NEW YORK, Jan 26: Citing the case of a prominent Muslim scholar who has been barred from the United States, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit on Wednesday seeking to strike down a clause of the Patriot Act that bars foreigners wanted in terrorism cases from entering the United States, the New York Times reported in its Thursday edition.

The suit was filed in the Federal District Court, Manhattan, on behalf of the scholar, Tariq Ramadan, and three organisations representing academics and writers who invited Mr Ramadan to speak at their gatherings.

The American Academy of Religion, a leading organization of religious scholars, said Mr Ramadan had never supported terrorism. They also argue that the Patriot Act clause has been applied to stifle academic debate in the United States.

Mr Ramadan, a Swiss citizen, has been denied a United States visa since July 2004, when he was on the verge of moving with his family to Indiana to take up a professor’s position at the University of Notre Dame.

In a telephone interview with the New York Times from Britain’s’ Oxford University, Mr Ramadan said he never received an explanation why his US visa was revoked.

Tariq Ramadan, 43, has authored 20 books on Islamic theology and the place of Muslims in the Western world. He is an outspoken critic of the Bush administration’s policies in the Middle East.