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For Immediate Release
April, 05 2010, 02:47pm EDT
Contact:
Rachel Myers, (212) 549-2689 or 2666; media@aclu.org
Previously Banned Scholars to Speak in New York This Week
Professors Adam Habib and Tariq Ramadan Were Kept Out of U.S. Because of Their Political Views
NEW YORK
Two prominent scholars will participate
in speaking engagements in New York this week after years of being
wrongfully denied entry to the United States on the basis of their
political views. Professor Adam Habib of the University of Johannesburg
will speak at the CUNY Graduate Center on Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. and
Professor Tariq Ramadan of St. Antony's College, Oxford University, will
speak at Cooper Union on Thursday at 7:00 p.m.
The American Civil Liberties Union
had challenged the denial of visas to Professors Habib and Ramadan in
separate lawsuits filed on behalf of American organizations that had
invited them to speak to U.S. audiences. In a major victory for civil
liberties, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in January signed orders
effectively ending the exclusion of Professors Habib and Ramadan. Both
men have since obtained 10-year visas and are currently in the U.S.
Details of Professor Habib's speaking
engagement
WHAT:
POLITICS AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN
SOUTH AFRICA TODAY, a public talk
WHO:
Professor
Adam Habib, Deputy Vice Chancellor of Research, Innovation and
Advancement at the University of Johannesburg
Co-sponsored by the CUNY Political
Science Program and the Center for Place, Culture and Politics
WHERE:
CUNY Graduate Center Political
Science Lounge
Room 5200
365 Fifth Ave. at 34th St.
New York, NY
WHEN:
Wednesday, April 7
2:15 p.m. EST
FOR MORE
INFORMATION:
(212) 817-8670 or (212) 817-8674
Details of Professor Ramadan's speaking
engagement
WHAT:
SECULARISM, ISLAM, & DEMOCRACY:
MUSLIMS IN EUROPE AND THE WEST, a panel discussion
WHO:
Professor
Tariq Ramadan, Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies at
Oxford University and author of What I
Believe, in his first U.S. appearance since he was barred from
the U.S. in 2004
Dalia
Mogahed, Senior Analyst and Executive Director of the Gallup
Center for Muslim Studies
George
Packer, Staff writer at The New Yorker and author of Interesting Times: Writings from a Turbulent
Decade
Joan
Wallach Scott, Professor of Social Science at the Institute for
Advanced Study, Princeton University and author of The Politics of the Veil
Moderated
by Jacob Weisberg, Journalist and Editor-in-Chief of The Slate
Group
Co-sponsored by the ACLU, American
Association of University Professors, PEN American Center and Slate
WHERE:
The Great Hall, Cooper Union
7 East 7th St. at Third Ave.
New York, NY
WHEN:
Thursday, April 8
7:00 p.m. EST
TICKETS:
$15/$10 for PEN/ACLU members and
students with a valid ID
Tickets available through www.smarttix.com,
(212) 868-4444, or at the door
The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 and is our nation's guardian of liberty. The ACLU works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.
(212) 549-2666LATEST NEWS
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Two federal judges are giving President Donald Trump the green light to send National Guard troops into Portland, Oregon on Monday.
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The two judges who ruled in the DOJ's favor were appointed by Trump, while the lone dissenter in the case, Judge Susan Graber, was appointed by former President Bill Clinton.
The court's majority ruled that the protests outside the Portland Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility were sufficiently disruptive to justify deploying the National Guard, despite the fact that demonstrations outside the facility in recent weeks had not disrupted operations.
Judge Ryan Nelson, one of the Trump appointees, went so far as to issue a concurring opinion stating that the president's right to deploy the National Guard, even over the objections of state and local officials, cannot be reviewed by the judiciary.
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Graber's argument echoed a ruling made earlier this month by Immergut, who was also appointed to the bench by Trump and who said his declarations that violent protests at the Portland ICE facility prevented the enforcement of the law were "untethered to facts."
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It also zeroed in on their feelings about pro-Israel lobbying groups, including the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which supported 152 Democrats who received more than $28 million in total during the 2024 election and had a role in toppling several House progressives, including then-Reps. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY).
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Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), a progressive who has referred to Israel's actions as a "genocide" and sponsored a bill to halt military aid to the nation, was targeted with more than $157,000 worth of digital ads and mailers in 2022 by the AIPAC ally Democratic Majority for Israel. However, in 2024, while blitzing other races, the groups held off on targeting Ramirez, whose support was deemed to be too strong.
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One of the victims in the assault was a 55-year-old Palestinian woman named Umm Saleh Abu Alia, whom BBC reports had to be hospitalized after being knocked unconscious by a baton-wielding masked settler. Abu Alia was initially admitted into an intensive care unit, and she is currently in stable condition, according to BBC's sources.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) released a statement saying it "strongly condemns any form of violence" by settlers, but Jasper Nathaniel, a US journalist who filmed the attacks, told BBC that Israeli forces suspiciously "sped off" away from the area shortly before the assault began.
Nathaniel told Drop Site News that settlers are "hunting Palestinians" in the town.
⚡️Exclusive | Drop Site News speaks with journalist Jasper Nathaniel (@infinite_jaz), who documented a brutal settler attack today in Turmus’ayyer village near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. Jasper tells us Israeli settlers are “hunting Palestinians” — and that if nothing… https://t.co/DP6h89XJCz pic.twitter.com/q6OvvtEp8u
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) October 19, 2025
BBC's report noted that more than a dozen masked Israeli settlers were seen throwing rocks at Palestinians during the Sunday harvest, and Middle East Eye cited reports that the settlers had also set Palestinians' cars on fire and stole their olive crops.
According to The Times of Israel, no arrests have yet been made of any of the settlers who took part in the attacks.
Israeli settlers, who under international law are living illegally in occupied territory, have for years carried out attacks on Palestinian civilians harvesting olives in an attempt to drive them from their lands—sometimes with the participation of IDF soldiers.
Middle East Eye reports that the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission estimates there have been more than 7,000 settler attacks on Palestinians over the last two years that have claimed the lives of 33 people.
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