A prominent Swiss Muslim academic and grandson of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood – now facing claims of rape by multiple female accusers – was banned in 2004 from entry into the U.S., but that order was lifted personally in 2010 by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Tariq Ramadan, 55, currently a professor of contemporary Islamic studies at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, has been accused by three women within the last month, who have come forward to describe past sexual assaults, reported PJ Media.
French writer Henda Ayari, 41, was the first to bring an accusation, saying she had been raped in 2012 at a Paris hotel and claiming that for Ramadan, “either you wear a veil or you get raped.”
“He choked me so hard that I thought I was going to die,” she told Le Parisien.
Another woman, unnamed, said Ramadan subjected her to a violent and terrifying sexual assault in 2009.
The third accuser, identified by Le Parisien as Yasmina, said Ramadan had sexually harassed her in 2014 and blackmailed her for sexual favors.
Accusations of molestation of four minor students during the 1980s and 90s in Geneva have also been made.
Ramadan denies the accusations and is suing the women for libel.
The professor, who previously was banned from France and was accused in Spain of having links with an Algerian al-Qaida operative, has not been accused of assaults in the U.S. Ramadan was permitted re-entry into the U.S. in 2010 under the Obama administration after being banned for six years by then Secretary of State Colin Powell.
As WND reported in 2005, Ramadan justified suicide bombings in an interview with an Italian magazine.
Asked if the killing of civilians was morally right, Ramadan replied: “In Palestine, Iraq, Chechnya, there is a situation of oppression, repression and dictatorship. It is legitimate for Muslims to resist fascism that kills the innocent.”
Ramadan also said car bombings against U.S. forces in Iraq was justified.
“Iraq was colonized by the Americans,” he said. “Resistance against the army is just.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security revoked his visa in July 2004 because of his financial support of an Islamic charity that funded terrorism, nine days before he was to take up a prestigious appointment as the Henry R. Luce Professor of Religion, Conflict and Peace-building at the University of Notre Dame.
But that all changed under President Obama.
In January 2010, Secretary of State Clinton signed the Exercise of Discretionary Authority under Section 212(d)(3)(B)(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, revoking the ban on Ramadan and allowing him to come to the U.S.
image: http://www.wnd.com/files/2017/11/hillary_tariq_ramadan_order.jpg
In the wake of the initial rape charge, Oxford University supported Ramadan in order to put a damper on “Islamophobia,” but as the number of accusers grew he was put on a leave of absence.
Perhaps Ramadan’s chief defender has been his brother Hani, who leads the Geneva mosque founded by their father. Late last week he tweeted a sermon emphasizing that in Islam, a man cannot be found guilty of rape unless there are “four witnesses who clearly saw what happened.”
