I am a member of the American Sociological Association and teach sociology at CUNY. Yesterday, my copy of the association newsletter arrived in my mailbox, offering this bit of news on scholar Adam Habib and his struggles with attempting to secure a visitor's visa from the U.S. State Department. While Habib has been invited by such organizations as National Institutes for Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Bank, Columbia University and the Gates Foundation to appear at colloquia, somehow his anti Iraq War views has led the State Department to refuse Habib a visa after months of inaction, claiming that he is barred because he has “engaged in terrorist activities.” There is no evidence of this.
The ASA newsletter announces a legal filing on behalf of Habib by the ASA as well as the ACLU.
November 14, 2007
ASA News
Media Contacts:
Sujata Sinha or Lee Herring
(202) 247-9871
pubinfo@asanet.org
ASA and ACLU Rebuke U.S. Government for Denying South African Scholar’s Visa
ACLU Renews Legal Challenge, Says U.S. Unfairly Maligning Distinguished Professor
BOSTON – In response to the unjustified denial of a visa to renowned South African scholar Adam Habib, the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Massachusetts today renewed their legal challenge against the Departments of State and Homeland Security. The State Department refused Habib a visa after months of inaction, claiming that he is barred because he has “engaged in terrorist activities,” but the government failed to explain the basis for its accusation, let alone provide any evidence to prove it. The ACLU, in today’s legal complaint, is now demanding that the government substantiate its ban on Habib or grant him a visa.
“In one fell swoop, the U.S. government has stifled political debate in this country and maligned the reputation of a respected scholar without giving one shred of evidence to support its claims,” said Melissa Goodman, a staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Security Project. “It appears that Professor Habib is being excluded not because of his actions but because of his political views and associations.”
Today’s legal challenge amends a lawsuit, filed in September in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, charging that the government’s exclusion of Professor Habib amounts to censorship at the border because it prevents U.S. citizens and residents from hearing speech that is protected by the First Amendment. The ACLU went to court on behalf of organizations that have invited Professor Habib to speak in the U.S., including the American Sociological Association (ASA), the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) and the Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights (BCPR). The lawsuit asks the court to prevent the government from excluding Professor Habib unless it comes forward with evidence to substantiate its accusations.
Habib is a renowned scholar, sought after political analyst, and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research, Innovation and Advancement at the University of Johannesburg. He is also a Muslim who has been a vocal critic of the war in Iraq. Until the government suddenly revoked his visa in October 2006 without explanation, he never experienced any trouble entering the U.S.; in fact, Habib lived in New York with his family for years while earning a Ph.D. in Political Science from the City University of New York.
The ASA press release goes on to add that Habib, in attempting to fly to the U.S. in 2006 "was detained for seven hours and interrogated about his associations and political views" and that "Armed guards eventually escorted him to a plane and deported him back to South Africa. The State Department later revoked the visas of Professor Habib’s wife and two small children, again, without explanation." Habib tried again in 2007, to no avail.
It offers the following conclusions:
“The American Sociological Association has become increasingly concerned about apparent systemic U.S. government interference in scientific exchange and the associated corrosion in the luster of the nation’s democratic face to the world. ASA has become sufficiently concerned about the need to defend our country’s commitment to free exchange. We seek to wrest a long-awaited explanation from the U.S. Departments of State and Department of Homeland Security as to why they refuse to admit internationally known South African scholar Adam Habib into the United States for purposes of scholarly exchange,” says Sally Hillsman, Executive Director of the ASA.
Professor Habib’s exclusion is part of a larger pattern. Over the past few years, numerous foreign scholars, human rights activists, and writers – all vocal critics of U.S. policy – have been barred from the U.S. without explanation or on vague national security grounds. In 2006, the ACLU filed a similar lawsuit on behalf of U.S. academic groups and Professor Tariq Ramadan, a widely respected Swiss scholar of the Muslim world. When the government revoked his visa in 2004, Professor Ramadan was prevented from assuming a tenured teaching position at the University of Notre Dame. The Ramadan lawsuit challenges the legality of his exclusion and the constitutionality of the Patriot Act provision under which he was initially excluded. He remains excluded from the U.S. to this day.
To repeat, Professor Habib’s exclusion is part of a larger pattern. Over the past few years, numerous foreign scholars, human rights activists, and writers – all vocal critics of U.S. policy – have been barred from the U.S. without explanation or on vague national security grounds.
This story has also recently been covered by the Christian Science Monitor which notes
Habib is just one foreigner of many who have faced either strenuous interrogation or expulsion by US immigration officials since 9/11. But his legal challenge shines a media spotlight on a visa process that has become more opaque in recent years, raising questions about the rights of individuals to free speech and to due process.
"This is a problem that is much bigger than just Professor Habib," says Melissa Goodman, an attorney with the ACLU who is handling Habib's case. "Since 9/11, writers, artists, and other have found it much more difficult to get into the US. What they have in common is that, like Professor Habib, they are vocal critics of US foreign policy."
Also, a South African news outlet, Independent Online, did a profile on Habib and found no explosive skeletons in his family's closet offering the following details on the possible bases for this case.
Habib said he was then told by a highly placed South African government official that his exclusion was apparently related to photographs taken of him addressing an anti-Iraq war rally in Durban.
"But the strange thing about that is that I know other people who addressed the same rally, and also had their pictures taken, and they, too, have not been denied entry."
He said that he had "of course" exchanged e-mails with Muslim scholars worldwide: "In the course of my job, I get about 70 e-mails a day from a variety of scholars from all over the world, Jewish ones, Islamic scholars, Christians, Marxists, neo-conservatives, fascists, deists - you name it".
Habib said that, in terms of Muslim practice, he also gave charity ("zakat") to various organisations.
"But I'm pretty careful about where I send my money and I focus on education and HIV/Aids in South Africa. I have also given to the Gift of the Givers, but they operate in co-operation with the department of foreign affairs - so if the US government wants to suggest that the department is also a terrorist organisation, well."
Habib said that, as far as he could tell, his exclusion from the US seemed to be the result of a mixture of "racial profiling" - "I'm a Muslim, after all" - and what the American Civil Liberties Union calls "ideological exclusion".
"It's scary. These days if the US government doesn't like what you say, or the views you apparently hold, well, it just won't let you in.
"But I think," Habib said, "the problem is much bigger than the case of Adam Habib and I think it's pretty serious - and that it's time our government did something about protecting its innocent citizens from being targeted and labelled in this way."
Habib said he had encountered a number of people who were targeted for no apparent reason.
"I have been told of a Canadian dentist of Muslim extraction who was whisked out of New York to Guantanamo Bay. It was all a big mistake, but it took his family nine months to get him out - and he was completely traumatised by then.
"You know, the constitutional court recently found that our government had an obligation to make sure that the mercenaries in Africa were not tortured, murdered, etc. How much more so does our government have a duty to its citizens - those falsely accused [like Habib] - and others?"
Here, too, is what the ACLU says about Ideological Exclusion Here is some further documentation.
Denying international scholars a chance to enter this country and to express their views freely is just a disgusting, totalitarian practice that needs to stop. Insinuating that someone is a "terrorist" because they happen to have an Arabic last name and don't support the Administration's views is part of the reason why we are distrusted by the very Arabic societies whose hearts and minds we are supposed to be winning over. This needs to stop.
UPDATE: Here is a link to a podcast of Habib discussing this case.
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