“Once again I have come under attack in the Netherlands,” Tariq Ramadan wrote in NRC Handelsblad on Tuesday.
With these words so Ramadan unwittingly touched the nerve of the problem: someone who is constantly the focus of controversy, and who is treated with such distrust, cannot perform the function for which he was hired, namely “to build bridges between the different communities in Rotterdam”.
At least those were the words used by the city executive in charge in 2006 when he announced that Rotterdam had hired the Islamic scholar to lead the public debate about identity and citizenship in the multi-ethnic city.
Given this context, the question whether criticism of some of Ramadan’s alleged statements was founded or not, or whether hosting a programme on an Iranian TV station equals giving support to a reprehensible regime, becomes less relevant.
An additional problem is that the city has failed to demonstrate what the results of Ramadan’s work in Rotterdam have been so far. It is significant that the city council in April adopted a motion by the Labour party asking for a clearer definition of Ramadan’s job description.
At that time the right-wing liberal party VVD had quit the city government to protest Ramadan’s allegedly discriminatory remarks about women and homosexuals, and mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb had let it slip that if it had to be done again Rotterdam would not sign another contract like the one it signed with Ramadan.
It was a sign of things to come. It was the question from the start whether Ramadan was really the kind of figure who could appeal to all the communities in Rotterdam. The real issues lie in the city’s deprived areas and have less to do with Islam than with the larger social context of a mixed city population that is predominantly low-skilled.
All political parties in the Rotterdam city council have reacted positively to Ramadan’s dismissal. That too is significant. With local elections coming up next year it means one less problem to deal with.
Under the circumstances it is easy to see Ramadan’s hosting of an Iranian TV show as just a convenient excuse for his dismissal. Whether the city’s decision was reached in a decent manner is a matter of debate.
The latter also applies to the Erasmus University, where Ramadan is a guest professor with a chair funded by the city of Rotterdam.
When the university’s board announced in April that it was extending Ramadan’s contract until February 2011, it stated that Erasmus considers itself “a sanctuary for scientists, where research and debate are stimulated. [...] The university does not concern itself with personal statements made by scientists as long as they are not a violation of Dutch law or stand in the way of independent and good research and education.”
It will be interesting to see how the university gets out of that one when Ramadan takes it to court, as he has announced.
