Brother Tariq: The Doublespeak of Tariq Ramadan (5 page)

Tariq Ramadan has always made a point of presenting the Brotherhood as a
"social movement."33 If you listen to him, you can end up thinking that political power was never really of interest to the organization. It must be said that
it was in terms of actual practice that the Brothers were awesomely effective.
Their unrelenting day-by-day fundamentalism succeeded in damaging, little
by little, the social and cultural fabric of the country chosen as its target; but
this did not mean they had given up the idea of one day taking power, once
conditions were ripe. The fact that they concentrated first of all on "grassroots
Islamization," to quote Gilles Kepel, did not mean that al-Banna had abandoned his offensive in the higher spheres. Olivier Carre and Michel Seurat
have amply demonstrated that he was ready to negotiate with practically all of
Egypt's political components-including the Wafd (the nationalist populist
party), the throne, and even the British themselves-in order to gain political
influence. He was even a candidate for election to the legislature in December 1941, an initiative that took some of his companions by surprise. He was
to explain why, three years later, in the Brotherhood's journal: "I have been
asked: Did this taking part in elections not mean that the Brotherhood was
abandoning the field of religion to engage in politics, and thereby transforming what had, up to then, been a religious movement into a political organization? Our reply is that Islam recognizes no such distinction concerning the
affairs of the nation: an Islamic religious institution is duty bound to give the
Islamic viewpoint in every area of life, and the parliament is the shortest and
the best road to this end."34

At this time, al-B anna, encouraged by the rapid success ofhis movement,
really did think it possible to institute an Islamic regime by means of the ballot box. But lobbying and political representation were only one aspect
of commitment to the Islamization of society. Tariq Ramadan is perfectly
explicit in this regard: the pursuit of political power through elections was
only one step-a step that should not be taken in haste: "In such matters, any
nation that attempts to go against the rules of nature will inevitably fail," alBanna would say. This is a piece of advice for today's Islamists to meditate
on-especially those who may have made the mistake of forcing the pace in
Algeria, running the risk of a counteroffensive. On the strength of this experience, Tariq Ramadan has called on European Islamists to be astute in the
way they apply his grandfather's "methodology," in particular his strategy of
graduated conquest. One section of his lecture on "contemporary Muslim
thought," edited as a cassette by Tawhid, stresses the importance of respecting the rhythm that his grandfather had insisted on:

The Muslim Brotherhood's program is made up of a series of stages that are closely
controlled and clearly defined. We know perfectly well what we want and the means
we should use to attain our objectives. Consider the three stages; they are well
known and solidly anchored in a methodology that takes social issues as a point of
departure:

i. We want first of all human beings that are Muslim, that is to say individual human
beings who are Muslim in their thoughts, in their faith, their morality, their feelings, their activities and their initiatives. That is our program for individuals.

2. Then we want Muslim families, that is to say families that are Muslim in their
thoughts and beliefs, in their morality and feelings, in their activities and initiatives; and here we are thinking of women as well as men. That is our program for
the family.

3. And then we want there to be a Muslim people, formed in the same manner; and
that is why we want our message to reach inside all homes, our voice to be heard
everywhere, and our way of thinking to pervade every region, every village, every
town, city, capital and metropolis.35

This first part of the program (three sections out of a total of seven) is enough to send shivers up and down one's spine. However, for Tariq Ramadan, the
fact that Hassan al-Banna intended people to be indoctrinated before an
Islamic regime is established is enough for him to claim that the program is
a model of open-mindedness and democracy. In the same lecture that served
as an introduction to Hassan al-Banna's philosophy, he specifies: "Note that
it is only after these first three stages that al-B anna mentions an `Islamic government,' which, according to the reform program proposed by his organization, represents the logical outcome of the process of renewal initiated on
the individual level. A government is not, then, simply a superstructure that
is foisted on society; it is the end product of a reform process which, at a certain stage in its evolution, takes shape as a political model that harnesses its
basic drive. Here we are a long way from any formalism."36 So we needn't be
worried .... It is not a question of "formalism," but of "drive." But where is
this drive to lead us? Ramadan is sufficiently prudent to keep from rushing
his audience through the later stages; he alludes only briefly to what remains
in store for us, namely the setting up of an Islamic empire. Here are the following four points of al-Banna's program that Tariq Ramadan takes pains
not to discuss:37

4. Subsequently we want a Muslim government whose members will lead the people under Islamic guidance, as, in the past, did Abou Bakr and Omar, disciples of
the Prophet, may he rest in peace. That is also why we will not accept any form of
government not based on Islamic foundations and not true to Islamic principles.
That is also our reason for refusing to recognize political parties and the traditional
authorities with whom the deniers and the enemies of Islam have forced us to govern, thus contributing to their growth. We will strive for the renaissance of a totally
Islamic government, a government based on Islamic foundations ....

5. We want next to reassemble all those who are part of Islam and that Western policies
have made a point ofkeeping separate and which European cupidity has misled and
sealed off within national borders. Thus we reject all international agreements that
have transformed the nation of Islam into a collection of powerless entities, weak
and riven by internal conflicts, that can easily be taken over by those who would rob
them of their rights. And we will not remain silent when their liberties are denied and unjustly confiscated by outsiders. Thus Egypt, Syria, Hidjaz, Yemen, Tripoli,
Tunisia, Algeria, Marrakech, and wherever there lives a Muslim who recites the
words "There is no God but God himself"-all of these territories belong to our
great nation; we will liberate them, free them from domination, deliver them from
tyranny, and bring them together as one whole. Ifthe German Reich makes it a principle to protect all those with German blood in their veins, well then Muslim faith
makes it a principle for every Muslim who has the opportunity to act as the protector
of all those who have taken to heart the teachings of the Koran. It is thus forbidden,
in accordance with Islamic tradition, to treat the ethnic factor as more important
than the ties that bind by faith. And belief is the heart and soul of Islam. Moreover,
is not faith basically a question of love and hate?

6. We want the Islamic flag to be hoisted once again on high, fluttering in the wind, in
all those lands that have had the good fortune to harbor Islam for a certain period
of time and where the muezzin's call has sounded in the takbirs and the tahlis. Then
fate decreed that the light of Islam be extinguished in these lands that returned
to unbelief. Thus Andalusia, Sicily, the Balkans, the Italian coast, as well as the
islands of the Mediterranean, are all of them Muslim Mediterranean colonies and
they must return to the Islamic fold. The Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea must
once again become Muslim seas, as they once were, even if Mussolini has usurped
the right to rebuild the Roman Empire. This so-called empire of ancient times was
founded on cupidity and lust. It is thus our duty to rebuild the Islamic Empire, that
was founded on justice and equality and that spread the light of the true way among
the people.

7. We want, after that and with that, to disseminate our Islamic message to the entire
world, to reach people wherever they may be, to spread our message to the four corners of the globe, and overcome the tyrants until the day when agitation ceases and
religion is entirely devoted to God. When that day comes, the believers will rejoice
in God's help. He saves those whom he wishes to save; He is the source of all Power
and all Mercy.

It is notable that this Epitre auxjeunes [Letter to the Young], in which
Hassan al-Banna proposes Nazism as a model, advocates extending Islamic imperialism to include all those nations in which a single Muslim is to be
found.

In this same set of lectures on Hassan al-Banna, Tariq Ramadan adopted as
his own the maxim by which his grandfather urged the Brotherhood to use
all means at their disposal in order to impose their vision on society. "To that
end we shall spare no effort; we shall not stop at any means."3$ That Ramadan
should adopt this maxim is in itself frightening, even if he is a past master in
the art of presenting the Muslim Brotherhood's tactics in a favorable light.

With this same idea of respect for the rhythms imposed by the West, and
so as not to give the impression that the Brotherhood is a movement hungry for power, the preacher emphasized his grandfather's "phenomenal contribution in social and political matters." He pointed to the creation of "two
thousand schools" and the "social measures for the promotion of women."39
He is quite right to remind us that al-Banna was obsessed by the creation
of schools, including schools for young girls. But this obsession was in no
way a disinterested commitment to reducing illiteracy! Al-Banna wanted to
"reform instruction ... so as to establish a model society in terms of Islamic
law."4° As is the case with leaders who want to create a faithful following, he
was convinced that the only way to change people was to change the children. The schools that he founded throughout Egypt were not intended to
foster independence of thought and intellectual freedom. They were Islamic
schools, designed to indoctrinate as many young Egyptian boys and girls as
possible, from the earliest age. The Muslim sisters, the women's section of
the Brotherhood, were encouraged primarily to combat women's emancipation. And the movement campaigned against co-education in the state
schools. From 1937 on, the Brotherhood frequently addressed letters to the
university administration demanding that there be separate instruction for
men and women. To claim that Hassan al-Banna was a great figure on the
basis of his contribution to public instruction-while omitting to say that it
consisted of a means of indoctrination in the service of a totalitarian ideology-is pure propaganda. Like all authoritarian movements, the Brotherhood was also obsessively concerned with training the young boys in sports. Are
we to conclude that their primary mission was to combat obesity? All of the
Islamic movements active in the field function in this same way: they systematically fill the smallest gaps left by the state by proposing courses in Arabic,
remedial instruction or humanitarian aid-not out of the goodness of their
hearts, but in order to recruit.

The Brotherhood's totalitarianism does not appear to have come as much
of a shock to Tariq Ramadan. In the same lectures on "contemporary Muslim
thought," he explains that his grandfather was right to advocate a single-party
system, for the Egyptian people ofhis time did not possess a sufficiently solid
political culture to make the right choice-i.e. to choose an Islamic regime.
As al-Banna put it: "Given the situation, elections were pointless; they served
no purpose, since, if the majority of the population was ignorant, how could
they know what they really wanted?"41 Ramadan quotes his grandfather to
prove how right he was to encourage Islamic education, while at the same
time refusing pluralism and democracy for as long as it took for this education to take effect. That is what Ramadan refers to as his grandfather's "critical attitude in regard to pluralism."

However hard al-Banna's heirs attempt to portray themselves as a political alternative to the authoritarian and paternalistic governments of the
Maghreb and the Middle East, they are themselves hardly any better. A
regime issuing from the ranks of the Muslim Brotherhood would be the
first to flout democratic principles once in power. For proof, one has only to
observe the way in which their own movement has functioned over the years.
As Supreme Guide, al-Banna had a very singular notion of what consultation consisted of. He accepted the principle of consultation as stipulated in
the Koran, but without ever taking the risk of making it democratic in practice. Within the official structure of the Brotherhood, the power to take decisions rested, during his lifetime, with the Bureau of Orientation, composed
of twenty members chosen by the Guide. As a pure formality, his choice was
ratified by an Assembly of 150 members, who had the right to comment on
the decisions before voting by a two-thirds majority. But their countervailing power was strictly limited, since it was the Bureau of Orientation that had the last word .... But then the Guide could dismiss any one of its members if he so chose! This does not mean that there were no differing ideological tendencies within the movement, or relatively diverse subgroups. Yet, as
Olivier Carre has explained: All serious rifts ended in blind submission, in
secession or exclusion." 42 These procedures made it possible for the Guide to
exclude systematically those who reproached him for having made deals with
the regime in power or who accused him of nepotism. What a splendid organizational model for a "liberation movement!"

And that was only the official organizational structure. Tariq Ramadan fails to mention-and thus to criticize-the other method to which the
Brothers have had recourse as they strive to put their program into effect:
infiltration. They have been remarkably adept at taking control of an organization without its being aware of it, often through one of its members who
kept silent on the fact that he belonged to the Brotherhood. It is a technique
that is difficult to expose, especially while it is happening. Luckily, there exists
a number of first-hand accounts that show that this practice existed from the
very outset. One ofthese accounts is provided by Zaynab al-Ghazali, a woman
activist in the service of the Brotherhood, whose memoirs were prefaced by
Tariq Ramadan.43 Thanks to her, we can get an inside view of the Brotherhood's tactics of infiltration. We learn that the members have no scruples
about talking with two voices or even resorting to lies when it can serve their
cause. In 1936, Zaynab al-Ghazali was president of the Association of Muslim Women, the aim of which was to propagate "the Muslim religion and
the resurrection of the umma, which will provide Islam with the power, the
force and the glory that it once enjoyed." The association was by no means
a progressive organization; however, its members refused to join the Muslim Brotherhood, despite Hassan al-Banna's insistence-which infuriated
the Guide and embarrassed al-Ghazali. She came up with another solution:
"On the occasion of our last meeting at the Muslim Sisters' headquarters I
had tried to calm the late al-Banna's anger by promising, as a gesture of support for the imam, to have the Association of Muslim Women figure among
the Muslim Brotherhood organizations, without, however, abandoning its
identity, its name or its autonomy."44 The imam accepted this form of alle giance in a letter: "I have accepted your oath of allegiance and agree that the
Muslim Women will, for the moment, keep the same status."45 The phrase
"for the moment" serves to remind us that the Guide always proceeded in
stages. Thus al-Ghazali decided to ignore the refusal expressed by her followers and underhandedly pledged allegiance to the Guide without their knowing of it. While denying that she was in any way linked to the Brotherhood,
she became its agent and oriented her associatiori s policies in line with its
strategy. This taste for dissimulation was not unusual for the Brotherhood; it
was a reflex inherent in their way of functioning.