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Dr. Ahmad Ar-Rawi |
Tariq Al-Bishri, former head of Egypt’s State Council and prominent Islamic thinker, and Salah Sultan, member of the European Council for Fatwa and Research and the International Association of Muslim Scholars (IAMS), see eye to eye with Dr. Ahmed Al-Rawi, chairman of the Islamic Organizations in Europe, on Ramadan’s call for a moratorium of hudud (prescribed Islamic penalties).
Rawi added, “Tariq Ramadan is a renowned Muslim thinker and caller, but he’d better concentrate on the dialogues he holds with the Western thinkers. As for a call of this kind, there are specialized bodies like the International Association of Muslim Scholars and the European Council for Fatwa and Research that are, in my opinion, the only bodies that can address such questions.”
Rawi also refused Ramadan’s justifying his call as a means of combating the vile campaigns that aim at distorting Islam in the West. Rawi said, “We have been living in the West for so many years and the attacks on Islam will never come to a stop by such calls; rather, they could open a new front against the Muslim faith.”
Rawi furthermore considered this call an innovation that came after the “woman leading men in Prayer in the United States and the opening of a women-only mosque in Holland, and now we have the hudud moratorium call from Switzerland.”
Rawi regarded handling the subject matter of the call in this way as wrong. According to him, such a call will not benefit Islam in any way, not to mention the controversy and disagreement it may trigger in the Muslim world. In his point of view, it will cause more harm than good to Islam.
“Where on earth are such hudud applicable?” Rawi wondered, and then said, “They are not implemented in all Muslim countries and there are some reservations on the application of these hudud in Saudi Arabia.”
Furthermore, Rawi expressed his fear that Ramadan’s call could rouse “needless religious sedition” and noted that he should have consulted leading Muslim bodies before jumping to his conclusion.
Rawi concluded by saying, “I respect Tariq Ramadan as a Muslim thinker and caller, but I deem him far above tackling thorny issues of this kind. At the very least, they need a minute study on the part of specialized juristic academics before a word is voiced about them.” Rawi added that Ramadan should have consulted specialized scholars and jurists before launching his call through the media, which would seize the opportunity to attack Islam. Rawi described Ramadan’s call as “impotent” and urged him to review his situation and backtrack on his controversial call, for it does not benefit the Muslim nation at all.
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