This director emeritus of research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) admits to his links with Qatar. He is convinced that a rapprochement between the far left and the Islamists is probably the best way to improve the situation.
His appreciation for Tariq Ramadan? He stands by it. His links to Qatar? Likewise. François Burgat, director emeritus of research at the CNRS, makes no secret of this. He is president of the Centre arabe de recherches et d’études politiques de Paris (Carep), the French-speaking lobby of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies in Doha. These posts are honorary, he says. They are the result of a long and intense proximity to the emirate’s political and religious authorities, including the Muslim Brotherhood.
Lille-born Mohammed Louizi, himself a former Brotherhood activist, has detailed in his blog the multiple links between François Burgat and this Islamist movement. For two decades, François Burgat has been working tirelessly to “rid the Brothers of any totalitarian and operating against freedom Salafist sectarianism”, writes Mohammed Louizi. His aim is to make them respectable again in the eyes of the French, drawing on his experience and authority. In his opinion, “rapprochements between Islamists and left-wing forces” are the “best means against the spiral of ascent to the extremes”.
François Burgat was born in Chambéry in 1948 and has spent more than a quarter of his life in the Arab world, working for the CNRS or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 2008 to 2012, he was director of the renowned Institut français du Proche-Orient in Damascus. He is a member of the editorial board of the journal Orient XXI. Even his many opponents agree: he is on the spot and knows his subject of study, the political movements in the Arab world, very well. However, following him unreservedly in his remarks is not advisable, as François Burgat has a penchant for dangerous simplifications. (…) Marianne