THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume X, Issue # 39, February 13, 2008
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
RAMADAN'S STONE LOVE
By R. John Matthies
ISLAM & ISLAMISM IN EUROPE: THE SPOILS OF ISLAMIST "LAWFARE" & SUBVERSION IN EUROPEAN SOCIETIES --
LEGAL WRANGLING BY ISLAMISTS IN ORDER TO PUNISH & SUPPRESS OPPOSING OPINION, HINDER EFFORTS TO QUESTION
ISLAMIC FAITH & PRACTICES, & ESTABLISH A REGIME WHEREIN NOTHING ISLAMIC IS SUBJECT TO CENSURE -- HOW
COMMENDING THE MUSLIM PRACTICE OF STONNING A PERSON TO DEATH FOR ILLICIT PLEASURE CAN MAKE THE
FORTUNE OF THE ONE WHO DOES THE COMMENDING -- THE CASE OF HANI RAMADAN & THE CANTON OF GENEVA
FULL STORY:
If the practice of stoning (lapidation) exists across the Islamic world — most visibly in Afghanistan, Iran, Nigeria, Sudan,
and the United Arab Emirates — it speaks much to Western forbearance that this same penalty, though reviled, can make
the fortune of one who commends the practice. Consider the case of Hani Ramadan and the Canton of Geneva.
Hani Ramadan — Director of the Islamic Center of Geneva (CIG), grandson to Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan
al-Banna, and brother to Islamist superstar Tariq Ramadan — was dismissed from a public teaching post in suburban
Geneva in 2003 for publishing a defense of stoning in France's Le Monde. (Brother Tariq, who sought to distance
himself from his brother on this point, lamely proposed a "moratorium" on the practice.)
This was not Hani Ramadan's first brush with the teaching establishment and the civil authorities: Hani's colleagues
blasted him for tasteless remarks on the place of women in 1996 and 1998; and Hani and brother both were refused
passage to France for alleged ties to terror groups (in 1997 and 1996, respectively; Hani was also denied an Egyptian visa
in 1999).
But the most recent affaire Ramadan began in the Fall of 2002, when the teacher drafted an opinion editorial on stoning,
punitive amputation, and AIDS for the September Bulletin (posted to and since removed from the Islamic Center's
website) of the Committee for Respect of Muslim Rights (CRDM).
In the editorial, the author --
Claims "the punishment fits the crime: the severed hand for theft,
stoning for illicit pleasure" -- the punishment representing "not
only retribution, but a form of purification" and deterrence;
Demonstrates an odd compassion, writing: "While it's true that
stoning is a difficult spectacle […], reports reveal that the
condemned is not long to suffer: the hail of stones dispatches
the individual in the space of several seconds";
Admits that, while AIDS is certainly spread through transfusions
of contaminated blood, "only those guilty of deviant
comportment expose themselves to contagion."
Also curious were Ramadan's assertions that "the penalties that govern theft and adultery may only find application in a
society respectful of Islamic practice and principle." For example, he writes: "It is forbidden to remove the thief's hand in
a state that does not deliver […] the means to lead a dignified existence."
An abridged version of the same document appeared shortly thereafter in France's Le Monde (edition dated
September 10, 2002), under the title "La charia incomprise," or "Misinterpreting Shari'a."
The saga continues as follows:
October 11, 2002: Geneva's Department of Public Instruction (DIP)
suspends Ramadan. The following day, in a reply to researcher
Albert Levy (which Le Monde refused to publish) Ramadan
asserts that real democracy "will never thrive under Islamic skies."
February 5, 2003: Ramadan is terminated for reason that his role as
Islamic Center chief and statements are "incompatible" and "clearly
at odds" with the mission of public education.
March 15, 2004: An administrative tribunal orders the Canton to
return Ramadan to his post. The Canton refuses, but offers
Ramadan any number of jobs away from children, which Ramadan
refuses.
April 4, 2004: Ramadan again commends stoning, in Geneva's Le
Matin Dimanche: "I'll say it again, that [stoning] concerns not
only females, but adulterous males, as well; this should refute the
feminist case against me." A new investigation is launched April 8.
May, 2005: The courts again demand the Canton to return Ramadan
to his post. Geneva ignores the request, but agrees to disburse his
regular salary ($9,700 per month in today's dollars) to cover the
period of his inactivity, and throughout the foreseeable future.
January 16, 2008: Ramadan agrees to abandon his wish for
reappointment, in exchange for two years' salary, or about $230,000.
Geneva admits it made the largest allowable payout, for reason that the Canton was eager to close the case on "Mr.
Stoning." And to sweeten the pot, Geneva further agreed to reimburse his legal costs, of $80,000. Add to this five years'
wages (total amount: $633,000), and one describes a settlement of some $1 million. News of Ramadan's reward caused
Geneva's Le Matin Dimanche to gush: "it pays to praise stoning."
Such are the spoils of "lawfare" (legal wrangling designed to punish opinion). And such are the goals of lawful (or
non-violent) radical Islam: to hinder efforts to query the faith, and establish a regime wherein nothing "Islamic" is subject
to censure.
The City of Geneva offers guests the spectacle of the Reformation Wall, constructed a century ago. Here one reads the
phrase that sings Geneva, the Reformation, and the confidence of the age: "Post Tenebras Lux," or "After Darkness,
Light." It may well be that Ramadan's guiding phrase, as published in a clarifying remark, instead reads: "Human Rights
are relative to culture." A phrase that speaks both the diversity we prize and the censure we reject — and testifies to the
squishiness of our time.
A wise man remarked: "If all values are relative, then cannibalism is a matter of taste." Another dish, like Ramadan's, we'd
do well to return to the kitchen.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Europe, European States, Politics, & Public Policy
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
International Politics & World Disorder:
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
R. John Matthies is Assistant Director of Islamist Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum. He can be contacted at
Matthies@MEForum.org.
The foregoing article by Matthies was originally published in Front Page Magazine, February 13, 2008, and
can be found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum, a foreign policy think tank which seeks to
define and promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam,
working for Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote
constitutional democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly
asserting U.S. interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
(Article URL: http://www.meforum.org/article/1852)
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
February 13, 2008
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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