Islamic militant or revolutionary?

BBC NEWS

Islamic militant or revolutionary?
Monday 25 July 2005, by Dominic Casciani

Islamic extremist or the man leading reform of the faith? Professor Tariq Ramadan explains why his critics are wrong and why the London bombings mean more than ever that Western Muslims must split from the East.

He’s the man the Sun loved to hate.

Five days after the London bombings, the newspaper ran a front-page story inviting readers to "MEET ISLAMIC MILITANT PROFESSOR TARIQ RAMADAN", urging the government to ban the Swiss academic from a conference this past weekend.

A week later, The Sun had a change of heart and ran a second piece, describing him as a "hero of young Muslims". Prof Ramadan came to London and indeed spoke to a large audience on the "Middle Way" at one of London’s largest mosques.

So will the real Tariq Ramadan please stand up?

The Sun’s attack on Prof Ramadan is only the latest he has faced in a controversial career. It has been widely written that he is banned from the USA as an extremist and condones suicide bombings.

He predicts he will be soon allowed to teach in the States and fulfill some of the 20 oustanding invitations he has to speak there. On the other issue, he insists that he absolutely condemns the taking of innocent life (for more on this, listen to his linked interview on BBC Radio Four’s Today programme).

In both cases he says these allegations were deliberately put about by American right-wingers who "would nurture this ’clash of civilisations’ theory, that somehow the Islamic East and West are incompatible."

"There is an ethical imperative to say to people, to explain to people what is going on in Palestine and urge the international community to speak out," he says. "That is all I have done. If we don’t, then our silence nurtures this violence; our silence is as bad as violence.

"In these really difficult times here in Britain, I am the wrong target. I think that this is what The Sun itself felt because they called me and did a second story about what I really think."

Influential thinker

Without a doubt, Tariq Ramadan is one of the most influential voices on young Muslims throughout Western society. His academic reputation comes from provoking their parents’ generation and the social mores that have travelled westwards.

He dismisses the subjugation of women as un-Islamic, rejects traditional punishments such as stoning and challenges the apparent right of the Muslim East to lead the faith. He switches conversation effortlessly from the Koran to great European thinkers. In short, he regards himself as the matchmaker between Islam and post-Enlightenment, rational European thought.

While Muslim critics say he betrays the faith, some Western academics say he nevertheless pushes an agenda of "Muslim first and European second" - an agenda that hinders integration.

"That’s all wrong," he says. "My work is about what it is to be truly Muslim and truly European at the same time. And that is why I get the support that I have found."

"Lets say you are vegetarian and a poet, and you are at a dinner. You are going to say you are vegetarian. But at a party, you will say you are a poet.

"We all have multiple identities which are also moving identities - and this is what European Muslims must solve. How can they remain true to their ethics and values? I think they need to start by getting rid of some of the confusion over what are Muslim values."

Prof Ramadan says large numbers of Western Muslims recognise that, like the rest of their society, they can be selective in what they subscribe to.

"There are many elements in British culture which are not against Islamic values. For a start, you are not obliged to drink alcohol, and many British people don’t drink at all," he says.

So rather than having some kind of theological panic over going into a bar with colleagues, the confident, young European Muslim may simply recognise drink as a fact of life for others, but not allow it to morally damage themselves.

’Silent revolution’

What Prof Ramadan says he wants is more of this "silent revolution" in Islamic thought. But does it help us work out why young men from Yorkshire blew themselves up?

Muslim communities must take immediate steps, he says, including facing down literal interpretations of the Koran that bear no relationship to modern life.

Top of his target list are Islamic bookshops which refuse to stock works in touch with the West and help perpetuate a sense of "guilt" among young Muslims for not striving hard enough to live up to an Islamic ideal.

But most of all, young Muslims must break out of an eastward-looking "social and intellectual ghetto" and go it alone.

Only when Middle East money stops building Mosques, and European-born Imams take the upper hand in guiding communities will Muslims square their ideology with European identity. This crucially requires the support of governments, he says.

"These young Muslims were born of two parents - one their Muslim community and the other British society. We need to blame both parents and both share our responsibilities."

"But we have to also ask our fellow citizens [to remove the ghettos] by recognising European society has changed. We have to get rid of this idea that there is this homogenous European culture that Islam threatens. Take the debate over Turkish membership of the EU.

"They fear it will bring in all these Muslims. Well they are here in the cities already and trying to be part of the solution."

So how far does this philosophy go in his personal life? How would he react if one of his four children announced they were marrying a non-Muslim?

"I would naturally prefer someone to share the principles of being a Muslim. But it’s their choice," he says.

"Look, by then, I will have done what I have had to do [as a father]. I have transmitted my principles to them. So I say to them, know who you are and your values.

"When you know this, then you are free."