NEW YORK: A US government lawyer argued against revoking a high-profile travel ban on leading Oxford University Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan in a court appeal on Tuesday. The visa ban - allegedly based on Ramadan s donations to a group linked to the Palestinian Hamas, labeled a terrorist organization by Washington - was instituted under former president George W. Bush s administration. The ban has since become a test case for human rights groups who have called on President Barack Obama to stop refusing visas to foreigners on ideological grounds. But prosecutor David Jones told the Second Circuit Appeals Court in New York on Tuesday there has been no change in the US position on Ramadan s case. A Swiss citizen of Egyptian origin, Ramadan is one of Europe s leading Muslim thinkers, famous for promoting a modernized form of Islam and his opposition to the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. The Oxford University professor has been trying to enter the United States since 2004, when he was due to take up a post at Notre Dame University in Indiana. Acting on Ramadan s behalf, lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) told a three-judge appeals panel that his exclusion was unfounded. ACLU attorney Jameel Jaffer said the government had failed to identify . legitimate and bona fide reasons for the exclusion. Although Obama s administration has made a dramatic break with many of the most controversial aspects of Bush s self-declared war on terror, there is little sign of a shift on the Ramadan visa debate. One of the judges asked: There s now a different secretary of state. Are we entitled to know the position of the current secretary of state? Has it been reviewed at a senior level of government? But Jones replied only: I don t know exactly how high it went. Presenting the case as a consular issue, Jones said a colleague at the State Department had made that inquiry upward. If Professor Ramadan or any person wants to know why he was denied a visa . there s nothing to stop that person going in and saying, you made a mistake, Jones said. There s nothing stopping him making that presentation to the consular officer. Tuesday s appeal followed the decision by a lower court in December to reject the ACLU s arguments. If the appeal is thrown out, the ACLU could take its case before a bigger panel of appeals judges, or possibly the US Supreme Court. Ramadan s visa was denied after he had made two dozen previous visits to the country. Jaffer said the decision was initially based on an ideological provision allowed for under the anti-terrorism law known as the Patriot Act. Only later was the visa denial pinned to Ramadan having donated $1,300 to a Swiss charity, Association de Secours Palestinien (ASP). The charity allegedly funded Hamas, the ruling Palestinian group in Gaza, which Washington designates as a terrorist organization. Jaffer said Ramadan had voluntarily reported his contributions to ASP and was unaware of the Hamas links. In addition, Jaffer argued Ramadan s donations to ASP stopped prior to 2003, the year when the group was also designated a terrorist organization. We presented clear and convincing evidence that he did not know while the government has introduced no evidence whatsoever, Jaffer said. Jaffer said the Patriot Act provision has a chilling effect on debate and that exclusions like that for Ramadan violated US citizens right to free speech. US citizens and US resident are harmed by . the exclusion of people based on the content of their speech, he said. Ramadan is the grandson of the Egyptian founder of the Muslim Brotherhood.
