The Tariq Ramadan Show consisting of the "Moderate Muslim" and the "Museum Muslim" on the modernisation of Islam

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=142905809085840&index=1

Well, that Tariq Ramadan Show was a waste of time. Usually Muslim gatherings have great food, but that was rubbish as well. Absolutely no panel discipline - Ramadan (the Modern and Moderate Muslim) the prima donna and bore - was allowed to go on and on and interrupt the Museum Muslim. They spoke mostly in abstractions. No attempt was made to see that all who had questions had them answered, and the moderator Hamza Andreas Tzortzis was blind to a long queue of women waiting to ask their questions (so I never got to ask my killer question which would have given them a few ideas about how to modernise Islam.)

He preferred to let the scholars have an endless unenlightening exchange with each other rather than let the queuing women ask their silly feminine questions.  At the end, a Somalian man I had seen before actually pleaded to be allowed to ask his question, but this was denied.


A waste of an evening and £18.

Al-Haddad at least made a few jokes that were funny (on the question of how can we get justice in this world he answered simply "When we get Islamic law" which took the sails out of Ramadan's self-important sailboat) and was a master of conciseness compared to Ramadan (to whom the soundbite and a short sentence is an alien concept) who loved the sound of his own voice so much that he constantly interrupted, and never spoke for under 5 minutes at any given time. He even shouted as if he were addressing a public assembly when he was just answering a question by Al-Haddad.

Haddad wants to go back to Orthodox Islam (whatever that means and something only he and people like him really understood). The Koran is not open to interpretation by just anyone, Allah forbid! I suppose he means his version of Islam.

I did like what he said though, that if one looks after one's akhira (posterity or our posthumous reputation) then dunia (our life in this world) will look after itself. 

Ramadan questioned the use by Haddad of the term orthodox, one of the wiser things he said. Otherwise, he went on and on and on about "the complexities" however simple and unambiguous the hypothetical situation given to him, which of course only he understood ...

So this is how scholars talk to each other. No wonder no one gets Islam and everyone hates Muslims. Boring, long-winded, obscure, incomprehensible, badly-organised, badly-managed and worst of all, men and women were segregated.

Just shows you how serious Muslims are about modernising their religion, huh?

There was a men's mike and a women's mike, and separate eating areas for men and women too.

Maybe Muslims should attend a few debates organised by non-Muslims and see how it should be done, but you don't want to be contaminated by us, eh?

Perhaps if you could bring yourself to risk your immortal souls by coming out and mixing with non-Muslims, you might realise that people who attend long and boring talks like to be given the chance to ask questions after hearing long and boring talks.  Muslims just don't get this, do they?

Oooh! Imagine shaking our filthy sinful feminine hands. Yeah, you will probably burn forever in hell for doing that or just sitting next to a non-Muslim female. JAHANAM!!!!

Speaking of which, I think I saw Anjem Choudary in the audience.  Whatever you think of him, he is an excellent speaker and very entertaining too.  This man would make a great stand up comic.

If the organisers wish to redeem themselves, I suggest they hold a debate between Nick Griffin and Anjem Choudary to sell-out audiences and enforce mixed seating, ie

male Muslim/non-Muslim female
female Muslim/non-Muslim male
BNP/Muslim

in strict rotation.