Henda Ayari, the former Salafist who was the first of many women in France, Switzerland, Belgium, and the United States to accuse Tariq Ramadan of violent sexual assault and rape, has never wavered in her vivid account of what he did to her. But from the very beginning, she has had a hard time, as she has repeatedly admitted, remembering dates.
When, back in October 2017, she first accused Ramadan, Ayari initially told judges she was a bit hazy on the exact date, but that she thought her encounter with Ramadan took place at the Holiday Inn in Paris, near the Gare de l’Est, between March 31 and April 8, 2012.
Then on May 29, 2018, Ayari told the judges that she had been wrong. She had thoroughly reviewed all the documentation in her possession, including her agenda (diary) from 2012, which led her to believe that she had met Ramadan not in late March or early April, but on May 26, 2012, and not at the Holiday Inn, but at the Crowne Plaza Hotel.
On Tuesday, July 17, Henda Ayari was presented in court with evidence that on May 26, 2012, she could not have met with Ramadan, for she was then attending the wedding of her half-brother in Rouen, a city north of Paris.
Asked to comment on the latest revelations, Ramadan’s lawyer, Emmanuel Marsigny, called on French justice to react.
“We’ve changed hotels, we’ve changed the date, and soon we’ll change the perpetrator. This is not serious … Justice should open its eyes and deduce the consequence,” Marsigny said.
Not so fast. For let’s remember that Henda Ayari had always said from the very beginning that she was unsure of the exact date. When she first came forth with the vague “between late March and early April,” she was uncertain, and her subsequent narrowing the time-frame down to between March 31 to April 8, 2012 still displayed uncertainty. Then when she later found her pocket diary (agenda) for 2012, and read the entry under May 26, 2012, which consisted of the words “Crowne Plaza Hotel,” as well as the timetable for a train from Rouen to the Gare Saint Lazare in Paris, with notes about how to travel by metro from the Gare Saint-Lazare to the Crowne Plaza Hotel, which, she said, must have been given to her over the phone by Ramadan, she then assumed, from those entries, that May 26, 2012, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, had been the date and place of their fateful rendezvous.
It turns out, in fact, that Tariq Ramadan had indeed booked a room at the Crowne Plaza Hotel for May 26, 2012, and then cancelled that same reservation three weeks before.
What does that mean? One plausible explanation is that months before, they had spoken, and he had arranged to meet her on May 26, likely after one of his scheduled talks, to discuss his views on Islam. He had given her detailed directions on how to get from Rouen, by train and subway, to the Crowne Plaza Hotel. She wrote all this down in her agenda. But then she subsequently was reminded that on that very day she would have to be in Rouen for her half-brother’s birthday. She informed Tariq Ramadan of this, and so, speeding things up, he managed to arrange their meeting much earlier, sometime between March 31 and April 8, when he would be speaking at a conference, at the Holiday Inn in Paris. Her first memory was very likely the correct one. Seeing notes in her 2012 agenda about a meeting that had been planned (but never took place) for the Crowne Plaza on May 26, she became confused and assumed that had been the place and date when she had met Ramadan.
Let us assume what Ramadan’s supporters claim is true: that Henda Ayari is a clever manipulator, in league with Caroline Fourest, the author of Brother Tariq, an expose of Ramadan’s doublespeak, or with “Zionists,” determined to bring down that champion of Islam, Tariq Ramadan. If Henda Ayari were so clever, surely she would have known that May 26, the date of her half-brother’s wedding that she would be attending in Rouen, was the very worst date to claim she had met with Ramadan. But I don’t think Ayari is a clever manipulator, and I do think her revision of her initial claim was explicable, given what she found she had written in her 2012 agenda under May 26.
Ramadan has testified that he spoke to Ayari on April 6, 2012, briefly, on the sidelines of the UOIF (L’Union des Organisations Islamiques de France) conference where he was a speaker. He has denied anything more than a brief conversation. I find perfectly believable Ayari’s claim that Ramadan suggested they continue that conversation later that same night, in his room, where he would be waiting, rather than escorting her upstairs because, he said, too many people would recognize him.
We can at this point be certain of these facts:
1) That Henda Ayari has a vivid and detailed memory of her “meeting” turned violent encounter with Tariq Ramadan, and that her account of his modus operandi in luring his prey to his room, and his sudden metamorphosis, in that room, into a violent sexual predator, matches many other accounts by women, including at least three other Muslim women, in France, Belgium, the United States, and Switzerland, who claim he assaulted them.
2) That Henda Ayari’s first account, last fall, of when and where she met Ramadan was based not on any documents, but solely on her memory, which she has all along admitted has been hazy as to date and place. She initially offered not a precise date, but a 9-day window (from March 31 to April 8, 2012), during which she thought her encounter with Ramadan took place in the Holiday Inn. It was during that period that, we know, L’Union des Organisations Islamiques de France, where he was a speaker, met in Paris.
3) That in her agenda for 2012, which she located only months after her initial accusation, she discovered that she had written, under “May 26,” both the name of a hotel, the Crowne Plaza, and notes about the timetable of a train leaving Rouen — where she then lived — at 8:08 pm, and her arrival time of 9:48 pm at the Saint-Lazare station. She also had noted down the subway line to take, and which station to get out at, to arrive at the Crowne Plaza hotel where Ramadan would be waiting for her.
4) That she testified that this travel information came from Ramadan. The notes in her agenda for March 26, 2012 led her to conclude that her initial recollection had been faulty, and that she must have met Ramadan at the Crowne Plaza on May 26, 2012. When she learned from the judges in mid-July that she had been in Rouen on May 26, she was at a loss, but need not have been. Her initial memory was correct. Ramadan did speak at the UOIF conference. He did talk briefly to her on April 6, and arranged to see her later that night.
4) That we have proof, from the hotel, that Ramadan had indeed booked a room at the Crowne Plaza for May 26, and that he then cancelled that reservation three weeks before. This explains the notes in Ayari’s agenda: such a meeting had been planned at that place, on that date, until her half-brother’s birthday celebration in Rouen that day made it impossible.
Here is what we do not know:
Was the meeting apparently arranged for May 26, 2012 at the Crowne Plaza a follow-up attempt by Ramadan to meet her again, made after an encounter in early April? To those who say such a meeting would have been impossible, I think Ramadan’s Svengali-like powers have been amply demonstrated, and that Henda Ayari might not have rejected such a meeting out of hand, so that he went ahead and booked a room. She might also have thought that,having endured his horrific assault, at a second meeting she would be able to confront him, or possibly alert others to enter the room, so as to entrap him.
But it is more likely, I submit, that May 26, at the Crowne Plaza, was the original date and place of what was to have been their first meeting. When it turned out that Henda Ayari could not make it, Ramadan cancelled the room reservation. And then he realized that he would be in Paris to speak at the UOIF meeting at the beginning of April, and that would be an even better place to meet her, on the sidelines of that conference where the Great Man, that “towering intellect,” would be speaking.
Finally, we have the decision of the judges (juges d’instruction), who have concluded that Ayari’s confusion about dates, which of course needs to be cleared up, and the judges are intent on doing just that, is not a sufficient reason to set Ramadan free. There is still her believable, detailed story of violence and rape — believable because the very same things she claims happened to her happened to so many other women, not just rape, but extreme sexual violence of a most horrific kind, forced on her by Ramadan. And, as the judges drily noted, everything in the second accuser’s — “Christelle’s” — story holds up. The investigators now must go through all the records, at the very least from March 31 to April 8, and perhaps even to the end of May 2012, of those who stayed at either the Holiday Inn Hotel or the Crowne Plaza Hotel.
Emmanuel Marsigny, Ramadan’s main lawyer, claims that no one forgets when they were raped. Is this true?
Isn’t it entirely plausible that someone who had been raped, who had been subject to terrifying and sadistic violence by someone she had so admired, though unable to suppress the memory of this event, might not have perfect recall of when it occurred, and could be led to think she had her dates wrong, even when she had them right? After nearly six years, Henda Ayari initially came up with a 9-day period (March 31-April 8, 2012) during which she thought her encounter with Ramadan took place. She believed, further, that they had met at the Holiday Inn Hotel. But then she became confused by her very own notes, in her agenda for May 2012. She found that she had written, under May 26, the words “Crowne Plaza Hotel,” along with notes about train timetables from Rouen to the Gare Saint Lazare in Paris, and information about the subway to take from the Gare Saint Lazare to the Crowne Plaza. Her own notes led her to the conclusion — wrong but understandable — that Ramadan had raped her on May 26.
His lawyers would like everyone to think that Henda Ayari’s calendrical confusion should be enough to free Ramadan. Why? There is Henda Ayari’s detailed description of her ordeal, that is corroborated by the very similar experiences of other women, in France, in Belgium, in the United States, in Switzerland.
No doubt his lawyers will continue to use his physical condition — he has a “benign” form of multiple sclerosis, to elicit sympathy and to try, yet again, to get him released from preventive custody. But the judges haven’t been taken in. They have sought the considered judgment of medical specialists, who have repeatedly examined Ramadan and declared that his “condition” can be treated perfectly well in prison. We know he is being provided with the best possible care, including visits to a famed teaching hospital. The French authorities are not fools, and they have every reason to make sure he gets the best possible care, so as to ensure that his fanatical followers cannot accuse them of giving Ramadan substandard treatment.
In a three-page ruling, the judges said that despite Henda Ayari’s “uncertainty” about the dates, “the serious and collaborated elements which prompted the charges remain.” That last, which appears online, is a misleading translation of the original. What the judges wrote is that despite the “uncertainties” of the plaintiff, they believe that “‘des indices graves et concordants’ subsistent.” The French here should be translated thus: “serious and corroborated evidence” of the accuser’s charges remain.
Calendrical confusion is regrettable, but in this case understandable. Let’s remember how long ago the event in question happened, and recognize that Henda Ayari’s diary notes for May 2012 served only to mislead the diary owner. Tariq Ramadan is still in prison. There are other accusers still to be heard. The wheels of justice grind exceeding slow, but they do grind.
gravenimage says
Hugh Fitzgerald: The Calendrical Confusions of Henda Ayari Not Enough to Set Tariq Ramadan Free
…………………
It is disturbing to see this victim waffling.
But rape cases have had flaky victims before. There is lots of other solid evidence in this case.
Julea Bacall says
A date from years ago is not waffling. She remembers exactly what he did to her. She did not forget she was raped at all.
gravenimage says
I just meant that she has waffled several times on the dates, Julea–*not* on the crime itself.
Ole Pederson says
The reason for much confusion is the stone-age calendar system used in Islamic societies. That is also why their holidays, for example Ramadan, move around the years.
gravenimage says
That’s because Ramadan is on a lunar system.
Guy Forester says
While I admire this lady’s courage to stand up and speak out, her attorney and the prosecutors really needed to cover these types of issues prior to this. I makes her case weak and may derail her attempts at having justice served.
According to Wiki, she has 3 kids. I hope they are all safe and well, if you get my drift.
gravenimage says
+1
Terry Gain says
We can at this point be certain of these facts:
1) That Henda Ayari has a vivid and detailed memory of her “meeting” turned violent encounter with Tariq Ramadan, and that her account of his modus operandi in luring his prey to his room, and his sudden metamorphosis, in that room, into a violent sexual predator, matches many other accounts by women, including at least three other Muslim women, in France, Belgium, the United States, and Switzerland, who claim he assaulted them.
……….
I would like to see Ramadan convicted if he is guilty – and I am hoping he is – but, with respect, the first part of Fact # 1 is not a fact. It is an allegation.
Julea Bacall says
A date from years ago is not waffling. She remembers exactly what he did to her. She did not forget she was raped at all.
infidel says
Did U guys take notice of the latest stunt by German Muslim soccer star Ozil…who says he is been discriminated because he was a Muslim. Actually, this pest of a star had his photo taken with that another pest called Endrogan. Naturally, many Germans got agitated and he lost many commercial endorsements. And now like every Muslim, he is playing victim and crying foul.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/football/top-stories/german-fa-rejects-mesut-ozils-racism-accusations/articleshow/65106181.cms
infidel says
And herein lies another Islamic truism from the annals of the infidel and this one is actually a repeat:
It makes absolutely no difference to the host infidel nation if an individual Muslim becomes a superstar in any field, be it sports or entertainment or any other endeavor. Jehaad against the infidel host will still continue with the same fervor. As for the superstar Muslim, he/she most times will double-dip.. get the adulation of the infidel host and all its perks and money and of course be in the good books of his Jehaadi brothers as a good Muslim. And he will also give copious Zakat, which, of course, will go to Jehaad. And yes, Ozil will give Zakat for sure and there will be tremendous pressure on him to do so, esp given his success.
Raja says
So true Infidel, May I add:
Even a good performance by any decent Muslim (not corrupted by Koran, Mullah etc) is turned into theaterics for grandstanding purposes by the Muslim “intellects” or thinktank. Islam Is so venomous that it always seeks publicity and supremacism. It is too parasitical to be ignored by any thinking person. Want a Islam free world, sooner the better.
Westman says
Ramadan’s personal admission of S&M with the same prostitute over period of years has removed the Golden Guilding from a tarnished, decadent, character.
That Ramadan’s followers are attempting to save him from the consequences of his alleged other sexual actions points to a sustained delusion; that somehow his character can be publicly redeemed. It can’t. Jimmy Swaggart could call on a savior to power wash his “indiscretion”, and some followers remained. Allah’s demerit system has no such mechanism other than to discount non-believers.
The French justice system has already delivered the coup de gras, within Western society, by revealing Ramadan’s confession of deviant behavior. The trial, if resulting in conviction, is only confirmation.
gravenimage says
Consensual S&M with a prostitute is hardly regarded as respectable by most people, but rape is something *much* worse.
J D S says
He’s Muslim and his supporters who are Muslim believe there is no such thing as rape, as does he..Women, in Islam, are a useful tool for the pleasure of men…Did I read that somewhere?
infidel says
hear hear
gravenimage says
Spot on. These women, though not Infidels, are considered lax Muslims for having careers and meeting with unrelated men, and so as many Muslim men see it are fair game.
yohanan says
There’s a French interview with Arabic overdubbing and MEMRI English subtitles with Henda Ayari.
MEMRI Clip #6523 (6:43)
FRENCH ACTIVIST HENDA AYARI ON HER SALAFI PAST, ALLEGED RAPE BY TARIQ RAMADAN, AND STRUGGLE TO HELP WOMEN WHO FELL PREY TO EXTREMISTS
April 07, 2018
https://www.memri.org/tv/french-author-henda-ayari-accused-tareq-ramadan-rape-recounts-i-thought-i-was-going-to-die