Obama administration lifts travel ban on terrorist-supporting, anti- Muslim 'scholar' :: Political News and commentaries

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April 9, 2010

Obama administration lifts travel ban on terrorist-supporting, anti- Muslim 'scholar'

Just another day for our president that loves our enemies and hates our allies: Obama administration lifts travel ban on Tariq Ramadan:

... In 2004, the United States revoked Ramadan's visa. When he applied for a new visa, the application was denied on grounds he had made donations to the Association de Secours Palestinien, or ASP, from 1998 to 2002.

The Bush administration listed ASP as a banned group in 2003, saying it supported terrorism and contributed funds to the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, an organization the United States said had ties to terrorism.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lifted the ban on Ramadan in January.

"I have been in a peaceful mind for the last six years because I knew my record was clear," Ramadan said. "Now this story is over. The Bush administration is over, so is my case."

As for why Tariq Ramadan was banned from the U.S., Daniel Pipes has a long list of reasons. However, Lee Smith summed it up best in his piece in The American Prospect by saying, "he is a cold-blooded Islamist whose "cry of death to the West is a quieter and gentler jihad, but it's still jihad":

... That Ramadan believes Islam will replace Judaism and Christianity may come as a surprise to those who thought he was just saying Islam is compatible with liberal values (it will certainly surprise the fathers at Notre Dame). Rather, Ramadan is a cold-blooded Islamist who believes that Islam is the cure for the malaise wrought by liberal values. His revision of the jihadist paradigm -- peaceful but total -- is brilliant in its way, and he may well turn out to be a major Islamist intellectual, far surpassing even his grandfather's influence. His cry of death to the West is a quieter and gentler jihad, but it's still jihad. There's no reason for Western liberals to try to understand that point of view.

Whether or not Islam is after all compatible with liberal values is a vexing question. Still, it's an abstract issue that is overshadowed by the fact that a lot of Arab and Muslim individuals do subscribe to liberal values, regardless of how the compatibility question is finally to be answered. Many are pressing for them in their home countries, while others have fled to the West to find them here. To the extent that Western liberals see Ramadan as an "authentic" spokesman of Arab and Muslim culture, while dismissing Arab and Muslim liberals as too Westernized, they've forgotten their own universal values.

Unfortunately, our president and most everyone in his administration, just happen to be those deeply misguided Western liberals Smith speaks of who've forgotten their own universal values by embracing an Islamist who seeks the death of America as we know it and believes Islam will replace Judaism and Christianity.

This is not the kind of "Hope and Change" Americans voted for - but unfortunately it's what we're stuck with - for now.

Posted by Richard at April 9, 2010 10:21 AM

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