Tariq Ramadan. Credit: Abaca Press |
Oxford University Islamic studies professor Tariq Ramadan, already on bail and awaiting trial in France on charges of raping two women, has now been accused, along with his assistant, of gang raping a journalist in 2014. The two allegedly lured her to a hotel room by promising an interview and then subjected her to repeated sexual assault and “untold violence.” Afterwards, when she threatened to report the attack to the police, he allegedly warned, “You don’t know how powerful I am.” Accordingly, the charges against Ramadan, who is the grandson of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna, include “threats or acts of intimidation.” In addition, the unnamed woman claims that Ramadan contacted her in January 2018, two months after his release from jail, saying that he wanted to make her an “offer” of a “professional nature.” When she didn’t respond, two men allegedly showed up at her door warning that “if she was ill-intentioned towards Ramadan, he was ready to fix things.”
The long list of allegations against Ramadan, including the claim that he seduced four of his teenage students while teaching in Switzerland in the 1980s and 1990s, grows more horrifying by the day.
