CONCERN MOUNTS OVER TARIQ RAMADAN AT OXFORD
▶ Accused professor goes on ‘leave of absence’ while questions arise of Qatar’s role in keeping him at college
In the shadows of one of Oxford’s newest buildings – a shimmering, stainless-steel structure that looks out of place in a city known for its spires – lies an uneasy silence.
At St Antony’s College, everyone is running scared, heads down and refusing to talk. On the college quad, usually the epicentre of student life, there is a reluctance to engage.
The gleaming building is home to the university’s Middle East Centre, where Tariq Ramadan usually teachers and supervises students.
After the first of a string of rape and sexual assault accusations made against the Islamic scholar, students at Oxford were told he would continue to tutor them, although they were allowed to ask that another faculty member be in the room if they wished.
Eugene Rogan, the director of the Middle East Centre, also defended Mr Ramadan, telling students the claims were “just another way for Europeans to gang up against a prominent Muslim intellectual”.
But as the accusations increased, the university finally caved in to pressure.
This week, it announced that Mr Ramadan, professor of Islamic studies, would be taking a leave of absence “by mutual agreement and with immediate effect”.
The grandson of the man who founded the Muslim Brotherhood said on his Facebook page that he welcomed Oxford’s handling of the situation. He has denied all the allegations and filed for libel.
Away from the Middle East Centre, there was a sense of relief among students who were willing to talk.
But in a meeting held in the city centre, a group of undergraduates told of the anger that it had taken this long for the university to act.
It took more than two weeks since the first rape accusation, and a petition signed by almost 2,000 people, for the university to formally acknowledge the complaints, they said.
A faculty meeting was held last week to address the concerns but students derived no comfort from it.
In the meantime Mr Ramadan, who has been affiliated with the university since 2005, was seen “walking and laughing in the halls as if nothing had happened”, student newspaper Cherwell reported.
“The university has handled it really badly,” a female undergraduate said.
“He should have been sent down a long time ago.”
Others expressed confusion about what a “leave of absence” meant.
“Is he going to be formally suspended or expelled? What’s the next step?” one asked.
It also hard to see how Mr Ramadan could have stayed on in an increasingly heated atmosphere. In the Oxford Union, his face is plastered across student newspapers stacked up in the corridor, under the headline: “Don to keep teaching despite rape allegations.”
All of the alleged victims who have spoken up have been in Europe – in France, Switzerland and Belgium – but students said there had been “rumours” of complaints in Oxford, although nothing had been confirmed.
The time-honoured “tute system” at Oxford, in which pupils receive near one-to-one tuition with experts in their field, is thought to be particularly conducive to harassment.
In March, an investigation by The Guardian found that Oxford had the highest number of allegations against staff by students compared with any other university in Britain, with 11 cases recorded centrally and 10 by colleges. There are also concerns that much of this behaviour goes unreported.
Oxford students said that after Mr Ramadan sued the first woman who spoke up, many others might have been put off from doing the same.
“Whose interests is the university really protecting?” a student asked. This question may well have been asked in common rooms across Oxford in recent weeks.
Back at St Antony’s, the new building, which houses the Middle East Centre’s library and archive, may offer clues as to why the university is perceived to have divided loyalties.
Qatar poured £11 million (Dh52.9m) into the new building, designed by the late British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, which provided almost 1,200 square metres of extra floor space and a 118-seat lecture theatre.
It was opened in 2015 at a grand ceremony attended by Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, wife of former Qatari emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani.
The St Antony’s College website says Mr Ramadan was appointed to the “Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Chair in Contemporary Islamic Thought” through a donation from the Qatar Foundation.
He told the French newspaper Liberation that Qatar funded his chair at Oxford, but his salary is paid by the university.
“The chair was created essentially for him,” said Ghanem Nuseibeh, co-founder of the Middle East Student’s Union in the UK. “He does not necessarily qualify as the most suitable person for that chair.”
“What is of great concern here is whether Oxford University would have acted similarly if it was another professor who was not perhaps sitting in the Qatar chair, and who had no political affiliations,” he said.
“The question is whether Oxford will be prepared to sack him and if so, will Qatar continue funding the university?
The university has handled it really badly. He should have been sent down a long time ago FEMALE UNDERGRADUATE Oxford University