Oxford professor Tariq Ramadan loses rape bail hearing

Prominent Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan, who was arrested last week on charges of rape, was denied bail in France on Tuesday.

Two women have come forward accusing Ramadan of assaulting them in hotel rooms in Lyon and Paris in 2009 and 2012. Some reports claim more women are expected to file formal complaints against the scholar.

Ramadan, a prominent face on television, is a professor of contemporary Islamic studies at the University of Oxford. He has denied all allegations against him, and according to his lawyer the women colluded to disgrace him.

Shortly after the scandal erupted the University of Oxford announced that, "by mutual agreement, and with immediate effect" Ramadan "has taken a leave of absence". The statement noted that an "agreed leave of absence implies no acceptance or presumption of guilt"

The women went public with their story last year following the Me Too movement when a number of people started sharing accounts of being sexually harassed. Ramadan took a leave of absence from Oxford shortly after these rape allegations.

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Journalist Hafsa Kara-Mustapha is someone who does not believe in the accusations of rape leveled against the Muslim academic. She doesn't align herself with his views on the need to structure a “European Islamic identity,” nor does she agree with his political ideas. But she has solid faith that Ramadan is innocent of the accusations of rape.

"I certainly don’t believe the man to be perfect or infallible, no mere human is, but I am all too familiar with France, French society and French racism so I recognise a stitch-up when I see one," she writes, according to 5Pillars. "Attempts to silence the Swiss-born theologian had been made ever since he emerged as a fierce critic of both Israel and Neo-conservative Zionist politics in the Middle East," she added.