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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Moderate Muslim academic issues courageous call

Reviewed by: Bill Rambo

Posted: 03/27/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

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Tariq Ramadan speaks at the University of Montreal last November.

What I Believe

By Tariq Ramadan

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Oxford University Press, 148 pages, $16

Early in February, a Pakistani Imam issued a fatwa against terrorism by Muslims.

This kind of well-publicized opposition to violence in the name of "the religion of peace" has been a long time coming. However, one longtime advocate of improved relationships between Muslims and the West, British academic Tariq Ramadan, has been condemning Islamist terrorism for decades.

Ramadan believes that Muslims can accept Western values, and that the West can accept Muslim citizens. What I Believe, while sometimes over-written, is an intellectually challenging compendium of Ramadan's thoughts about cultural relationships, "for those who really want to understand but do not always have enough time to read and study all [my] books."

Often promoted as a moderate Muslim, sometimes controversially, Ramadan is the son and grandson of prominent Islamists, but is banned from entering his home country of Egypt for criticizing the government.

He has a history of offending both Muslims and critics of radical Islam.

He was offered a post at the University of Notre Dame Indiana in 2004, but was denied a U.S. visa under the Patriot Act. He teaches at Oxford in Islamic Studies.

Ramadan's slim volume of philosophy hopes to begin "an earnest, profound and constructive dialogue." He insists that individuals and local communities must take the lead in overcoming distrust and conflict between cultures.

What I Believe tries to define some of the terms that have divided the extremes of attitudes about Muslims and the West. He explicitly rejects violent imagery, translating jihad as "effort, resistance" and Shariah as "the way to faithfulness."

Ramadan notes that the condensed nature of this book "may not suffice to convey the complexity of a thought (which may moreover have evolved and gained in density in the course of time)." Occasionally the reader is left with questions about nuances, and specifics, in cultural relations.

Ramadan insists that the vast majority of Muslims are good citizens in non-Muslim societies, many of which need added population. Acknowledging both Islamist violence and discrimination against Muslim minorities, he nevertheless calls on both to emphasize the values they share.

Western media have emphasized the radicals in the Muslim world. Many accuse non-radical Muslims of not speaking out enough against terrorism and violence, perhaps from fear of violent elements. What I Believe is a step in the right direction.

Ramadan occasionally expresses extra sympathy toward the Muslim world. "Palestinians suffer colonization and repression at the hands of successive Israeli governments." The other side is relegated literally to a footnote: "One must also denounce the hypocrisy of Arab states, which after all bear the main responsibility for letting down the Palestinians and for their current disarray."

Always calm in tone, What I Believe points out that cultural change occurs over generations, not the short electoral periods that result in political polarization on cultural issues.

Even those who think Ramadan has not gone far enough in the past can applaud many of the points in What I Believe. An appendix, Manifesto for a New "We." sets out an agenda for getting along which applies to almost any multicultural situation.

It provides a courageous call for people to work together, setting aside differences "to lay full claim to their ideals, and to make them a reality."

Bill Rambo teaches English at Niverville Collegiate.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 27, 2010 H9

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