Visas and Censorship

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Claiming that it was part of the fight against terrorism, the George W. Bush administration revived the loathsome cold war practice of denying visas to foreign intellectuals, artists and others because of their views.

In January, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton lifted the ban on two prominent scholars: Adam Habib, deputy vice chancellor of the University of Johannesburg in South Africa, and Prof. Tariq Ramadan of Oxford University. She needs to go further and renounce ideological exclusion.

Mr. Habib, a human rights activist, learned that his visa had been revoked when he sought to enter the United States in 2006 for professional meetings. Mr. Ramadan, a Swiss national and well-known Muslim academic, learned that his visa had been revoked in 2004 when he was to become a tenured professor at the University of Notre Dame. Mrs. Clinton’s action followed a federal appellate court ruling against the government.

The appearances last week by the two men at separate public forums in New York City were a tangible victory for freedom of speech and the robust exchange of ideas across international borders.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/14/opinion/14wed4.html?th&emc=th