Have you read Sander L. Gilman's "The Parallels of Islam and Judaism in Diaspora" (Chronicle of Higher Education, Vol.51, No.31, 8 April 2005, <http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/60/144.html>)? As Gilman suggests, Muslims in Europe (and probably the United States) today are clearly going through the same struggle Jews and other cultural minorities went through earlier: How can one be a European (or an American) without ceasing to be a Muslim? What's the usable past in the cultural heritage of Islam in the post-modern capitalist world? A dialogue between Tariq Ramadan and Gilman on how to be Muslim and Jewish in Europe in Tikkun would be interesting, and it's guaranteed to get a lot of people's attention.
Anyhow, the Ramadan visa denial case is a good example of America's Muslim prejudice (the case is still in the news: <http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/04/14/news/scholar.php>). Ramadan sounds like exactly the kind of thinker that even the American power elite, not to mention the rest of America, might benefit from reaching out to, and yet he was unwelcome, and the power elite made sure that _everyone_ understood how unwelcome he was.
When the case was first brought to the public attention, the Muslim Students Association organized a petition campaign <http://www.petitiononline.com/MSANatl/petition.html> on Ramadan's behalf, and the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation included that in one of its action alerts. I forwarded it here, and even among leftists here, reactions to the petition campaign were decidedly mixed: "But, is this academic just another Sami al-Arian, of Islamic Jihad?" (at <http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2004/2004-September/021034.html>); "I am not going to sign any petition 'In the name of God'" (referring to the typical Muslim greetings at the beginning of the MSA petition at <http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2004/2004-September/021071.html>); "It's as offensive for purported allies to talk about God in public policy spheres as it is when enemies do it" (also referring to the same at <http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2004/2004-September/021046.html>).
> i'm increasingly convinced that one way to make up for the deficit
> you describe below is American periodicals like ours doing better
> recruiting for writing in Europe. I have met, for example, many
> progressive secular persons of both Arab and Pakistani background in
> the UK, who do unbelievable work, but only for British publications.
> Particularly academics, whose writing just needs a little
> accessibility refinement and editing for more broad public audiences
> here interested in left perspectives.
I agree. I've received some submissions from people who fit the bill: e.g., Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, "The Muslim in the Mirror" (23 Feb. 2006), <http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/aam230206.html>; "Persian Atoms: Enriching Facts, Diverting Fiction" (26 April 2006), <http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/aam260406.html>.
But, more urgently than the matter of publication, we have to have a way of including ordinary Muslims in activism. In activism, we can't just talk to people who are already on the same page with us, so to speak, with regard to the space of religion in society, questions of sex/gender/sexuality, etc. -- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>