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Professor Tariq Ramadan is a man of no need to introduction. He holds MA in Philosophy and French literature and PhD in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the University of Geneva. In Cairo, Egypt he received one-on-one intensive training in classic Islamic scholarship from Al-Azhar University scholars. Tariq Ramadan is Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies at Oxford University (Oriental Institute, St Antony’s College ). He is also teaching at the Faculty of Theology at Oxford. He is at the same time a Visiting Professor in Qatar (Faculty of Islamic Studies) and in Morocco (Mundiapolis) and a Senior Research Fellow at Doshisha University (Kyoto, Japan).[/symple_box]
While facing this horror, this blind violence, the killings and massacres in the streets of the French capital, our first thought goes to the victims, the injured, their families and friends. To them and to everyone, our condolences and the testimony of our sympathy.
Absolute and immediate condemnation. They shouted, we are told, “Allahu akbar” (God [is] the greatest) to support and justify their inhuman actions. With this they told a lie and a truth. Their lie is related to Islam and its message as not even one of its teachings, ever, can justify their actions. These acts are the result of the minds inhabited by the worst, or minds without minds, manipulated or manipulators. The truth is that God, yes, in His grace, His love and His compassion is greater than their killing madness and that Islam will never end up being equated or amalgamated with their extremist violence.
The right reaction in France would be to join forces, to set a united front. A true united front with the government and all the institutions eventually understanding that the French Muslim citizens are truly part of it: they are not those alien “objects of analysis.”
Finally the problem of the fractured national unity is deep and it is upstream of the attacks that, together, we need more work and education. To build together the future and not to react to tragedies. A united front also means the refusal, in the short and long term, of the political instrumentalization of these heinous attacks. This would be a victory, but alas, we already hear the whispers of predatory voices proving that, on this front, the defeat is consumed.
