THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIII, Issue # 121, May 15, 2011
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
TARIQ RAMADAN DISCOVERS HIS INNER FLOWER CHILD
By Jonathan Gelbart
TARIQ RAMADAN'S IDEALISTIC, BUT PAINFULLY INSINCERE, PRONOUNCEMENTS REGARDING HUMILITY, RESPECT, &
CONSISTENCY: PRONOUNCEMENTS WHICH ONLY SERVE TO OBFUSCATE THE REAL ISSUES FACING THE WORLD
TODAY -- EXAMPLES OF SUCH ISSUES: WIDESPREAD ISLAMIC PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS RESIDING IN
MUSLIM-MAJORITY COUNTRIES; ISLAMIC VIOLENCE DIRECTED AT THE JEWISH STATE OF ISRAEL; WAHHABI
SUPREMACISM, ISLAMIST IDEOLOGY & THE GLOBAL JIHAD; & THE BRUTAL IRANIAN THEOCRACY -- RAMADAN'S FAILURE
TO EXPLAIN HOW HIS LOFTY PHILOSOPHY OF "PLURALISM," OR "MULTICULTURALISM," CAN BE BROUGHT DOWN TO
EARTH & USED IN REAL SOLUTIONS TO THE WORLD'S MOST INTRACTABLE PROBLEMS
FULL STORY:
Tariq Ramadan -- a member of the world's most famous Islamist family, as the grandson of Muslim Brotherhood Founder
Hassan el-Banna -- spoke at Stanford University, Stanford, California, on April 12, 2011, in a lecture entitled, "The Quest
for Meaning: Developing a Philosophy of Pluralism."
Sponsored by the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies, the event was packed, with people spilling out the auditorium
doors and standing in the aisles. The audience of at least 250 appeared to consist largely of Muslims and
non-students, most of whom hung on Ramadan's every word. In summing up the palpable awe of the audience,
Stanford Religious Studies Professor Shahzad Bashir, who gave the introduction, gushed:
"If ever there were a case where the speaker did
not need an introduction or needed only a very
short one, it would be for Dr. Tariq Ramadan."
Ramadan is HH Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies at Oxford University,
Oxford, England, and, despite his extensive writings on the subject of contemporary Islam, he adhered closely to the
title of his talk, rarely mentioning religion until the question and answer session.
In the first of what would become a series of open-ended, philosophical questions, Ramadan began by asking the
audience how to find meaning in the relatively short time they are given on earth. "What is the meaning [of all this]?" he
asked rhetorically. After pausing for a moment, he added an unexpectedly blunt and morbid caveat: "One day you will
not be able to pose that question -- because you are all going to die." The audience responded with nervous laughter.
Ramadan then lamented the lack of understanding between the ethnic majority populations in "pluralistic societies," or
developed nations, and the minorities. He argued that education is the key to reconciliation: "You have to educate
yourself by [leaving your] comfort zone and [understanding] other traditions hands on." He pointed to the existence
of "segregated societies" in the U.S.A., Britain, and other countries as evidence that many "pluralistic societies" were
not rising to the occasion and that "the Anglo-Saxon model of hybrid identities is failing." He pointed favorably,
however, to France's de facto model of allowing ethnic communities to form their own enclaves, instead of integrating
into French society. Perhaps he forgot about the 2005 teenage immigrant rampage through the banlieues or the recent
ban on face-coverings. It seems that multiculturalism's sharp decline in popularity has yet to reach Ramadan.
He continued by delineating the three concepts that make up a peaceful and progressive society: humility, respect, and
consistency. Humility, he explained, means believing that "the other [religious] traditions have something to give me.
[It] means listening first and then talking." Ramadan defined respect with the following sentiment: "Not only am I humble
with what I think, but I acknowledge the fact that your opinion is legitimate, although I don't share it and I don't
understand it." He contrasted respect with the concept of tolerance, arguing that "tolerance is about power" (as in, a
superior deciding to tolerate an underling), while "respect is on an equal footing." Ramadan's description of the final
dimension, consistency, deserves to be quoted in full, if only because the world would be a more peaceful place if his
radical co-religionists would take it to heart:
"Consistency . . . is the relationship between humility
and respect. [It] means that, at the very moment you
are sharing values and speaking about principles that
are, for you, the best principles there are; you also are
able to be critical with your fellow members of your
tradition. . . . [It means] that you make the difference
between what are your principles and where are they
implemented. . . . What we have very often are people
comparing their principles to the practices of the
other. . . . When you compare your ideals with the
practices of the other, you are always the winner."
Ramadan's point was that congratulating oneself for moral superiority over opponents is unhelpful and that judging
cultural ideals against real practices is an unfair comparison. The problem with all this high-minded rhetoric is that
Ramadan's behavior can hardly be called humble, respectful, or consistent. In 2004, he was banned from entering the U.S.
after it was discovered that he had donated funds to a charity with ties to Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organization
designated as such by the European Union, Canada, Japan, and the U.S.A. His statements are littered with misleading
historical inaccuracies and conspiracy theories, including a recent interview with the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation in which Ramadan questioned whether al-Qa'ida and Osama bin Laden were behind the 9/11 attacks. As for
consistency, French author Caroline Fourest was able to write an entire book, Brother Tariq: The Doublespeak of
Tariq Ramadan, detailing the contradiction between Ramadan's public support of diversity and respect and his active
support of political Islamism.
He continued to describe difficult concepts such as suffering, love and the end of life, while shying away from the
politicized subjects on which his career has been built. In a blatant case of pandering, he implored his audience:
"Don't forget to tell the people you love that you love
them. . . . Profound love is the way by which you
liberate yourselves and look at yourselves in a
positive way."
That statement would have been beautiful, if it had not come across as so painfully insincere. It could have been
inscribed in a greeting card.
Similarly, Ramadan described all belief systems as essentially equal:
"Think of it as a mountain. We all have the same
top, but there are many ways to reach it. Humility
is realizing my path is not the only one."
Though this is a wonderful concept that goes over well with audiences, Islam has shown over the centuries that it is
forging a path to quite a different summit in quite a different manner from most of its counterparts -- something that
Ramadan did not acknowledge.
Having apparently discovered his inner flower child, he added:
"In every tradition, peace is the final goal. Peace
within, peace without."
He then elaborated on the need for people to:
"[R]ead books, read more, get a sense of history
. . . [and] get a sense of religions. . . . Often when
you ask other people about other religions they
have no idea. Or they don't even know about
their own religion. . . . A basic knowledge of
religions is necessary, if you are serious about
pluralism."
When Ramadan next stated that, "in the Islamic tradition, philosophy was perceived as something which was against
religion; which is completely wrong," he was exactly right. The influence of Enlightenment philosophy on Western
Europe cannot be overstated, and an equivalent intellectual revolution never occurred in the Islamic world. If anything,
the Enlightenment's analogue in the Middle East has been the rise of Islamism and violent jihadist groups, with
Ramadan's grandfather being one of the latter's first leaders.
The question and answer session led to a thorough airing of the political views that had been previously gone
unexamined. In response to a question about how "the weaker" such as "Palestinians, Muslims and blacks" should
resist "oppression," Ramadan recounted how, as he put it, "when Israel was killing innocent people in Gaza,"
Switzerland chose to break its neutrality and take the side of the Palestinians; not to do so would have been to
implicitly support the "oppressor." The implication was that, if even neutral Switzerland decided to support the
Palestinians, everyone should. He did not bring up Hamas's use of human shields or its deliberate choice to store
weapons in hospitals and near U.N. buildings, nor did he mention Richard Goldstone's recent recantation on the entire
official narrative of the Gaza War.
The obligatory question, "What is jihad?" also came up. Predictably, Ramadan responded by repeating the standard
apologist line: "The meaning of jihad is not really war. . . . Jihad is to make peace with yourself." He then made the
blatantly false statement that "the association of jihad with war is from the Crusades." On the contrary, Islamic
jurisprudence has considered "jihad" a term for warfare since at least the tenth century, 100 years before the Crusades.
Finally, in response to an audience member asking how to respond to those Islamists who refuse to accept Ramadan's
rosy view of reality, he stated that, "there are people in every single religion . . . [who] think dialogue is worthless. . . .
In every religion there are people who are not ready for it." He then suggested, "You can sometimes challenge them
by referring to the text." Unfortunately, it is by referring to the text -- the Koran -- that many Islamists have
successfully recruited young Muslims to violent jihad around the world. Ramadan offered no solution to this problem.
It is no exaggeration to say that the world would be better off if everyone adhered to Ramadan's notions of humility,
respect, and consistency. Such idealistic pronouncements, however, only serve to obfuscate the real issues facing the
world today. It will take more than words, for instance, to stop the persecution of Christians across the Muslim world,
the violence directed at Israel, the export of Wahhabi supremacism from Saudi Arabia, and the brutal Iranian theocracy.
Ramadan would have done well to explain how his lofty "philosophy of pluralism" can be brought down to earth and
used in real solutions to society's most intractable problems.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
Jonathan Gelbart is a senior at Stanford University, Stanford, California, majoring in International Relations. He is the
President of Students for an Open Society and former World News Editor of the Stanford Review, an
independent student-run Conservative newspaper at Stanford University.
The foregoing article by Jonathan Gelbart was originally published in the The American Thinker, May 15, 2011, and
can be found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum, a foreign policy think tank which seeks to
define and promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam,
working for Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote
constitutional democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly
asserting U.S. interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
(URL: http://www.meforum.org/2904/tariq-ramadan-stanford )
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
May 15, 2011
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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