In 2004, Tariq Ramadan criticized Muslim leaders operating in Canada for having openly promoted sharia. He suggested that they rather take advantage of the current Canadian legal framework in order to discretely implement sharia principles one at a time.
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In 2004, in an interview given to an Egyptian periodical, Tariq Ramadan criticized Muslim leaders operating in Canada for having openly promoted sharia and Islamic tribunals. Ramadan stressed that they had shown a “lack of creativity” by openly revealing their ultimate goal. As Ramadan noted, the term sharia “is laden with negative connotations in the Western mind”. It would therefore be better not to openly talk about it “for the time being”, he added. Instead, Ramadan suggested taking advantage of the current Canadian legal framework (“one of the most open in the world”) in order to discretely implement sharia principles one at a time. This is the approach that led Islamists to press for the establishment of reasonable accommodations in the following years.
EXCERPT OF TARIQ RAMADAN’S INTERVIEW TO EGYPT TODAY
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. We need to show that our way of thinking is universal, that we can live with the law and there is no contradiction.
It’s more useful for Muslims to examine the legal framework they have in Canada, which is one of the most open in the world, and come up with something Islamic that at the same time fits the Canadian reality. The term shariah in itself is laden with negative connotations in the Western mind. There is no need to stress that.
In an article published on November 5, 2009 by the National Post, Tarek Fatak commented Tariq Ramadan’s program in these terms:
(Tariq Ramadan) 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.
Salah Basalamah: “Citizens’ agoras” to discuss the “issues that get people angry”
In an interview given to a Quebec trade-union publication in 2010, Salah Basalamah, a close associate of Tariq Ramadan, promoted a “complement” to the reasonable accommodation approach.
Basalamah proposed setting up meetings (“citizens’ agoras”) in districts, cities and areas throughout Quebec during which citizens would be asked to bring up the “issues that get people angry” («les questions qui fâchent»).
Basalamah specified that these meetings would have to be held “far from the media and the courts.”
We can easily imagine what would happen. A restaurant owner is convened by a bunch of Islamists at this meeting, this so-called citizens’ agora. His sale of alcohol being one of these “issues that get people angry”, he is notified that he must stop selling alcohol. You would not want to get your Islamist neighbours angry. Would you? All this “far from the media and the courts”, as planned by Basalamah.
Just imagine the level of intimidation to which this kind of meeting would open the door. You are serving food during Ramadan. You have to explain yourself. You are not wearing a hijab. You have to explain yourself. You are decorating your house for Christmas. You have to explain yourself. All these issues being among those that get your Islamist neighbours angry.
In his book The right to translate (Le droit de traduire, Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa, 2009), Salah Basalamah introduces Tariq Ramadan as his “intellectual brother in arms”. Before speaking at a 2008 conference in Montreal, Salah Basalamah was introduced by the organizer Peter Leuprecht, a former dean of McGill University Faculty of Law as “Tariq Ramadan’s representative here in Canada.” (Le Devoir [Montreal], September 13, 2008, p. G11)
While in Dallas in July 2011, Tariq Ramadan incited his supporters to colonize the United States of America “with our understanding of Islam, our principles”. Ramadan has also written the foreword to one of Youssef Qaradawi’s compendium of fatwas. Qaradawi is the Muslim Brotherhood’s spiritual guide. Ramadan has introduced him as a “prominent scholar” who has outlined the attitudes and the kind of behaviour that Muslims living in the West should adopt. (Radical Reform, New York, Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 31 and 326)
Because of his “incitement to hatred and violence”, Youssef Qaradawi was recently banned from entering France (Le Figaro – Reuters). In 2007, Salah Basalamah endorsed the same Qaradawi who incites Muslims to conquer the West and presents Hitler as Allah’s envoy who came to punish the Jews. In 2002, Basalamah was chosen by Qaradawi to translate one of his books.
