Chalk another one up for the woefully ignorant and bigoted among us: Tariq Ramadan, who was named the Henry R. Luce Professor of Religion, Conflict and Peacebuilding at Notre Dame earlier this year, found that the Department of Homeland Security revoked his visa at the last moment before he left Europe to take up his teaching position. After the U.S. government invited him to reapply for his visa, he did so. But then no new visa came. Earlier this month, Ramadan resigned his Notre Dame position: Ramadan Resigns from Faculty.
This is indeed one of the blacker days in the post 9/11 era and shows the depredations that the USA Patriot Act can wreak on civil liberties in this country (DHS originally acted in denying his visa on the Patriot Act, though it barely explained its decision). For shame!
