Thursday, Sep 4, 2008
It does indeed sound clear and simple. Why don't we put it to the test with an example: Is a Muslim permitted to break with his faith?
Not according to the majority opinion among Koran scholars. But the prohibition on apostasy arose at a time when the first Muslim followers of the prophet Mohammed were at war with neighboring tribes. At the time, changing one's faith was tantamount to high treason or desertion. Nowadays this context has changed completely.
In other words, the fight against "infidels" is completely outmoded?
Even the concept of the infidel is misleading, because the infidel is normally someone with a different faith, someone who refuses to recognize the truth of the words of the Koran, as revealed by God. He has every right to do so, as long as he does not question my right to believe in my truth.
So each individual must become blessed in his own way? What about atheists?
The logic of freedom of religion implies freedom to be an atheist, even though, from a historical perspective, this has not been accepted in the Muslim world...
...and often leads to brutal punishment. How do you feel about equal rights for men and women?
We need an Islamic feminism. Traditional Islam views the women merely as mother, wife, daughter or sister. She has obligations and rights in this capacity. But we must come to a point at which we treat the women as an independent individual with a right to self-determination, as someone who can run her own life without coercion.
Should she be permitted to decide for herself whether to stop wearing the head scarf?
Of course, just as she is permitted to decide whether to wear the head scarf.
But that's an illusion, at least in the real world. Women and girls are not emancipated within their families.
You're right. This is often the case, but emancipation can only come from within; it cannot be dictated by someone else. A law banning the wearing of head scarves changes nothing, except perhaps external appearance. Naturally, Islamic feminism must also include the right to education, to work and the freedom to select one's own husband.
That's all fine and good, but can you explain, then, why you have publicly called for a moratorium on the stoning of women accused of committing adultery -- rather than condemning the practice outright? Some would argue that's hypocritical.
Once again, Islam can only be modernized from within. If I stand there and state that I condemn the practice of stoning, that this punishment is despicable, it changes nothing. My fellow Muslims will say: Brother Tariq, you became a European, a Swiss citizen, so you are no longer one of us. I want to trigger a process of contemplation and thought within the Islamic community. Critiques and attacks from the outside can produce tension. Incidentally, a number of U.S. states have imposed a moratorium on the death penalty, in an effort to buy time to think about the meaning and legitimacy of this penalty.
Is a tendency toward violence inherent to Islam? Isn't it true that many Muslims view jihad as an elementary part of Islamic identity?
Are the Crusades an elementary part of Christianity? No. Every community has the right to self-defense. The Palestinians have the right to fight for their independence from Israel. But this goal does not justify all means. Nothing legitimizes the killing of innocent civilians. The suicide bomber who blows up Israeli children cannot transform himself into a martyr. The Palestinian problem is not an Islamic problem.
Where do you see the process of reform and modernization of Islam, of which you have been a proponent? Has it made any progress anywhere?
In Europe. The impetus must come from European Islam and then influence the Arab world. There is some overlap between the universal values of Western democracy and those of Islam -- the constitutional state operating under the rule of law, the equality of citizens, universal suffrage, the changeover of power, separation of the private and public spheres. These are basic principles, and although they are not spelled out in the Koran, I do not believe that they contradict Islamic tradition.
That is an opinion that many Muslim legal scholars do not share.
An excessively literal interpretation of the Koran ever since the 13th century has led Islam into intellectual calcification and political tension. Remaining faithful to the texts must be distinguished from interpretation of historical and social context. If we begin applying this exegesis and hermeneutics, we will begin to see progress in Islam thought.
Your words are like those of a rationalist, an enlightened theologian with purely intellectual ambitions. But in political reality, in France, Great Britain and the United States, you are suspected of secretly promoting the expansion of Islam and sympathizing with violence.
Oh yes, I am one of the most maligned Muslim intellectuals. Tariq Ramadan, the slippery trickster. They talk about people like me the way they used to talk about the Jews: He is Swiss and European, but his loyalties also lie elsewhere. He says one thing and thinks something else. He is a member of an international organization -- in the past, it was world Jewry, today it's world Islam. I am disparaged as if I were a Muslim Jew.
Could that have something to do with your family history? Your grandfather, Hassan al-Banna, was the founder of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in 1928, an organization that envisioned an Islamic fundamentalist transformation.
Thoughts are not genetically inherited traits. I admire my grandfather for his anti-colonial fight against the British. He was very involved in education for girls and women. His five daughters -- my aunts and my mother -- all attended university. And the organization he founded was very progressive for its time. However, I am highly critical of the Brotherhood, with its affected, conspiratorial behavior, its hierarchical structures and its oversimplified slogans.
Were you ever a member of the Brotherhood?
I can assure you that I am no Muslim Brother, despite the fact that my critics have repeatedly launched this rumor in an effort to slander and harm me.
Do you ever think about forming your own party, organization or movement?
No. I am not a politician. I have often been approached in this regard in the past 15 years, but I have always declined these sorts of offers. I view myself as an independent, critical intellectual, as someone who tries to stimulate thought on the left and the right, to encourage intellectual evolution. The Islamic world is obsessed with the notion of strong leaders. This is a mistake. We don't need powerful leaders, but rather unconventional, progressive thinkers with the courage to open our minds.
Translated from German by Christopher Sultan.
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