Muslim Scholar, Formerly Barred, Is to Speak in New York

A prominent Muslim scholar barred from the United States for six years under the Patriot Act will speak on a panel at the Cooper Union next month, his first public appearance in this country since the restriction was lifted.

The scholar, Prof. Tariq Ramadan of Oxford University, will take part in a panel discussion on “Secularism, Islam and Democracy: Muslims in Europe and the West,” to be presented on April 8 by the American Association of University Professors, the American Civil Liberties Union, PEN American Center and Slate.

Professor Ramadan, who is Swiss and teaches contemporary Islamic studies at Oxford and has written more than 20 books, was about to take a job as a tenured professor at the University of Notre Dame in 2004 when the Bush administration pulled his visa. The government said it did so because of evidence that Professor Ramadan had given $1,300 to a Swiss charity that funneled money to Hamas, the Palestinian militant group.

The professor sued to get his visa reinstated, saying that he had believed the charity had no connection to Hamas or terrorist activities. In July 2009, a federal appeals court reversed a ruling that had allowed the government to bar him. And in January, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton signed an order lifting the restriction, which paved the way for the professor to reapply for a visa.

The panel, at the Cooper Union’s Great Hall, will also include the journalist Ian Buruma; Dalia Mogahed, director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies; and Joan Wallach Scott, a professor of social science at the Institute for Advanced Study and the author of “The Politics of the Veil.”

The panel will be moderated by Jacob Weisberg of Slate.

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