Having been barred from the U.S., Tariq Ramadan decided to say the following at the European Social Forum:
Muslims must reach out and connect with other Britons as equal citizens, and resist the impulse to withdraw into isolated communities, one of the foremost thinkers on Islam in Europe will tell his audience this evening at the European Social Forum in London. Tariq Ramadan urges Muslims to embrace and get to know the culture and history of the countries they live in in Europe, and develop a "blossoming" confidence as the inheritors of Islam, one of Europe's great faiths. "The situation is bad throughout Europe, and now is the time for Muslims to reach out and create partnerships," he says. "Muslims must stop the perception of victimisation and their obsession with their minority status - that way we are nurturing the idea that we are not really at home here, and that is reinforced by governments. "There are millions of Muslims in Europe and always have been. It is a distorted history which omits the role of Islam in the construction of European consciousness."So this is what the Bush Administration doesn't want Americans hearing from Muslims. Too bad.