Perhaps it was my namesake that started this but now I must take a stand. Those of you who are unfamiliar with Tariq Ramadan, need only browse a few sites to get up-to-date. We could contextualise Ramadan in the following way (to paraphrase the great Francis Wheen): A mind so open that his brain has fallen out.
A brief bio describes him this way:
Named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most important innovators of the 21st century, Tariq Ramadan occupies a unique place among leading Islamic thinkers. Representing a new generation of Islamic reformers, Dr. Ramadan advocates the exploration and application of Islamic traditions and values within a modern pluralistic context, calling on Western Muslims to embrace Western culture rather than reject it. A Swiss national, he is a well-respected professor of philosophy at the College of Geneva and Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Fribourg. In fall 2004 Ramadan was appointed Henry R. Luce Professor of Religion, Conflict and Peacebuilding at the Kroc Institute at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, USA.
Ramadan has written more than twenty books exploring the difficult issues of reinterpretation and reform within Islam itself and between the Islamic world and its neighbors around the globe. His books include Western Muslims and the Future of Islam (Oxford University Press, 2003), Islam, the West, and the Challenges of Modernity(The Islamic Foundation, 2000), To Be a European Muslim(The Islamic Foundation, 1998), and Jihad, Violence, War and Peace in Islam (in French only, Tawhid, 2002). He has also published a total of 700 contributions or articles in collective books, academic reviews, and magazines.
Ramadan serves as an expert in various commissions linked to the Brussels Parliament, and is a member of several working parties concerned with Islam in the world and on the continent: Deutsches Orient Institute, British Council, Vienna Peace Summit, The Parliament of the World’s Religions 2004 in Barcelona, and the “Laïcité et Islam” commission of the French Educational League.(1)
Very impressive, you might think. I’d agree. But what does he really represent?
He straddles the middle-ground of extremist Islamists like the society his grandfather help start, The Muslim Brotherhood, and the vaporous beauty espoused by Karen Armstrong and Reza Aslan. Like a poor animal knocked over in the middle of the road, he is struggling and rolling clumsily to either side.
Perhaps my dislike of Ramadan began with his view on the stoning of women. In a discussion with Nicholas Sarkozy (on a French show called ‘One Hundred Minutes to Convince’), Ramadan gave his view on this disgusting practice:
Ramadan … replied that he favored a moratorium on such practices but refused to condemn the law outright.(2)
I can hear ‘Where Is My Mind’ beginning its first chords – and I think we have found Ramadan’s theme song. Brothers and sisters of freethought, rationalism and reason – what is a moratorium? Let us consult Meriam-Webster. It gives us these two definitions:
1 a: a legally authorized period of delay in the performance of a legal obligation or the payment of a debt b: a waiting period set by an authority
2: a suspension of activity (3)
Yes, let us think long and hard about whether it’s okay to stone women to death. Let’s first pause it for a while – but not stop it completely. This decision requires deep thought and, Ramadan’s favourite word, ‘contextualisation’. This corresponds to my favourite word: BS. We need to make ourselves good BS-detectors and my detector is spinning when it comes close to Ramadan-speak.
In a recent book about Tariq Ramadan (hence why this article is in ‘News’), Caroline Fourest carefully dissects the rhetariq, I mean, rhetoric of Ramadan. She gives numerous examples of his views. If his view on stoning women is not enough to upset you about this line-straddling “academic” mumbo-jumbo merchant, note that according to Ramadan”
[T]he reason women should be veiled is that ‘men are the weakest of the two [genders] and because the way men look at women is much more fragile than the reverse. This veil is a protection for the weakest of the two.’ In other words: women must be covered up to protect men from their own carnal appetites. Ramadan also counsels for ‘modesty’ in general: ‘If you try to attract men’s look by your forms, your perfume, your appearance or your gestures… you are not taking a spiritual path.’ A Muslim woman ‘can’t marry a man from another religion.’ And nor can she divorce.(4)
This form of thinking should be banished along with astrology, numerology, alchemy and other fibs of the Dark Ages. Where is the promotion of freedom? Where is the promotion of happiness and choice for all? Don’t look to Ramadan unless you want enmeshed tangled weeds of unreason, sprouting from the fecund decayed ground of nonsense.
Many are looking for Reformation in Islam – and they are looking to this double-speaker to do it. The middle ground will get us nowhere and I find it shocking that THIS is who represents moderate Muslims: A man who would bring back views of women from darker times. I urge everyone to read this book and to familiarise yourself with the problems of Islam, its leaderships and its tenets. And to improve your mumbo-jumbo detectors.
Brother Tariq: The Doublespeak of Tariq Ramadan by Caroline Fourest (Foreword by Denis MacShane) is published by The Social Affairs Unit, 2008, 293. pp.
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Did not realise this: an ex-Muslim criticising a moderate Muslim about extremist Muslims on Sept. 11 – is this progress?
Very informative post!! Thanks for your service and keep up the good work!!
thanks for the compliment and link – it is greatly appreciated! Keep up your good work too, friend.
Very good!
But please don’t associate a nice song like “Where’s my mind” with such a man…
Greetings from Brazil!
Thanks.
Okay – I’m sure the Pixies would hate me for this. Hello Brazil friend!
Gah, it was so friggin’ confusing at first when I was reading this article and seeing “Ramadan”…I kept thinking of the holiday. Anyway, excellent article Tauriq, great stuff.
thanks Mr. N.
The book on Ramadan looks pretty awful. Ramadan opposes the stoning of women. In fact the link given above demonstrates this:
Ramadan: Mr. Sarkozy, listen well to what I am saying [regarding the stoning of women]. What I say, my own position, is that the law is not applicable – that’s clear. But today, I speak to Muslims around the world and I take part, even in the United States, in the Muslim world…. You should have a pedagogical posture that makes people discuss things. You can decide all by yourself to be a progressive in the communities. That’s too easy. Today my position is, that is to say, ‘We should stop.’
Why do people feel the need to pull this quote out of context, like Paul Berman did in his TNR article and the author of this article is doing now?
Once again my focus is Ramadan’s double-speak which you appear to not detect. The essence of his views is not so easily encompassed – and this is a problem. He had the opportunity to outline a “progressive” (i.e. rational) view by STOPPING the stoning of women. But he does not say NO immediately. This is the problem – it would be easier to say he was an extremist, or fundamentalist (theoretically, we could argue all muslims are fundamentalist considering the reading of the Quran but I would be averse to saying something that broad)
Ramadan dances between lines and pulls a thousand faces to a thousand different people. This is NOT progress, hardindr. I have not pulled the quote out of context. This is exactly what he said. Your quote actually demonstrates how Ramadan flounders and fumbles when forced to give a definite position, when forced to answer for his views on the modern world, etc. – he states all those backward views HIMSELF. All i did was quote him.
And you have not defended him at all and provided NO evidence to the contrary of Ramadan’s views. Why? Because you can not. Ramadan is the man of a thousand faces all saying nothing and helping no one.
The blogging software ate my reply, so I will have to get back to you later.
Tariq Ramadan OPPOSES the stoning of BOTH men and women, and in fact he CAN’T GET INTO Saudi Arabia since the day he wrote about that. The reason he asked about a moratorium was to make progress.
There’s NO WAY to change the mentality of religious leaders in the Islamic world wiht a Western mentality. It will never work, NEVER. If you tell them “stoning is barbaric!” they will respond “haven’t you thought that we have a reason to do it?”. That reason is the written tradition, which for us is barbaric, but for them is THE WORD OF GOD. They cannot simply ignore the word of God. And our enlightened arguments aren’t valid for them. What Ramadan was trying to do was an intermediate solution, wich would lead to stopping stoning until it’s been debated, and frankly, he was possibly one of the few people in a position to do that.
What’s your position? Telling the king Abdullah to stop doing it because “we, in the West, deem it as barbaric”? Do you really think he is going to listen to you? Do you think that by condemning a millenary practice from your computers you’re going to make a difference? Ramadan wasn’t posing, he was trying to advance…
Tariq Ramadan’s discourse can’t be simplified easily. I’m not sure about him myself yet, and I fear Islamic interference in our culture too, but I doubt that French non-speakers can really know about him without missing information that will surely be stuck in the neo-con/zionist filter, which unfortunately is everywhere.
I’m neither a Muslim, nor a Christian or a Jew, by the way.