If Omid Safi and others like him play their cards right, they might one day end up in the big leagues of academic propagandizing for the global jihad: Notre Dame. Tariq Ramadan, invited to teach there but stopped by DHS, was just the beginning. “The Fighting Islamists of Notre Dame,” by Thomas Ryan at FrontPage (thanks to EPG), details the appalling record of the Kroc Institute, an exponent of the McDonald’s fortune:
In July of 2004, Ramadan was made aware by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that his work visa had been revoked, barring his entrance into the U.S. Russ Knocke, a spokesman for the DHS, stated that Ramadan’s visa revocation had been conducted in accordance with a law that denies entry to foreigners who have used a “position of prominence within any country to endorse or espouse terrorist activity.”
Although Ramadan dismissed his denial of admittance as “unjustified,” the Islamic scholar’s own words and actions over the years certainly demonstrate the reasons why U.S. officials refused to allow him into the country. Ramadan’s connections to Islamic extremism are numerous. For example, according to Spanish judge Balatasar Garzón, Ramadan had “routine contacts” with Ahmed Brahim, an Algerian man believed to be both the financial chief of al-Qaeda, as well as the financier of the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya. In 1995, while suffering a series of terrorist attacks in Paris perpetrated by the Algerian Islamist terrorist movement, French Interior Minister Jean Louis Debre forbade Ramadan to enter France because of his connections to the terrorist group. And according to the French daily newspaper Le Monde, Ramadan is suspected of having links with al-Qaeda, and is believed to have organized a 1991 meeting between al-Qaeda second-in-charge, Ayman al Zawahiri, and Omar Abdel Rahman, who was convicted in the 1993 bombing of the first World Trade Center.
Despite his associations with known terrorists, following the revocation of his visa, Ramadan demanded, “Can you prove the “˜links” to terrorists?”¦Have you read the articles in which I call upon fellow Muslims to condemn unequivocally radical views and acts of extremism?” But, regardless of his profession of innocence of both word and deed, Ramadan has made statements that follow suit with his fundamentalist affiliations, using his position as a commended Islamic scholar to shrewdly undermine Western ideologies in both written and spoken form. His anti-Semitism and sexist views have been well documented, as he failed to condemn the practice of stoning women for crimes against Shari”a (Islamic law). Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Ramadan rejected the notion that there was any proof that bin Laden was involved, and additionally described the 9/11 attacks, the Madrid train bombings, and the Bali nightclub attack as “interventions.” Dalil Boubakeur, head of the French Muslim Council and head of the Paris Mosque, has said, “when one invites Tariq Ramadan, it is not to listen to what Allah and the angels said; Ramadan is the vehicle of fundamentalist Islam.”…
The Kroc Institute Director, R. Scott Appleby has had a lot to say about Islamic fundamentalism, however. Appleby has specifically sought to diminish the impression that that Islamic fundamentalism is a growing threat. “It would be misleading,” he wrote after 9/11, “to say fundamentalism is on the rise now. I would say we’re just more aware of it because these people are better organized, more mobile and more vocal than ever before.”
Appleby served as editor for the book Spokesmen for the Despised Fundamentalist Leaders of the Middle East, published in 1997. In the book’s introduction, he further expresses the belief that the actions of the terrorist group Hezbollah were guided by a desire to avoid taking innocent lives. Appleby might try explaining that to the 242 US marines on a peacekeeping mission in Lebanon who were blown up by Hezbollah in 1982. Appleby writes, “In the contemporary Middle East, we have seen what happens when a charismatic leader announces “˜a break in the established normative order.” Under particular kinds of conditions he thereby unleashes forces beyond his control. This is certainly one of the lessons of [Sayyid Muhammad Husayn] Fadlallah. As a scholar of Islamic law, the spiritual mentor of Hizbullah followed a very precise legal formula in justifying suicide bombings (normally, suicide is a clear violation of Islamic law), and he studiously imposed religiously derived restrictions on the use of violence in general (insisting, for example, that Hizbullah avoid the death of innocents whenever possible).” This reassurance is deceptive since in the eyes of militant Islamic fundamentalists, no non-fundamentalist or Westerner is innocent; the 9/11 attacks, which claimed nearly 3,000 innocent lives, proved just that.
Appleby has also made comparisons between Osama bin Laden and President Bush. In a 2003 interview, Appleby asserted that the Sept. 11th attacks were an attempt by Osama bin Laden to awaken Muslims from passivity and to demonstrate that there’s a crisis of religion and culture and that Muslims must take sides in the fight. Appleby suggested that President Bush had adopted the same stance when he stated, “You”re either with us or against us.” This makes no distinction between the aggressor and his victim.
Yet another Kroc Institute professor Cynthia Mahmood has said we need to pursue a dialogue with Osama bin Laden, and not confront him with violence. Mahmood is a professor of Anthropology, and serves as the Institute’s director of graduate studies. In February 2004, Mahmood delivered a talk to neighboring Goshen College, titled “When People of Faith Become Militant.” In her speech, Mahmood recounted her experiences interviewing Pakistani militants that later fought with the Taliban. She described to the students in attendance that at one point during her interview, one of the militants purposely aimed a gun at her, and that she was able to diffuse the situation by offering to talk to the man about his concerns. She went on to say that they ended up talking over tea. Mahmood’s principal recommendation for dealing with terrorists is engaging them in conversation. In her 2002 article “Why We Need to Talk to Extremists,” Mahmood compares suicide bombers to those who join the U.S. military, stating that their goals are no different. Of the State Department’s revocation of Ramadan’s visa, Mahmood said:
It’s a real pity for the United States to be afraid of alternative voices. Unless we engage in discussion with them, it becomes an echo chamber where we talk to each other constantly. Places like the Kroc Institute have to push the envelope a bit.
In fact what she was pushing was a troubling addition to the echo chamber. Mahmood added that Ramadan was a “star,” revealing where her sympathies lay.
Read it all. And no more Big Macs.