Muslim thinker Tariq Ramadan subjected to virulent campaign

The Swiss Muslim thinker Tariq Ramadan has been the subject of a virulent campaign against him by a number of French politicians and newspapers after he took part in an meeting against Islamophobia in Paris last week.

The meeting that was organised by several anti-racist organisations and entitled "For a policy of peace, justice and human dignity" was held in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis on 11 December.

It had two main topics on its agenda, which were the growing cases of Islamophobia and the state of emergency declared by the French government following the Paris terrorist attacks.

However, Gilles Clavreul, the French government official in charge of fighting racism and anti-Semitism took serious issue with the meeting and described it as an "anti-republican offensive" in a Facebook post.

Clavreul went on to write that the meeting aimed to "legitimise Islamism" and "defend fundamentalist preachers under the guise of denouncing an alleged infringement of fundamental freedoms".

Controversy surrounded the event even before it was held because of the participation of The Indigenous of the Republic Party, an anti-racist group that is outwardly pro-Palestinian, anti-colonialist and anti-Zionist.

Perhaps this is why Clavreul labeled those who were gathered in Saint-Denis as "racist and anti-Semitic" while they attempted to highlight the prejudicial practices they are subjected to by the French state and the media.

Clavreul's attack sparked a furor in the French press with articles written to defend both sides, however an article in the right-wing Le Figaro defending the government's anti-racism official points out that Clavreul does not use the term "Islamophobia" or believe in its existence.

The article accuses the Collective Against Islamophobia in France, another organisation present at the Saint-Denis meeting of attempting to get Islamophobia recognised by national and European bodies dedicated to human rights.

It also accuses the organisation of distorting data of anti-Muslim hate crimes and seeking to racialise confessional identity.

The Collective Against Islamophobia in France successfully sued Le Figaro for defamation recently after a Muslim couple was violently searched by the police, yet the right-wing paper denied that the incident took place.

A French court ruled in favour of the Collective Against Islamophobia in France and ordered the paper to pay damages.