Yes,i think so wakas. I think making judgements that certain people are 'appeasers' or such is a slippery slope,especially when a person hasnt really taken any time to see what the guy is about...
Remember,even on people with a 'quran only' methodology there are a lot of widely differing opinions and it would be churlish to dismiss different views as indicative of insincerity. We saw this years ago (dont know if it still occurs.) with the hatred and animosity between quran only 19 ers and non 19 quran onlys'...

This is what i was getting at arnold. He seems to be interested in the truth,and sees problems in traditional islam. He delves heavily into the social justice side of islam,which i believe is its most attractive appeal to many. (along with monotheism.) Its not about reformers diluting,but about presenting in an eloquent,humane and practical way.....Why did moses ask for aaron to be the spokesman? To dilute the message or for clarity?

I find the replies from the aformetioned two as based on the massive assumption that ramadhan is somehow untruthful or diluting his message...
Tariq may be more genuine than those whose 'dogma' is based on intellectual arrogance or being radical based on psychological problems.
I also see a massive assumption in that people equate their own PERSONAL understanding with absolute truth. (amd thus equating themselves with prophets.)
To me this is a traditional sunni mentality in that 'we have all the truth',and we dont need to investigate what anyone outside our cult is saying,and we will brand anyone who is not on our methodology....
You can take the man out of sunnism,but its more difficult (so it seems.) to take the sunnism out of the man....

Well,i feel he has much more chance of moving islam forward than others,especially those of a dogmatic character who rejoice with what they think have.....

'Where' is truth?

I think it really could be that simple. I came to a similiar thought years ago.

I feel ramadhan could change a few minds as he is from a sunni background and does not outright reject the seerah. However he is radical,comparitively speaking. He has asked for a moritorium on all 'hudood' punishments until study proves that they should be applied nowadays.
I dont feel he is an appeaser really,he is trying to show that the quran is not about literalism but about social justice...
Rome wasnt built in a day......

I have read lot of works by aidid,shahrour,edip,layth,shabbir etc and found tariq to be a very interesting guy.
What i find most interesting is his asking for people to look at the context AND the INTENDED general meaning of the verse in question. He places great stock on social justice being the overall theme of the quran,as well as ones' personal relationship with 'god'.
I think this guy is the most likely to challenge the staus quo of sunni dogma,as most of the aformentioned are too radical,hypercritical or marginalised....
Thoughts?