Tariq Ramadan

This is a story that should be on the covers of the papers. Tariq Ramadan, a leading scholar of religious studies and a Muslim from Switzerland, was offered an endowed chair (in Peace Studies) at Notre Dame. Although the State Department had granted Ramadan his visa, The Department of Homeland Security stepped in and overruled State. Scotland Yard and swiss inteligence are among the groups that have conducted investigations and found Ramadan does not constitute a threat, but Homeland Security refuses to explain itself. http://www.alternet.org/rights/19741/ Follow link for full story. By all accounts (except, I guess, the account that Homeland Security isn't at liberty to divulge), Ramadan is a moderate advocating tolerance among muslims, especially muslims in western Europe. The international Israeli press has praised his work fighting for an end to anti-semitic violence in Europe.

Also of interest: http://costofwar.com The human lives lost in Iraq (untold numbers of Iraqi civilians killed by our tax dollars during the war and the thirteen years of U.S. bombing that preceded it, not to mention the 1,000+ U.S. soldiers) don't seem to matter to those still beating the war drum. The brazen violation of centuries of just war tradition (those of us who went to Jesuit schools had to read St. Thomas Aquinas--thanks Fr. McGovern, S.J.) decrying pre-emptive military action don't seem to matter. So maybe the financial cost will matter, especially to those free marketeers still loving Dubya. My favorite statistic from the page: the three million+ four-year university scholarships we could have covered with the dough spent on the Iraq quagmire.