<nettime> "And to the others, what would you say, Monsieur Ramadan?"

[Patrice Riemens <patrice@xs4all.nl>]

Full original (in French):
http://www.liberation.fr/france/2016/01/03/tariq-ramadan-versant-inoffensif_1424067

(From an interview with Tariq Ramadan in Paris, December 10, 2015, by 
Sabrina Champenois)
(last sentences)


Which author is your preferred? "Rimbaud" (...)[*]. Book? "The Brothers 
Karamazov by Dostoyevsky". Componist? "Beethoven". Song? "Léo Ferré's 
'Avec le temps' and 'It's a Wild World' of Cat Stevens" [aka Yusuf Islam 
since 1977]. (What do you think is) The greatest (personal) quality? 
"Empathy". The worst? "Dogmatism". (And) Your major quality? 
"Perseverance". Your major defect? "Stubbornness". Who would you like to 
be? "No idea ... It's already difficult enough to be oneself". What is 
your idea of misfortune? "To loose sense/feeling and to see death". In 
which country would you like to live? "In an all-round warm one, with a 
warm climate, and one of warm love, of warm humanity". Your favourite 
fictional hero? "The hero of Dostoyevsky's The Idiot". And real hero? 
"All the courageous, anonymous people". The reform you must would like 
to see happen? "The reform of the self". Your favourite color? "Blue". 
And animal? "The cat, and black panther". How would you like to die? 
"True to my principles". Your current mood? "Serene, and sad". A motto? 
"never forget to tell those you love you that love them".
And to the others, what would you say, Monsieur Ramadan?

Q&D Translation by yrs truly
Amsterdam, January 5, 2015


[*] For (...) read: "And please, spare me the usual stupid comments such 
as 'Tariq Ramadan likes Rimbauld because Rimbauld showed interest for 
Islam' ... which is the absolute lowest point of journalism. Rimbauld 
was the poet of revolt, of suffering, and did this with the language of 
beauty ... I know half of his poetry by heart ... My thesis in French 
literature was about Baudelaire and Rimbaud.

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