Tariq Ramadan, a prominent Islamic scholar and grandson of Hassan Al-Banna, the founder of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, has been acquitted of rape charges in a Swiss court.
Ramadan, once hailed as a “rock star” of Islamic thought in Europe, fell from grace in 2017 when he was accused of rape. Other accusations followed, and by 2020, he faced five charges of rape and spent nine months in detention in France before being released on probation.
Despite these allegations, Ramadan consistently denied all charges. The Swiss case, involving a woman who accused him of sexual assault in a Geneva hotel in 2008, was the first to come to trial. After a week of deliberation, three Swiss judges found him innocent.
Although cleared in Switzerland, Ramadan is still facing charges in France.
Ramadan has a long history of extremism. He was accused of anti-Semitism by leading academics in France and once claimed that killing Israeli children is “contextually explicable but morally condemnable.”
Islamists in both Europe and the United States have welcomed Ramadan’s acquittal. Roshan Salih, editor of the British Islamist news website 5 Pillars:
Mauri Saalakhan, a leading official of the Aafia Foundation (set up in support of convicted terrorist Aafia Siddiqui):