Fall 2005 (Issue 1:1)
Europe, Radical Islam and the Middle East Conflict
contents
Presentation
John Rosenthal
Islamic “Reformism” and Jihad: On the Discourse of Tariq Ramadan
Paul Landau
The would-be apostle of a "European Islam", Tariq Ramadan, is often accused of using a “double language”. In this chapter from his book Le Sabre et le Coran [The Sword and the Quran], Paul Landau takes up the charge by analyzing one of the key concepts of Ramadan’s discourse – “reformism” – as well as examining his statements on jihad. Landau's conclusion?: Tariq Ramadan is a “pyromaniac fireman... who lights the flame of Islamism among his Muslim public and tells his Western interlocutors he is putting out the fire”.
A Dubious Achievement: Joschka Fischer, the Road Map, and the Gaza Pullout
Matthias Küntzel
Matthias Küntzel examines the ambivalent legacy of the outgoing German Foreign Minister to Middle East diplomacy. Along the way, he provides a history of the "Road Map" peace plan such as hitherto not been told, exposing, in particular, the sharp dissonances between the European and American approaches that marked the plan from the start. The difficulties that the Road Map has encountered were preordained, Küntzel suggests: "the signposts on the map were pointing in opposite directions".
Interview
Islam, “Fundamentalism” and the French Banlieues
Latifa Ben Mansour
The Algerian-born linguist and novelist Latifa Ben Mansour has lived in France for over twenty years. She has been a sharp critic of the ravages wrought by "Islamism" or, as she prefers to put it, Muslim "Fundamentalism" in her home country and a keen observer of the rise of kindred movements in Europe. John Rosenthal spoke with her for the Transatlantic Intelligencer Quarterly.
Talking With Islamists: The European Left and its “Dialogue” with the Arab World
Thomas von der Osten-Sacken and Thomas Uwer
Why does such a wide spectrum of the European Left – from the German SPD’s Friedrich Ebert Foundation to the anarchist fringes of the “anti-globalization” movement – seek “dialogue” with open anti-Semites and proponents of jihad in the Arab world? Examining several recent examples of such “dialogue”, the authors find that the parties to it already agree on much.
Beyond the Numbers Games: A Closer Look at the Statistics on Anti-Semitism and “Islamophobia” in France
John Rosenthal
For years now, French Islamists and their “leftist” fellow-travelers have responded to reports of rampant anti-Semitism in France with a single word: “Islamophobia”, a scourge the effects of which were supposed to be just as dire. As reported by the major media, the 2004 official statistics on anti-Semitism and racism in France seemed to support their contention. A closer look tells a different story.
Document
“I am Asking that the Connection be Investigated”: Extracts from the Testimony of José María Aznar before the Spanish M-11 Commission
In November 2004, former Spanish President José María Aznar appeared before the Spanish parliamentary commission investigating the M-11 attacks to defend his government’s management of the crisis and give his view of the events. “I do not believe the [ultimate] authors of the attacks are wandering in distant deserts and remote mountain ranges,” he cryptically remarked. The Trans-Int Quarterly presents substantial excerpts in English translation, with notes and an introduction.
Paul Landau is the author of numerous articles on the Islamist movement and of the book-length study of Tariq Ramadan and the Muslim Brotherhood Le Sabre et le Coran (Éditions du Rocher, 2005). He is currently working on a study of Haj Amin Al-Husseini, the pre-WWII Mufti of Jerusalem.
Matthias Küntzel is a Hamburg-based political scientist and a research associate of the Vidal Sassoon International Centre for the Study of Antisemitism (SICSA) at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His latest book Djihad und Judenhass: Über den neuen antijüdischen Krieg [Jihad and Jew-hatred: On the New Anti-Jewish War] was published in 2002 by Ça Ira Verlag.
Latifa Ben Mansour is a linguist and the author of two recent studies of Muslim "Fundamentalism": Frères musulmans, frères féroces (Éditions Ramsey, 2002) and Les Mensonges des intégristes (Éditions du Rocher, 2004). In addition to her scholarly work, Ms. Ben Mansour is also the author of several novels, including, most recently, L’Année de l’éclipse (Calmann-Levy, 2001).
Thomas von der Osten-Sacken and Thomas Uwer are independent journalists and members of the aid organization Wadi, which is active in Iraq. Their book Amerika, Der War on Terror und der Aufstand der Alten Welt [America, the War on Terror, and the Revolt of the Old World] was published in 2003 by Ça Ira Verlag.
John Rosenthal is the editor of Transatlantic Intelligencer. He previously examined the statistical evidence on anti-Semitism in France in his 2003 essay for Policy Review magazine "Anti-Semitism and Ethnicity in Europe".
