A lengthy visa delay has prevented a Bangladeshi scholar from taking a teaching post this fall at Oklahoma State University, where his American wife has already relocated, the Tulsa World reported. The scholar, Azfar Hussain, is not a terrorist and “has never advocated violence of any kind,” his wife, Melissa Hussain, told the newspaper.

Mr. Hussain is just one of a number of foreign scholars who have been denied opportunities to teach or attend conferences in the United States in recent years because of visa delays or denials. Civil-liberties groups say the Bush administration has stepped up the use of heightened security measures to keep out scholars whose politics or ideas it does not like.

Mr. Hussain, who applied for a marriage visa in 2005, was supposed to receive his visa in May, but has received no word on its status. Melissa Hussain said she believes her husband’s criticism of U.S. government policies is part of the reason his visa has not yet been approved. —Charles Huckabee