After five years of investigative work, the Paris public prosecutor's office has applied to open proceedings against an Islamic icon in Europe. The Swiss Tariq Ramadan, grandson of the founder of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, is accused of rape. Despite his conservative views, to say the least, and his extremist family members, Tariq Ramadan was seen as the face of modern European Islam. He held a professorship in Oxford and was a frequent guest on talk shows and a popular political contact.
However, there was no international outcry after allegations of rape against Ramadan became known. The silence was all the more remarkable as the first public denunciation of the internet campaign against sexual assault
While victims of assaults falling under
Tariq Ramadan seems to rely on this type of defamation of victims of sexual violence. In 2019, for example, he published the full name of a previously anonymous plaintiff in a book. The fact that he was sentenced to a fine by a French court is of no use to the woman known under the pseudonym "Christelle" or to the other women. Supporters of Ramadan began to threaten her online and offline, she had to go into hiding and at times be placed under police protection.
With the more than 80 mentions of the real name of "Christelle" in the book no negligence can be assumed, but intention. Ramadan apparently took the threats from his followers into account. The fact that some women withdrew the complaint is also to be seen against this background.
However, three women in France stayed with their complaints and prosecutors believe the evidence is sufficient to prompt a jury trial for particularly serious crimes. Regardless of whether Ramadan is actually guilty or whether he can be proven guilty, his behavior proves that he and his followers do not stand for an enlightened Islam.
To this day, Ramadan claims the ads are the result of an Islamophobic conspiracy. Since being released from custody on bail, he has disrupted an event about violence against women and even set up an institute to teach feminism, among other things. Observers see both as a calculated provocation. Despite further allegations in Switzerland, Ramadan has so far not taken any responsibility for his misconduct.
As an Islamic pop star, Ramadan co-invented Islamic feminism, which is modern in appearance but traditionally patriarchal in its view of women. Opposite him are Muslim women's rights activists who want reforms. A small group of these women joined Henda Ayari in 2017. They wrote: "To believe that a man is innocent just because a plaintiff might corroborate Islamophobic rhetoric plays into the hands of the law of omertà."
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