New York - Swiss Islamic scholar, Tariq Ramadan, condemned the terrorist attacks perpetrated in Paris last Friday and made strong declarations about the problems of “French and European policies” toward the Muslim community.
New York – Swiss Islamic scholar, Tariq Ramadan, condemned the terrorist attacks perpetrated in Paris last Friday and made strong declarations about the problems of “French and European policies” toward the Muslim community.
Ramadan uploaded two videos titled “Paris, the double defeat” (French and English) on his Facebook page to stress his views on the recent events and explain the problematic of “social justice”.
The philosopher began by strongly condemning the terrorist acts, which have “nothing to do with our religion and they’re distorting the very essence of our religion”.
“We should be on the side of the victims and show empathy to those that are targeted including the oppressed” all around the world, because “there is no difference between people and our humanity should be for everyone.”
Ramadan compared the reactions of French President, François Hollande, in the aftermath of the Paris carnage with those of former U.S. President George W. Bush in the 9/11 terrorist attacks on American soil. “Hollande is Bush, French version”.
About Paris …
Posted by Tariq Ramadan (official) on Tuesday, 17 November 2015
“The reaction we have around the world right now is as if we haven’t learned anything from history,” he said, adding that Bush’s “crazy policy” was wrong and it killed thousands of innocent lives.
“Who went to Afghanistan and nurtured this cycle of violence and extremism? The American government,” he said.
He went on to recognize that “the first responsible for the disaster in the Middle East are the Arabs and the Muslims.” However, he wondered what is the West’s legacy, if not to provoke more divisions, “spreading death and disorder and control the countries”.
For him, the problem lies not in the integration but “social justice” because there is no peace without justice. He stressed that the U.S. has failed in this endeavor and the other countries follow suit.
“France and other European countries have no international policy, they just follow you,” the scholar said addressing the United States.
“How can you talk about values? What are your values?” Tariq said to President Obama lashing out at his policy of keeping innocent victims of FBI infiltration imprisoned for years.
He went on to accuse U.S. government saying: “You have supported the worst dictators and regimes (…) so don’t speak about values or that you care about democracy, speak about your economic interests and protecting your security and allies regardless of their corruption, such as Israel.”
“Are the lives of the French people more important than the others?” he said calling Obama’s legacy “lots of nice words, dirty politics” that only care about some and neglect others based on strategy.
Professor Ramadan concluded by highlighting that in order to deal with violent extremism all Western governments need to change their politics and interventions.
