driving out the moderates

Arash has the definitive response to Roger Simon's bizarre assertion that "[w]hat is presently going on in Europe is the hijacking of the left by the Islamic cause" and the Belmont Club blog's character assasination of Tariq Ramadan. Arash notes of Tariq Ramadan:

His grandfather was the founder of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and his brother is somehow linked to an al-Qaeda financier, which makes Ramadan an evil radical. Not quite so. He's an outspoken critic of anti-Semitism and calls for the integration of disaffected Muslim populations in Europe. Recently, he criticized a number of Jewish intellectuals and one non-Jewish intellectual (an half-assed attack, I admit) for supporting the war in Iraq.

Deride the European left all you want, although I find it a waste of time. I have one question, however: How does the admission of Ramadan, a renowned reformist, at an anti-globalism conference translate into support of the "oppression of women and homosexuals." Had there been posters of Osama bin Laden or Mohammad Atta all over the place, than I'd have agreed with you. But that wasn't the case.

Given the reception that Islamic "moderates" tend to receive from neocon-infatuated Bush apologists nowadays (your silence speaks volumes! you don't exist! etc.), I'm not surprised by this.