Tariq Ramadan Quotes
I am talking about anything that is a provocation - ignore it. When something falls under freedom of expression, you can read it and take a critical distance.
Ramadan, Tariq. Interview. Al Jazeera, 2015.
This is a very important quotation. The reason is that the Secretary General of the UN backed off and did not support the absolute right of freedom of speech and expression. He favored allowing exceptions. In this case a film was made that was not only intellectually an attack on Islam but it was done in such a manner that most orthodox Muslims were insulted and offended that their Prophet and religion were both insulted in a blasphemous manner. It was a film that was very much in poor taste, insensitive and gross. One major difference between freedom of speech as interpreted by most countries and the United States is that most other nations do not allow and defend hate speech and material that insults a people or their religion or is blatantly blasphemous. The U. S. however protects anyone who blasphemously attacks anyone or any group for any reason. There are a few other nations that protect free speech absolutely but Germany, the United Kingdom, Israel, and India are considered major examples of democracy and freedom and yet they do not protect free speech absolutely. In most Muslim nations, whatever freedom of speech they might have does not apply to blasphemy where Islam is concerned. In most of the Arab nations, there is rank hypocrisy in that freedom of speech is tolerated and protected if there is a blasphemous attack on any other religion such as Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, or Bhai. This kind of difference on human rights between the U. S. and the UN causes many Americans to oppose the US participation in UN operated courts and projects to protect human rights. Few Americans would favor being a part of an international court system where an American could be convicted of blasphemy for what he had written or said. Essentially, the Secretary General has taken a stand against the United States Constitution and the values of most Americans and many other people of the world like Denmark, or Norway. Offensive and insulting speech is the only kind of speech that needs protection. If speech offends no one, there is no need for its protection.
Tariq Ramadan is a Swiss Muslim academic, philosopher, and writer. He was a professor of contemporary Islamic studies at St Antony's College, Oxford and the Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Oxford, but as of 2018 is taking an agreed leave of absence. He is a visiting professor at the Faculty of Islamic Studies at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar, and the Université Mundiapolis in Morocco. He is also a senior research fellow at Doshisha University in Japan. He is the director of the Research Centre of Islamic Legislation and Ethics (CILE), based in Doha. He is a member of the UK Foreign Office Advisory Group on Freedom of Religion or Belief. He was elected by Time magazine in 2000 as one of the seven religious innovators of the 21st century and in 2004 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world and by Foreign Policy readers (2005, 2006, 2008–2010, 2012–2015) as one of the top 100 most influential thinkers in the world and Global Thinkers. Ramadan describes himself as a "Salafi reformist".
