AMSTERDAM, (Reuters) – The Dutch city of Rotterdam and its university have fired Swiss Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan as an adviser to the city over his involvement with groups that detractors say hurt his role as an expert on integration issues.
Ramadan is a visiting professor of theology at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands’ second-largest city.
Rotterdam’s mayor is Ahmed Aboutaleb, a Muslim who was formerly junior minister for social affairs and who has vowed to ease tensions between the city’s native Dutch and a growing immigrant population.
Ramadan was criticized after media reported last week he was hosting a weekly television show on broadcaster Press TV, which Rotterdam says is financed by the Iran government.
“Although there is no doubt about the personal effort of Tariq Ramadan, both boards (of the city and the university) find this indirect relation with this repressive regime or even to be associated with it, not acceptable,” the city of Rotterdam said in a statement, published on its website yesterday.
