The Prophet of Moderation: Tariq Ramadan's Quest to Reclaim Islam

This leaves scholars focused on developing a "minority fiqh" open to attack from purists. A recent letter from the Islamist party Hizb ut-Tahrir to the ECFR's founder, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, proclaimed, "The concept called European fiqh is a twentieth-century innovation as in Islam there is fiqh, period. ... As Muslims living in different parts of the world, we are all subject to the same sources of sharia, regardless of where we live." Most of the "minority fiqh" scholars, moreover, are unfamiliar with the everyday realities of the younger generations they are targeting, as few were born and raised as children of immigrants in Europe.

Ramadan is well placed to embark on a much more ambitious agenda: to bring Islam itself into line with Western mores. He does not simply make the case that Muslims in the West need new practices adapted to their new realities. He also calls for "intellectual creativity" today by showing that it was de rigueur at the time of Islam's founding. Once he anchors creativity -- a concept distinct from "innovation," which is taboo -- within Muslim tradition, he can lay claim to the tradition of Islamic interpretation. He cites a litany of examples in which early Muslims on the Arabian Peninsula (the revered ancestors, salaf) found literal observance impossible -- and how they made do by resorting to interpretation. "The fundamentals of Islam's creed (al-aqidah) and ritual practice (al-ibadat)," Ramadan writes, "were not subject to change, nor were the essential principles of ethics, but the implementation of those ethical principles and the response to new situations about which scriptural sources had remained vague or silent required answers adapted to particular circumstances." Put simply, God's word is absolute, but it cannot always be followed to the letter.

Ramadan suggests that Muslims follow the precedent of the Prophet and his companions even when that precedent contradicts the revealed text of the Koran. He seeks the suspension of certain rules for all Muslims, rejecting the notion of a two-tiered system in Islamic jurisprudence. He wants thereby to preserve Islam's universality while allowing for the specificities of time and place.

The best-known demonstration of this approach came in a televised debate in 2003 between Ramadan and then French Interior Minister and current presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy. (To make a comparison that would surely annoy both of them, Sarkozy may in fact be Ramadan's closest contemporary counterpart: like Ramadan with Islam, Sarkozy wants to overhaul a collective belief system, Gaullism, for his own time, making a "tranquil rupture" with familiar authority figures and ideologies.) In front of six million viewers, Ramadan refused to call for a ban on the stoning of adulterers, arguing instead for a "moratorium." This apparently semantic distinction reveals Ramadan's reformist logic: it is a way to stop capital punishment immediately while engaging its proponents on their terms. Ramadan concedes that stoning may be supported in part of the Muslim world and by the instructions of law books. But such punishment, he argues, should be suspended while a debate is held over the conditions of its actual application.

For some critics, this kind of reasoning is unacceptably ambiguous: Ramadan will not categorically denounce stoning! But by calling for a moratorium, Ramadan avoids the Islamic equivalent of excommunication. As a result, his books are far more likely to influence the thinking of observant Muslims than are the proliferating "ex-Muslim testimonials" available in Western bookstores. As Ramadan told a British journalist, "The question is whether you want to please the audience or change the mentality." In that regard, In the Footsteps of the Prophet has nothing in common with either the outsiders' calls for reform (for example, by Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Irshad Manji) or the insiders' laments for a return to earlier golden eras of Islamic thought (by Mohammed Arkoun and Abdelwahab Meddeb). Ramadan seeks the legitimacy of internal critique in the relatively controlled context of theological debate, allowing him to go head-to-head with groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir.

THE REAL MUHAMMAD

Ramadan's Prophet Muhammad is a humble and compassionate figure, a sponge for learning. He is thoroughly devoted to God, but no fanatic: "Woe to those who exaggerate," Muhammad tells his followers at one point. "Moderation, moderation!" He is a discreet preacher who knows that honey is more effective than vinegar. He wins his followers' hearts with his flexibility: there are no forced conversions, and Muslims may even leave the faith if they find they do not like it. He welcomes the incorporation of local cultural practices, even singing at a wedding (which sharia does not permit), as an "enrichment." At another point, he gives a free meal to someone who has broken the rules of the Ramadan fast -- and he does it with a smile.

Although current affairs go unmentioned in the book, one can sense Ramadan's deep embarrassment at the claims of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Osama bin Laden to be emulating the Prophet. Ramadan wants to steal Muhammad back. He uses the Prophet's example to take aim at regimes in the Muslim world that do not allow the practice of other religions or the full participation of women in society.