Tariq Ramadan and the Rogue French Spy (Part 1)

by Hugh Fitzgerald

The latest news about Tariq Ramadan has to do with a rogue French spy, hired by his supporters, in order to discover the identity of one of Ramadan’s accusers, known only as “Christelle,” in an obvious attempt to threaten her into silence.

The story appeared in The Jerusalem Post here:

The ongoing case against Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan  became mired in even more controversy when one of his accusers filed a complaint over her identity being stolen and illegally published by a rogue French intelligence agent, Le Parisien reported.

Ramadan, a professor [on leave, likely permanently] of contemporary Islamic studies at Oxford’s St. Anthony’s College and grandson of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, is currently facing four charges of rape in France. The two initial charges were made by feminist activist Henda Ayari, with the other one being a disabled woman identified only as “Christelle.”

However, Ramadan’s supporters reportedly uncovered Christelle’s identity in 2018 after hiring an active member of France’s internal intelligence agenc , Direction Generale de la Securite Exterieure (DGSE), identified only as “Haurus,” to comb through the Dark Web for information. This agent has reportedly fallen into disgrace for selling information, according to a report accessed by Le Parisien, and the agent has since been indicted.

In 2019, Christelle sought legal action to stop Ramadan from publicizing her identity in his book, titled Devoir de vérité or Duty of Truth, which mentions her name no less than 84 times. However, her first name and birthdate was reportedly released to, and published by, the Muslim Post, a Tunis-based news outlet that has published many articles in Ramadan’s defense.

Christelle’s lawyer, Eric Morain, now wants to request the admission of evidence from the Haurus case into the case against Ramadan.

Speaking to Le Parisien, Morain referred to the actions as “foul-smelling” and said that it was part of an effort to pressure and scare his client with threats into silence.

“Investigations must be carried out to find out if these foul-smelling practices are the work of Tariq Ramadan and his entourage, even if it seems obvious,” he said….

Though initially denying any sexual contact with his accusers over a span of years, Ramadan later claimed in October 2018 that he had consensual sex with his accusers.

He has consistently denied all the charges against him and labeled them as a media frenzy, while his supporters have called the charges an “international Zionist plot.”

This latest news about the attempt to discover the identity of “Christelle” reminds us yet again of the relentless efforts by Ramadan and his supporters to silence his accusers. His supporters hired a rogue French spy (known only as “Haurus”) — now under indictment — to determine her identity, and with that information, Ramadan hoped to threaten her into silence. When that didn’t work, he named her 84 times in his book “Duty of Truth,” which has unsurprisingly scared her, for who knows what Ramadan’s fanatical admirers (he has 2 million followers on Facebook) might do to her? And it is possible that “Christelle’s” treatment will scare off still others into dropping their own charges, such as the four women in Switzerland who accused Ramadan of sexually assaulting them when they were his underage pupils in a high school.

Ramadan is doing everything he can during this long drawn-out case to win popular sympathy. Early on, he described himself as suffering from multiple sclerosis, hoping for release from detention, but a French medical team examined him and declared his case was sufficiently mild so as to be “compatible with detention.” Then his supporters began to describe him as the victim of trumped-up charges orchestrated by “Zionists.” They still hope to convince the world that he’s been the victim of a Jewish conspiracy. Ramadan has compared his treatment to that of Alfred Dreyfus, the Jewish officer famously prosecuted as a “traitor” by antisemites, and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil’s Island. Their cases are not similar. Dreyfus was accused, falsely, because of his identity as a Jew. Ramadan was not accused because of his identity as a Muslim; at least four of his accusers have been Muslims themselves. And the evidence against him, including the testimony of at least eight women in France and Switzerland, as to his sexually violent behavior toward them, dwarfs that presented against Dreyfus.

It’s been a long time since anyone described Tariq Ramadan, as they once did, as a “towering intellect” and a “leading Islamic scholar.” No one calls him anymore, as TIME did in 2000, “one of the seven most important religious innovators” of the 21st century; nor does anyone consider Ramadan as one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World Today,” as TIME did in 2004. He’s no longer one of the “100 top global thinkers,” as Foreign Policy hailed him in 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2012. He’s no longer even an Oxford professor; he’s been “on leave” for two years, and if convicted of even a fraction of what he is accused of, he’ll never teach again.

He’s now merely Tariq Ramadan, an accused sexual predator and pathetic liar, whose claim of innocence looks more ludicrous every day. This frightened creature, who is frantically hoping to avoid his final rendezvous with French justice, is discovering that the wheels of justice grind exceeding slow, but they do grind. Multiple sclerosis, an “international Zionist plot,” “consensual” sado-masochism, threats intended to silence accusers – he and his defenders will try anything. But for Tariq Ramadan, it’s going to be a very bad year.

First published in Jihad Watch.