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This editorial inaugurates a weekly platform for analysis and commentary on the key developments concerning Islam in Europe and its relationship with the political, cultural, and institutional context. EuroIslam was created out of the need to offer a clear, independent, and responsible perspective, capable of going beyond immediate reactions and emotional responses, in order to contribute to the development of a mature and well\u2011rooted European Muslim thought.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The conviction of Tariq Ramadan by the Paris Criminal Court, which sentenced him to 18 years in prison for rape and aggravated sexual assault, is not merely the outcome of a long judicial process that began in 2017 in the context of the #MeToo movement. It is, more fundamentally, the end of a cultural phase marked by deep ambiguities in the construction of Muslim leadership in Europe. For years, a significant part of Islamic discourse in Europe has oscillated between two equally problematic poles: on the one hand, identity-based rhetoric, often fueled by transnational ideological networks; on the other, the search for legitimacy among European elites through \u201cpresentable\u201d figures who were not truly emancipated from those same ideological matrices. In this ambiguous space, personalities such as Ramadan were able to occupy a central position. If Muslim organizations wish to become a civic resource within Europe \u2014 rather than a foreign body or merely an identity-based actor \u2014 they must take a qualitative step forward: breaking their dependence on external ideological networks, abandoning the logic of personal charisma, and investing in the development of an autonomous, responsible form of thought rooted in the European context. <\/p>\n EuroIslam<\/em> <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Questo editoriale inaugura uno spazio settimanale di analisi e commento sui principali fatti che riguardano l\u2019Islam in Europa e il suo rapporto con il contesto [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5114,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[895],"tags":[896],"class_list":["post-5102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editoriale","tag-tariq-ramadan"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euroislam.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euroislam.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euroislam.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euroislam.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euroislam.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5102"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.euroislam.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5117,"href":"https:\/\/www.euroislam.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5102\/revisions\/5117"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euroislam.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euroislam.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euroislam.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euroislam.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nFor more than two decades, Ramadan was presented \u2014 and often accepted \u2014 as the face of a European Islam capable of reconciling religious belonging with the Western context. This narrative, however, was built around a highly personalized figure, shaped more by media charisma and linguistic ambiguity than by a genuinely autonomous theological and political framework. The result was a fragile model, exposed to contradictions that now appear in full view.
\nThe central issue is not only individual criminal responsibility, which it is the role of the courts to establish. The deeper question concerns the system of legitimacy that made such a concentration of symbolic authority possible. Testimonies deemed credible by the court describe relationships marked by a strong asymmetry of power, in which intellectual and religious prestige translated into personal influence. This element cannot be considered incidental: it points to a conception of leadership that confuses authority with domination.<\/p>\n
\nThe implicit but real reference here is to the politico-religious culture associated with the Muslim Brotherhood, which has historically privileged the construction of influence through networks, adaptive language, and charismatic leadership. Within this paradigm, authority does not derive from strong institutions or from structured thought, but from the ability to occupy spaces, build consensus, and manage ambiguity. The Ramadan case reveals the structural limits of this model.
\nHis conviction therefore marks a turning point that the European Muslim world cannot ignore. The issue is not to defend or attack an individual, but to reflect on what kind of religious and cultural leadership should be built. A mature European Islam can no longer afford to delegate its representation to hyper-exposed personalities, nor tolerate grey areas between private ethics and public discourse.<\/p>\n
\nIn this sense, the Ramadan case represents a severe but necessary lesson. It marks the end of a cycle and potentially opens a new phase: one in which the credibility of European Islam will no longer be built on the image of individual leaders, but on the strength of its institutions, the transparency of its practices, and the maturity of its political and cultural vision.<\/p>\n
\nWeekly Editorial\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n