Reading Tariq Ramadan: Political Liberalism, Islam, and 'Overlapping Consensus'

Abstract

In this paper I discuss the controversy over the career and thought of Tariq Ramadan. I offer an account of what Western liberals ought to hope for from the thought of such a figure and then show, pace Ramadan's critiques, that his views on European citizenship and social cooperation are largely "reasonable" from the standpoint of political liberalism. I also situate Ramadan's views in the context of Islamic law and contemporary Islamist thought on life in the West.

Keywords: Islam. liberalism, Islamic law, Tariq Ramadan, citizenship, secularism