Adonis Diaries

Islamophobia knocking at Rotterdam: legal action taken; (October 26, 2009)

Professor Tariq Ramadan, 46, was this summer sacked as Rotterdam’s integration advisor. Tariq Ramadan is professor of Islamic studies and was stripped of his chair at the city’s Erasmus University.  Professor Ramadan was also fired by the municipality of Rotterdam and is taking legal action to demand an apology from the two institutions.

Erasmus University responded to Professor Ramadan  as it emerged he was hosting a weekly discussion programme on Iran’s state broadcaster Press TV. The municipality deemed that the controversy surrounding the revelation disqualified the Swiss-Egyptian professor to lead public discussions in Rotterdam regarding religious identity and free marriage. The city also stopped financing his chair at Erasmus University.

Professor Ramadan had been at the center of previous controversy. In April, the conservative VVD party withdrew from Rotterdam city council accusing the Islam expert of homophobic and misogynous views. A majority of the city council continued to back the professor at the time.

I recall two weeks ago that the French channel TV5 was interviewing the Moslem Tarek Ramadan who had published a new book.  Apparently, Professor Ramadan has published so far over 20 books related to Islam religious belief system and how to communicate according to European customs and traditions. There were five authors taking turn to answering queries on their respective newly published books. Only one claimed to have read Ramadan’s new book; no one read any of the other 20 books. They were in line to badger the Professor in total ignorance of the content of his manuscript.

There is this author Eric Zemmour who is blasting Professor Ramadan and claiming that France is a secular “laic” Nation, that hijab (veil that women wear) should be prohibited and that “for better or worse” France is always right and the citizens should support the Nation’s government decisions. It turned out that this Eric defined himself as an Israelite French; go figure how certain people can have flexible conscious and be so irrational and proud of it; Zemmour wants Professor Ramadan (who is not French yet) to swear that he should be French first while Zemmour thinks that he can get away with being Israelite first!

Professor Ramadan was saying that all his statements are turned around although his 20 books on most Islamic controversial issues are there to read; he said that hijab is not a Moslem religious fashion and that France has no business prohibiting the way people should dress.  He expounded his methodology; he states the verses “sourats” of the Koran related to a topic in their integrality to set the foundation of Islamic belief system and then interpret them in their context, and explain the current interpretations before synthesizing the topic.

Professor Ramadan is one of the grandsons of Hassan Al Banna, the founder of the Egyptian movement the “Moslem Brotherhood” in the 30’s and which is the most popular political party in Egypt.  The Arab and Islamic political movements were inspired by the doctrine of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood party. Tarek Ramadan writes in at least three languages (English, French, Arabic, German or Dutch); several of his children have French nationality. I would refer the readers of my blog to my post “Europe’s Renaissance is Islamic”