Islam, the West and the Challenges of Modernity (A Conversation With Tariq Ramadan)

(Pew Research Center) European campaigns to ban burqas, the Swiss vote to bar new construction of minarets and attempted terrorist acts in the United States have renewed questions and concerns about the compatibility of Islam with Western society. Swiss-born scholar and philosopher of Islam Tariq Ramadan has written and spoken on the subject, generating widespread debate and reaction.

The U.S. State Department recently overturned his six-year ban from the country, allowing him to visit and speak in the U.S. How have his experiences influenced his views on the reform of radical Islam and the bridging of cultural differences? What can Western Muslims do to balance faith and modernity? And what lies ahead for the future of Islam in Europe, the U.S. and the rest of the world? Ramadan addressed these questions and related topics at a press luncheon hosted by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Ramadan is a professor of Islamic studies at the University of Oxford's St Antony's College. He is also the president of a Brussels-based think tank, European Muslim Network, and the author of more than 20 books, including What I Believe, published in November 2009. Foreign Policy magazine named him one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers of 2009.

Speaker:

Tariq Ramadan, Professor of Islamic Studies, St Antony's College, Oxford University

Moderator:

Luis Lugo, Director, Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

Navigate this Transcript:

Ramadan’s Opening Remarks
Sharia in the West
Free Speech or Defamation of Religion?
Applying Muslim Ethics
Spiritual Crisis in Europe?
Making the Case for Reform
Why Muslim Scholars Don’t Speak Out
Differences Between American, European Muslims
Ramadan on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Why Ramadan Was Banned