Brother Tariq: The Doublespeak of Tariq Ramadan by Caroline Fourest Page B

his followers to weigh the pros and cons of using force
carefully, but to take responsibility for whatever course is deemed necessary.
"The Muslim Brotherhood will use force only as a last resort, when there is no
other choice, and when they are convinced that they have achieved total faith
and union. And if they must employ force, they will be dignified and sincere,
they will give advance notice and wait for a reply; only then will they advance
with nobility and pride, prepared to bear the consequences of their decision
with confidence and calm."6° In other words, the Muslim Brotherhood has
no intention of calling for an armed revolution, but they will be forced to do
so if they dorit get their own way. This it what Tariq Ramadan, fascinated by
the rhetoric, calls the Muslim Brotherhood's "clear perception."

An army of martyrs
    It scarcely comes as a surprise, then, that, armed with such "clear perception," certain Brothers should have called for an armed jihad once they realized that victory by propaganda alone was not to be theirs. The death of alBanna served to make them even more radical. He was shot dead on February 12, 1949, coming out of the headquarters of the Association of Young Muslims, where he had just taken part in a "reconciliation meeting" with the
government in power-that is to say, the throne. The Brothers immediately
denounced it as a political murder. Tariq Ramadan even takes it a step further: "The assassination of Hassan al-Banna was planned jointly by the British, the French, and the Americans."', It is hard to imagine the three powers reaching a common agreement on this assassination at a time when the
independence movements and the communists were of far greater concern
to the Americans and the British than the Islamic movements, but Ramadan's version has the advantage of making al-Banna a martyr not only in
the struggle against the colonizers, but in the struggle against all Western
powers. In Egypt, the death of al-Banna was taken as proof of the fact that
coming to power via the institutional route was impossible. It was therefore
necessary to advance to the next stage. Shortly before death put an end to
his career, al-Banna himself had predicted that the Brothers were going to
have to enter this second, far more radical phase. Every time Tariq Ramadan
evokes al-Banna's speech, which his father had heard with his own ears, his
voice cracks. He quotes al-Banna almost word for word in his lecture: "I want
to read this passage to you, it will take up some of our time, but you must listen to it because he [al-Banna] has a clear premonition of what will happen
after his death." In his speech, the Guide warns his companions: once their
true objectives are revealed, they must be prepared to withstand the counterattack. "I want to be honest with you; your message is not widely known,
but once it becomes known, once they realize what your objectives and your
aims are, then you will encounter determined opposition and they will be
relentless in their efforts to stop you." The rest is incredible. Hassan al-Banna
gives a list of the misfortunes that await the Muslim Brotherhood-a list that
amounts to a litany of the injustices and slanders to come:

    Governments will rise up against you and attempt to confine your sphere of action
by blocking you in any way they can. Usurpers will stop at nothing to keep you from
growing stronger and will seek to extinguish the light that your call sends out. To do
so they will utilize ineffectual governments and will promote immorality; they will put these impotent governments under intense pressure and submit you to humiliation and hardship. They will contaminate your message by spreading infamous
rumors and unjust suspicions, and make use ofyour slightest failing to portray you
in despicable terms, relying on their superior power, their money, and their influence. No doubt you will then be caught up in the cycle of experience and