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Tariq Ramadan's non-problem
To be moderate, western and Muslim

Thus have We mad of you an Ummah of the middle way, That ye might be witness over the nations, and the Messenger a witness over yourselves...
(Al-Baqarah 2:143, translation of meaning)

A Muslim is a natural 'moderate', if he or she followed the middle path of Islam, as laid out in the Qur'an and Sunnah. Tariq Ramadan too should be a 'moderate' in his own Islamic right, not because the political market demanded it. However, what seems to have got him into trouble was his desire to try to define his 'moderation' according to European or western standards. But, if one allowed his 'moderation' to be defined by Other, then it was for the Other to say whether his or her 'moderation' was good enough, or even to move the goalpost. A 'slippery path'!

The second fallacy he seems to have bought from traditional orientalists and modern-day western experts on Islam is the notion of many 'Islams'. For example, Arab and African, Turkish and Persian, Indian and Pakistani, Central and Southeast Asian Islam. And now British, French and European Islams!. Then Sufi and Salafi Islam, Deobandi and Barelvi Islam and Shi'a and Sunnni Islam. Islam galore! Lastly, the good nigger and bad nigger Islams: 'moderate', 'radical', and 'fundamentalist' Islam.

There are more than 1500 million Muslims in the world. They may be Arab, European or from any other part of God's world. This would be their 'domiciliar' definition. Muslim Arabs, Muslim Asians, Muslim Africans, Muslim Europeans or Muslim Americans et cetera.

They may be subscribing to the Sufi, Salafi or any other path, but these were just intellectual trends, and choices within Islam, within the legitimate schools of Islamic thought. All this showed the intrinsic ethnic and cultural pluralism of the Muslim personality. A Muslim French or a Muslim European can be as good or even better Muslim than an Arab, Pakistani, North African or any other Muslim.

The early Muslims who carried Islam all over the globe were carrying Islam, not Arabian culture or any geographical translation of Islam. The frame of reference for each one of them remained the Book of God and the way of the prophet, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam - the Qur'an and the Sunnah.

The Persians, the Byzantines, the Ottomans, the Africans, the Andalusian, the Indians, the Malays or the Chinese, for example, who came into Islam were simply returning to their roots, to their inborn nature. So they only threw away the odd baggage they had collected over time, and still sat comfortably as Persians, Byzantines, Africans, Indians, Malays, Chinese or whatever, but as Muslims. So should anyone coming back into Islam, whether European or non-European, western or non-western.

Tariq Ramadan imagines his own problem by making it problematic 'To be a European Muslim' (Islamic Foundation, Leicester, 2001), which was the title of an earlier work. No problem, for the problem did not lie with Islam itself, it was intrinsic to the challenge of being a Muslim whether in Europe, Arabia or elsewhere. Right now, it is more than problematic to be a Muslim in Chechnya, Kashmir, Iraq or Palestine. Nothing like the pressures that are there for 'being a Muslim' in France.

Each situation has its own particular 'context', not just geographic but also geo-strategic. However, the way to overcome the challenge is to change the context and not to change or try to 'repair' Islam itself. The churches have long been 'revisiting' and 'retranslating' the original sources. In the event, they have had to go on re-doing and revisiting over and over again, they have lost the sources. They have lost legitimacy. They have not arrived anywhere but remain adrift in a barren space of agnosticism and disbelief. This is the end result of western reformation.

Should Muslims do the same and join this amoral and intellectual flotsam?

Islam on the other hand is Truth, pure and natural. It does not require anyone to approve and certify it. It does not need any spin or PR treatment. Truth speaks for itself, but it is the duty of a Muslim relay it politely, sincerely and invitingly in words as well as in deeds.

The Qur'an asserts that its message is plain and clear. It does not require any priest or intermediary, it, therefore, tells Muslims (Al-Baqarah 2:208) to 'enter into Islam wholly and do not follow in the footsteps of Satan, for he is your avowed enemy'. Things then begin to happen. The problem in Tariq Ramadan's approach is that he seems to be inviting approval for his own European construct of Muslim identity, not the unknowing, doubters and detractors to Islam.

There is only one Islam, as laid down in the Qur'an and taught and exemplified by Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam.

It is, however, natural that there would be a European or western Muslim personality. One may even expect Muslim-Europeans of Arab, Asian and African origin to be progressively indigenised as Europeans. No problem, as long as they are Muslims.