David Pryce-Jones in Commentary

David Pryce-Jones, author of The Closed Circle: An Interpretation of the Arabs, mentioned Tariq Ramadan in an article in Commentary called The Islamization of Europe? Here is the relevant excerpt:

The lengths to which apologists for Islamism are prepared to go is nicely illustrated by the case of Tariq Ramadan, a professor of Islamic studies at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland and a popular writer and speaker. As is well known, the American university Notre Dame recently offered Ramadan a professorship, but U.S. immigration authorities have so far rejected his application for a visa. This has elicited some classic examples of fellow-traveling obfuscation from both Americans and Europeans outraged on his behalf. A letter to the Washington Post protesting Ramadan’s treatment undertook to explicate his supposed message to Western Muslims: they “must find common values and build with fellow citizens a society based on diversity and equality.”

Not quite. What Tariq Ramadan has really proposed in his writings and teachings is that Muslims in the West should conduct themselves not as hyphenated citizens seeking to live by “common values” but as though they were already in a Muslim-majority society and exempt on that account from having to make concessions to the faith of others. What Ramadan advocates is a kind of reverse imperialism. In his conception, Muslims in non-Muslim countries should feel themselves entitled to live on their own terms—while, under the terms of Western liberal tolerance, society as a whole should feel obliged to respect that choice. (emphasis added)

So much for the claims that Ramadan is a moderate, for assimilation, or finding a way for Muslims to accomodate themselves to Western societies. The success of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is the furthest thing from his mind.

Of course, considering that Commentary was founded by Norman Podheretz (gasp!) , I suppose A. Peter Walshe will dismiss Mr. Pryce-Jones as a "Likudnik." Never mind that The Closed Circle is brilliant - obviously, since Mr. Pryce-Jones has written in Commentary, anything he says must be suspect to those willing to ignore the fact that Notre Dhimmi has been duped by Mr. Ramadan.