Who is a terrorist?

Dan Carpenter
Followed by a goon shadow
September 26, 2004
 

They can't find Osama bin Laden, but they've saved us from Cat Stevens.

They can appoint Daniel Pipes, the notorious Muslim basher, to the U.S. Institute of Peace; but they won't let Tariq Ramadan, a renowned Muslim scholar, teach at the University of Notre Dame's Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.

Is this the world's mightiest force for liberty going about its noble work, or is this Colonel Klink of Stalag 13 with computers and opinion polls?

Cat Stevens? The erstwhile poet of the pop charts, now Yusuf Islam, Muslim teacher and peace advocate? Tied to terrorists? Well, "ties" can be about anything when the government doesn't have to spell them out.

Little explanation was given by the Department of Homeland Security for intercepting a transatlantic flight last week and deporting the "Peace Train" guy. "Activities that could be potentially related to terrorism," the feds said. The best intelligence, if you will, is that some of the many charities he has supported since embracing Islam in the 1970s may channel money to groups the U.S. deems non grata.

Something like those American movers and shakers who do business with Saudi Arabia, where most of the 9/11 killers came from? Not exactly. Those people work directly, get lots of money in return, and do not get their flights interrupted.

Nor do the industrialists -- likewise tied, really tied, to the Bush administration -- who sold so much hardware to Saddam Hussein over the years. Compared to a fellow with controversial opinions who wants to visit the United States, what kind of threat could a mere supplier of a dictator pose to us?

Such questions might have been fodder for lively classroom discussions, had Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss professor and author who has lectured frequently in the U.S. and around the world, not had his visa revoked within weeks of starting this semester at Notre Dame.

Last week, a university spokesman said Ramadan was reapplying for a visa "because various officials of the State Department, publicly and privately, have issued the opinion that he should." The spokesman said he'd been told no more, and the State Department declined to comment to me about this hopeful sign, so the Kafkaesque mystery remains.

All the department would say to outraged Notre Damers and Muslim Americans back in July was that the USA Patriot Act was invoked. It allows for visas to be pulled for a wide range of reasons, including the perception one's political activities foster terrorism. Some would argue that treating eminent Muslims as criminals is a political activity that could catalyze terrorism.

Pipes and his influential band of anti-Palestinian brothers have tried to link Ramadan to terror, but his large body of writing establishes him as a critic of American-Israeli policies and Islamic extremism alike. He does stand guilty as charged of having a grandfather who founded the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, a radical group that espoused but ultimately renounced violence as a means of self-determination.

Ramadan would urge that the United States renounce violence as a means of determination for others. Like Yusuf Islam, he voices views that draw criticism. This used to be OK in the enlightened West. Now we are supposed to be afraid to let these views fly into South Bend, where some of the world's keenest liberal and conservative minds are waiting to engage them.

Ooo, baby, baby, it's a wild post-9/11 world. And no one to defend us from Jessica Simpson.

Carpenter is a Star op-ed columnist. Contact him at (317) 444-6172 or via e-mail at dan.carpenter@indystar.com .