JONATHAN TURLEY

The ACLU has filed a lawsuit after a well-known anti-war activist was barred from the United States without any explanation or known justification. For the story, click here Adam Habib is deputy vice-chancellor of Research, Innovation and Advancement at the University of Johannesburg. He is also a muslim and anti-war scholar. There is a general concern that the combination of being Muslim and anti-war tends to be treated as a per se terrorist threat. It is hard to imagine an anti-war Catholic scholar or jewish scholar being pulled off a plane in New York City and interrogated for hours. At a minimum, the government owes an explanation to the scholar. It is cases like Habib’s that threaten the status of American educational institutions in the world. If, as alleged, Habib was singled out for his past views, it constitutes a very serious violation of our principles as well as international principles.