Ramadan: "We respect the fears of the people.."

Ramadan: "We respect the fears of the people.."

".. but we resist instrumentalization of these fears by politicians".

An interview with Tariq Ramadan on WRS about the place of Islam in Switzerland.

Sadly, the interviewer doesn't ask him how he does intend to respect the fears of the people.

Ramadan says that the success of integration is to stop talking about integration.  He speaks of being legally integrated (following the law) and intellectual integration (succeeding in academics) yet not having the sense of belonging.  But for most people, integration doesn't mean being law-abiding or even being loyal to your country.  Those are things you expect from citizens.  Integration doesn't mean succeeding in your endeavors, either.  Economic self-fulfillment is the reason many immigrants come to Europe, after all.  Integrated means being loyal to the country's values - being culturally integrated.  And the only thing Ramadan has to say about this, repeating it in various ways throughout the interview, is that we must stop talking about it.

If he respects the fears of the people, isn't the first step acknowledging them?

Once again, the interviewer asks Ramadan about him saying different things to Muslims and non-Muslims and once again Ramadan demands that he be given an example of him doing so.  Indeed, why should Ramadan say different things to different people?  What he says is radical enough, and nobody seems to mind.

No comments: