Sunday, November 08, 2009
Montreal welcomes an Islamist extremist in sheep's clothing, by Tarek Fatah
Tomorrow evening the citizens of Montreal will be treated to a spectacle of Islamist double-talk that will leave them dazzled. Tariq Ramadan will be speaking to a gathering at the University of Montreal.
This time the voice of Islamism will not be the regular run-of-the-mill shrieks by sheikhs, but delivered by a man with a mellow disarming smile. The guttural accent we have come to associate with angry mullahs of the Middle East will be replaced by milky English delivered with a French accent.
But make no mistake. The message of Tariq Ramadan will remain the same. The crudeness will be replaced by sophistication; the clumsiness by finesse. And Canadians, hungry for some sense of movement towards moderation in the world of Islam, will most probably lap it all up.So who is Tariq Ramadan?
My first encounter with him was in a TVO discussion about Sharia Law in Canada in 2005.
I had heard Tariq Ramadan had spoken against the idea of introducing Sharia Law in Canada. I was excited. The grandson of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt would have the maturity and understanding to take a brave stand when the rest of the Islamist establishment was hell-bent on making sure sharia law found a foothold in North America.
However, my hopes were dashed when the live show went on air. Tariq Ramadan made it very clear. He was not opposed to sharia law coming to Canada; he just didn't think it was the right time to introduce it. In his words, Muslims were displaying a "lack of creativity". He suggested that rather than ask openly for sharia law, Islamists should have sneaked it in through the existing legal framework.
Taken aback, I was reminded of the Islamist doctrine of Taqiyaa, a dissimulation methodology employed to hide one's true agenda, which recommends appearing harmless to one's adversary with the objective of having them lower their guard.After the TV show, I did some research on Tariq Ramadan's position on Sharia law. In the issue of Egypt Today of October 2004, he wrote:
"The Muslims in Canada's battle to set up shariah courts to settle domestic disputes is another example of lack of creativity. Within the normative law in Canada, they have huge latitude for Muslims to propose an Islamic contract. These courts are not necessary; all they do is stress the fact that Muslims have specific laws and for the time being this is not how we want to be perceived. (emphasis mine). We need to show that our way of thinking is universal, that we can live with the law and there is no contradiction."
He continued:
"The term shariah in itself is laden with negative connotations in the Western mind. There is no need to stress that."
If I needed an example of doublespeak and dissimulation, I had found it.
On Thursday, the Muslim Canadian Congress and the Montreal-based Point de Basqule took out a full page advertisement in Le Devoir welcoming Ramadan to Quebec and Canada, but exposing the hidden agenda that has mesmerized so many naïve Westerners.
Titled, "Greetings to You, Oh My Brother!", Point de Bascule and the MCC described Ramadan as an Islamist ideologue who pretends to be a moderate, but acts otherwise. This was best reflected in his refusal to outrightly condemn the practice of stoning women. He has asked for a ‘moratorium' on such barbaric punishments.
Tariq Ramadan's conference on Friday evening is organized by a group of his disciples, but has the backing of many on the left as well as such partners as the l'Institut du Nouveau Monde and the Quebec Ministry of Immigration and Cultural Communities.
Ramadan reflects the new sophisticated arm of the worldwide Islamist movement, which sees the West as the right place to wage a cultural and intellectual jihad. It preys on Muslim youth who are tired of the old guard; men in beards and long frocks, frothing as they denounce the evil West. The new technique is to undermine the West from within, like parasites and termites, with the host society never knowing what hit it, until it is too late. UK is one example.
Those dazzled by the charm of the new Islamists need to recognize that Tariq Ramadan in 2003 praised a book written by Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, the radical Islamist sheik based in Qatar; the man who justified suicide bombing. Ramadan hosts a weekly show on the Iranian government's PressTV network. He has never dissociated himself from the Iranian regime, not even during the repression of protesters who were opposed to the "re- election" of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. As young Muslim men and women were being beaten up and tortured by the Iranian regime, Ramadan was quite happy to give the Iranian ayatollahs a pretty face.
I close with the words of French Muslim journalist Mohamed Sifaoui: "Tariq Ramadan is an Islamist. He is among those who want political Islam, the European version of the Muslim Brotherhood, to infiltrate institutions, society, associations, parties, the media and so on, in order to pressure these same societies, to "reform" them from inside, to Islamize them or re-Islamize them, the better to pervert them, to progressively bring them to accept a medieval vision of the Muslim religion."
Brother Tariq, your father Said Ramadan came to my birthplace Pakistan in 1948 as a Muslim Brotherhood emissary and was instrumental in turning a secular Muslim country into a hotbed of Islamic extremism. I will not let the son of Said Ramadan come to my adopted home Canada and do the same, without a fight. Your Islamist father ruined my birthplace; I will not let you ruin the place where I will die.
National Post.
Tarek Fatah is a Toronto writer and broadcaster. He is the author of Chasing a Mirage: The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State (Wiley 2008).
Link
Labels: Canada, Islam, Montréal, Québec, Religion and fanaticism, Tarek Fatah
# posted by Francis Chartrand @ 3:10 PM 
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