Tariq Ramadan pushes American Muslims “not to infiltrate”, just to become journalists and “to shape the perceptions”, states that “Jihad is the way we implement sharia”

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WARNING

0:50:04 The first challenge that we have, that every one of you have here, has here, is terminology. In fact, if you want Islam to depart of the American narrative, we should be able to speak Islam in English, in the English language by knowing what we are talking about and to regain, reshape, redefine the words that we are using. Don’t let anyone make sharia a dirty word. Don’t let anyone speak about jihad as if it’s a holy war. Don’t let anyone speak about the way we, as Muslims, we speak about the values that are ours, in a way which is done by Orientalists and not by ourselves. The first, now, to challenge some definitions when it comes to Islam is us, in the way we speak about our values There is no way to be a Muslim if we don’t understand a deep … if we don’t have a deep understanding of what sharia is and jihad is. Jihad is the way we implement sharia by saying… It has nothing to do with holy war. It’s something which has something to do with resistance and positive presence.

[Quote in Arabic]

0:51:24 We’ll resist the bad and we are here to promote the good. Not only for us, for all the people because the best amongst us is the best for humanity, as the prophet (saw) said. So, this is where it’s important, for us, to have this theoretical challenge is terminology. And I am sorry to tell you that many of you, you might rely on the imams on this but you have to do the job. You should have basic understanding of the Islamic terminology in English. This is the way to resist because language is power.

1:39:58 What is important in our number, our number as Muslims, is not that we are converting people. It’s by having an important number… the more committed Muslims we have, the more witnesses we have and the more we change mindset around us. If we understand. The second thing that we have to understand is that we live in a country where the mainstream media now are powerful but, at the same time, they are not trusted by many people. Listen to the Americans. Listen to the Europeans. They don’t trust them. They go now to internet, they go to alternative media. This is where we have to be present. This is where we have to promote texts, videos, lectures, articles… We have to do the job. We are not going to wait for a mainstream so-called “Islamic media” to appear, to… you know… Many people were very happy with Al-Jazeera… I, myself, from the very beginning was very cautious. Because I don’t want the other side of you know something which is… the tension. It’s to do the same on the other side. I want something which is a bit deeper. But what we have to do as Muslims is to use the alternative media and we have. And then, for example, now you can have hundreds, thousands, millions of people who can just watch some of the things that we are promoting.

So, this is also something that we have to be skilled. Media, journalism is also something… You know, when I was once saying: we need more Muslims and more American Muslims being journalists... One of the journalist who heard that, he said: “Oh! Tariq Ramadan is pushing the Muslims to infiltrate.” I never said that. What I said is not to infiltrate, it’s just to be a journalist. Because the journalist, when you come with your background, of course you should be objective or try to be the most objective but you are coming with a background, and you come with another vision… We have to push our daughters and our sons not only to be medical doctors, not only to be computer scientists but journalists to deal with this, to deal with academia because within academia we have all this business: to shape the perceptions, to help the people…

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1:42:52 I wouldn’t care too much about, you know, the big media. They are changing. It’s going to… It is powerful but we have the power of our presence, we have the power of our principles and we have the power of alternative media. And we should send our children, when they want to do so to… in the field of journalism, to be able to be part of the whole thing and then things are changing.

Last example that I want to give you and I keep on repeating this because we don’t realize this, is… You have trends here who are very much promoting Islamophobia and they are saying, for example: Europe is becoming Eurabia. But why are they saying this? They are saying this because they know something. And once again: don’t work only with emotions and perceptions. Come to facts, figures. Study. Know what is happening. The evolution of history. In less than… You have 16 years, 16 years. We have seen something which was very interesting in the perceptions of the people in one conflict, which is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

1:44:08 ‘67, ‘67, 73% of the… in ’67, 73% of the Europeans were supporting Israel in the conflict. In seventy…, in the seventies… Now, not in the seventies, now, in 2010, we have 66 to 67% of the Europeans supporting the Palestinians. In fact, it’s not coming from… and you know what happened?

The European Union sent… they had a poll and a survey about what is the most dangerous country in the world? The majority of the Europeans responded: Israel and Romano Prodi (Italian Prime Minister and President of the European Commission), at the top, not representing the grassroots, at the top, he came and he said the… the… the question was wrongly put. It was not the right way to ask the question. But what I want you to understand is that without, with effort and without really being involved in this, with the presence, with being… or promoting news and information and more knowledgeable and being present within the society, you can change the perceptions if you are not narrow-minded, if you are not self-isolating yourself and if you understand that not everything it’s coming from the media. Not everything it’s coming from media. It’s coming from our active presence in the society.

And this is going to make it inshallah but we have to be present and we have to speak out and to be able to speak out, it’s not only to speak from where we are but to know to whom we speak and how are we heard.