This is a guest post by Amjad Khan
Tariq Ramdhan has always been a bit of a mystery to me. His books are very difficult to read. His speeches are ambiguous at best and downright dishonest at worst. He has attracted much criticism from various quarters for his ‘Double-speak’, i.e. saying different things to different audiences. There is even a book dedicated to him that presents examples of this double speak.
Up until now I have been very careful about expressing an opinion on the man. After all, I wouldn’t want to dismiss him as an Islamist if he was a genuine moderate reformer. I always knew he was the son of the notorious Islamist activist Said Ramadhan who in turn was the son in law of the very founder of the Islamist movement Hassan al-Banna. But it’s not fair to judge people by their ancestry. I also knew that he regularly appeared at many Islamist events as a keynote speaker, and presented a show for Press TV. However, I still gave him the benefit of the doubt. But then I stumbled across this prayer which was delivered in France:
Though there are subtitles, I have produced a translation of the prayer below:
“Allah we ask you because you are Allah, strengthen the faith of our brothers and sisters in Palestine, Allah strengthen their faith in Palestine and make them triumphant over the enemy, Your enemy, the enemy of the religion (Islam) with your mercy, oh, Generous one. Allah strengthen their faith in Palestine, in Chechnya, Afghanistan, in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, in Egypt, Sudan, Kashmir and in every land and on every battlefield. Allah, strike our enemies, Your enemies, the enemies of the religion (Islam). “
Now I have been to my fair share of Islamist and Jihadist study circles and believe me this is exactly the type of language they would use on a regular basis.
Calling Israel the enemy of Islam, praying for Jihadist struggles everywhere in the world, asking Allah to strike the enemy etc. The above is essentially a prayer for the international Jihadist movement to succeed all over the world, even in countries that are not occupied. Otherwise it wouldn’t make sense to pray for victory on every battlefield including Afghanistan, Chechnya, Egypt, Algeria and Kashmir. Since the only people fighting in those countries are Jihadists. With regards to Palestine he is essentially calling for a military victory over Israel which is in line with the Islamist aim of destroying the state completely.
In the words of Jimmy Cliff, ‘I can see clearly now the rain has gone’.
