Brother Tariq: The Doublespeak of Tariq Ramadan (16 page)

This background is necessary in order to understand the context in which
the denial ofTariq Ramadan's entry permit took place. The French police sent
a report to Jean-Louis Debre, then Minister of the Interior, to remind him of
the ties between Tariq Ramadan and the Brotherhood, as well as his participation in Secours Islamique. The report also specified that Tariq Ramadan
had translated "newspapers published by the Hamas movement in the occupied territories." It concluded that "the intellectual influence of such a person
could be particularly dangerous" in a climate of such tension.

The refusal of an entry permit for Ramadan immediately set off a scandal. A defense committee was set up, including radical Islamists close to the
Center and to the Geneva Mosque, but also leading figures from the Left,
the Catholic Church, and the Human Rights League, to request that the ban
be lifted. Ramadan had, in effect, brought all his talents to bear to appear as
the victim of an unjust conspiracy. Ten days after learning that he had been
denied entry, in the course of a lecture given in Brussels, he adopted a particularly melodramatic tone to reassert that the ordeal would not deter him
from his mission: "Because the path before us is not determined by circumstance, but laid out by destiny."85 Once again, his speech curiously brings to
mind Hassan al-Banna's last address, shortly before his death, in which he
announced to his companions that, once their true nature was revealed, they should be prepared to face adversity. Tariq Ramadan made a point of claiming that he was heir to this mission, even if it meant confronting the same
"injustice" that his father and grandfather had known: "I will continue to
speak this message, for it is our inheritance and our destiny." He explained
to his companions the strategy that he planned to implement: "You will not
hear of revolt; you will hear an insistent call for justice." Which is far more
efficacious. Putting this strategy into effect, Tariq Ramadan adopted a quite
different tone for the outside world and cried out for justice. He contacted any
and every association or journalist willing to listen to him. Was he accused of
being an Islamist linked to the Secours Islamique? He spoke of documents
riddled with errors and claimed, for example, that Hany al-Banna was no
relation. In the meantime, he omitted to mention that he did indeed serve
as one of the high-ups of the organization in question, which was, in fact,
what he was accused of. He insisted that he was ioo percent a pacifist, a victim of a misunderstanding-and he was to have his way. All the more readily
in that the French Left was, at the time, fully mobilized against the security
policy of the government, convinced that it was acting in the great anti-colonial tradition by accusing the governments of the newly independent nations
of exaggerating the risk of terrorism in order to step up their persecution
of Islamists. Tariq Ramadan recounted to anyone who would listen that he
had been banned at the request of the Egyptian government, as a way of getting back at him for having, on a French TV program, submitted the Egyptian ambassador to aggressive questioning over the lack of respect for human
rights in his country (where the Muslim Brothers continued to be arrested
and harassed). Many people were to believe his version of events, especially
in view of the campaign waged against him in Egypt at the time ofhis father's
death. As a result, Ramadan once more came through as a victim: "The damage has been done. Mistrust is in the air," he declared to the press, adding that
the ban would keep him from going on with his "salutary" work in drawing
young French Muslims into dialogue. The Human Rights League even wrote
to the Minister ofthe Interior, requesting that the ban be lifted on Tariq Rama-
dan-"whose beliefs and opinions are perfectly respectable." While some
Swiss journalists wanted nothing to do with him after the Muslim Men and Women of Switzerland congress, others called it a scandal and stepped up to
defend him. The French journalist Elisabeth Levy, who at the time was favorable to Ramadan, even took up the Egyptian conspiracy thesis in the Nouveau Quotidien: "We knew that, when it comes to hunting down Islamists,
France does anything the Algerian regime asks. Now it seems France is also
ready to pursue those whom the Egyptian regime considers enemies."86 As
for La Tribune de Geneve, it recalled that Tariq Ramadan had just published
a book, Islam: le face-d face des civilisations [Islam: The Confrontation of Civilizations], that proved the preacher's "open-mindedness." Above all, the press
was impressed by the defense committee. Close to 17,500 people (io,ooo in
France, 6,ooo in Belgium and i,5oo in Switzerland) signed the following
text: "The dialogue between communities is essential for our future. Tariq
Ramadan, who in his writings and teachings embodies the commitment to
dialogue and tolerance, has the right to be heard, the right to free speech and
movement." 87

The offense to Tariq Ramadari s honor was a subject that could bring
together historical revisionists, as well as pro-Third Worlders; the liberal
minded, as well as anti-secular Christians; professors, as well as political figures-all of them siding with the Islamists.88 Nobody appeared upset by the
fact that Roger Garaudy-known to be a negationist-signed; nor by the fact
that the defense committee's address was "care of H. Ouardiri," that is to say
the rector ofthe Geneva Mosque, known to be close to the Wahhabite Saudis.
To be more precise, this "Committee for the defense ofthe right offree speech
for Muslims" was orchestrated by Yahia Basalamah, Hafid Ouardiri, and Yousouf Ibram. This last is today the most active member of the European Fatwa
Council, the governing religious body of the UOI F, through which he issued
afatwa banning abortion. But none of this far from respectable backing disturbed Michel Rossetti, the administrative councilor for the city of Geneva
for whom "Tariq Ramadan represents a link between our communities." 89
Jean Ziegler went so far as to call on the lower house to request that the Federal Council intercede with the French government so as to lift the "arbitrary"
ban. In his text, the Swiss deputy really laid it on, explaining that Ramadan
came from a tradition that favored a tolerant form of Islam! The Swiss Social ist Party, in the person of Bernadette Gaspoz-Brede, a municipal councilor,
also gave vent to its indignation at the ban imposed on the preacher. Mobilization became more intense once the ban began to have secondary effects
within Switzerland. Informed of the decision taken by the French authorities, the Department of Public Instruction and Religious Affairs chose to
postpone Tariq Ramadan's talks in the secondary schools. He was refused the
right to give a lecture in a Lausanne lycee gymnasium, but the Department
of Public Instruction ended up rescinding this decision, clearing him of "any
suspicion of fundamentalism," according to Le Journal de Geneve.9° In the
meantime, the Besancon administrative court, on May 9, 1996, annulled the
Ministry of the Interior's decision, which appeared to vindicate all those who
had defended him. The lifting of the ban afforded him the opportunity for a
triumphal return. He was more listened to than ever on the Left, which considered him a victim of racism, a defiant political opponent.

His brother Hani was not treated with the same solicitude when something similar befell him the following year. On February 1, 1997, when he
was about to cross the frontier to give a lecture in Lille, he was informed that
his presence was unwelcome. The French authorities spoke of "a leading figure in the European Islamist movement" connected to the UOIF-which the
ministry had no difficulty in establishing was on friendly terms with "the Palestinian Hamas movement." The authorities considered that the comings
and goings of Hani Ramadan constituted a public danger, specifying, however, that "even if this intellectual cannot be suspected personally of sympathizing with the Islamic circles that advocate recourse to violence, the recent
murderous attacks that have taken place on French soil oblige the authorities
to increase their vigilance to include all those whose behavior can contribute,
directly or indirectly, to the progress of extremist ideologies within France."
On May 22, 2001, the decision was to be annulled by the administrative court
of Lyon as irregular; there had also been a failure to observe the provisions of
the ordinance governing the entry and residence of foreigners. But in contrast to what had happened in Tariq Ramadan s case, the accusations failed
to elicit a reaction from the French Left. Hani had to be content with a statement of support issued by the UOIF denouncing the decision as "an affront to the Muslims of France." Once the ban was lifted, he was welcomed as a
hero by the Union of Young Muslims of Lyon-which had had to make do
with Tariq during the period that Hani was held up at the frontier. The association organized a conference to celebrate the return of their second-favorite
lecturer. On October 4, 2001, only a few months after having been authorized
to re-enter France, Hani Ramadan, speaking to a packed municipal conference hall, began by pleading for observance of the law: "We are not in a Muslim country; we must act in keeping with the existing associative and cultural
structures, and keep up the contacts and dialogue with the authorities and
political representatives; but we must also develop inter-religious relations."
This did not prevent him from reasserting that "a secular state worthy of the
name, a state that prides itself on being truly secular, should admit the wearing of the headscarf." And then, as always in the end, the mask came off. His
text got out of hand when he launched into international affairs: "Wherever
a Muslim is attacked, wherever a country's territory is invaded, it is our duty
to mobilize, here and elsewhere. Obviously this commitment holds true for
Pakistan and for the Taliban."9'

The speech was given less than one month after 9/II, and Hani Ramadan
was clearly calling on Muslims to refuse to serve in the NATO army ranged
against the Taliban. He also announced a massive demonstration in support
of Palestine. One year earlier, on October 6, 2000, in response to an appeal
from the Geneva Islamic Center, a thousand demonstrators had assembled
on the steps of the UN for this selfsame cause. Hani Ramadan had, on that
occasion, uttered the following words: "When an army kills children and
adults armed with nothing but stones, the reply is not speeches and negotiations, but the jihad!"92 To be sure, he, like his brother Tariq, was to defend
himself in the press by explaining that the jihad was "a defensive war," and
therefore legitimate. In the meantime, on the terrace of the United Nations,
the preacher, Yahia Basalamah, imam of the Geneva Mosque, Tariq Ramadan s childhood friend and one of the organizers of his support committee,
gave his version of defensive war: "The Koran reminds us that the territory
of Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque are sacred places. We will never accept
that they be administered and desecrated by Zionist aggressors."9

The Ramadan brothers, and in particular Tariq, have quite frequently been
suspected of maintaining cordial relations with Islamists involved in terrorist
activities. In a report delivered to Judge Garzon, who was assigned to investigate the 9/II attacks, the headquarters of the Spanish national police stated
that Ahmed Brahim, an Al-Qaeda leader arrested and imprisoned in Spain,
was "in frequent contact" with Tariq Ramadan.94 An association ofvictims of
the World Trade Center, represented in particular by jean-Charles Brisard, an
expert on Islamic financing, went public with the affair, arguing on the basis
of the record that the Geneva Islamic Center and Tariq Ramadan had maintained relations with a bin Laden "cell," or at least with one of its heads. Contacted by several newspapers, such as Le Temps, Tariq Ramadan said he "had
never been in touch" with Brahim, and then added: "I don't even know of his
existence." The assertion comes as a surprise. Ramadan certainly knew the
Algerian millionaire, at least by name.

The files of the Spanish, Belgian, and French intelligence services, readily made available to journalists, began to pileup. According to these sources,
a telephone tap dated April 22, 1999 recorded a conversation between Brahim and a certain al-Amin (which the police suspected was a code name
for a militant with ties to the Tawhid bookshop that distributed Ramadan's
works):

Al-Amin: Tell me, is Tarek to come with me? ...

Ahmed Brahim: No, he cant right away, it,, not urgent. I have an idea how to get
things started and I will be seeing him in the al-Dawa Center in Madrid, Paris, or
Geneva. The instructions come from Riyad ...

From the rest of the conversation we learn that it involves "an important project" that "must not be rushed" and that concerned the production of
audiocassettes in Spanish. The conversation is-to say the least-vague and
not very enlightening. It is quite possible that it refers to the Tariq (also pro nounced Tareq) associated with the Tawhid publishers, but this is not certain. On the other hand, the existence of ties between an Al-Qaeda outpost
and the Lyon bookshop that serves as the preacher's headquarters is disturbing. Another memorandum from the Spanish national police head office,
dated May io,1999, confirmed that Brahim did, in fact, telephone the bookshop that serves as Ramadan s headquarters: `Another telephone call of interest was recorded on April 21, 1999, when Brahim dialed the number corresponding to the Tawhid bookshop in Lyon and spoke of a certain Mohamad
Amine; it appears that the latter was involved in the Ahmed Brahim project." As the years pass, so the number of investigations featuring the name of
Tariq Ramadan increases. In his role as administrator, he is obliged to report
on those who frequent the Geneva Islamic Center; listed among them are
representatives of organizations suspected of terrorism by the association of
victims of the attacks on the World Trade Center.