c. 2006 Religion News Service

Religion Scholars Criticize Muslim Professor’s Visa Denial

WASHINGTON (RNS) An organization of religion scholars is among several groups criticizing the State Department for denying a visa for a prominent Muslim professor.

Swiss scholar Tariq Ramadan was denied a visa even though the government has dropped a previous allegation that he endorsed terrorism, the American Civil Liberties Union announced Monday (Sept. 25).

The American Academy of Religion had joined the ACLU and other groups in suing the government for thwarting efforts by their members to meet with Ramadan.

“The American Academy of Religion is dismayed to be deprived of the opportunity for discussion and exchange with Ramadan who was to address our annual meeting in November,” said Diana L. Eck, a Harvard professor and president of the academy.

“Ramadan is one of today’s leading Muslim theologians and his voice is vital to the contemporary discussion of Islam in the West. His ongoing exclusion sends exactly the wrong message about America’s commitment to the free exchange of ideas.”

The AAR joined the suit after Ramadan’s visa was revoked days before he was to start teaching at the University of Notre Dame in 2004. Ramadan, now a visiting professor at Oxford University, was scheduled to speak at the AAR convention in Washington; the conference program noted that his appearance depended on the results of the ACLU lawsuit. A judge had ruled that the State Department needed to grant the visa or explain why it wouldn’t.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack on Tuesday told reporters that Ramadan was denied a visa “for providing material support to a terrorist organization.” He declined to provide further specifics.

The ACLU said the State Department questioned his donation to French and Swiss groups that have provided humanitarian aid to Palestinians.

“Although the U.S. government has found a new pretext for denying Professor Ramadan’s visa, the history of this case makes clear that the government’s real concern is not with Professor Ramadan but with his ideas,” said Jameel Jaffer, the lead ACLU lawyer in the case.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Religious Leaders Urge Greater Opposition to Iraq War

WASHINGTON (RNS) Leading an interfaith anti-war procession on Capitol Hill on Tuesday (Sept. 26), a former leader of the Presbyterian Church (USA) said he was sorry it had taken him three years to take action against the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Rick Ufford-Chase, the denomination’s former moderator, said he hoped other people of faith would follow his example.

“What we need is a mobilization of people _ people need to be living what they believe,” said Ufford-Chase, who was arrested during the protest. “That’s where we intend to start now _ to pull people of faith out and say we’ve got to stand up.”

The Shalom Center’s Rabbi Arthur Waskow and leaders from the Christian Alliance for Progress and the Episcopal Peace Fellowship also participated in the Tuesday protest. Sixty people were arrested for marching without a permit as they marched on the Capitol grounds.

In a weeklong series of nationwide protests against the Iraq war, several religious leaders have risked arrest during civil disobedience in an effort to inspire a mass mobilization of people of faith against the war.

The Rev. Joseph Nangle, president of the board of trustees for the United States Catholic Mission Association, and James Winkler, general secretary of the United Methodists’ General Board of Church and Society, were arrested last week during protests in front of the White House.

Winkler said people of faith have not done enough to publicly oppose the war. He said the faith community, remembering the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, failed to speak out in the early stages of the war.

“The old human instincts of fear and revenge led a great many people of faith to believe that going to war with Iraq was right,” Winkler said.

The heads of major religious groups, including President Bush’s own United Methodist Church, have long opposed the war. But Ufford-Chase said the time has come for people of faith to move beyond these “traditional” methods of protest to mass mobilization.

“So much of what’s being said is being said in the name of religion, especially in the name of Christians, to justify this war,” Chase said. “It’s a violation of the most fundamental principles of what we’ve always held most true … love, compassion and justice and reconciliation.”

The week’s events were organized by the Declaration of Peace, an initiative of more than 400 anti-war and religious groups. The events are planned to continue through Thursday (Sept. 28).

_ Rebecca U. Cho

Religious Leaders Call for Diplomacy with Iran

(RNS) Citing deep concern about the direction the U.S. government has taken in the Middle East, religious leaders are urging “the media and Congress to take a stand now” and prevent a preemptive attack on Iran.

Evangelical Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders held a telephone conference with reporters Tuesday (Sept. 26) to highlight their appeal for the U.S. to engage in direct negotiations with Iran.

Organizers also released a statement on their Web site _ http://www.wordsnotwar.org _ signed by more than 100 other religious leaders and clergy urging diplomacy with Iran.

“We take the threat of nuclear weapons very seriously,” said the Rev. Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners/Call to Renewal, a progressive social justice group in Washington. “(But) we don’t believe there is a military solution.”

“If the U.S. wants to create an era of peace, we can’t wage war over and over,” added Susannah Heschel, professor of Jewish studies at Dartmouth College.

Wallis said “the question of whether, when and how we go to war is not one this administration can be trusted on.”

Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council, a non-religious organization for promoting Iranian-American participation in civic life, said the initiative was timed to intersect with a Thursday meeting by the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee to consider a bill reauthorizing the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act.

The markup will add provisions from the Iran Freedom Act, introduced by Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., that critics say could scuttle efforts for diplomacy with Iran.

“It’s problematic … because it will change the policy on Iran to a regime change policy,” Parsi said. “If the bill is passed and regime change becomes official, it could be the death knell for negotiations.”

_ Keith Roshangar

Muslim Cable Station Expands into Six States

WASHINGTON (RNS) Seeking to improve the image of Muslims in the U.S., an English-language Muslim-oriented TV station has expanded its availability into parts of Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Texas, Florida and New York.

Bridges TV, which was founded by Mo Hassan, a Muslim, is now included in the basic lineup for users of Verizon’s fiber optic network in these six states and it hopes to expand further.

At a press conference announcing the move, Madhi Bray, the executive director of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, said the pope’s recent controversial remarks about Islam highlighted the need for such programming.

“Bridges TV is critically important to the American public because it builds bridges,” Bray said. “If there’s anything we’ve seen with the recent episode with the pope and how there’s a misconception about the faith traditions of other people … we need bridges.”

The expansion increases Bridges TV’s potential audience from less than 10,000 homes to nearly 2 million, according to Hassan, the station’s chief executive officer. Previously, Bridges TV, which launched in 2004, was available to paid subscribers only through Comcast Cable as well as some smaller cable networks.

Hassan said Bridges TV is a good business venture for cable stations because of the growing number of Muslims in the U.S., and Islam’s growing profile in the United States.

Bridges News, a daily news program on the station, airs stories from a Muslim perspective, such as one on Muslims who died in the Sept. 11 attacks.

_ Rebecca U.Cho

Georgetown Creates Task Force on Protestant Student Ministry

WASHINGTON (RNS) After banning six evangelical groups from campus, Georgetown University has formed an advisory board to review how it serves Protestant students at the Catholic university.

Georgetown is the oldest Catholic and Jesuit university in America with about 6,000 undergraduate students. On Aug. 14, it discontinued the official status of Protestant “affiliated ministries” including InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Chi Alpha and Asian Baptist Student Koinonia.

“As any previous covenant agreements ended with the 2005-2006 academic year, your ministries will no longer be allowed to hold any activity or presence … on campus,” wrote the Rev. Constance Wheeler, a Protestant chaplain at Georgetown, in a letter to the evangelical groups.

The groups, which include about 300 Georgetown students, had been operating in cooperation with Georgetown’s campus ministry. Now they may not advertise their events as being sponsored by Georgetown University or host staff members on campus.

The committee, composed of university faculty, campus ministers, students and off-campus leaders, has four tasks. It will review how the university’s current resources meet the needs of its Protestant community on campus; evaluate the relationship between the school’s campus ministry and affiliated ministries; propose alternative structures for the relationship between on- campus and off-campus ministries; and assist the school’s Protestant chaplaincy.

_ Chansin Bird

Quote of the Day: Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister

“We need, as Vatican II defined us, to be prophetic congregations. We must be those who live at the center of society to leaven it, at the bottom of society to speak for it, and on the edge of society to critique it.”

_ Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister, speaking at the recent Leadership Conference of Women Religious 50th Anniversary Commemoration in Atlanta.

KRE/JL END RNS