had earned a reputation of hosting countless "radical campaigners of every sort" who were described in their day "as the most dangerous men and women in America." Campbell, the ACLU, the PEN American Center, and the other sponsoring organizations portrayed the event, "Secularism, Islam and Democracy," as a celebration of free speech.

Ramadan has gained a reputation as an exemplar of the art of "double speech": making statements that can be interpreted favorably by both leftist secularists and Islamists. This sleight-of-hand has earned him admirers among the European and American Left, who have called him a leader of "moderate" Islam and even a "Muslim Martin Luther." In a damning 28,000-word article in The New Republic, writer Paul Berman debunked these claims, demonstrating that Ramadan is the intellectual heir ofhis Egyptian grandfather Hassan al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization whose ideology inspired the formation of Hamas, al-Qaeda, Hizb ut Tahrir, and numerous other terrorist organizations.

Ramadan, the first speaker of the four-member panel, opened the evening with a speech that was as vague as it was disorganized. He offered countless platitudes such as, "We may disagree, but our future is common"; "to take [from a culture] means to listen"; and "humility means respect and consistency." Ramadan also provided trite slogans that were warmly received by his liberal audience, including "not to support the rights of the Palestinians is wrong" and "the American invasion [of Iraq] is illegal."

He spent much of his time discussing Western Muslim identity, saying, "We [Muslims] are at home in the West, and