Meanwhile, where are the prosecutions? Nothing is apparently being done to bring justice to his accusers. Would trying Ramadan be “Islamophobic”?
“Tariq Ramadan persona non grata in Qatar,” translated from “Tariq Ramadan persona non grata au Qatar,” by Ian Hamel, Mondafrique, January 28, 2018:
Touched by two complaints of rape and a multitude of testimonies describing a private life that was at least dissolute, the Swiss Islamologist, Tariq Ramadan, was particularly discreet.
Tariq Ramadan, suspended by the University of Oxford, was unable to withdraw to Qatar, where he still heads the Islamic Law and Ethics Research Center (CILE). “The break was smooth and especially without communication between Ramadan and the Emirate. He was simply asked not to set foot in the Gulf,” says a political scientist, a specialist in the Gulf countries, including the organization of the Muslim Brotherhood, reporting from Doha.
Clearly, Qatar, faced with the hostility of its neighbors (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain) since June 2017 does not really want to be represented abroad by such a controversial intellectual.
Falling popularity
Even before the scandal erupted, Tariq Ramadan was no longer in the odor of sanctity in Doha. Faced with a real decline in popularity in the French suburbs because of his links with an oil monarchy and extreme wealth, the Islamologist tended to distance himself — at least in the press — from Qatar. This adept at double-talk had declared on the program of Jean-Jacques Bourdin on RMC: “Neither Qatar is close to me, nor am I close to Qatar.” This was not appreciated in Doha, especially since his professorship of contemporary Islamic sciences at Oxford is sponsored by “His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani,” the father of the current Emir. Indeed, Tariq Ramadan, a French teacher in a college in Geneva until 2004, does not have the usual qualifications to teach in a university.
Open doors
While Saudi Arabia and the Emirates denounce the Muslim Brotherhood, Qatar welcomes them, starting with the most famous of them, Youssef Qaradawi. However, since an informal pact sealed in 1999 with the leadership, the Brothers no longer have structures in the Emirate. On the other hand, they keep open doors with the Al-Jazeera chain and the ministry of worship.