Tariq Ramadan Gets Support from Two US Mosques

Hat tip Investigative Project on Terrorism and Campus Watch


Tariq Ramadan may or may not be a rapist. (He sits in a  French jail waiting trial on rape charges.) but he is getting a lot of support from Islamic leaders and mosques, not to mention academics on both sides of the Atlantic. Ramadan remains in custody because he is considered a flight risk. (He is Swiss-born and lectured at Oxford until his arrest.) To hear his supporters describe it, you would think he is the Count of Monte Cristo.  In a  running post on Campus Watch by John Rossomando, two US-based mosques are speaking out and demanding Ramadan's release.

https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/articles/2018/dar-al-hijrah,-turkish-government-mosque,-rally-fo

A couple of additional points. The Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Virginia, a suburb of Washington DC, was once the abode of the American-born imam and terrorist, Anwar al Awlaki, who was killed in a US drone attack in Yemen.

As for the Turkish Diyanet mosque in Lanham, Maryland, also a Washington  DC suburb, Diyanet mosques are those under the umbrella of Turkey's ministry of religious affairs, which goes by the same name. Similar mosques in Europe have been accused by several West European countries, (Austria, Germany, the Netherlands) of using their congregations to spy on the Turkish community and to foster political support for Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish ruler. For example, their German branch is known as DITIB.

Ramadan's innocence or guilt will be determined by a French court. The argument that he is considered a flight risk (or may try to influence witnesses) is a legitimate argument that is also used in US courts. (Just ask Paul Manafort.)

More importantly, however, there is ample reason for both of the above-cited mosques to be of concern to us beyond their support for Tariq Ramadan.