TIME Magazine: TIME 100: Tariq Ramadan


	NATION \| WORLD \| BUSINESS \| ARTS \| PHOTOS \| CURRENT ISSUE

Tariq Ramadan

Scientists & Thinkers
	Edward Witten Steven Pinker Eric Lander Korean Cloners Paul Ridker Hernando de Soto Jeff Sachs Linus Torvalds Niall Ferguson Bernard Lewis Tariq Ramadan Jurgen Habermas Samantha Power Sandra Day O'Connor Jill Tarter Julie Gerberding Joschka Fischer Bjorn Lomborg Jong-Wook Lee Louise Arbour
	Leaders & Revolutionaries Artists & Entertainers Builders & Titans Heroes & Icons Introduction Essay FROM THE ARCHIVE: Scientists & Thinkers from 1900-1999

Modernist or Extremist?

By BRUCE CRUMLEY

SERGE PICARD / VU FOR TIME

FROM THE TIME ARCHIVE

	As American As. . . Although scapegoated, Muslims, Sikhs and Arabs are patriotic, integrated—and growing [10/1/2001]

Few observers deny the seductive brilliance of Swiss philosopher and Islamic theoretician Tariq Ramadan, but disagreement over his true agenda is ferocious. Within the past half-decade, Ramadan has become enormously influential among Muslims throughout Europe. He calls for believers to embrace and practice Islam in a thoroughly modern manner. And he advises Muslims on how they can fully integrate into European societies without betraying the universal laws and values of Islam. A successful author, he sells around 50,000 audiocassettes of his speeches each year in France alone.

Detractors claim that Ramadan's messages are filled with a double language. His followers, they say, can decipher his words as a call to furtively spread fundamentalist Islam in society under the cover of modernism and integration. Critics have denounced as anti-Semitic Ramadan's recent critique of "Jewish French intellectual" reaction to the intifadeh. They were appalled when he suggested last year a "moratorium" on the stoning of adulterers in order to consider the legitimacy of the act. (In 2003, his Islamist brother Hani was dismissed as a schoolteacher after defending the stoning of women in Le Monde.)

Ramadan's fans insist that his modernist message is genuine. Some Americans will soon get a chance to judge for themselves. In September he is scheduled to teach a course at the University of Notre Dame's Institute for International Peace Studies called Religion & Conflict.

Feb. 17, 2003 Sept. 10, 1984 April 29, 1991

Larger Cover
Larger Cover
Larger Cover