As French authorities prepare to hear more allegations of sexual assault against Swiss-born Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan, his supporters have used social media networks to claim his problems are all part of a “Zionist plot.”
As Breitbart London reported, ex-Salafist Henda Ayari, 40, who now identifies as a secular feminist, filed a complaint with French authorities last week accusing Mr. Ramadan of sexually harassing her, raping her, and issuing death threats towards her.
“It was the #BalanceTonPorc campaign that pushed me to reveal his name,” she told the Parisien newspaper, in reference to France’s version of the hashtag which means “Expose your pig.”
Two more claimants have since come forward to add their names to the list of those making accusations against the leading Oxford professor.
Mr. Ramadan, grandson of Hassan Al Banna who founded the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, denies any wrong doing and maintains his innocence.
Now journalist Caroline Fourest, who has covered Ramadan’s controversial career, has written in the Marianne weekly that his supporters claim allegations of assault are part of an elaborate “international Zionist plot” to tarnish his reputation. In a column titled “The Double Life of Tariq Ramadan,” she revealed:
Of course, Tariq Ramadan denies all. On social networks, one of his loyal lieutenants already sees an “international Zionist” plot. His fans accuse the victim, a repentant Salafist, of lying and wanting to advertise (enviable as everyone knows). I did not meet her. But what I can testify to is that her story, precise and terrifying, is very similar to that of four other women I met.
In 2007, author Fourest wrote an entire book about the “doublespeak” of Ramadan in her work, Brother Tariq: The Doublespeak of Tariq Ramadan.
Mr. Ramadan is professor of contemporary Islamic studies at Oxford University. He was banned from entering the United States by the George W. Bush administration in 2004 after it was alleged he donated to the Association de Secours Palestinien (ASP/ Palestinian Relief Organisation) from 1998 to 2002.
The U.S. government considered the ASP a group that funded terrorism by giving some of their donations to the anti-Israel terrorist organisation Hamas which is proscribed in the U.S.
In a Periscope video posted on Twitter that he made several days ago after the first complaint, Mr. Ramadan said that he would not comment on any of the allegations and that he would trust the courts to clear his name.
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