Israel Matzav

The New York Times covers for a radical Islamist

Remember Tariq Ramadan? He is the Muslim 'academic' who was barred from the United States by President Bush for fundraising for Hamas, but since the Obama administration took power, Ramadan has been a welcome guest.

In Wednesday's New York Times (actually in its European edition, the International Herald Tribune), Ramadan has an op-ed in which he argues - what else - that the Muslim Brotherhood 'respects democratic principles,' 'rejects violence,' and 'respects the rule of law' (the infamous dhimmi Jew Peter Beinart makes essentially the same argument in an insufferably long article in Sunday's Daily Beast). And the reason we should believe all these nice things about the Muslim Brotherhood? Because they said so.

Unfortunately for Ramadan and the Muslim Brotherhood, there's an internet, there's Google, and things that you say are often preserved for posterity.

Let's go to the videotape.



That little prayer was said in Paris in 2008.

And the Times' and the Tribune's role in all this? Well, here's what they said about Ramadan in the byline:

Tariq Ramadan, the grandson of Hassan al- Banna, who founded the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in 1928, is professor of contemporary Islamic studies at Oxford. His latest book is “The Quest for Meaning: Developing a Philosophy of Pluralism.”

Kind of disingenuous isn't it? I doubt that Ramadan has suddenly become a democrat since 2008.

Charles Jacobs notes:

Hassan Al Banna coined the Muslim Brotherhood’s motto in the 1920s: “Allah is our purpose, the Prophet our leader, the Quran our constitution, jihad our way and dying for the sake of Allah our supreme objective.” Almost 100 years later, his grandson is echoing many of this motto’s themes behind closed doors while covering up his true ideology with slick strategic deception. And as is often the case with anti-Western ideologues, the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune are glad to give him cover – and a platform.

Read the whole thing.

Labels: International Herald Tribune, Muslim Brotherhood, New York Times, Tariq Ramadan

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:27 AM