The liberty to voice

Brother Tariq: The Doublespeak of Tariq Ramadan

Author: Caroline Fourest (2007)

For Mature Readers Only.

For the longest time, Tariq Ramadan has been hailed as a moderate Muslim. He has been looked upon as the person who would be the go-between to help to salvage the good name of the religion. His paternal grandfather established the notorious Islamic Brotherhood, but that did not prevent him from having his voice heard in the international arena. He asserts that he cannot be blamed for the sins of his grandfather and the baggage that he carries with the family name. Nevertheless, he is proud of his heritage. Tariq, probably named after the first Muslim conqueror in Europe when he invaded Spain, also shares his name with the pillar of Europe, the Rock of Gibraltar, called Rock of Tariq in the Islamic world.

His wife is Isabelle, an ex-Catholic, now plays the picture-perfect image of an ideal Muslim wife. His brother, Hani, a non-practising physician, gave up his medical practice to go in the line of dawah (spreading the message, but they do not call it proselytising). Unlike his younger brother Tariq, he lacks the suaveness and charisma. He is said to be too brash in his sermons at his family-run Geneva Islamic Centre that had landed him in hot soup with the Swiss authorities.

I think that is where the controversy starts. Tarif and Hani, according to the author, are actually two sides of the same coin. Tariq, despite his seemingly modern outlook of the practice of the religion and benign look, is said to have the same ideology of the fire-brand Islam as propagated by his grandfather Hassan Al Banna, Al Banna's henchmen Said Qutb and Hani Ramadan. Hani is supposed to spread the word from the inside whilst Tariq spreads his malicious sugar-coated 'doublespeak' message to the ummah in the rest of the civilised world. He says different things to a different crowd; to the non-believers, he emphasises that the Islamic laws should be contextualised to time and people, to the believers, he would adamantly assert that there is a need for the modern Man to go back to the golden age of Islamic Empire. To the kaffir, he would say that Islam is compatible to secularism and modern democracy; amongst his own crowd, he would insist that Muslims are different from the rest and they need to exert their superiority over their newfound state that gave them homage. Lest they forget that the host state 'rescued' them from their native countries, but they would be quick to counter their claim by saying that the West were the ones to fanned the fire in the first place. In so many strong the author accuses Tariq Ramadan to be a Salafi fundamentalist, not a reformist.

Author: Caroline Fourest

Tariq's association with many of the world's notorious jihadists including Ayman Al Zawahiri, the Al Queda No. 2 man, put Tariq into the list of the unwelcomed travellers in many countries including France and the USA. He is accused of being the subversive instigator of Muslims the world over. He encourages youths not to be passive citizens but instead, demand their rights. He wants them not to conform to the majority rule which is unIslamic. Ibn Taymiyyah, the controversial 13th-century Islamic thinker with his dogmatic teachings, is his role model. Tariq seems to condone the terrorism manned by fringe Islamists' group but fail to address the injustices carried out in the name of religion in Islamic nations. He is quick, however, to accuse of a Hamas-Zionist conspiracy or cry Islamophobia when the Muslims are in the wrong.


Tarik Ramadan denies part of his religious activities include proselytising but agrees that his wish is to have Europe, a Dar-al-Harb where Muslims are the minority, to a Dar-al-shahada or House of Witness/Message. In traditional Islamic sense, countries are either Darul-al-Islam (House of God) where Muslims are the leaders or Darul-al-Harb (House of war where Muslims are persecuted). So, in his words, he plans to bring the message of the gospel to the masses and make them believers?

This book was written in 2007 by a French journalist who was in the minority who opposed Tariq's interfaith work. Somehow, being the virtuoso of rhetorical and semantic undermining, he managed to stay in the limelight over the years. It should be interesting to see how he is going to dodge the new accusations of sexual misconduct that sprung in the social media recently and has made it to the French courts.