The Obama administration has lifted a Bush-era ban on two Muslim scholars who were barred from entering the United States. On Wednesday, the State Department said Adam Habib and Tariq Ramadan are no longer deemed a security threat and will be allowed to apply for entry visas. Ramadan was offered a position at the University of Notre Dame in 2004. The Bush administration initially barred his entry without explanation and then said it was because he once gave money to a Palestinian charity. A South African social scientist, Habib was deported in 2006 after traveling to the US for a series of academic meetings. In a statement, the American Civil Liberties Union hailed what it called “a major victory” and called on the Obama administration to “retire the practice of ideological exclusion for good.”