Well…I feel the need to pontificate a little today. Being a blogger and feeling sometimes relegated to the backseats of social and political discourse, I often have the impression that what I have to say about the world is considered useless and inconsequential by the power elite of this world. More humble people obviously appreciate this site and I am glad they do because, in the end, it is for them that I write and publish all these posts on my own time, for free. So today I hope you will allow me to celebrate my instincts, although I would have prefered evidently to be wrong. Last May, when I first heard about this coming Conference in Montreal, I had the feeling that the Dalai Lama and Tariq Ramadan would adjust their strategies and work on a common agenda. That’s why I had titled my post The Dalai and Tariq Ramadan will sing in duet…and that’s exactly what happened.

Let me explain a few things. A journalist from French-speaking radio station 98,5FM in Montreal, Canada, named Alain Pronkin, attended the Conference on September the 7th. In a two-part interviews given to host Benoit Dutrizac, he reported two things rather relevant for our purpose. First, Tariq Ramadan, this Muslim Brotherhood agent so « charming » and « moderate » that has become literally a sweatheart for the so-called progressive sector, was asked by a Buddhist raised in a Christian family why the Dalai Lama couldn’t visit the Mecca. Ramadan plainly and dully responded that the vast majority of Muslim scholars agreed on this and that King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia wouldn’t allow it anyway. Period. So much for the religious freedom and « tolerance » that Ramadan is desperately trying to force upon Westerners. In other words, what Muslims mean by religious freedom is the possibility for them to impose their laws, their sharia, their Islamic veil, their sacred holidays, their prayers at whatever moment of the day and in whatever places they see fit, etc, that we, Westerners, have to accept in the name of so-called « openness ». But this principle of religious freedom doesn’t seem to work the other way around. If we, Westerners, want to express our religious freedom by visiting a holy place of Islam, even if it is only out of curiosity or for touristic experience, we can’t…unless Muslims permit it. Now you get the picture about religious freedom, Muslim style. Continuer la lecture →