Tariq Ramadan, apologist for 'Islamic imperialism'
From a literary festival in Lombardy, Christopher Hitchens reports on his confrontation with Tariq Ramadan, whom he describes as "an Islamist academic domiciled in Geneva, who has emerged as the most sinuous and dexterous of the 'interpreters' of Muslim fundamentalism to the West". Hitchens is clear on the role that Professor Ramadan plays: "it's exactly the crudeness and crassness of Bin Laden that require the emergence of more 'credible' middlemen to allay anxiety and offer reassurance. Only six years on, and already the soft mainstreaming of Islamic imperialism is under way".
Martin Sullivan