Category Archives: State Oppression

Islamophobia and Tariq Ramadan

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Islamophobia and Tariq Ramadan

From the Morning Star, 8 January 2004

By Ken Livingstone

Last month I appointed Yasmin Qureshi as my human rights adviser, and asked her to also address the related issue of the rise in Islamophobia.

One issue that Yasmin has drawn attention to is the treatment of respected Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan by the US authorities, after Mr Ramadan resigned his professorship at an American university following the withdrawal of his visa.

Swiss-born Professor Ramadan is one of the most respected philosophers of religion and conflict resolution. He was named by Time magazine as one of the world’s top 100 influential thinkers last year. He was described by the Christian Science Monitor’s commentator on ethics and religion, Jane Lampman, as “one of Europe’s most prominent Muslim reformers.”

Mr Ramadan spoke at City Hall last summer in favour of a woman’s right to choose to wear the Muslim headscarf, or hijab, in the light of the new French law banning conspicuous religious symbols in schools.

When the furore broke in the media last year about the visit of Sheikh Yusuf al Qaradawi to City Hall, Peter Tatchell and others condemned the conference at which he spoke on the grounds that no speaker had defended the right of women not to wear the hijab.

In fact, Tariq Ramadan said: “It is against the Islamic teaching to force a woman to wear the Hijab, because it is an act of faith.”

Despite Ramadan’s respected academic status, his American visa was revoked in July under the Patriot Act, adopted after the terrorist attacks on September 11, thus preventing him from taking up his post at the University of Notre dame in Indiana. He has so far been refused a new visa.

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Monitor non-violent Islamists, says Pipes

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Daniel Pipes applauds the crackdown on Muslim communities in Germany. Pipes is particularly taken with the proposal by Uwe Schünemann, the CDU interior minister in Lower Saxony, to make radical Islamists wear electronic foot tags: “Doing so, he says, would allow the authorities ‘to monitor the approximately 3,000 violence-prone Islamists in Germany, the hate preachers [i.e., Islamist imams], and the fighters trained in foreign terrorist camps’.”

But Pipes feels that this doesn’t go far enough: “If hate preachers are tagged, why not the many other non-violent Islamists who also help create an environment promoting terrorism? Their ranks would include activists, artists, computer gamers, couriers, funders, intellectuals, journalists, lawyers, lobbyists, organizers, researchers, shopkeepers, and teachers. In short, Schünemann’s initiative could lead ultimately to the electronic tagging of all Islamists.

“But electronic tags reveal only a person’s geographic location, not his words or actions, which matter more when dealing with imams and other non-violent cadres. With due allowances for personal privacy, their speech could be recorded, their actions videoed, their mail and electronic communications monitored. Such controls could be done discreetly or overtly. If overt, the tagging would serve as a modern scarlet letter, shaming the wearer and alerting potential dupes.

“The Schünemann proposal points to the urgent need to develop a working definition of Islamism and Islamists, plus the imperative for the authorities to explain how even non-violent Islamists are the enemy.”

Front Page Magazine, 3 January 2005

It’s reassuring to know that Pipes is willing to make “due allowances for personal privacy”.

Pipes favors concentration camps … for Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pipes concentration camps

“That the Revisionist-Zionist extremist Daniel Pipes has fond visions of rounding up Muslim Americans and putting them in concentration camps isn’t a big surprise. That a mainstream American newspaper would publish this David-Dukeian evil is. Of course, this is also a man that President Bush appointed to a temporary vacancy at the United States Institute of Peace, after the Senate understandably balked at a regular appointment for him.”

Juan Cole on Pipes’ plans for incarcerating Muslims.

Informed Comment, 31 December 2004

Read Pipes’ article here.

My fight against American phantoms – Tariq Ramadan

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Over the last four years, I have visited the United States more than 20 times. I have lectured on philosophy and Islam at numerous academic institutions from Dartmouth to Stanford and at organizations from the Brookings Institution to the United States Institute of Peace. I was invited to a meeting organized by former President Clinton, and I spoke before officials of the CIA.”

Tariq Ramadan in the Los Angeles Times, 21 December 2004

44% of Americans back limits on Muslims’ rights: poll

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A new nation-wide poll showed that a major section of American society believes fellow Muslim citizens pose a national threat and supports curbing Muslims’ civil rights and monitoring their places of worship.

The survey, conducted by the Cornell University and posted on its Web site, found that at least 44 percent of the respondents believed that American Muslims “are a threat and their civil liberties should be curtailed” by the authorities.

The poll, based on telephone interviews with 715 people across the US, revealed that 27 percent of respondents wanted Muslim citizens to register their location with the federal government.

It further indicated that 26 percent believed mosques should be “closely monitored” by federal law enforcement agencies.

“Twenty-nine percent agreed that undercover law enforcement agents should infiltrate Muslim civic and volunteer organizations, in order to keep tabs on their activities and fund raising,” according to the survey.

It said that about 22 percent of the respondents believed the federal authorities should profile citizens as potential threats “based on the fact that they are Muslim or have Middle Eastern heritage.”

Islam Online, 18 December 2004

‘Academic freedom threatened’ over Muslim scholar’s visa

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Mayor of London’s human rights adviser Yasmin Qureshi has expressed concern about the treatment of respected Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan by the US authorities, after Mr Ramadan resigned his professorship at an American university following the withdrawal of his visa. Swiss-born Professor Ramadan is one of the most respected philosophers of religion and conflict resolution. He was named by “Time” magazine as one of the world’s top 100 influential thinkers this year.

Mr Ramadan spoke at City Hall this year in favour of a woman’s right to choose to wear the Muslim headscarf (hijab). In July his American visa was revoked under the Patriot Act, adopted after the terrorist attacks on September 11, thus preventing him from taking up his post at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. He has so far been refused a new visa.

The failure of the US authorities to issue him with a visa has led him to announce his resignation of two professorships at the university – professor of Islamic studies in the classics department and professor of religion, conflict, and peace-building – and he has accused the American authorities of attacking academic freedom.

Yasmin Qureshi said: “The withdrawal of Tariq Ramadan’s visa is a de facto attack on academic freedom in the U.S.A and it appears to send a signal to Muslims all over the world that their respected academics and scholars are not welcome in the US. The US authorities have so far failed to provide an explanation for the withdrawal of Tariq Ramadan’s visa. If this can happen to a mainstream figure such as Professor Ramadan then Muslims everywhere will feel that it could happen to them. The Muslim population in London will have every right to feel uncertain about whether they are now welcome visitors to the USA. As we have already seen, London resident Yusuf Islam was ejected from the USA earlier this year, again with no reason given. There is a very real danger that exclusions and bans of such mainstream figures will play into the hands of extremists.”

The mayor of London announced the appointment of Yasmin Qureshi as his human rights adviser earlier this week, asking her to address the problem of Islamophobia as one her responsibilities.

GLA press release, 17 December 2004

Muslim academic resigns from US university

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Tariq Ramadan, the leading Muslim academic, has resigned his professorship at an American university after authorities refused to give him a visa.

Swiss-born Prof Ramadan is one of the most respected philosophers of religion and conflict resolution; he has argued for a more moderate and modern Islam, and was named by Time magazine as one of the world’s top 100 influential thinkers this year.

But in July his American visa was revoked under the Patriot Act, adopted after the terrorist attacks on September 11, prohibiting him from taking up the post at the University of Notre dame in Indiana. They have so far refused to issue a new visa.

Today he announced his resignation of two professorships at the university – professor of Islamic studies in the classics department and professor of religion, conflict, and peace building – and accused the American authorities of attacking academic freedom.

In a written statement Prof Ramadan said: “No matter what decision I have taken today, I am still waiting for the American administration to reveal the results of their investigation so that my name can be cleared of all the untrue and humiliating accusations against me during these last few months. As yet, not a single piece of evidence has been produced to substantiate the claims made against me, which I believe is a classic case of infringement of academic freedom.

“My hope of teaching in the United States was based on the sincere aspiration to participate in the pressing and topical debates of our time. An unjust decision does not bar me from continuing this imperative struggle for dialogue and understanding between women and men, between religions and cultures.”

He thanked the university and his supporters from around the world, and added: “It is they who are promoting pluralism and democratic debate. The American administration, on the other hand, seems to be unfortunately demonstrating signs of a rapid descent into a closed and worrisome unilaterism.”

Prof Ramadan claims he has been called an anti-semite and has been accused of having links to extremist Islamic groups.

The university expressed regret at the news. R Scott Appleby, director of the Joan B Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, said: “We are disappointed that Professor Ramadan will not be joining our faculty. Faculty and students at Notre Dame and at other US universities were looking forward to engaging him productively on a variety of issues central to our times. Such dialogue, we believe, is an essential requirement to a deeper understanding of the complexity of the Muslim world.”

Guardian, 17 December 2004

Muslims ‘facing most faith bias’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslims in the UK are more likely to face discrimination based on religion rather than race, a study says. The report, by the Open Society Institute (OSI), says Islamophobia is adding to the problems of the UK’s most disadvantaged faith group.

Since 2002 increasing Islamophobia had added to the long-established problems of the group in areas such as education, employment and housing, researchers found. Eighty percent of UK Muslims have reported being victims of Islamophobia since September 11 and more than a third complain of being singled out by authorities while using UK airports. Young Muslim women were the most likely to report discrimination in the aftermath of September 11 and believed this was related to their decision to wear traditional dress.

“In the post-September 11 environment, religion is more important than ethnicity in indicating which groups are more likely to experience racism and discrimination,” the report concluded.

BBC News, 22 November 2005

Who’s afraid of Tariq Ramadan?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The U.S. government is so convinced that Tariq Ramadan is dangerous, it revoked the Muslim scholar’s visa to teach at the University of Notre Dame. Some in Europe think Ramadan is an anti-Semite who preaches moderation out of one side of his mouth and hate out of the other. Others, though, think he’s the man to reconcile Islam with modernity. So, who is right?”

Interview with Tariq Ramadan in Foreign Policy, November-December 2004