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Tariq Ramadan was recently interviewed by John Humphrys, an atheist who hosts a BBC Radio 4 program where he talks to various religious leaders to supposedly try to restore his faith in God. [Wikipedia]

John Humphrys: They [extremists] claim to find plenty of justification for that in the Qur’an, they will quote you plenty of chunks from the Qur’an which entirely in their eyes justify them doing it.

Tariq Ramadan: Yes er this is right, and this is why we have to respond that the quotations they are er making are wrong and they are not put in the global message of Islam, so we need this intra community debate among Muslims. But it’s also very important for me and for the Muslims, for you not only to be obsessed by the few who are vocal and visible and forget the many who are nurturing this understanding of the Islamic teachings open to the other, referring to verses of the Qur’an, at the end of the day they are the great great great majority. You have to listen to this silent majority of people telling you look for example myself, I will not accept just to promote tolerance between you and me, it’s much more than that, tolerance is not enough. There is something which is a kind of a superiority relationship when you tolerate me because you cannot just remove me from you know your own society. Tolerance is something which is not enough. In Islam if we go to the deep teaching of this religion is respect, and the difference between tolerance and respect is that you can tolerate me without knowing me, but you can’t respect me without knowing me, so it’s knowledge and respect. And this is the message that the great majority of the Muslims are promoting and are faithful to, so you also have to listen to this.

You can read the entire interview here [BBC] (This is a great interview, i highly recommend it!)

And in this week’s issue of TIME, which features a story on the Pope’s upcoming visit to Turkey, Tariq Ramadan wrote a one-page editorial criticizing the Pope for failing to appreciate the positive contributions of Islam.

… Benedict’s narrow definition of European identity is deeply troubling and potentially dangerous. This is what Muslims must respond to: the tendency of Westerners to ignore the critical role that Muslims played in the development of Western thought. Those who “forget” the decisive contributions of rationalist Muslim thinkers like al-Farabi (10th century), Avicenna (11th century), Averroes (12th century), al-Ghazali (12th century), Ash-Shatibi (13th century) and Ibn Khaldun (14th century) are reconstructing a Europe that is not only an illusion but also self-deceptive about its past.

You can read the entire article here [TIME]