Tariq Ramadan: Too Devilishly Attractive For His Own Good

by Hugh Fitzgerald

The lawyers for Tariq Ramadan, the “towering intellect” and “foremost Islamic scholar,” recently won a lone victory: the judges considering the accusations against him by the woman known as “Marie,” whose real name is Mounia Barrouj. On June 5, the French judges handling Ramadan’s case dismissed the charges made by “Marie.”

As I wrote at that time, this has led to much mafficking by Ramadan’s supporters. They think their hero, unjustly persecuted by the French justice system because he is a Muslim, is at last seeing justice done, and they look forward to his being completely exonerated. Apparently these judges, described by Ramadan’s loyalists for so long as “unfair” and “biased,” have suddenly became “fair” and “unbiased.”

What made the judges dismiss the accusations by “Marie”?

First, “Marie” was no innocent, but an ex-escort girl, that is, a call girl, who had already been involved in a famous sex scandal in France involving special “evenings” — at such sites as the Hotel Carlton in Lille (l’ affaire du Carlton de Lille) — where such notables as Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former director of the IMF, enjoyed the favors of high-end prostitutes. There is no hint of any such background in the lives of any of Ramadan’s other accusers.

Second, “Marie” — her real name is Mounia Barrouj — claimed to have been raped by Ramadan in France, London, and Brussels nine times, over sixteen months between 2013 and 2014. Both Henda Ayari and “Christelle” claimed to have been raped only once. The judges obviously felt that if “Marie” kept coming back to Ramadan eight times after her initial “rape,” that made more plausible Ramadan’s contention that their relationship was not forced by him, but mutually agreed on. He who had claimed a few months ago never to have engaged in adultery recently changed his story, and before the judges he admitted that his encounters with “Marie” were sexual, and involved mild (!) S and M. These “sexual games,” as Ramadan and his lawyers called this sordidness, were — they claimed — consensual. Why would “Marie” keep agreeing to meet with Ramadan if she had been previously raped by him, against her will, again and again?

Third, Ramadan’s lawyers introduced into evidence 300 videos and a thousand photos sent by “Marie” (Mounia Rabbouj), with sexual content, that support Ramadan’s contention that their meetings, however violent, were consensual. On one of the videos, “Marie” can be heard pleading with Ramadan, saying “My love, I love you very much” (“Mon amour, je t’aime fort”). That message was sent by “Marie’’ on May 17, 2013; she claimed that she had been raped by Ramadan the night before. Isn’t it possible that  she had been smitten with Ramadan–flattered that that “towering intellect’’ took what seemed to be a real interest in her, and so she willingly submitted to his sexual violence. Isn’t it plausible that once “Marie” learned of all the others Ramadan was accused of sexually violating, in France, Belgium, the U.S. and Switzerland, she became infuriated at this evidence of Ramadan’s “betrayal” of her, and decided to press her own charges of rape for what may well have been “consensual” encounters?

But there was one new detail that all but one of the press accounts initially left out. Having insisted ever since his first accuser, Henda Ayari, came forward last October, Tariq Ramadan has insisted that he never committed adultery. Now, all of a sudden, at the hearing about “Marie” on June 5, he not only admitted to a long sexual relationship with her (with just a tad of S. and M., nothing to write home about), but also to having had five separate adulterous long-running liaisons. These were apparently with women other than those who’ve accused him so far of rape in France, Henda Ayari and “Christelle,” as well two others — a woman in Belgium and another in the United States — the state of whose cases against Ramadan is not known.

That’s quite a lot to have simply forgotten, and then all of a sudden to have remembered. But with Tariq Ramadan, now applying his “towering intellect” not to the ethics of Islam, but to coming up with stories to save himself from 15-20 years in prison, anything is possible. Perhaps he will, at his next hearing, suddenly recall that there was rape, alright, involving Ayari and “Christelle,” but it was their assaulting him, not the other way round.

After all, he’s carefully set the stage for this, as a report in Morocco World News reveals:

According to France Inter, which received access to his statements, the Islamic Scholar asserted that he is the one who has been harassed.

When questioned by the investigating judges on Tuesday, Ramadan claimed that women are the ones “who are coming to get me.”

“I go to Le Bourget [French commune] for a conference, and the police must take three women out of the bathroom because I come in.” He explained that he was “not only solicited as an intellectual, but also as a man,” as much by women as by men.

He has to fight them off, you see. Thank god the police were there on that occasion to remove three would-be female rapists from the bathroom. But think of all the other times when Ramadan has had to fight them off alone.

Yes, Tariq Ramadan has his troubles with women, but it’s not his fault. He was named by Time magazine in 2000 as one of the seven religious innovators of the 21st century, and in 2004 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Not to be outdone, Foreign Policy magazine named him in 2005, 2006, 2008-2010, 2012-2015 as one of the top 100 most influential thinkers — a Global Thinker — in the world. But he is also devilishly handsome — just ask all those women forcing him to do terrible things to them in hotel rooms. He can’t help it — he’s sex on a stick.

After this transparent attempt to bring down Europe’s most famous Muslim thinker finally fails, as it must if there is any justice in this world, Tariq Ramadan will surely wish for women to at long last leave him alone. It’s a wish that, given the piquant details about him that we have now learned, may well be granted.

First published in Jihad Watch.