UOIF, Muslim Brotherhood and the Ramadan family

25.05.2015 Fiammetta Venner

Not only the UOIF is inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood, but the UOIF works in a network almost exclusively formed by the Muslim Brotherhood :  Ghannouchi, Mawlawi and Qaradhawi. References which must be added the Ramadan family and the Islamic Center of Geneva, with which the UOIF is working very closely. The Islamic Center of Geneva is one of the European headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Islamic Center of Geneva was founded in 1961, with Saudi money, to Islamize the old continent and unite against “atheistic materialism” by Said Ramadan, exiled leader of the international branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. Nicknamed the “little Banna” because he was the favorite disciple of Hassan al-Banna, Said Ramadan married Banna’s favorite daughter, Wafa, and together they dreamed of seeing the triumph of the totalitarian Muslim Brotherhood political islamism  from Europe. The Old Continent has even become a challenge in itself for the next generation, when the children of Said Ramadan and Wafa al-Banna were old enough to take over. The two youngest son born inEurope, Hani and Tariq Ramadan, have particularly taken over from his father’s death in 1995.

The official director of the center, Hani Ramadan, is one of the most requested speakers by the various associations of the UOIF. He even wrote several pamphlets collection of Islam, did you know?, Leaflets published by the UOIF to be distributed to Congress Bourget and serve as the basic theoretical corpus militants. One of them, The Meaning of the bid, insists that a good Muslim is totally submitted to God.

The other, Islam and Democracy, says that Islam is incompatible with democracy as understood Western [1]. One can easily imagine the influence exercised by the director of the Islamic Center of Geneva, successor to the small and large Banna, the activists of the Union. Like his grandfather, Hani Ramadan is haunted by the idea of ​​being contaminated by the decadence of the West,

“Do we not observe this day in fact, that in our modern societies, despite the progress of Science and material comfort, we are invaded by all sorts of ailments that reflect a constant drift to worship Taghut in all its aspects? Would not that at the level of unbridled sexuality that is expressed in relationships outside marriage, prostitution, homosexuality, harassment, rape, pedophilia, incest? “[2].

Sexual liberation is one of his obsessions. In interviews, director of the Geneva Islamic Center never loses an opportunity to remind that  in Islam “homosexuality is a stalemate, both from the point of view of the law revealed that the logic is not opened a door with two key “[3]. In 1998 he published a book, Women in Islam, in which he defends the right to polygamy as the best way to fight against the risk of adultery and obvious vis-a-vis secular hatred wishing to ban the veil at school: “The veil in Islam is a sign of submission to the belief in the divine commandments. Why try to prevent a young high school girl to express their conviction? The compulsion to reveal, is not to repeat the gesture of the ruthless Inquisition and communist executioners? (…) Against the secular extremists, Islam will remain in any case a school of wisdom and tolerance:

“No compulsion in religion, “says the Koran. Lesson that lay torturers have not taught us! “[4]

This book caused a scandal in Switzerland. But Hani Ramadan was dismissed from the Swiss National Education after having published an article in the newspaper Le Monde, in which he justifies stoning as “a punishment, but as a form of purification” and AIDS as a divine punishment:

“Who created the AIDS virus? Observe that the person who adheres strictly to divine commandments is immune from this infection, which can not be achieved, unless an error of blood, an individual who maintains no extramarital relationship, which has no homosexual practice and preventing drug use. ” Moral: “Muslims are convinced of the need, at any time and any place, to return to the divine law” [5].

That, in a few sentences, the thought of an Islamist theorists serving as a model for the faithful of the UOIF. Often occurring at his side, his brother, Tariq Ramadan [6], is a model for all young people of the Union since 1992, when he intervened for the first time at the Annual Congress of Le Bourget, then answered all invitations satellite associations of the UOIF. That year at Le Bourget, the young preacher is expected as the Messiah by all participants. He has just returned from a quick training on Islamic issues in Egypt, but the public has heard much about him through his relationship with Hassan al-Banna and Hani Ramadan. The public immediately falls in love. Since then, Tariq Ramadan had a decisive influence on the strategy and rhetoric of the UOIF – out of the separatist confinement to become more political, and therefore more effective, on contact. In 2003, we will come back, executives of the UOIF will quarrel with Tariq Ramadan about the CFCM, but the preacher has never ceased to be admired and associations invited by the satellites of the UOIF. Moreover, when France 2 program critically Special Envoy on the preacher in November 2004, the UOIF goes immediately into the breach to defend him and asking the chain to deprogram this documentary. Proof that the links are not so distended it. Between Brothers, the division can never last very long, though short-term strategies may differ punctually. Although any dispute on the form is often interpreted hurriedly, as a war on the bottom showing independence of thought of the UOIF vis-a-vis the Muslim Brotherhood. This is what the EU would like to believe.

Fouad Alaoui, general secretary, wants to prove its independence: “We do not feel the need to belong to a foreign school of thought. We see ourselves as a school of Islam of France “. Yet when pushed into a corner, he confesses willingly be in regular contact with al-Houweidi Syrian, one of the official ambassadors of the brotherhood. [7] This means that the end of the formal tutelage vis-a-vis the Muslim Brotherhood as an organization is not an ideological break and all of emancipation, aimed primarily efficiency nationally. But this formal independence and do not advertise this refocusing provided an ideological change. The UOIF remains an organization whose model of thought and method of Hassan al-Banna, taking as reference preachers trained by the Muslim Brotherhood, networking with the Muslim Brotherhood and, above all, defending the same as Islam Muslim Brotherhood.

Fiammetta Venner

Taken from takeover of Islam in France: The ambitions of the UOIF

[1] Prospectus published by the UOIF and distributed to Congress Bourget in 2003.

[2] Hani Ramadan, Aspects of Islamic monotheism Tawhid, Lyon, 1998, p. 98.

[3] “The impasse of homosexuality”, interview by  Le Nouvelliste, January 25, 2003.

[4] Hani Ramadan, Woman in Islam, Lyon, Tawhid, 2000.

[5] “The Sharia misunderstood,” published by Le Monde on 10 September 2002.

[6] Despite the decisive influence on the UOIF Tariq Ramadan, I will not elaborate more here about the character. His career and his speeches were perfectly decrypted in Caroline Fourest, Brother Tariq, Paris, Grasset, 2004 425 p.

[7] Xavier Ternisien, Le Monde, 13 December 2002.

When Abdallah Schleifer Spoke About Hassan Turabi

16.05.2015 Michaël Prazan

Abdallah Schleifer is the former director of NBC Middle East office.

In the early 1990s, the American journalist born to a Jewish family from New York and converted to Sufi Islam, began a long interview with Hassan Turabi about political Islam:

“I was stunned by his intelligence and knowledge of Western culture, which is very rare among the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, especially those of his generation. Those young brothers currently emerging in Europe are certainly more familiar with Western culture, than were those of Turabi generation. He had studied in London, and presented his PHD thesis in Paris at the Sorbonne. He had read English and French authors in their original language. In addition to European literature, he knew perfectly the corpus of contemporary Islamic writers: Hassan al-Banna, of course, but also Sayyid Qutb, or Pakistani Abu’l-A’la Mawdudi. Many Brothers come from a secular milieu, and are not as conversant with this type of literature as one might think. Turabi seemed to me very different from the traditional leaders of the Brotherhood whom I had met so far, of whom Ayman al-Zawahiri was the typical prototype: people who studied medicine, and grew up either in a totally religious milieu, or in a secular milieu, and who became radical as a result of an accident in their private lives. Turabi was an intimidating person, but since he was friendly, I dared a question that I knew would displease him. I told him: “I converted to Islam, because I fell in love with the traditional culture I met in Morocco: warmth, people tolerance, and the universal dimension of their relationship to Islam. However, every time I have spoken with Muslim Brothers, I have more clearly recognized in their speech my past as a Marxist militant in the New Revolutionary Left, than the warmth and softness of emotions that I remembered from my stay in Morocco, and which represent true Islam for me. When I speak with Muslim Brothers, I often feel like I am with my former revolutionary companions, with members of the “party”. For me, the ideology of the Brotherhood has more to do with Leninism than with Islam.

He laughed and said:

“You are right, and you are not the first one to think so. There is no difference between us and Marxists. Even when comparing our slogans, you will be able to find common ground. The only difference is that we are the ones who chased the communists away from Khartoum.”

“Basically, Islamism is a kind of derivative of Leninism right wing. And what is Leninism right wing, if not fascism? Fascism is not a conservative movement. It has always been a revolutionary movement, as opposed to conservatism as it is to communism or other forms of socialism. Many notions have been introduced into modern politics by Marxism-Leninism, such as mass movement, flag, or salvation. All this has been renewed and in the most effective way by Leninism, of which fascism is a somewhat less utopian version than communism. In the case of Nazism, the ideal vision of a world rid of the Jews replaces the communist vision of a world rid of the bourgeoisie. Fascist salvation, from an emotional point of view, is more powerful than a closed fist. Today, we are of course horrified by this, and we associate it with Nazism and all the terrible things it has produced. But just have a look at the Nazi flag and you will understand why it means to people. The swastika has symbolized life for thousands of years in India. It is a very strong symbol, whereas the sickle and hammer only find an echo for some people; it is only the symbol of workers and peasants. Today, if I had the chance to see Turabi again, I would say to him: “I now know why your movement was able to stop communism – just as fascism, whether in Italy or Germany, was beaten by the Communists. The Muslim Brothers have been touched by Leninism, as they have been affected by many other European phenomena, but in terms of organization, as a party, as a mass movement, their closest cousin is fascism. It was much easier to understand for a Muslim Brother trained in the 1930s, like Hassan al-Banna and many others, than it is today. Leninism was in fact absorbed by the Muslim Brothers, through their romance with fascism.”

This post is also available in Français.