Wednesday, October 20, 2004

Flash: Frère Tariq - New Book on Tariq Ramadan

The French publishing house Grasset is scheduled this month to release a new book by the journalist Caroline Fourest titled Frère Tariq : Discours, stratégie et méthode de Tariq Ramadan : Brother Tariq: Discourse, Strategy and Method of Tariq Ramadan. The magazine L'Express, whose current cover story is devoted to the book's release, calls it: "an implacably argued analysis in which this specialist of Islamic fundamentalism reveals, on the basis of written sources, that Tariq Ramadan is indeed the Islamist that some have feared. Caroline Fourest has examined each published work of the preacher - twenty in all - as well as the majority of his taped lectures." The last point is especially important, since these tapes, of which tens of thousands of copies are said to be produced every year, circulate widely in the Muslim sub-culture of the French banlieues.

L'Express has published extracts from the book, as well as an interview with the author. I will be back shortly (really) with translated excerpts from both.