22 October 2009

Ramadan: "We respect the fears of the people.."

".. but we resist instrumentalization of these fears by politicians". An interview with Tariq Ramadan on WRS about the place of Islam in Switzerland. Sadly, the interviewer doesn't ask him how he does intend to respect the fears of the people.

Ramadan says that the success of integration is to stop talking about integration. He speaks of being legally integrated (following the law) and intellectual integration (succeeding in academics) yet not having the sense of belonging. But for most people, integration doesn't mean being law-abiding or even being loyal to your country.

Those are things you expect from citizens. Integration doesn't mean succeeding in your endeavors, either. Economic self-fulfillment is the reason many immigrants come to Europe, after all. Integrated means being loyal to the country's values - being culturally integrated. And the only thing Ramadan has to say about this, repeating it in various ways throughout the interview, is that we must stop talking about it. [Islam in Europe] Read more