Slate Fare

Tariq Ramadan To Speak in New York

Come see Jacob Weisberg moderate a panel featuring George Packer and Ramadan in his first U.S. appearance since his visa was revoked.

In 2004, Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss professor of Islamic studies, lost a tenured position at Notre Dame after the Bush administration revoked his visa under the Patriot Act, following allegations that professor Ramadan had donated to a Swiss charity that gave money to Hamas.  Six years later—after Ramadan filed suit and the ruling that enabled the government to strip him of his visa was overturned—Professor Ramadan is appearing publicly for the first time since he was barred from the country. (Here’s the New York Times piece that explains the controversy in greater detail.)

We invite you to join Slate Group Chairman Jacob Weisberg as he moderates a conversation called “Secularism, Islam & Democracy: Muslims in Europe and the West” on Thursday, April 8, at Cooper Union. Ramadan, now professor of contemporary Islamic studies at Oxford University, will be joined on the panel by George Packer, a New Yorker staff writer and author; Dalia Mogahed, senior analyst and executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies; and Joan Wallach Scott, author of The Politics of the Veiland professor of social science at the Institute for Advanced Study.

The event, which is also hosted by the PEN American Center, the ACLU, and the American Association of University Professors (the three organizations that went to court to challenge the ruling against Ramadan), will take place at 7 pm at Cooper Union, 7 East Seventh St. (at Third Avenue), New York City. 

Tickets are $15 for the general public, $10 for AAUP/ACLU/PEN members and students. You can buy tickets here.