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January 21, 2010

US Lifts Bush-era Ban on Foreign Scholars
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The Obama administration has lifted a Bush-era ban on two Muslim
scholars who were barred from entering the United States. On Wednesday,
the State Department said Adam Habib and Tariq Ramadan are no longer
deemed a security threat and will be allowed to apply for entry visas.
Ramadan was offered a position at the University of Notre Dame in 2004.
The Bush administration initially barred his entry without explanation
and then said it was because he once gave money to a Palestinian
charity. A South African social scientist, Habib was deported in 2006
after traveling to the US for a series of academic meetings. In a
statement, the American Civil Liberties Union hailed what it called “a
major victory” and called on the Obama administration to “retire the
practice of ideological exclusion for good.”



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