Tariq Ramadan, a prominent European Muslim scholar, is calling on "all people of conscience" to boycott the forthcoming Turin Book Fair in Italy. Ramadan's outrage stems from the fact that the Turin festival organizers have decided to honor Israeli literature because it is the Jewish state's 60th anniversary. Luminaries from the world of Israeli letters like David Grossman, Amos Oz, A.B. Yehoshua, and Etgar Keret are scheduled to attend.
According to a post by Rachel Donadio on The New York Times Book Review's Paper Cuts blog, Ramadan told an Italian news agency that "From now on we cannot recognize the legitimacy of celebrating the state of Israel, which leaves death and desolation in its wake." The issue, he said, "is not an Islamic or Arab question, but a matter of world conscience."
Ramadan is perhaps best known in America for being at the center of a high-profile visa dispute when he was refused entry into the United States to assume a tenured position at the University of Notre Dame in 2004. In addition, Ramadan has become something of a flashpoint among liberal intellectuals (like Paul Berman, Ian Buruma, Tony Judt, Mark Lilla, and Michael Walzer) who are struggling to arrive at some understanding of how to best address the threat posed by militant Islam. (For the convoluted background see here)
As debate about the book fair boycott has escalated in Italy and France -- Ramadan has also called for a boycott of the Paris Book Fair because it too is honoring Israel -- Ramadan has posted a message to his own Web site in order to clarify his position.
"The boycott campaign is intended as criticism of the 'guest of honor,'" writes Ramadan, a research fellow studying Islam and philosophy at Oxford University. "It is not an attempt to prevent Israeli authors from attending or from expressing themselves. It does not refuse to engage them in debate."
"It is curious indeed to observe how those who defend Israel's policies are prepared to twist words, to lie, and to claim that the position adopted by the boycott appeal is equivalent to anti-Semitism, that it denies Israeli authors' freedom of speech," Ramadan continues.
"Common sense should be our guide: the international community's silence over the plight of the Palestinians is shameful enough without adding insult to injury. A human conscience with a minimum of values, principles and dignity can have nothing to do with honoring a state whose political and military practices are an insult to our consciences and to our honor."
(Last year Tariq Ramadan made a case for what the West can learn from Islam in The Chronicle Review.)