TARIQ RAMADAN

Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan was recently denied a U.S. visa, and has thus been unable to take up his teaching position at Notre Dame University. Ramadan was named one of the top 100 intellectual innovators of the new century by TIME magazine for his work regarding reconciliation between Western and Islamic ways of thinking. In other words, he's precisely the kind of person the U.S. should embrace if we genuinely want to engage the Islamic world in a dialogue about democracy.

Noted stark-raving conservative idealogue Daniel Pipes thinks it's a good thing that Ramadan has been denied entry into the U.S., as Ramadan has apparently said unkind things about Israel in the past. Despite his neatly-trimmed beard, though, I find Pipes' work less than impressive. This is a man, after all, who has referred to Jewish settlements on Palestinian land as "trivialities," which is about as clear an indication that he simply doesn't get it, aside from actually tattooing the words "I Simply Don't Get It" on his forehead, as one could expect. Nevertheless, just as it's advisable to read the National Review to familiarize one's self with the kooky ideas that the right is currently trying to foist upon America, reading Pipes' work helps one stay current with the chauvinistic Islamophobic academic set, currently hard at work developing a rationale for why America should do whatever it wants, whenever it wants, and why everyone else should just shut the fuck up about it.

Scott Martens at A Fistful of Euros is on the scene with an evisceration of Pipes' attacks on Ramadan, and of Pipes' nonsensical, though unfortunately politically influential, ideas in general.

P.S. The ironic thing is that, by denying Ramadan a visa and declaring him persona non grata in the U.S., the U.S. has likely greatly increased Ramadan's credibility in the Muslim world.