Acclaimed Swiss philosopher and Islamic theoretician. Ramadan has become enormously influential among Muslims throughout Europe for his calls for Muslims to embrace and practice Islam in a thoroughly modern manner. He advises Muslims on how they can fully integrate into European societies without betraying the universal laws and values of Islam. Ramadan sells around 50,000 audiocassettes of his speeches each year in France alone. His books explore reinterpretation and reform within Islam and its relationship with other religions and cultures. Ramadan has been criticised in the US yet Time magazine acclaimed Ramadan as one of 100 “innovators” of the 21st century and “the leading Islamic thinker among Europe’s second-and-third generation Muslims. Professor of Islamic studies and philosophy, Freiburg University, Switzerland; professor of religious conflict at University of Notre Dame, Indiana (resigned after visa was revoked); senior research fellow at Lokahi Foundation, London; visiting professor at St Anthony’s, Oxford. Tariq Ramadan, the grandson of Hasan al-Banna (1906-1949), the founder of the Ikhwan ul Muslimin (Muslim Brotherhood), which sought to reform the political, social and economic life of the Muslims, according to the teachings of the Qur’an, was born in Geneva, Switzerland. Tariq was brought up in Geneva after his father, Said Ramadan, fled from Egypt in 1954.