Brother Tariq: The Doublespeak of Tariq Ramadan

by Caroline Fourest

  Embarassing. But Ramadan found a way of softening the blow. He had people believe that he won against Sfeir by deliberately mixing up the two cases, the one concerning the editor of the Cahiers de ('Orient and the other concerning Lyon Mag. He did this so that he could claim on TV that he had won his lawsuits against all those who had accused him of resorting to a double language. On the TV show Campus, for example, on December 4, 2003, he was targeted by Guillaume Durand: "You lost the lawsuit against Antoine Sfeir ... " But Ramadan persevered ... and lied: "No, I won my suit against Antoine Sfeir." The Cahiers de l'Orient editor couldn't get over it: "I knew he was adept at doublespeak; now I know he's a horrendous liar as well."

  Conclusion

  When I began this inquiry, I had, as you can imagine, certain preconceptions about Tariq Ramadan. Having read a number of his books, I expected to be analyzing a form of discourse that was deceptive in its complexity but not necessarily duplicitous. I was convinced that the portrait I would gain would be not of a progressive anti-globalist, but of a bigot and a moralist-though not especially of a fundamentalist. I thought I would come across the Muslim Brotherhood, or at least their influence; but I still believed Ramadan when he claimed he was an independent thinker. I do not believe him any longer.

  The months spent dissecting his evolution, his discourse, and his impact have convinced me that he is a pure product of al-Banna's ideology, without doubt one of its most dangerous emissaries, and certainly the most effective. The opacity of his objectives is not due to the complexity of his language: it is a rhetorical Trojan horse, skilfully put together so as to confuse and finally to overcome resistance. Thanks to a double-sided sales pitch that conveys one meaning on the "inside" and another on the "outside," he lives up to all his promises: he disarms those who are wary of Islamism, establishes "spheres of collaboration," discredits the liberal Muslims and radicalizes the others. It is quite possible that some tendencies within the Brotherhood are not wholly in accord with the strategy employed by al-Banna's grandson, but the others are quite right to trust him. What he is in the process of accomplishing, following in the footsteps of Said Ramadan, could well result in the realization of his father's dream and that of al-Banna before him. Like his father, Tariq has understood that the future of Islamism is to be played out in the West. He is better equipped than his father to penetrate democracy, to take advantage of freedom of speech to exploit the naivete of the West and make it his area of operations: for dawa, for shahada-and for revenge. Surprising though it may seem, it is this dream that motivates Tariq Ramadan, descendant of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, who fills in for us, lecture after lecture, the outlines of an ideal society made up of Muslim individuals faithful to their origins, traditional Muslim families, and a Muslim "social arena."

  But Ramadan is not without his own particular way of advancing towards this ideal. While remaining scrupulously faithful to the strategy mapped out by his grandfather, a strategy of advance stage by stage, he adapts it to his context. He aims not at a national takeover of power in Egypt, but at a transnational cultural revolution. That is why he never stays put; why he is constantly jetting from one airport to the next, either to sap the forces opposed to Islamism or to galvanize the Muslims-ever in search of conversions, obsessed with the idea of coordinating this "Islamic revival." His father and his grandfather alone changed the course of history. Tariq Ramadan has inherited their energy. He is perfectly capable, on his own, of hastening the coming of obscurantism.

  Do we have here a providential man we can expect to modernize Islam and encourage dialogue between civilizations? The answer is no. And it is high time we put an end to our naivete lest we become his accomplices.

  Notes

  Chapter one

  i Quoted by Xavier Ternisien in his portrayal of Tariq Ramadan in La France des mosquees [France and its Mosques], Paris, Albin Michel, 2002, pp. 206-22.

  2 TV program videotaped in November 1997 by the Belgian broadcaster RTBF.

  3 " Lintellectuel musulman fait peur! [The Muslim intellectual is frightening!]," Le journal du Mardi, no. 155, March 9, 2004. Interview with Laurent Arnauts and Malika Es-SaIdi.

  4 Homme, January 2004. Homme is the premier Moroccan meri s magazine.

  5 Laura Secor, The reformer," Boston Globe, November 30,2003-

  6 Alain Gresh and Tariq Ramadan, L'Islam en questions [Questioning Islam], a debate organized and presented by Francoise Germain-Robin, Sindbad, 2002, pp. 33-34. Babel/Sindbad collection directed by Farouk Mardam-Bey (1st ed. 2000).

  7 The Muslim Brotherhood's creed, ratified by the third congress ofthe Muslim Brotherhood in March 1935, in Olivier Carre and Michel Seurat, Les Freres Musulmans (1928-1982), Paris, EHarmattan, 2001 (fisted., Gallimard, 1983)-

  8 Gresh and T. Ramadan, L'Islam en questions, p. 35.

  9 Ibid., p. 37•

  io Tariq Ramadan cassette, "Courants de la pensee musulmane contemporaine [Trends in Muslim contemporary thought]," parts 2 and 3 on "Hassan al-Banna," Tawhid.

  it The glossary in question had been commissioned by a Nouvel Observateur journalist but was refused because of its extremely partisan contents. Tariq Ramadan published it as an annex to Etre musulman europeen, but not without protesting against this "bizarre way of proceeding" and against this censorship." Tariq Ramadan, Etre musulman europeen: etude des sources islamiques a la lumieres du contexte europeen [To Be a European Muslim: A Study of Islamic Sources in the Light of the European Context], Lyon, Tawhid, 1999, tr. from English by Claude Dabbak, p. 418.

  12 Ingy Al-Qadi and Yolande Youssef, Al- Ahram Hebdo, June 14, 2000.

  13 Thameem Ushama, Hassan al-Banna, Vision et mission [Hassan al-Banna: His Vision and His Mission], Perce- takan Zafar Sdn. Bhd, Kuala Lumpur, 1995, P. 31-

  14 Tariq Ramadan, Aux sources du renouveau musulman. D'al-Afghani a Hassan al-Banna, un siecle de reformisme islamique [On the Origins of the Muslim Renaissance: From al-Afghani to Hassan al-Banna; a century of Islamic reformism], Lyon, Tawhid, 2002, p. 203 (ist ed. Bayard, 1998).

  15 Sura XL11, "Consultation," 36-38, The Meaning of the Holy Koran, ed. Abdullah Yusuf Ali, new ed., rev. tr., Beltsville (Md.), USA, 1989 114091-

  16 Salaf in Arabic means the "devout ancestors." It is important not to confuse literalist Salafism with the reformist Salafism (not literalist but still fundamentalist) of Tariq Ramadan, who is fundamentalist but not literalist. See also Chapter 3-

  17 T. Ramadan, Etre musulman europeen, p. 418-

  18 Interview with Ali Merad, March 8, 2004.

  19 T. Ramadan, Aux sources du renouveau musulman, p. 22, note 6.

  20 Interview with Mohamed Sifaoui, June 2004-

  21 The second jury, presided over by Philippe Borgeaud, was made up of Bruno Etienne (IEP, Aix-en-Provence), Reinhard Schulze (Berne), Richard Friedli (Fribourg), and Sylvia Naef (Geneva).

  22 Contrary to tradition, no copy of the thesis is available in the library. Only the Bayard edition exists with, in the form of an epigraph, the statement by the Dean ofthe Faculty of Letters, June 30,1998-

  23 Carre and Seurat, Les Freres Musulmans, p.11.

  24 Quoted by Tariq Ramadan, Aux sources du renouveau musulman, p. 11.

  25 Hassan al-Banna, Epitre aux jeunes [Letter to the Young].

  26 This and the quotes that follow are all taken from Hassan al-Banna, "Les cinquante demandes du programs des Freres Musulmans (1936) [The fifty demands of the Muslim Brotherhood program of 19361," Islam de France, no. 8, October 2000.

  31 In Hassan al-Banna. Vision et Mission, Thameem Ushama, a Brotherhood

  historian, took offense at the idea that the "enemies" of the Brotherhood had used this episode to discredit them, but does not deny the facts.

  27 Interview with Michel Renard, January 12, 2004-

  28 T. Ramadan, "Courants de la pensee musulmane contemporaine: Hassan al-Banna."

  29 Ibid.

  30 Carre and Seurat, Les Freres Musulmans, p. 18.

  32 Hassan al-Banna, Al-qawl al
fasl [Last Words], 1948, and Al-Baydn [Declaration], 1948, two posthumous brochures quoted in R. Sa'id, Hassan..., p. 149. Commented in Carre and Seurat, Le Freres Musulmans, p. 32.

  33 Ramadan, Aux sources du renouveau musulman, p. 200.

  34 Ibid., p. 218.

  35 Given as the model to be imitated by Tariq Ramadan in his cassette devoted to Hassan al-Banna and in Aux sources du renouveau musulman.

  36 T. Ramadan, Aux sources du renouveau musulman, p. 281, note 3-

  37 al-Banna, Epitre auxjeunes.

  38 T. Ramadan, "Courants de la pensee musulmane contemporaine."

  39 Gresh and T. Ramadan, L'Islam en questions, p. 25.

  40 Carre and Seurat, Les Freres Musulmans, p. 37.

  41 T. Ramadan, "Courants de la pensee musulmane contemporaine."

  42 Carre and Seurat, Les Freres Musulmans, p. 23-

  43 Zaynab al-Ghazali, Des jours de ma vie [Some Days from My Life], Beirut, Al-Bouraq, 1996, preface by Tariq Ramadan.

  44 Ibid., PP. 57-58.

  45 Ibid., p. 58-

  46 T. Ramadan, Aux sources du renouveau musulman, p. 182.

  47 Interview with Jean-Yves Chaperon, March 15, 2004-

  48 See the book of interviews with Has san al-Tourabi edited by Alain Chev- alerias: Islam: avenir du monde [Islam: The Future ofthe World], Paris, J. C. Lattes, 1997.

  49 Serge Raffy, "Le vrai visage de Tariq Ramadan [The true face ofTariq Ramadan]," Le Nouvel Observateur, January 29-February 4, 2004-

  50 Interview with Antoine Sfeir, December 29, 2003-

  51 Interview with Richard Labeviere, May 15, 2004-

  52 T. Ramadan, Aux sources du renouveau musulman, p. 29.

  53 Gresh and T. Ramadan, L'Islam en questions, p. 34-

  54 Carre and Seurat, Les Freres Musulmans, p. 44-

  55 T. Ramadan, Aux sources du renouveau musulman, p. 356.

  56 Ibid., p. 22.

  57 Gresh and T. Ramadan, L'Islam en questions, p. 34-

  58 T. Ramadan, Aux sources du renouveau musulman, p. 356.

  59 Dictionnaire mondial de l'Islamisme [World Dictionary of Islamism], ed. by Les Cahiers de l'Orient, Paris, Plon, 2002, p. 188.

  6o T. Ramadan, "Courants de pensees musulmane contemporaine."

  61 Gresh and T. Ramadan, L'Islam en questions, p. 76.

  62 T. Ramadan, "Courants de la pensee musulmans contemporaine: Hassan al-Banna."

  63 Ibid.

  64 "Lintellectuel musulman fait peur! [The Muslim intellectual is frightening!]," Le journal du Mardi, no. 155, March 9, 2004. Interview with Laurent Arnauts and Malika Es-SaIdi.

  65 Richard Labeviere, Les dollars de la ter- reur[The Terror Dollars], Paris, Grasset, 1999, PP- 136-37.

  66 Declaration dating from 15 January 1954, quoted by a biographer of Hassan al-Banna, Thameem Ushama in Hassan al-Banna, Vision et mission, p. 95.

  67 Sayyid Qutb, "Social ... ," quoted by Carre and Seurat, Les Freres Musulmans, p. 86.

  68 Qutb's book and its context are admirably analyzed in Gilles Kepel, Le Prophete et Pharaon [The Prophet and Pharaoh], Paris, Seuil, 1993 (ist ed. 1984)-

  69 Quoted by Kepel, Le Prophete et Pharaon.

  70 Ibid., p. 213-

  71 T. Ramadan, Aux sources du renouveau musulman, p. 416.

  72 al-Ghazali, Des jours de ma vie, p. 33-

  73 T. Ramadan, Preface to al-Ghazali, Des jours de ma vie, p. ii.

  74 al-Ghazali, Des jours de ma vie.

  75 Ibid., p. 117.

  76 She wrote: "He gave me a sallow smile and said, `That means that you really are conspiring against Nasser and his regime. That's clear from your own words, pilgrim Zanab,' and I said, `Islam knows nothing of conspiracy, but looks evil in the face and enlightens people as to the two roads between which they must choose: God's path, the road of righteousness; or the devil's path, the road of evil."' Ibid., p. 118.

  77 T. Ramadan, Preface to al-Ghazali, Des fours de ma vie, p. ii.

  78 Gilles Kepel, A l'ouest d'Allah [West of Allah], Paris, Points Seuil, 1994, P198.

  79 T. Ramadan, Etre musulman europeen, PP. 11-13-

  8o Telephone interview with Mohammed Seddiqi, December 18, 2003.

  Chapter two

  1 Alain Gresh and Tariq Ramadan, L'Islam en questions [Questioning Islam], a debate organized and presented by Francoise Germain-Robin, Sindbad, 2002, p. 19.

  2 Tariq Ramadan, Islam, le face-a-face des civilisations. Quel pro jet pour quelle modernite? [Islam: The Confrontation of Civilizations. What Sort of Plan for What Sort of Modernity?], Lyon, Tawhid, 2001, p. 6.

  3 Gresh and T. Ramadan, L'Islam en questions, p. 25.

  q T. Ramadan, Islam, le face-a-face des civilisations, p. 6.

  5 Ibid., p.7.

  6 Ibid., p. 9.

  7 Ibid., p. 7.

  8 Cited in Dictionnaire mondial de l'Islamisme [World Dictionary of Islamism], ed. by Les Cahiers de l'Orient, Paris, Plon, 2002, p. 61.

  9 Said Ramadan, La sharia. Le droit islamique, son envergure et son equite [The Sharia: Islamic Law. Its Scope and Equity], Paris, Al-Qalam, 1997.

  io T. Ramadan, Islam, le face-a-face des civilisations, p. 8.

  ii Said Ramadan, Islamic Law: Its Scope and Equity, London, Macmillan, 1961.

  14 Among the other sponsors listed prominently by the Center: Haidar

  Bammate, Professor Muhammad Ha- midullah, Abdul Hassan Ali al-Nadawi, Maulana Ahmad Zafar al-Ansari.

  15 Said Ramadan, Islam. Doctrine et mode de vie [Islam: Its Doctrine and Its Way of Life], brochure no. 3 of the Geneva Islamic Center, published by Tawhid (Lyon, 1993), PP. 12-13-

  16 Interview with Jacques Pitteloud.

  17 Cited in the Dictionnaire mondial de l'Islamisme, p. 193-

  18 Under the patronage of Riad al- Droubie, Ja'far Sheikh Idris, and T. Hassan.

  19 Gresh and T. Ramadan, L'Islam en questions, p. 14-

  20 Which was no problem. In Islam men are encouraged to spread the faith by taking women of the two other monotheistic faiths as wives.

  21 Said Ramadan, La Sharia, p. 6.

  22 Tariq Ramadan cassette, "Les grands peches [The major sins]," recorded in Reunion, August 1999, QA 4, Tawhid.

  23 T. Ramadan, Islam, le face-a-face des civilisations, p. ii.

  24 Ibid., p. 5

  25 Serge Raffy, "Le vrai visage de Tariq Ramadan [Tariq Ramadari s true face]," Le Nouvel Observateur, January 29-February4, 2004-

  26 Gresh and T. Ramadan, L'Islam en questions, p. 24-

  27 Ibid., p. 24-

  28 Ibid., pp. 17-19.

  29 Ghandour Abdel-Rahman, Le jihad humanitaire, enquete sur les ONG islamiques [The Humanitarian Jihad: A Report on the Islamic NGOs], Paris, Flammarion, 2002.

  30 T. Ramadan, "Les grands peches."

  12 Ibid., pp. 9-18. French edition.

  13 Quoted from the statutes of the Center.

  31 Quoted in Caroline Fourest and Fiammetta Venner, Tirs CroisCs. La latcite a l'epreuve des integrismes juif, chretien et musulman [Crossfire. Secularism on the Edge of Jewish, Christian and Muslim Political Fundamentalism], Paris, Calmann-Levy, 2003-

  32 Les musulmans francophones. Comprehension, la terminologie, le discours [French-speaking Muslims: Understanding, Terminology, Language], Lyon, Tawhid, 2001.

  38 The 11th session, held in Stockholm in July 2003, did in fact declare that kamikaze attacks were in every respect

  lawful. The `martyr operations' carried out by the Palestinian groups to resist the Zionist occupation in no way come under the heading of forbidden terrorism, even if it turns out that some ofthe victims are civilians." One of the justifications given by the European branch of the UOIF is that, in any case, the so-called `civilians' are `soldiers' ofthe army of the sons of Ziori' and as such these "so-called [Israeli] `civilians' continue to be invaders and oppressors, both evil and tyrannical." Which gives an idea of the role played by the European Council for Fatwa in radicalizing Western Muslims. See "Qaradhawi favorable aux operations suicide lors d'une conference islamique en S
uede," MEMR.I [Institut de recherche mediatique du Moyen-Orient], special issue no. 542, July 25, 2003-

  33 Interview in Yasmina, no. 1o, July 2003-

  34 Criteres pour une organisation musulmane en France [Criteria for Muslim Organizations in France], UOIF brochure. No date, but distributed during the UOIF annual meetings in 2002, 2003, and 2004-

  35 Some are simply local offices; others are national associations named according to their sectors ofactivity: Muslim Womeri s League, Young French Muslims, French Muslim Students, Avicienne (an association of Muslim doctors), Les Imams de France (an association that trains imams), or mutual assistance associations, such as the Committee for Palestinian Charity and Relief. Two transnational organizations round off this list: the European Council for Fatwa and Research and the European Social Sciences Institute (a training center for imams).

  36 Conseil europeen de la fatwa et de la recherche, Recueil defatwas [Compendium of Fatwas], series no. 1, preface and presentation by Tariq Ramadan, Lyon, Tawhid, 2002.

  39 www.aljazeera.net, June 17, 200439

  40 Cited in Raffy, "Le vrai visage de Tariq Ramadan."

  41 Cited in Le Monde, February 12, 2003-

  42 Christophe Ayad and Olivier Bertrand, "Predicateur tous terrain [An all-purpose preacher]," Liberation, February , 2004. 5,2004-

  43 Ibid.

  44 Le Courrier, JanuarY7, 1995.

  45 "Les musulmans de Suisse etaient francais [The Swiss Muslims turned out to be French]," L'Hebdo, December 22,1994•

  46 Ibid.

  47 Ibid.

  48 Ibid.

  49 Ibid.

  37 This fatwa can be consulted on the Hamas website.

  5o Tariq Ramadan cassette, "La vie conjugale en Islam [Married life in Islam]," recorded in Mauritius, Tawhid.