Professor cannot get visa to return to US

Mohamed Mahmoud, chair of the Comparative Religion department, has been unable to return to the United States all semester because of delays in processing his visa application. Two Iranian students have also not been allowed to return.

Mahmoud, a native of the Sudan, spent last year on sabbatical at Oxford University and is currently in Britain. Little is known about the other two students.

The difficulties that Mahmoud is experiencing are due to increased security after Sept. 11 and the ensuing USA Patriot Act.

While previously a visa would take about ten days to process, the time has increased drastically, especially for nationals of the 26 countries identified by the State Department as potential harbors for terrorism, including Iran, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. Under the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Reform Bill, signed earlier this year, visa applicants from those countries are subject to an additional 20 days of security screening and scrutiny by US officials.

However, the reality is that the time that it will take for the visas to clear is "indefinite," said Jane Etish-Andrews, the director of Tufts' International Center.

Although delays have affected all applicants, they are worse for males aged 16 to 45 from the countries named by the State Department. This is the result of a supplemental form, added at the beginning of the year, which is required at the discretion of a US official and can be used to flag individuals for further screening.

"These additional procedures strained the State Department," explained Kelly Shannon, a spokeswoman for the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs. "Getting this system up and running, and streamlining it, without compromising national security, has obviously led to a backlog."

Shannon denied that the screening based itself on nationality, but would not clarify the written policy, saying "we don't talk about that."

Mahmoud's absence from the Comparative Religion department has caused considerable difficulty in the small department, which has only three full-time professors. "The loss of one of the full-time members is even more felt by our department than in a larger department," Professor Peter Thuesen.

For the department to function, Professor Alnoor Dhanani was brought in to teach Mahmoud's classes this semester. Dean of Advising Christopher Nwabeke took on Mahmoud's freshmen advisees, and Joseph Walser's term as acting chair has been extended.

Mahmoud is scheduled to teach two classes next semester, Islam and Human Rights and Theories of Religion. Although the University is optimistic that he will return by then, the government has still not issued his visa.

Though Mahmoud's absence has created a manpower issue in the department, professors seem more concerned about the hole in the curriculum that it has created.

"From our perspective, it's particularly senseless that Prof. Mahmoud has not been allowed to reenter the country," said Thuesen. "His scholarship on Islam and Modernity is precisely what is most needed right now in American universities."

The International Center has been trying to help Mahmoud and two Iranian students who have been unable to return to the United States this semester. Tufts has contacted Senator Edward Kennedy's office to request that the senator communicate with the US embassies where the visas were applied for.

"Sometimes the Senator's office can push things along," she said, but "there are lots of this sort of requests." US embassies abroad are required, by law, to respond to senator's offices.

The State Department has enlisted the assistance of other US law enforcement and intelligence agencies in order to streamline the process as much as possible, though Shannon refused to clarify specific agencies that were being used. The State Department has always cross-checked the names of visa applicants with these agencies, as well as the International Criminal Police Organization.

But there is little optimism that this process will get faster in the near future. "What is necessary for national security is necessary for national security," Shannon said. "There is no requirement that we make [the process] as fast as possible."

Rachel Rubenson contributed to this article