Tariq Ramadan's Reading List

"I think it’s an interesting book because Yvonne Haddad is positive without forgetting to be critical. Her perspective is: “Let us see what is actually happening and not come with a vision that is completely negative about Muslims in the West, but at the same time let us ask the relevant questions.” This is a collection of different essays which try to show how much the relationship between Muslims and their environment and the societies in the West has evolved. They ask some very interesting questions about what is actually happening and there are contributions from within the Muslim communities in Europe, as well as from the outside, so I think it’s a good balance. Academics and people from within Muslim communities in the West. They acknowledge the dynamics within the Muslim communities in the West, but are also knowledgeable about the questions within. Their conclusion is that you need to go beyond fear and mistrust and look at what has been happening over time. This is what the subtitle is saying: “From Sojourners to Citizens”. It means that we now have Western Muslim citizens. This evolution is important. It’s not only an evolution in status, it’s an evolution in understanding. I think this is the starting point of the book. We have common challenges in North America and European countries. There are similarities when it comes to religious questions. But we have differences as to the nature, the stages and the origins of each of the Muslim communities. So the differences are important. This is important, and why I wanted to have this book first. The book talks about the very deep evolution that is happening. We cannot underestimate what happened in September 2001, but we have to be very cautious not to overestimate it. Many of things that were said about Muslims and their loyalties [in the aftermath of the attacks] were the same before September 2001. We had all these discussions in Europe and in the United States about the wearing of veils and headscarves before. What happened with September 11 is to add to a sense of insecurity and mistrust. These psychological factors are deeper now. I think Western Muslims have to deal much more now with negative perceptions and the questioning of their presence. But as to the deep historical experience, we have to be cautious about putting too much emphasis on its impact. Yes, there is more fear and there are more questions, but on the ground at a local level, things are moving in the direction they were already heading before 2001."

"Jane Smith’s is an important and knowledgeable book. She gives us a picture of what is happening in the Muslim communities in America – Islam’s evolution there and its deep historical context. She writes about the reality of Islam in America mainly through the experience of migrants. Once again it is not avoiding critical questions, but it is much more positive because it’s based on historical evolution – how things are moving forward, the way the discourse is changing, and the way the young generation is getting a better sense of what it means to be an American. At the same time, it is not dismissing the religious concerns that Muslims have living in the West. Immigrant Muslims in America are mainly from the Middle East and Pakistan. They are usually educated people – professors, teachers, computer scientists, engineers and so on. Many of them quickly buy into the American dream that you can find your place and be very quickly integrated if you have the skills and know-how to contribute. In Europe, it is a completely different story for migrants. They came from previously colonised countries and with a very modest background as to their knowledge of their religion, their culture and surrounding society. Between this book and my next choice, Sherman Jackson’s Islam and the Blackamerican , you can also get an understanding of the relationship between Muslim migrants in America and African American Muslims. The African Americans, as to their social status, are experiencing things that are not that different from what new European Muslims are facing in Britain and in France. As Jane Smith is showing, religious integration is essentially done. The critical issue today for African American Muslims and European Muslims is social justice and social integration. Exactly. This is what I have been repeating in France and Britain for many years. Stop ethnicising, culturalising or Islamising socioeconomic problems. We need social policies. This is very important when it comes to schools, for example. I don’t want private, separate schools for Muslims. For me, it is not a panacea. But if you go to some areas in Britain, France and the United States and see how some people are living and the second-class schools that they have, they understandably are not happy with the state school system. So in order to give their children the best opportunity to succeed, they create Islamic private schools. The education system is not working, so they are creating a parallel system. It is a religious answer to a socioeconomic problem. The state school system should be reformed by understanding the needs of people who are living in very poor and segregated areas in our societies. So I think that sometimes Muslims are coming up with religious answers to socioeconomic problems and then you have politicians using the socioeconomic problems and making them religious. And we have what I call a “strategy diversion” in the political discourse. As they don’t have political answers, they just come up with a religious problem, and I think that’s wrong."

"I think that Sherman Jackson is one of the most important intellectuals in the United States right now. He’s an African American who converted to Islam. He is saying to Muslim immigrants in the United States: “We African American Muslims have a problem with you. You are coming with an Islamic understanding from the Arab world and you want to buy into the American dream and just show Islam is kind and nice and that we share your values.” But he is saying that there are cultural problems and socioeconomic injustice and that you can’t get a sense of what’s really happening in the United States if you don’t understand the very deep tension between blackness and whiteness. What he’s saying here is that it’s beyond a religious problem. It’s a racial problem, which is based on power and history, and a political and social system which is based on structural discrimination. He’s questioning the Muslim leadership in the United States and saying that the new Muslim immigrants are not getting it right. They are forgetting history. It is informed by their experience as black Americans. I think this is very important. It’s not a new version of Islam – it is Islamic principles understood within a specific environment. What Sherman is saying is that racial issues and the very long history of discrimination are very important. He argues that if immigrant Muslims are not aware of this, they will do exactly the same to their fellow Muslims as the whites are doing to the blacks. And this is exactly what is happening. Today the African American Muslims are not working with the new immigrants. This is not because of a different understanding of Islam, but it’s a class issue. You have new Muslim immigrants who are very privileged within society and the African American Muslims are saying that not only are they second-class citizens with the whites, but now they are second-class Muslims amongst Muslims."

"I chose this book because it talks just about what is happening in Britain. Once again, we may agree or not with what he is saying, but he’s showing how the younger generation of Muslims have a better understanding of their environment, are becoming much more integrated and are going beyond the social divides and the social tensions. Philip Lewis is saying much the same as Jane Smith – there are still problems, but there is movement, there is evolution and there are new responses to new challenges. I think this is positive in itself. Once again, we may disagree on some points, but the very deep historical evolution is there. Yes. What he is saying is exactly that point. There is evolution but we have to be very cautious not to get the sense that it is monolithic. He studies the divisions and tensions between cultures and between religious interpretations. On this, he’s right. I don’t think there was more extremism in Britain. The attitude of the government in the 1980s and 1990s was to allow people to say what they wanted. I remember myself asking why people were able to call for the murder of the prime minister without being arrested or questioned. In the name of freedom of expression in Britain, the floor was opened up for people to say what they wanted. This was not necessarily good or bad, but this was the reality and Britain was perceived as the place in Europe where anything could be said. You then had a change in policy after the 7/7 bombings. So, I wouldn’t say there was more extremism in Britain – it was just more open and more visible. They never gained ground. You just need to take a look at the figures – they were completely marginalised. After the 7/7 bombings I was in the [British government’s] task force and was explaining that these extremists were not meeting in mosques but were meeting outside the community. They never represented something that was significant within the Muslim communities. Today, it is quite clear that even the networks they did create are more marginal. Over the last 20 years the violent extremists never gained ground within the Muslim community. They were vocal but they were not representing Muslims."

"I chose this book as it is by a new generation of European Muslims who are trying to set the scene for a new discourse and new understanding. It’s interesting to read this book because they are saying that they are British Muslims, and confident about their loyalty to Britain. They are talking about a sense of belonging and loyalty, which is part of what I have been saying for years – citizenship is not enough. A sense of belonging is important. Loyalty to your country is critical. In all the discussions and papers that are presented in this book, there are Muslim voices analysing what is happening on the ground and showing how things are improving."