US fights to keep visa ban on Muslim scholar

[The Straight Story]

US fights to keep visa ban on Muslim scholar


NEW YORK (AFP) — 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 -- apparently based on Ramadan's donations to a group linked to the Palestinian militants 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.

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