Tariq Ramadhan in LSE

Last week Tariq Ramadhan gave a talk to the City Circle on the need for a “feminist movement” in the Muslim community but I was then in Granada. But last Monday, at last I managed to attend a talk by him at the LSE. The talk was entitled Muslim Democrats in the West and Democratisation in the Muslim World: prospects for engagement. I came out from the talk with these thoughts: - Democracy has six main principles: 1) rule of law; 2) equal citizenship; 3) universal suffrage; 4) accountability; 5) separation of power; and 6) distinction between public life and private life. - It is not possible to compare “models” of democracy between nations. The above six principles are perhaps universal, but the way they are implemented may differ. So, one nation cannot be directly compared to the other. - The concept of maqasid al-shariah (purpose of shariah) was formulated hundreds of years ago. Perhaps it is time for the concept to be looked at again? And Prof Ramadhan stated that he believes more should be added to the existing list of five purposes. - Compared to many other Muslim majority countries, many elements of the maqasid al-shariah are better achieved in the West. Several examples were given. - According to Abu Hanifah, a Dar al-Islam is one in which a Muslim feels safe to worship and practise Islam. If we were to use Abu Hanifah’s view, then would you say Britain is a Dar al-Islam, or Egypt? - Many Muslims are obsessed with the Middle East and ignore domestic issues. Many seems to feel that Palestine is the root cause of Muslim problems – if the Palestine issue is resolved, then all predicaments facing Muslims will be resolved too. - Prof Ramadhan believes that Palestine is not the cause of problems. Rather, it is the symptom, the outcome, of other unresolved issues. - Muslims cannot continue to blame the West for their predicaments. The Muslims themselves are part of the problem. The West is doing something to resolve the Middle East problem. But what are the Arab countries doing? What are being done by other Muslim countries? - Muslims in the West must stop seeing themselves, or asking to be treated as, ethnic minorities. We should see ourselves as equal citizens, no more and no less. Any attempts at self-segregation (eg: faith schools!!!) must be avoided. Throughout his lecture, Prof Ramadhan kept referring to a set of “Western values” and a different set of “Islamic values”. He seems to suggest that somewhere in the middle the two value systems overlap, and he calls that the “common universal values”. I have a slight problem with this notion. What happen to “And We did not send you (Muhammad) other than as rahmah to the whole universe”?