One of the speakers at the conference I am attending is this man. His talk is tomorrow afternoon--only he won't be there. He won't be there because the United States declined to give him an visa so that he could enter the country.
Tariq Ramadan is a Swiss scholar and senior research fellow at St. Antony's College (Oxford). Apparently he gave small amounts of money to a legal charity that allegedly supports Hamas. And for that reason he cannot enter the United States. His visa was actually revoked in 2004, after he'd accepted a tenured position at Notre Dame University which he subsequently had to give up. Prior to that time Bill Clinton had invited him to speak in the US. And Time Magazine name him one of 100 Top Innovators for the 21st century.
This article tells more about him.
He'll be present via satellite. But I'm appalled at this. What is really so threatening about this man?
1 comment:
I suppose that this is the consequence for speaking the truth. Telling the truth about what we see happening in the world is risky. It opens us up to scrutiny and opens the door for rejection.
The people that play along, that promote the status quo are "friends" and those that expose the problems are "enemies." This is true on the world stage and in small communities, such as seminary.
Spend some time reading about the prophets in the OT, very few of them were well loved by those that had to hear the truth from them. It sucks, but it does seem to be a consistent part of the human experience.
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