Brother Tariq: The Doublespeak of Tariq Ramadan (38 page)

BOOK: Brother Tariq: The Doublespeak of Tariq Ramadan
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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 Suede," 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.

51 Tariq Ramadan cassette, "LIslam. Le
face-a-face des civilizations? [Islam:
The confrontation of civilizations?],"
interassociation training seminar,
Brussels, Mediacom.

52 See the Dictionnaire mondial de
l'Islamisme, P. 425.

53 Ibid., p. 424-

54 Hani Ramadan, Islam et la derive de
l'Occident [Islam and Western Deviance], Paris, Maison d'Ennour, 2001,
P. 57.

55 Hani Ramadan, Aspects du monotheis-
me musulman [Some Aspects of Muslim
Monotheism], Lyon, Tawhid, 1998, p.
98.

56 Hani Ramadan, "Limpasse de
l'homosexualite [Homosexuality:
A dead end]," interview with Yann
Gessler, Le Nouvelliste, January 25,
2003-

57 Hani Ramadan, La Femme en Islam [Women in Islam], Lyon, Tawhid,
1998.

58 Ibid., p. 53•

59 Cited in the Dictionnaire mondial de
l'Islamisme, P. 423-

6o Published in 2001 by the Geneva Islamic Center.

61 La Tribune de Geneve, December 21,
1992.

62 Manuel Grandjean, "Le Courrier
naccordera plus de tribune a Hani
Ramadan [Le Courrier will no longer publish contributions by Hani Ramadan]," Le Courrier, September 30,
2002.

63 Le Courrier, November 13, 2002.

64 T. Ramadan, " 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 Hani Ramadan, "Limpasse de
l'homosexualite."

66 Opinion piece published in Le Temps,
April 9, 2001.

67 Statement published in La Tribune de
Geneve, September 12, 2001.

68 Le Progres, October 4, 2001.

69 Souffrant, the head of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood finally canceled at
the last minute, but the two brothers
gave their introduction.

7o Hebdo de Lausanne, May 7, 1998.

71 Alain Gresh and Tariq Ramadan,
L'Islam en questions, p. 49-

72 "Lettre ouverte a M. Herve Loichem-
ol," La Tribune de Geneve, October 7,
1993-

73 Tariq Ramadan, Les musulmans dans
la laicite [Muslims in a Secular Society],
Lyon, Tawhid, 1994, note 6o, p. 175.

74 Cited in L'Hebdo, July 3, 1996.

75 Tariq Ramadan, "Critique des (nouveaux) intellectuals communautaires
[Critique of the (new) communitarian intellectuals]," published October
3, 2003 on www.oumma.com.

76 Liberation, November 25, 2003-

77 Tariq Ramadan, "Un pacte citoyen
pour le culte musulman [A citizens
pact for the Muslim Faith]," opinion
piece, Le Monde, August 12, 2003-

78 "Message aux Musulmans de France,"
LNMF (Ligue nationale des musulmans de France), cassette recorded in
Rosny, 2003-

79 Richard Labeviere, "Les reseaux eu-
ropeens des Islamistes algeriens,"
Les Cahiers de l'Orient, 2nd trimester
2001, no. 62, pp. 133-49•

8o In accordance with the usual protective
double discourse, "Mostafa Hamza," the pseudonym used in the staff's editorials, would have us believe that he
had never met Said Ramadan in person. "I have never known Sheikh Said
Ramadan personally, I regret it," one
can read in The Cause. This admission
is somewhat surprising, given that the
editors of the The Cause also lived in
exile in Geneva, were most admiring
of Said Ramadan, and prayed in the
same holy places. This statement can
be interpreted in two ways: either it is
a way of honoring the founder of the
Center, while at the same time protecting his heirs from being questioned,
or else Mourad Dhina and Moustapha
Brahimi were actually in contact with
his two sons, Hani and Tariq, and thus
never knew the patriarch himself. The
Cause, vol. 3, no. 25, August 12-19,
1995.

81 Labeviere, "Les reseauxeuropeens des
Islamistes algeriens."

82 La Cause, vol. 2, no. 17, March 3, 1995.

83 La Cause, vol. 2, no. 21, June 16-22,
1995.

84 La Cause, vol. 3, no. 29, October 7-13,
1995. The Cause has not been published since 1996.

85 T. Ramadan cassette, "Islam. Le facea-face des civilisations?"

86 Nouveau Quotidien, November
29,1995.

87 On December 5, 1995, the committee
organized an evening event at the University of Geneva in support of Tariq
Ramadan, attended by 250 people.

88 Several well-known figures signed:
Roger Garaudy, but also Albert Jacquard, Father Pierre, His Grace Gaillot, Michel Lelong, Francois Burgat,
Christian Grobet, Jocelyne Cesari,
Jean Ziegler, and Erica Deuber-Pauli.

89 La Liberte, Geneva-Vaud edition, De

cember 10, 1995.

9o LeJournal de Geneve, June 29, 1996.

91 Cited in Le Progres, "Hani Ramadan.
Le preche habile d'un Islamiste laique
[Hani Ramadan: The skilful preaching of a "secular Islamist"]," October
4, 2001.

92 "Mille musulmans en colere devant
l'ONU [A thousand angry Muslims on
the steps of the UN building]," Tribune
de Geneve, October 7-8, 2000.

93 Ibid.

94 Memorandum issued by the National Police Headquarters based on information provided by the UCIE (Unidad
central de informacion exterior), July
3, 2000.

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