Tariq Ramadan, the prominent Swiss Muslim scholar, is embroiled in a public dispute with a Dutch city over his hosting of a television program that airs on an Iranian channel.
On Wednesday, Mr. Ramadan lost an unfair-dismissal case he had filed against the city of Rotterdam for ending his contract last year as a city integration officer because of his affiliation with Press TV, an Iranian state-financed English-language television network, the Associated Press reports. Mr. Ramadan was dismissed from the municipal position and from a post at Erasmus University Rotterdam, which the Rotterdam city council established, in the aftermath of last year's disputed Iranian presidential election.
Mr. Ramadan's appointment as a visiting professor at Erasmus University had been extended a few months earlier, despite some controversy. In announcing the decision to extend his stay, the university said that it was "a place of academic freedom for scholars, where research and debate are stimulated," and that it does not interfere with its academics' "personal opinions and expressions, unless they are in conflict with Dutch legislation or stand in the way of independent and good academic research."
When it subsequently dismissed him, the university noted that the institution was happy with Mr. Ramadan's work and had no doubt in his "personal dedication," but that his "indirect relationship with a repressive regime, or even the impression of being associated with it, [was] not acceptable," Swissinfo reported last year. According to Swissinfo, "other academics formerly associated with Press TV had severed ties in light of Iran's crackdown on democracy activists."
Mr. Ramadan, who is a professor of contemporary Islamic studies at the University of Oxford, said in a statement posted on his Web site on Wednesday evening that Rotterdam had made the decision to terminate his collaboration with the city in less than two days, while he was on vacation and not reachable, and without contacting him. In an open letter he posted last year on the site addressed to his detractors in the Netherlands, he said that he has never hesitated to criticize the regime in Iran, including condemning the crackdown on demonstrators after the election. He had decided in 2008 to host the London-based weekly show called Islam and Life—billed as an exploration of the daily challenges faced by Muslims, especially in the West—only after consulting with many individuals, including Iranian friends. He chose to host the show in order to engage in critical debate, he wrote.
He said there were no restrictions on whom he could invite or on which subjects he could discuss; his programs contained no support for the Iranian regime; and he had only interacted with the program's producers, not with the Iranian authorities.
On Wednesday, however, a Dutch municipal tribunal accepted the city's argument that "Ramadan's TV appearance could be seen as endorsing the regime as it cracked down on protestors following presidential elections," the Associated Press reports. The court said that Mr. Ramadan had "failed to understand the size of the problem and his public support was gone," and it ruled against his claim for pay and damages. In his response to the ruling on his site, Mr. Ramadan said he planned to appeal the judgment, which he said was the product of an "unhealthy political climate" that is being used as a justification for hasty decisions "taken without the minimum of respect owed to individuals, especially when the person in question is a Muslim."