http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/713/op5.htm

"Ramadan debate" returns this year with in-depth weekly
interviews addressing some of the major issues of concern
to Muslims in today's world.
Europe's silent revolution
Tariq Ramadan speaks to Omayma Abdel-Latif about the future
of Muslims in the West

"Who is Tariq Ramadan?" a British journalist asked me
recently, reflecting the debate currently raging in certain
European media circles over the young Muslim intellectual.
But this question also reflected the general sense of
confusion, often verging on scepticism, as to what to make
of Ramadan and the intellectual project he has been
developing for almost two decades now.

To some he is a brilliant young philosopher who brings
together what is best in both Islam and the West. He is a
bridge builder between two civilisations, a vocal activist
calling for universal justice, and one of the shaping
forces of our time. His detractors, however, accuse him of
double-talk, delivering a gentle message in English and
French, and a radical one in Arabic; of projecting a
liberal face in order to conceal his true "Islamist
agenda". Worse still, some have even labelled him "the
Trojan horse of Jihad in Europe". As such, he is now a
central figure in any debate around the future of Islam on
the continent.

When I posed the question to Ramadan himself, however, he
answered simply, as though the controversies which his mere
presence often seems enough to create, are in fact
completely irrelevant. "I am a committed intellectual who
is a Muslim, and at the same time facing the challenges of
his time," he said, then quickly added, "it is really
important for me to be an active scholar connected to my
community."

Born to Egyptian parents -- his grandfather was Imam Hassan
Al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood movement --
Ramadan grew up in Geneva, his father Said Ramadan having
been forced into political exile when Gamal Abdel- Nasser
clamped down on the Muslim Brotherhood and executed some of
its senior members. In Switzerland, Ramadan studied
philosophy, and wrote his doctorate thesis on Islamic
studies and Nietzsche. He has written more than 20 books
and some 800 articles, while there are 170 tapes of his
lectures now available. He currently teaches at the
universities of Geneva and Freiburg in Switzerland.

It is this multiple identity -- at once academic and
activist, committed Muslim and active Western citizen --
which sets the 42-year-old Ramadan apart from other Muslim
intellectuals of his generation. Working simultaneously
from the perspectives of both Islamic sciences and Western
philosophical traditions has earned Ramadan a reputation
for quoting the Qur'an and hadith in the same breath, and
with the same mastery, with which he alludes to Nietzsche's
critique of Western rationalism. More important, however,
is the duality of being "truly Muslim and truly Western",
as he once put it -- of bringing together the Islam
tradition, to which Ramadan assigns himself, and the West
in which he was brought up and received his education.
Moreover, he is doing this at a time when the two are
generally seen as pitted against one another in an ugly
conflict -- though not, perhaps, one of their choosing. The
debate, some argue, is therefore about what Ramadan
represents, rather than who he really is.

But what does America have to fear from Ramadan to deny him
entry onto its territory -- the man named by Time magazine
last April as "one of the world's top hundred thinkers".

Ramadan was about to begin a term as professor of Islamic
ethics at the University of Notre Dame when this incident
blew up. But it was no surprise either when dozens of
American scholars of Middle Eastern studies protested
against the move in a petition to US Secretary of State
Colin Powell earlier this month.

"Was I too scary for the classroom?" Ramadan posed the
question in the pages of The New York Times. Although he
was not told why his visa was rescinded, he believes the
decision was a political one. It was the fruit, he says, of
a sinister campaign led by certain Zionist neo-cons, and in
particular Daniel Pipes, who put pressure on the
authorities and invented an unfounded allegation about a
possible link with Al-Qaeda.

"They simply did not want the voice of a Muslim who seeks
common grounds with the West to be heard," said Ramadan.
"They consider it a threat to have Muslims offer a
different reading of the situation in the Middle East than
their dominant version of reality, and to have Muslims
calling for a reconciliation rather than confrontation with
America and the West." Yet Ramadan is no stranger to such
tactics which aim to silence him.

For 20 years now, Ramadan has dedicated himself to
developing a model for "a European Islam", which would
allow the Muslim citizens of Europe, or the Western
Muslims, as he likes to call them, to abandon their ghetto
and become active citizens. According to such a vision,
Islam has a role to play in the future of Europe, and
should therefore be represented in any debate on the future
of the continent. By offering a new reading of Islam's
primary sources, Ramadan wants to provide an alternate way
of imagining Islam and Islamic rules for the relationship
between Muslims and others, thus developing an Islamic
theology of pluralism and justice.

It is precisely the current reading of Islam's primary
sources which Ramadan believes is behind the sorry state of
affairs the Muslims find themselves in today. "Our reading
of our Islamic sources and references," he explains, "is
much more about how we protect ourselves from the dominant
civilisation. There is something in the way we invoke our
Islamic references, the way we read our history, legacies
and traditions. We tend to examine those references very
often through what differentiates us from the West or from
the Other, and not what there might be in common between
those traditions and the Western tradition."

A new reading of those references is, therefore, warranted,
in order to achieve a better understanding of these
universal values, some of which, Ramadan believes, find
their origins in the Qur'an, Sunna and Islamic culture. "I
think we need to be confident of our own legacy and
heritage, and not make our relationship with the West the
yardstick by which we measure everything."

Given the far-from-friendly past with which that
relationship is burdened, and a present which invokes
theories such as the clash of civilisations, the
undertaking is colossal. Ramadan says that he makes no
apologies for taking a critical look at both Muslim and
Western societies, and at their attitudes towards one
another. Nevertheless, he reserves much of this harshest
criticism for his fellows in the Islamic heartland. Nor can
he conceal his sense of confusion when faced with the way
some Muslims perceive the West. "Very often when I visit
some parts of the Muslim world, I feel I am caught between
two attitudes: one is a total fascination with the West,
and the other is a total rejection. These are both
emotional attitudes, which should be avoided."

He also criticises the lack of any attempt on the part of
the majority of Muslims to understand the philosophical
debates currently taking place in the West and the
intrinsic dynamics within the societies where they live.
This is where Ramadan believes Western Muslims can make a
difference, and seek that which unites rather than
separates them. In Ramadan's words, he is looking for the
voice of the voiceless in Europe, and the "voiceless" here
being the Muslim majority societies. "In my lectures I tell
people that whatever is not opposed to our values we should
take up and add to our legacy. This is part of the Islamic
tradition, which is the principle of integration. We can
take from the Western model that which is in accordance
with our own values, and that means a lot of things."

Despite his strong defence of Islamic traditions, Ramadan
does not believe that an Islamic model of society exists
per se. And this is perhaps where we can see most clearly
the personal dilemma of Ramadan himself. His belief that
many Western values can easily be reconciled with those of
Islam means he does not believe that there is such a thing
as an Islamic economic order or an Islamic state, for
example. "These are just words and slogans," he insists.
The problem, he continues, "is that we act as if everything
in our culture of origin is right: but this is a wrong
perception. Not everything in European culture is against
Islamic principles, and by the same logic, not everything
in the Egyptian or in any other Arab culture is in
accordance with Islamic principles, either. There are many
things in our culture that are not faithful to our
religious principles."

Thus he believes that a process of tajdeed (renewal) will
eventually lead Muslims to a better understanding of the
foundational texts. This process is likely, however, to be
hampered by the lack of freedom prevalent in Muslim
societies. Ramadan acknowledges this fact, and points out
that the state of affairs in certain Muslim societies has
reached a point where even what he describes as "the
accepted diversity" which is part and parcel of the Islamic
tradition is not reflected in public debate. "In Islam we
have an accepted diversity, where the literalists are
accepted as much as the Sufis and the rationalists, as long
as we are within the limits of what we know as part of our
legacy," he explains. This accepted diversity provides the
ground for a process of intra-community dialogue which
Ramadan finds sorely lacking in the Muslim world today. But
in order to revive such a tradition, he believes that "we
need more pluralistic societies and more political debates.
We need to engage people in the political as well as the
social processes." In Ramadan's view, any reform process
must begin from the religious establishment, in order to
make it more "connected with the society, so as to be able
to read the realities around it".

The establishment, Ramadan argues, has to avoid the
perception that the more repressive it is, the more Islamic
it becomes. This attitude has to change, particularly where
issues such as women's rights and the right to violence in
the name of Islam are concerned. "It should be made clear
that we are not addressing those issues just because the
West is interested in them, but rather because they are a
problem for us. If the West says that Muslims have a
problem with women, we should not adopt a defensive
attitude and deny it. I believe that Islam has no problem
with women, but Muslims do, and so does our culture."

Ramadan points out that part of the problem is that Muslims
have developed an obsession with rituals -- the halal and
haram -- while Islam is much more than that. "Yes, there is
halal and haram, but these are the limits, and in between
the two limits there is a road, a path. There is what we
call Shariaa, with a variety of ijtihadat, belonging to
four different schools of interpretations. The specificity
of the Islamic call is to promote peacefulness and
responsibility. We are changing this, by being obsessed
with the limits, and in the process creating a very uneasy
Muslim character, who always feels troubled and guilty. We
are constantly speaking about beliefs, and are not working
towards building up our personalities. I think there is
something missing here, and the discourse coming from the
Islamic institutions is not helping Muslims in anyway."

Which brings Ramadan back to his first point, about the
necessity to re-read the Islamic references. "We should not
reduce Islam to the rituals. We need to understand the
other dimensions of the religion, including spirituality,
intellectual dynamism, and self-criticism. These were all
part of our tradition, which we have lost because of our
recent history."

He believes that the failure of the religious institutions
and many Muslims to speak out against "those who monopolise
the terrain of Islamic discourse in order to serve a
political position" has resulted in the fact that "anyone
can be seen to speak in the name of Islam". True, Islam has
no church or clergy, but this in itself cannot account for
the chaotic situation Muslims find themselves facing
nowadays, when people without the least religious knowledge
are able to issue fatwas. "It is really important that we
do not let just anyone speak in the name of Islam. We have
to be very cautious in the way we speak and deal with the
fatwas," he insists. "It is really important for all of us
to draw the line and to say, No, this is not Islamic, and
we are not going to condone it whatever the context."

While he believes that in both the Iraqi and the
Palestinian cases the context should be taken into
consideration, he does not think even that can justify
certain sorts of behaviour which are clearly not acceptable
from the standpoint of Islam. "We should say that there are
kinds of behaviour that are condemned per se and there is
no way to try to justify them. The context may explain, but
it does not justify. Whatever the context, beheading people
and taking innocents hostage is not Islamic, and should be
condemned as such by all Muslims."

So how much does he think that Middle East politics is
shaping the presence of Muslims in the West? Would it not
be wise for them to keep a distance from what is going on
there?

Ramadan begs to differ. "I listen to some fellow Muslims
who say we want to keep a distance from what is going on in
the Middle East, but if we are here and keep quiet we are
not going to change the situation. We have to spread
information and offer an alternative reading of what is
going on there, an alternative perception of this reality,
and let people understand that it is legitimate to resist
an occupation, even though we can disagree on the means
that can be used. It is a legitimate resistance, even if it
is using illegitimate means. We have to be clear on that,
and that is why I am asking the Muslims in the West to be
the voice of the voiceless."

But how can they play this role when even his own people
remain silent in the face of the controversy surrounding
Ramadan in the West? "There have been no attempts in the
Arab or Muslim world to join the debate he provoked, let
alone defend him," Al-Ahram and Al-Ahram Weekly columnist
and political commentator Mohamed Sid- Ahmed wrote a year
ago.

Such attitudes leave the likes of Ramadan caught between a
rock and a hard place. On the one hand, the Arab and Muslim
world whose causes he is defending are unwilling to commit
themselves on his side; and on the other, there is an
atmosphere in Europe which Ramadan himself has described as
an "unhealthy schizophrenia", a sense of uneasiness with
the Other that now permeates the general discourse.

Are not Western Muslims likely to be considered fifth
columnists if they raise their voice against the injustices
done by their governments to the people of Iraq and
Palestine? "Very possible," responds Ramadan. "Our history
in Europe is very short, and we are already being labelled
and criticised for the same things the Jews were attacked
for during the 1940s, such as our 'double loyalty'. The
only way to act against this type of allegation and slander
is to remain consistent and honest. We must speak with a
single voice, both inside the mosque and outside, within
the Muslim community and outside it."

But even that sense of consistency has not prevented
Ramadan from falling prey to a vile media campaign against
him in France, because he dared criticise certain
second-rank French media intellectuals such as
Bernard-Henri Levy and Alain Finkielkraut for their anxiety
over Muslim immigration and their support for Israel.
Ramadan puts the wave of anti-Muslim slurs which filled the
French papers within the context of a campaign by "those
who are scared of the impact Muslims have had as the
emerging citizens of Europe". In Europe now, he explains,
the situation vis-ˆ-vis the Palestinian uprising has
changed. Many people support the struggle of the
Palestinian people, because they now know more about the
reality of what is going on there. "For the Zionist groups,
this is a danger and a threat, because the Muslims can now
present another version of the reality of this conflict."

While Ramadan agrees that there is a constructed ignorance
in which Islam is willfully ignored, neglected and
distorted, he still believes that Western Muslims have no
alternative but to become full and independent Western
citizens, working with others to address social, economic
and political problems. They have to leave their ghettos.
"I think it is not just a question of ignorance about
Islam, or that people don't know much about the religion,"
he insists. "Sometimes the distortion is deliberate and
structured and there is a clear agenda behind it."

The onus is, therefore, on Western Muslims to change this
situation. Ramadan tells his audiences that they may be
ignored by the system, but they won't be ignored by their
neighbours. A recent study showed that Europeans between
the age of 18-24 were more receptive to the idea of a
Muslim presence in Europe than their elders are. The
reality of living together, explains Ramadan, will change
the mentality. "Even if the system is promoting ignorance
or structured ignorance, daily life will change the
situation. It is up to us to realise that there are
different ways to promote knowledge about who we are. As
parents and as citizens of the West, we have to show real
commitment and work within the mainstream school system to
promote better knowledge. We need to ask for the programme
to be reconsidered and oriented in a new way so that we can
spread real knowledge of Islam."

Muslim voting power is yet another asset which Ramadan
believes should be maximised to serve the interests of the
Muslim community. "This voting power -- if organised -- can
force the system to abandon its current neglect of its
Muslim citizens. If the system and the ruling elite in the
media continue to promote this constructed ignorance, it
will backfire and it is their interests that will be at
stake. That is the kind of situation in which people very
often react..."

Despite his underlying optimism, Ramadan acknowledges that
the current atmosphere is undermining the work of people
like himself who seek to act as bridge builders between
Islam and the West. He does not take the attacks on him
personally though, because he believes that they strike not
at him, but at the core of what he truly represents. "Some
in the West cannot get themselves to believe that you can
build an identity that is truly Muslim and truly Western at
the same time. They are so obsessed with a clash between
the two cultures, that they don't see this happening." This
may explain why some see the project which Ramadan has
dedicated himself to as controversial. And indeed, Ramadan
himself acknowledged this fact in his recent New York Times
article.

"If you are in between two worlds and you try to remain
consistent and critical, you are trying to challenge both
of them," he explains. "On the one hand I tell Muslims
that, yes, Islam is great, but not all Muslims are great.
By the same token, I criticise the West, because of the
lack of consistency in their policies. Yes, they are the
dominant civilisation, but they should realise they are not
the only civilisation. My project is controversial, because
it is not following the mainstream in either case. Instead,
it is challenging the accepted version of reality to which
both societies adhere. However, I think this is a
constructive and positive controversy, because controversy
which promotes justice is better than consensus which
accepts injustice."

Thus Ramadan challenges both those in the Muslim world who
accuse him of trying to modernise Islam, and those in the
West who accuse him of concealing an Islamist agenda, to
quote from any of his works if they can find even one
passage which will support such an argument.

Right now, the Muslims of Europe are going through what
Ramadan describes as "a silent revolution". "I know that it
is a difficult process," he says. "There is bound to be
tension, criticism and slander. But all this is part of the
game. Things are moving ahead. It will be difficult, but
inshaallah, the result will be a better and more positive
Muslim presence in the West."








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