“It just sad, it’s just unbelievable that we can treat people with such commitment for justice and dignity, to be put in jail for supporting the Palestinians.” These were the opening words of guest speaker Tariq Ramadan’s keynote address on Saturday June 19, at the Muslim Legal Fund of America’s first benefit dinner in Michigan.  He referenced his reaction when learning of the legal situation of Syrian singer Abu Ratib and the five men from the Holy Land Foundation. The five founding members of the organization were detained and imprisoned for contributing to an overseas charity that was found to have Hamas connections, although the U.S. government acknowledged that all funds went for humanitarian purposes.

The Muslim Legal Fund of America is a non-profit organization that, through donations, financially supports various legal cases which “impact civil rights, freedoms, liberties and principles of justice in America,” particularly in the cases of Muslim Americans. With Southeast Michigan having the highest concentration of Muslim Americans, Khalil Meek, president of MLFA, sought to have the dinner here.

Ramadan is a Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies in the Faculty of Oriental Studies at Oxford University.

This is the second time Ramadan has visited Dearborn after the ban that prevented him from entering the United States of America was lifted on June 10, 2010.

Saeed Khan, professor of Near East and Asian Studies at Wayne State University in Detroit, noted that Ramadan was an example of an unjust action by the government, yet it was rectified.

 “Think about someone of the stature of Professor Ramadan, and how much work it took to reverse the ban,” Khan said. “Now think about all those people who do not have the notoriety so that other organizations and other people’s funds could then immediately mobile to this defense, and you understand the need for a Muslim legal fund of America.”

“Indigenous Muslims are more likely to know their rights and responsibilities as Americans,” said Imam Aly Lela. “For many of the immigrants…they have it in their psyche that they are not fully American, and that is something we need to work on. It takes events like this for the Muslim leaders to educate people about their constitutional and legal rights and their responsibilities.”

Lela said that these issues were the focus of Professor Ramadan’s address: “Rights. Duties. Justice.”

Tariq Ramadan noted that foundations like MLFA require Muslims to not make a separation between the spirituality of being a Muslim, and the practice of helping those in need.

“We have to come back to this, not by being completely activist(s) and forgetting the essence and not by coming back to the essence by forgetting the people around us. To be close to God is to serve the people,” he said.

Ramadan also held clear that if American Muslims can see the injustices here in America, then they also can see it in the Muslim world and must be consistent.

“If I want to be heard and have this credibility when I speak, I cannot say ‘Oh, let’s speak of America and we are going to forget about what is going on in Muslim majority countries.” he said. “Islam is great but not all the Muslims are, and less even the governments.”