"The real intentions of Euroislam must be concealed from the general
public." - Tariq Ramadan
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source:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23300077-31477,00.html
Controversial Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan, who was refused entry into
the US over alleged links to terror networks, is due to deliver a
lecture on Islam at a conference sponsored by the Queensland
Government on Monday.
Professor Ramadan - whose grandfather Hassan al-Banna founded one of
the world's most radical Islamist movements, the Muslim Brotherhood,
in 1928 - will be introduced by federal Labor Parliamentary Secretary
for Multicultural Affairs Laurie Ferguson at the Griffith University
event, which has drawn $50,000 worth of sponsor****p from the Bligh
Government.
Muslim and Jewish leaders yesterday expressed concern about Professor
Ramadan's second visit to Australia from Europe since 2004, with a
former Howard government adviser on Islam, Ameer Ali, urging national
security authorities to keep him under close surveillance.
But Mr Ferguson dismissed the US Government's decision to block
Professor Ramadan's entry into the country in 2004 - where he was due
to take up a lecturing post at Notre Dame University in Indiana - as
an "over the top" measure.
Dr Ali said it was a common problem among Arabic scholars such as
Professor Ramadan to alter their messages for different audiences.
"It appears that these people speak in different languages to
different audiences and they don't convey the same message," he said.
"If he's allowed to go and mix with the local community, then they
(authorities) have to monitor what he is saying."
Australia/Israel Jewish Affairs Council executive director Colin
Rubenstein also attacked the Swiss-born Professor Ramadan, who lives
in Europe, for pandering to Islamic extremists.
"Tariq Ramadan is a problematic figure skilled at projecting
moderation to Western audiences, while engaging in apologetics for
various forms of Islamist extremism, including terrorist attacks and
conspiracy theories about 9/11," he said.
However, Mr Ferguson defended the right of Professor Ramadan, an
Oxford University professor of Islamic studies who was named one of
the 21st century's great innovators by Time magazine, to speak at the
conference in Brisbane.
"You have people with fairly minimal criminal records who aren't
allowed in the US," he told The Weekend Australian yesterday.
"I think in some areas America's criteria is a bit over the top ...
but there's probably areas where America has got it right and
Australia has got it wrong."
Asked if he thought Australia had got it wrong in this instance, he
said: "No, I don't."
The US Government found Professor Ramadan donated $940 to two
humanitarian foundations in France and Switzerland, which gave money
to Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. The academic, who lectured in
the US during the Clinton administration and has advised the British
Labour Government and Scotland Yard, defended his donations in The
Wa****ngton Post in 2006.
"My donations were made between December 1998 and July 2002, and the
United States did not blacklist the charities until 2003," he wrote.
"How should I reasonably have known of their activities before the US
Government itself knew?"
Professor Ramadan was refused entry into France in 1995 after he was
accused of having links to an Algerian Islamist, but the ban was
lifted the following year. He was also banned by Saudi Arabia, Tunisia
and Egypt "after he suggested a moratorium on Sharia law, in
particular cor****al punishment, stonings and beheadings", according to
the Guardian newspaper.
He has been accused of playing down terrorist campaigns, including the
September 11 attacks and the 2005 London bombings, as "interventions".
Security sources have told The Weekend Australian Professor Ramadan
will remain under close surveillance.
His visit comes a year after Canadian-born Muslim cleric Bilal Philips
was refused entry into Australia to headline a Melbourne conference on
Islam after the US Government named him an "un-indicted co-
conspirator" in the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing in New York, which
killed six and injured 1000.
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