Rotterdam: Tariq Ramadan in debate

Rotterdam: Tariq Ramadan in debate

Tariq Ramadan came on Friday to the Arminius Church in Rotterdam in order to debate his dismissal from the university and the municipality.

He first introduced his position: Video 1, Video 2. To summarize: he says he was wrongfully dismissed, that the city and university fired him for having a TV show on Iranian TV, though he never hid the fact, that they did not give him a chance to explain his side of things, and that he feels that he's not being treated like any other citizen just because he's a Muslim.

Regarding this last point, it's important to remember that in 2006, Ayaan Hirsi Ali was summarily deprived of her citizenship, virtually from one day to the next, due to accusations that she lied on her asylum request form.

I really don't remember, did Tariq Ramadan voice his concern about that at the time? Nobody could claim that was Islamophobic.

In any case, Ramadan then debated Marco Pastors of Leefbaar Rotterdam: Video 3.

Pastors' arguments were not very convincing. He really should be aware of Ramadan's writings. As I've written before, I don't think Ramadan hides his position on various issues in his book. His radical anti-Western, anti-globalization, anti-capitalist views might be common in academia, but in my opinion they're still quite radical.

Tariq Ramadan is right in the sense that his opponents are talking mostly out of emotion and not based on what he says or writes. This allows Ramadan to claim that he's being falsely accused of radicalism. It's time somebody did look at what Ramadan says and writes, and debate Ramadan based on those writings.

h/t Allochtonen Weblog