Tariq Ramadan
Tariq Ramadan
Tariq Ramadanis a Swiss academic, philosopher and writer. He is the professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies in the Faculty of Oriental Studies at St Antony's College, Oxford and also teaches at the Oxford Faculty of Theology. He is a visiting professor at the Faculty of Islamic Studies, the Université Mundiapolisand several other universities around world. He is also a senior research fellow at Doshisha University. He is the director of the Research Centre of Islamic Legislation and Ethics, based in...
NationalitySwiss
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth26 August 1962
CountrySwitzerland
For me, equal citizenship for Muslims, Christians, Jews, Atheists and Agnostics is an indisputable principle. Whoever you are, you should get the same rights with no discussion and no compromise.
When we begin to look around us, to observe individuals and societies, and to study philosophies and religions, we realize that our loneliness is shared. Our solitude is plural, and our singularity is the similarity between us.
Pray in the night so that you can change the world in the day
Ramadan is, in its essence, a month of humanist spirituality.
What I'm advocating is an intellectual revolution - it's a different mindset concerning the ethical benchmarks by which we live.
Humility is knowing that you can get an answer from anybody: be it a child, another person, or nature.
I am not a politician. I have often been approached in this regard, but I have always declined these sorts of offers. I view myself as an independent, critical intellectual, as someone who tries to stimulate thought on the left and the right, to encourage intellectual evolution.
The Truth does not belong to you, you belong to the Truth.
I wrote a call to the contemporary Muslim conscience, saying to the ordinary people that we might not like the video or the cartoons, but that violence certainly isn't the right answer. I don't think laws are going to solve the problem.
Every country in Europe needs immigrants for its economic survival.
I believe my religion is the truth, but I am not the truth and the truth doesn't belong to me I'm trying to belong to the truth.
Wisdom is always connected to beauty. When you see someone acting by their principles, their wisdom makes them beautiful.
We have to be very cautious not to accept the scam of polarization we see in the media. It is not in fact between secularists and Islamists, it is a battle within the Islamic reference.
Your heart is the center of humility, your mind could be the source of arrogance.