidence that we, Palestinians, will win.
In fact, that is how Palestinians will beat
-------------------------------------------
MIM:The Chicago Tribune's close association the Arab Muslim business community and Ray Hanania, indicates that they have a blatant conflict of interests which literally and figuratively accounts for their vociferous defense of Tariq Ramadan, and disingenous attacks on Dr.Daniel Pipes. Instead of refuting his evidence, Ramadan's supporters at the Chicago Tribune resorted to invoking the carnard that he was motivated by a pro Israel agenda.
A reading of Dr. Pipes artice on "Why Revoke Tariq Ramadan's US Visa", makes no mention of Israel. Dr. Pipes sets forth evidence of Tariq Ramadan's terrorism connections and Islamism to explanation why Homeland Security made the right decision to prevent Ramadan from coming into the country.
. Given the Chicago Tribune's editors and staff's interaction with wealthy advertisers in the Chicago Muslim and Arab business community,which include individuals and organisations whose members have been jailed for links to terror,( and been denied entry into the US), the newspaper's vicious attacks on Dr.Daniel Pipes for exposing Ramadan's terrorist connections should come as no surprise.
Neither the Chicago Tribune nor Tariq Ramadan could offer a convincing rebuttal of Dr.Pipes evidence of Ramadan's terrorism ties.
http://www.arabamericanbusiness.com/february2002/mw_civilrights.htm
"Civil Rights to be explored at Arab and Muslim American Journalists conference "
"This is the first of its kind conference and we have received a tremendous response from publishers, editors and reporters working for the Arab- and Muslim-American press," said Ray Hanania CAAJC coordinator and vice president of public relations for a Chicago communications company.
"The conference will help our communities cope with the current crisis and to engage in a national discussion on how we can protect our civil rights," he said. "We also want to get the correct, accurate message out to the American people about our just causes. We need to help Americans better understand who we are and what we are about."
Hanania said speakers include publishers and editors from more than 100 Arab and Muslim newspapers that are expected to attend. Speakers will also include Arab and Muslim American journalists who are working in the mainstream American press.
Panels are being hosted by the Chicago Tribune, the Asian American Journalists Association and the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) in Washington. A banquet is planned for Saturday night. Azizah Muslim Magazine is tentatively set to host the opening reception on Friday night."This is something we must do. We must get together to discuss these issues. We have to find ways to identify our strengths to overcome our weaknesses," said Hanania.
"This is also a great opportunity for businesses, associations and organizations that wish to market or outreach to the Arab American and Muslim American communities," he added.
The Conference will also award the annual MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award, which was created in 1999 in the memory of the Arab-American journalism pioneer and publisher of ACTION Newspaper.
Information on the conference is available on the Internet at: www.ArabAmericanView.Net.
--------------------------------------------------
Panel hosted by the Chicago Tribune Public Editor Don Wycliff
Salon B
PANEL: Professional development in journalism and the media - Hosted by the Chicago Tribune Newspaper
-Don Wycliff, Public Editor, , commentator, The Chicago Tribune
-(Panelists to be announced
http://www.hanania.com/program1.htm
---------------------------------------------
MIM: The conference participants included representatives from Al Jazeera,the Muslim Public Affairs Council . Ahmed Bouzid, of Palestine Media Watch and Ramzy Baroud, the editor of the Palestine Chronicle, the mouthpiece of the Islamic Association of Palestine the American wing of Hamas. Note that Sabri Samirah the panelist listed as president of the UMAA , was denied reentry to the US in 2004 on grounds that he was a "security risk" http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?nid=343&sid=210936
Salon A:
PANEL: Community leaders discuss Challenges facing the Muslim American community
-Sabri Samirah, President UMAA
-Sammer Ghouleh, board member
-Moin Moon Khan, Pres. American Muslims for Peaceful Coexistence
-Isam Zeitoun, past president Chicago ADC
-Afzaal Hafeez, past president, NEDEA
:List of conference participants:
http://www.hanania.com/arabconf1.htm
----------------------------------------------------
MIM:In 2003 The Chicago Tribune published an article entitled " Battle for the Soul of an Illinois Mosque" which detailed the militant Islamist connections and terrorist arrests of members of the Bridgeview Mosque Foundation. http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/000837.php
The Chicago Tribune editors immediately issued an apologetic disclaimer which justified terrorist groups for "delivering the health care, education,and jobs often neglected by corrupt governements backed by generations of American administrations" and promised to send reporters "around the globe to understand the drama unfolding within this great religion". http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/chi-040208islam-note-story,1,1521450.story?coll=chi-homepagepromo451-fea
Excerpt for "A Note from the Editors" which was can be accessed on " Jihad Watch" under the title "Dhimmitude at the Chicago Tribune" . http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/000838.php
"The growing popularity of Islam should not be underestimated. Politically, culturally and spiritually, its increasing influence is felt in nations around the world. In some countries, radical Islamic groups deliver the health care, education and jobs often neglected by corrupt governments backed by generations of American administrations.
So, do most Muslims really hate America? Or does their tepid response to radicals stem from their resentment of America's unquestioning alliances with discredited Muslim leaders and with Israel, a nation despised in much of the Islamic world? And how can Islamic and Western cultures coexist?
To address such questions, the Tribune sent reporters around the globe to understand the unfolding drama within this great religion. Throughout the year, we will publish their reports. The first story explores the struggle between moderates and conservatives for control of a suburban Chicago mosque."
---------------
The Militant Islamist website Allaahuakhbar.net devoted an entire webpage to quotations taken from the Chicago Tribune to justify terrorist attacks on America : The page was headlined :
"Below are quotes from the Chicago Tribune News Paper that should shed some light upon why America receives terrorist attacks from some Muslim countries" http://www.allaahuakbar.net/us/breeding_grounds.htm
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http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=6879_Antisemitism_at_Chicago_Tribune
MIM:The Chicago Tribune's anti Israel and anti semitic bias was clearly illustrated with the publication of a cartoon in 2003 which provoked an outcry when it was compared to the vile propaganda found in the pages of the Nazi publication "Der Sturmer". Prompting comment that "Joseph Goebbels is alive and well at the Chicago Trib". The outrage was so intense that the Chicago editorial staff's efforts at damage control inadvertently further revealed their animosity towards Jews and Israel.
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Compare the deferential attitude and rush to make amends to Muslims for telling the truth about the Bridgeview mosque terrorism ties (see editorial letter above ), to the arrogant tone the Trib editors adopted when it came to being criticised for publishing an anti semitic caricature of Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon : http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_article=480&x_context=2
..."Bruce Dold, editorial page editor, took the view that people misinterpreted Locher's cartoon..."
...And one wonders, since Wycliff (the CT editor who headed a panel the Muslim journalist event - see above)admits that "money has never been the decisive issue in the Middle East dispute," why has "the use of U.S. aid to influence the Israeli government...often been discussed in editorial board debates?"
Wycliff ends the piece by stating "that this cartoon did indeed give grievous offense to many good people is beyond question." The paper, evidently abashed at having run the anti-Semitic cartoon, nevertheless stopped short of offering an outright apology."
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MIM: In 2002 the Chicago Tribune journalist Georgie Anne Geyer perpetrated a hoax based on anti semitic canards which she attributed to Ariel Sharon, claiming he had told his cabinet that , "I control America". When the malicious deception was exposed, Chicago Tribune editor Bruce Dold explained that Geyer had gotten her information from the 'Islamic Association of Palestine'.
June 2004 Excerpt from : "Time to Reopen Case on Geyer Hoaxes"
"When CAMERA ( a media monitoring group) requested substantiation for Geyer's inflammatory statements, Editorial Page Editor Bruce Dold of the Chicago Tribune wrote in June 2002, "Ms. Geyer does indeed cite the same sources you note [the Islamic Association for Palestine press release, which falsely claimed Kol Yisrael radio reported the bogus Sharon statement"
MIM: What Dold did not say is that the American spokesman for the , Islamic Association of Palestine , Rafiq Jaber, is the spokesman for the Bridgeview Mosque Foundation in Chicago , which has hosted events with Tribune journalists, such as Genevive Abdo, the paper's religion reporter, as speakers.
http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_article=713&x_context=2
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MIM: URL for a webpage from the Kroc Institute with 15 links to articles about the Ramadan visa revocation,Note that the articles written by Dr. Daniel Pipes are conspicuously absent .
http://www.nd.edu/~krocinst/media/krocmakenews.html
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MIM: Militant Islamist groups such as CAIR - The Council for American Islamic Relations, have started a campaign to have the visa revocation reversed and the headlines read : "Muslims Support Scholar on Visa" The argument centers around Ramadan's facade as a moderate and those who claim that he is an extremist with ties to Al Qaeda who should be banned from teaching in the U.S. The evidence which MIM presents below proves that besides having direct family ties to founders of the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda,Tariq Ramadan's own words and actions prove he is an extremist attempting to hid behind a veneer of moderation..
The story vividly illustrates how anti terrorism measures and security concerns are being exploited by CAIR to claim Muslim victimisation and attack the US government.
"Ramadan, a grandson of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna and linked in the past by French authorities to al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, reportedly wrote on the Islamic Web site Oumma.com that French Jewish intellectuals who supported the Iraq war placed their religion above their obligations as scholars".
..."Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the revocation indicates an unwillingness of Americans to listen to Muslims."
Among those who have leapt to Ramadan's defense is Scott Appleby, a board member of the Catholic Theologoical Union and director of the Joan B. Kroc Center for International Peace Studies at Notre Dame which offered Tariq Ramadan the professorship. Scott Appleby is also on the board of directors of the Bernadin Center a the CTU, which is notorious for it's support of militant Islam . The director of the CTU's Christian Muslim relations program, Scott Alexander,recently made national news when details of his expert witness testimony on behalf of Imam Fawaz Damra, revealed that he justifed Damra's call for 'aiming of rifles at Jews and Israelis', explaining that it was common parlance among Islamists.
The CTU and Scott Alexander also initiated an exhange program with Al Quds University together with the CTU's "Peace Builder's Initative", directed by Angela Appleby Purcell. The program included the participation of Azzam Tamimi and Mustafa Abu Sway, two known Hamas activists . http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/200
http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/149
A look at the recent events at which Tariq Ramadan was a particpant to see that his claims of moderation are totally fraudulent.
In Febuary 2004, Ramadan, whose grandfather founded the Muslim Brotherhood, and whose brother in Geneva runs a youth center which was linked to Al Qaeda, claims to want to teach Muslims how to integrate Islam with European culture. In reality, his political and Islamist agenda is no different then that of his Hassan Al Banna, his grandfather, whose Muslim Brotherhood included Abdullah Azzam, Bin Laden's mentor and the ideolouge behind the formation of Al Qaeda.
A look at Ramadan's website reveals his own Islamist agenda and fundamentalist views.
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MIM:Ramadan's Islamism in his own words:
Note that Al Azhar University is the birthplace of the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda. Bin Laden mentor Abdullah Azzam studied there.Al Azhar's head cleric, Sheik Tantawi, issued several fatwas which condoned suicide bombings.'Muslim Revival' is a euphemism for establishing the Khalifate - a global Islamic state.Hassan Al Banna founded the Muslim Brotherhood which was the precursor of Al Qaeda.
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http://tariq-ramadan.net/document.asp?id=3&fichier=Conversation
...I have a BA in French Literature and Philosophy from the
I then came back to
The key is to assert our identities, and to think of making a contribution. And that's what concerns me most: what will be our contribution? It's not a question of what our place in
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Ramadan's views on Da'wa - the spreading of Islam as an obligation of all Muslims His call for Da'wa in the West totally contradicts any claim he or his supporters make regarding his being a voice for moderation.
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http://tariq-ramadan.net/document.asp?id=22&fichier=DawaWest
...Everyone of us knows the meaning and the importance of da'wa and especially in the West. It is the duty of every Muslim to explain what is Islam and to invite people to learn about Islam. Everyone of us, member of the ummah, has to bear witness to the truth before all mankind as Allah says in the Qur'an:
... This is what we have to do and especially in the West, where the people living in a secular society have forgotten the meaning of faith, of religious practice and hardly think or speak about God.
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http://213.92.16.98/ESW_articolo/0,2393,42025,00.html
Excerpts from : "Tariq Ramadan's Two Faced Islam: The West is the Land of Conquest"
...Tariq Ramadan also sees the West in decline. And into the spiritual void left by Judaism and Christianity, Islam can enter and overcome, no longer enduring modernity, but islamicizing it. The Western public likes Ramadan because his vision includes elements of democracy, equal citizenship, and free expression. He debates both secularized Muslims and those who separate themselves in closed communities. He announces the birth of a fully European Islam. And he ventures on this long journey armed with the doctrine of the taqiyya, or the art of dissimulation, a typical Islamic practice on enemy soil...
...The phenomenon of Tariq Ramadan wasn't born in a vacuum. His maternal grandfather, an Egyptian, is Hassan Al-Banna, who in 1929 founded the Muslim Brotherhood, the most important Islamist movement of the twentieth century. His father, an exile in Geneva, was one of its most active promoters. And his brother Hani – with whom Tariq denies having connections – directs, also in Geneva, an Islamic center accused of contact with the terrorist network of Al-Qaeda...
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MIM:Below a poster showing Tariq Ramadan speaking at a recent event in the UK together with Hassen Rasool, a supporter of the Al Qaeda linked 'charity' Islamic relief and close associate of Sheik Abdur Rahman Al Sudais, who funds an Islamic school in London. .Azzam Tamimi, is the director of the International Institute of Islamic Political Thought and a known member of Hamas. He is also linked to groups such as HIzb ut Tahrir , the Committee for the Defense of Legitimate Rights, MIRA, and 'Liberty in the Muslim World '. Kamal Helbawy is one of the founders of the Al Qaeda linked World Assembly of Muslim Youth, a Saudi Wahabist group, and former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. Waseem Yaquob is the present UK manager of Islamic Relief , which is being investigated by the US government as a terror linked 'charity,'
A glance the homepage on Hassen Rasool's site shows numerous fundraising events for Islamic Relief and his affiliations with other miitant Islamist individuals and organisations in the UK http://www.hassenrasool.com/events.htm
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http://www.hassenrasool.com/soas.htm
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http://www.wiesenthal.com/mailings_swc/swc_feb2004.htm
This week, at exactly the same time Germany's Foreign Minister Joshka Fischer stood with Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel in Brussels to condemn Arab antisemitism, the prestigious Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Foundation, flagship of Germany's ruling Social Democratic Party, funded a three-day conference in Beirut with speakers from Hezbollah and Hamas - two terrorist organizations who murder Jews and officially promote the horrific hate of the Blood Libel and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Conference participants included Shaykh Naeem Qasim from Hezbollah; Azzam Tamimi, from the Institute of Islamic Thought in London, who presents himself in the Arab press as a counselor to Hamas; Tariq Ramadan, from the University of Fribourg, a Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, notorious for his public incitement to antisemitism in France; Ibrahim al-Masri, vice president of Lebanon's al-Jama'a al-Islamiyya, a group linked by terrorism experts to al-Qaeda; and Munir Shafiq, a leading Hamas idealogue and former activist in Islamic Jihad.
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http://www.nahost-politik.de/europa/dialogue.htm
Additional information about the participants in the Beirut Conference lists additional group members who were together with Tariq Ramadan.
Exactly the same day Josef Fischer held his speech in
It is not simply a coincidence that this conference took place while Josef Fischer publicly condemned Anti-Semitism in Brussels, but it is a part of the German policy towards Israel and the Region that always wants to keep in touch with "both sides", as they say. Or, as the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation announced after critique came from several institutions: The Beirut-Conference is part of the concept of Critical Dialogue.
http://www.nahost-politik.de/europa/dialogue.htm
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MIM: Ramadan's job description which involves teaching about "Religion, Conflict and Peacebuilding" is a travesty in light of his well publicized virulent hatred for Jews. In 2003 Ramadan wrote a an article whose crude antisemitism rendered it outside the pale of civilized debate . Ramadan which accused leading French intellectuals of taking political positions which he disagreed with with simply because they were Jews. Ramadan's rant would have been well placed on the Zundelsite and should in itself disqualify him from being considered for any kind of academic post .
The essay also stripped away any facade Ramadan can have of being a scholar or intellectual . His brazen Islamist diatribe cannot be rationalized as anything besides an expression of Jew hatred on the level of anti semitic screeds printed in Der Sturmer .
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Mr. Ramadan touched off a verbal firestorm last month after he posted an essay on a Muslim Internet site suggesting that a number of French intellectuals (whom he identified as Jewish) took political positions because of their Jewishness."Even before the most recent Israeli-Palestinian crisis, he wrote, "Jewish French intellectuals, who until then we had considered universal thinkers, started to develop analyses on the national and international front that were more and more biased toward the concerns of their community." Their interests "as Jews or as nationalists or as defenders of Israel" came before equality and justice, he added.
He criticized, among others, three of the most high-profile intellectuals in France--Bernard-Henri Levy, Andre Glucksmann and Bernard Kouchner--for supporting to varying degrees the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq.
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MIM: The URL links to a somewhat choppy translation of the French article in' Le Monde ' which discusses Ramadan's writings and the charges of anti semitism levelled against him by Bernard Henri - Levi and and Andre Glucksmann: http://watch.windsofchange.net/themes_67.htm
..."Is Tariq Ramadan an anti-Semite? The question was put clearly by André Glucksmann in Le Nouvel Observateur of 9 October and by Bernard-Henri Lévy who, in his "note-pad" column of the 10 October issue of Le Point, wrote: "This clever intellectual, trained at the school of the Muslim Brotherhood, (...) had until now always been able to present a smooth, socially acceptable self-image. (...) He has lowered his mask. He has dishonored himself." For his part, André Glucksmann has written of the "anti-Semitic obsession" of the Muslim intellectual: "What is astonishing is not that Mr. Ramadan is an anti-Semite but that he should dare to admit this publicly..."
Click here for French version of original article.
http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3226,36-337508,0.html
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http://www.pluralism.org/news/intl/index.php?xref=Tariq+Ramadan&sort=DESC#headline5316
Muslim Scholar's Criticism of Jewish Intellectuals' Support for Israel Causes Controversy (France)
Cross-references: Imam Tariq Ramadan Islam in European Society• On November 13, 2003 The New York Times ran an article on Tariq Ramadan, "a 41-year-old, Swiss-born philosophy professor, ...who promotes a moderate, tolerant version of Islam from his headquarters in Geneva and in his lectures around the world" and has come under suspicion in France as being "a dangerous demagogue whose words have multiple meanings and are laced with anger and anti-Semitism...Mr. Ramadan touched off a verbal firestorm last month after he posted an essay on a Muslim Internet site suggesting that a number of French intellectuals (whom he identified as Jewish) took political positions because of their Jewishness...In a country where one does not usually talk about one's religion and where the media thrive on intellectual debate, it was no surprise that the intellectuals struck back...[Bernard-Henri] Lévy, the author of the best-selling book 'Who Killed Daniel Pearl?' called Mr. Ramadan an 'intellectual champion of all kinds of double-talk' with a 'racist vision of the world.' If he is not an an anti-Semite, at the very least he has written an anti-Semitic text, Mr. Lévy added."
(November 13, 2003, The New York Times)
Read the full story
http://www.nd.edu/~krocinst/research/luce.html
Tariq Ramadan: Terrorist affiliate was scheduled to teach students "Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding"
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Home > Research > Program in Religion, Conflict and Peacebuilding > Luce Professorship Program in Religion, Conflict and Peacebuilding (PRCP) Tariq Ramadan named Luce ProfessorSwiss scholar Tariq Ramadan has been appointed Henry R. Luce Professor of Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding at the Kroc Institute. The appointment is effective in fall of 2004. Ramadan is the author of Western Muslims and the Future of Islam (Oxford University Press, 2003) as well as many articles on contemporary Islam in dialogue with the West. Ramadan has written extensively on the nature of shari'ah, intra-community discourse within the world of Islam, and contemporary policy questions facing Muslims. A public intellectual who bridges academics and community, Ramadan seeks to construct a forum in which issues of justice and peace can be explored by members of various faith traditions. He will teach courses on Islam, religious peacebuilding, and interfaith dialogue. Ramadan earned his Ph.D. from the University of Geneva (1998). He will be a member of the Kroc Institute's core faculty, and hold a joint appointment with the Notre Dame Department of Classics. The professorship is funded by the Henry R. Luce Foundation. The foundation's Luce Professorship program seeks to promote innovative, integrative, interdisciplinary thinking and learning and is open to all disciplines and departments at leading private American colleges and universities with over 1000 students which have selective liberal arts programs. Top of PageHome > Research > Program in Religion, Conflict and Peacebuilding > Luce Professorship |
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http://www.nd.edu/~krocinst/faculty_staff/faculty/appleby.html
MIM:Scott Appleby is the director of the Kroc Institute and invited Tariq Ramadan to be the program's visiting professor.
Appleby condemned the decision to revoke Ramadan's visa and justified hiring someone with documented terrorism ties stating :
"Appleby said there was a great deal of curiosity on the Notre Dame campus about Ramadan and what he would be teaching.
",,, since 9/11 there is a greater awareness in the U.S. of the need to better understand Islam and communicate with Muslims - particularly those who have views that are very different from standard western ones".
http://www.townhall.com/news/politics/200407/FOR20040729c.shtml
Which begs the question as to how many more militant Islamist professors and terrorists are going to be invited by Appleby and the Kroc Institute's 'Peacebuilding Program' financed by the Rockefeller foundation humanities foundation ,whose views are "very different from standard western ones" .
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Home > Faculty > R. Scott Appleby R. Scott Appleby
106 Hesburgh Center Phone: (574) 631-5665 Scott Appleby (Ph.D. University of Chicago,1985) examines the roots of religious violence and the potential of religious peacebuilding. He teaches courses in American religious history and comparative religious movements. From 1988 to 1993 Appleby was co-director of the Fundamentalism Project, an international public policy study conducted by the American Academy of arts and Sciences. From 1985 to 1987 he chaired the religious studies department of St. Xavier College, Chicago. Appleby is the author of The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence and Reconciliation (Rowman & Littlefield 2000), and editor of Spokesmen for the Despised: Fundamentalist Leaders of the Middle East (University of Chicago 1997). With Martin E. Marty, he co-edited the five-volume Fundamentalism Project (University of Chicago Press). Appleby is also the author of Church and Age Unite! The Modernist Impulse in American Catholicism (Notre Dame 1992), co-editor of Being Right: Conservative Catholics in America (Indiana 1995) and co-author of Transforming Parish Ministry: The Changing Roles of Clergy, Laity, and Women Religious (Crossroad, 1989). He has been a fellow of the Institute since 1996, and director since 2000. Recent Publications by Scott Appleby With Martin E. Marty, "Think Again: Fundamentalism," Foreign Policy (January/February 2002): 16-22. [Abstract] Complete CV |
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http://www.nd.edu/~krocinst/research/religion.html
MIM: Note that the Kroc Institute reveals their views on Israel by referring to an event which is to take place "within the extended borders of Jerusalem".
Program in Religion, Conflict and Peacebuilding (PRCP)
This interdisciplinary, inter-religious program explores the complex roles of diverse religious traditions in contemporary conflicts. The PRCP encompasses the full spectrum of religious involvement in contemporary conflict, from the religious legitimation of violence to religious peacebuilding efforts, such as mediation by religious groups and efforts to promote inter-religious and intra-religious dialogue. Research focuses on the phenomenon of "lived religion" by examining how religious leaders and movements "translate" sacred scriptures and traditional norms into pracitical principles that shape decisions and behaviors "on the ground." Through deeper understanding of religion's complex role in conflict situations, the Program hopes to strengthen the potential for peacebuilding within all religious traditions.
The PRCP will be led by the Luce Professor of Religion, Conflict and Peacebuilding, who will join the core faculty of the Kroc Institute in fall 2004. The Luce Professor will direct research and publication initiatives, promote the development of new courses and inter-religious learning opportunities, coordinate a program of visiting fellows, and organize international conferences and symposia.
The Program will also host Visiting Fellows, with financial support from the Rockefeller Foundation Humanities Fellowships program. The institute will host not only scholars in the humanities and social sciences, but also religious leaders and peacebuilding practitioners whose research would explore the role of religion in a diverse range of religious, cultural, and political contexts, including Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Sikh, or Christian traditions and movements. Research by Visiting Fellows will explore three thematic concerns: comparative religious ethics, human rights, and intolerance; inter-religious and intra-religious differences and dialogue; and post-conflict peacebuilding. Application information for Visiting Fellowships is available online.
The program builds on the research of many Kroc Institute Faculty Fellows and other Notre Dame faculty members. In 1998, the Kroc Institute, with support from the Office of the Provost, organized an international conference on "The Sacred, The Sword, and Global Security: Religious Dimensions of Violence, Peace, and Security," at Notre Dame. In 1995, the institute and the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict co-sponsored a conference on religion and conflict at the Tantur Ecumenical Institute for Theological Studies, within the extended borders of Jerusalem.
A list of publications by Kroc fellows related to this initiative is available online.
Home > Research > Program in Religion, Conflict and Peacebuilding
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http://www.chronwatch.com/content/contentDisplay.asp?aid=9304&mode=print
The Fighting Irish Lose an Islamist Professor, or Did They?
Written by Lee Kaplan
Sunday, August 29, 2004
The U.S. State Department has finally acted to bar the entry of a militant Islamist "educator" who was hired to start teaching at Notre Dame University.
Islamist Tariq Ramadan was all set to start work this week for the start of school at Notre Dame University when he was hit with a surprise: The Department of Homeland Security revoked his visa and work permit per the Immigration and Naturalization Act. Amended as part of the Patriot Act to deal with undocumented immigrants who have used a "position of prominence within any country to endorse or espouse terrorist activity," and whose entry may have "potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States," the law now allows the U.S. government to restrict Ramadan's entry.
Ramadan was to start teaching at the Joan R. Kroc Institute of International Peace Studies at the South Bend, Indiana campus. "Peace Studies" has become the latest touchy-feely major for educators who preach the glories of Marxism and totalitarian societies abroad in the face of "American imperialism" that is becoming more and more popular on politically correct campuses. In the Orwellian world of doublespeak on our university campuses "peace" has become a euphemism for supporting enemies of the United States and declaring their attacks on American society America's fault, so as to arrive at a more peaceful world.
That the U.S. State Department has finally sought to act in an election year to keep someone like Ramadan out is a good sign. This man of "peace," who no doubt was to teach American students from the "Arab point of view" during the War on Terror, appeared in July at the Hijab Conference in London accompanied by a leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood (that's the gang who murdered Anwar Sadat for making peace with Israel). Sheik Yusuf Qaradavi, has been banned from preaching in Egypt for 42 years and from the United States for the last five, but shared the pulpit with Ramadan.
Ramadan passes himself off as a moderate Islamist who always maintains he is not anti-Semitic and that he thinks Islam must adapt to secular society. But make no mistake about it: his connections to militant Islam go way back and he has even been associated with militant Islamic groups from Algeria and even Al Qaeda.
Ramadan's family fled Egypt during Gamel Abdul Nasser' rule for Switzerland where Tariq and his brother, Hani were born. Tariq's grandfather actually was a co-founder of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and past his legacy onto his son and grandsons. Tariq Ramadan became active in Switzerland at the Islamic Center and Mosque of Geneva, well-funded by Saudi Wahhabist largesse.
Ramadan preached there on Fridays and even provided recorded sermons for other mosques in France. What was said in Arabic may not have been translated the same into French or English. His sermons discussing "Jewish-French intellectuals" who display unconditional support for Israel "only because they are Jews" are "not anti-Semitism," according to Ramadan. Ramadan always claims he only opposes Israelis or "Zionists." That's the popular saw on United States campuses these days too where diatribes against Jews are deemed acceptable as long as they are called "Zionists."
Tariq's brother, Hani, was equally vocal in his zeal for militant Islam and against "Zionists." An educator also, Hani was fired from a teaching position after pushing for the adoption of sharia law by the government and openly advocating that women who were guilty of adultery be stoned to death.
The FBI has established connections with the Swiss security services since 9/11 to keep an eye out for funds being laundered via front groups in the European Union, Switzerland and the USA. And in this instance, maybe it worked. Jewish groups in the United States on learning of Ramadan's appointment to a teaching position at Notre Dame spurred some members of Congress to demand the State Department and FBI conduct investigations into Ramadan's visa and work permits provided for his new position to teach the Fighting Irish. Several wealthy donors were responsible for funding the chair that Ramadan is to take over in Indiana with links to the Middle East.
Ramadan expressed outrage at his being denied entry to the United States and appealed to the Swiss government to act to bring pressure to reverse the cancellation of his work papers.
However, Homeland Security Spokesperson Russ Knocke explained to the media that Ramadan's entry was being denied because U.S. federal law under the Patriot Act now applies to foreigners who have used their positions of prominence in their host countries or elsewhere abroad to espouse terrorist activities. Knocke emphasized the cancellation of Ramadan's papers was based on "national security interests."
As mentioned, Ramadan, who has taught at Geneva and Fribourg Universities, maintains that Islamic values are compatible with secular European society. However, he has been criticized for his links to Islamic militants also and was even investigated once for connections to an Al Qaeda operative involved in the train bombing in Spain. Ramadan professes his innocence of any wrongdoing, even in any of his statements, while still clinging to the position that when he criticizes Israel's Jewish identity it is only a political statement and not anti-Semitic.
Notre Dame naturally leapt to the defense of its choice for a professor of Peace Studies. The University's spokesman, Matt Storin, maintained Notre Dame unequivocally stood behind Ramadan, calling him a "voice of moderation" in the Muslim world. And Ibrahim Hooper of CAIR immediately began shouting his usual refrain about discrimination against Muslims, calling the entry denial a "slap in the face" to Muslims "trying to build bridges between the Muslim world and the West." Hooper never seems to find a militant Islamist or terrorist that he feels is not unjustly accused as the result of "discrimination against Muslims." Maybe that's why so many of CAIR's executives have been indicted for proven links to the terrorist group Hamas.
Ramadan has endorsed more respect and freedom of choice among Muslims, such as not requiring absolutely that Muslim women wear the veil (although his wife, a European convert, wears one at all times in public). Outwardly, he also claims to have no grudges against Jews.
But terrorism expert Yehudit Barsky of the American-Jewish Committee said Ramadan is another "educator" being assigned to an American university to bring legitimacy and respect within educational institutions in the United States to Islamic militants. A thorough investigation of Ramadan's family, and his immediate associates reveals an individual heavily linked to and possibly involved with a Who's Who List of international terrorist groups--even Al Qaeda. Ramadan's close links to terrorism run deep; besides being the scion of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Ramadan's father and brother have both also sought to promote militant Islam. Bin Laden's second-in-command, al Zawahiri, one of the most wanted terrorists in the world, came from the Muslim Brotherhood that started in the 1920's and is the first granddaddy of all militant Islamic movements threatening the United States and the free world today.
Ramadan was chosen by Notre Dame because of wealthy donors who wanted him there. Some are from the United States but have extensive ties to the Arab Middle East. U.S. universities need better scrutiny no matter how much donation money is involved in hiring staff that may preach and conduct jihad in a more subtle way in our universities.
Despite this, the State Department is now talking about letting him reapply for admittance to the U.S. after Notre Dame's pleas were heard.
What do you think are the odds that the State Department will give in?
When will our government get really serious about pursuing the War on Terror, which is fought not just with guns but by attacks on our educational system and our next generation also?
About the Writer: Lee Kaplan, a political writer, columnist, and activist, is a contributing editor for FrontPageMangazine. He is active with Students for Academic Freedom, DAFKA, Stop the ISM, and the Cruz Report television program, and resides in the San Francisco Bay Area. Lee receives e-mail at [email protected]
This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/255
John M. Regan Jr. Director of the Kroc Institute