(National-UAE) As tens of thousands of people attended the annual congress of a French Muslim organisation, the name of a controversial absentee was in many thoughts.
Tariq Ramadan, the Swiss academic accused of two rapes but vehemently protesting his innocence, has been a prominent speaker at previous gatherings of what is now Muslims of France (MF) but was previously known as UIOF, the Union of Muslim Organisations in France.
Mr Ramadan, 56, is married with four children. The French newspaper Liberation suggested that his “double life” — admission to consensual extra-marital affairs — has led MF to distance itself from him.
But some of those who visited the four-day congress clearly missed his presence. “His thinking has left a mark on all of us,” one former UOIF activist told Liberation. “I’m putting things in perspective,” said a young woman. “On one side there are the accusations. But if he came to give a lecture, I think I would attend.”
