Oxford professor says history cannot be set and frozen by any law or political decision

ANKARA (A.A) - December 12, 2011 - A contemporary Islamic studies professor at Britain's Oxford University said on Wednesday that history could not be set and frozen by any law or political decision. Tariq Ramadan said whatever was one's position on the "Armenian affair", one must say and repeat that history could not be set and frozen by any law or political decision. "The French project to pass a bill to penalize 'Armenian genocide' denial is neither wise nor scientific. It is clearly an instrumentalization of the issue for some undeclared political purposes," Ramadan said. Ramadan's remarks came ahead of a French parliament vote on a resolution criminalizing denial of Armenian allegations regarding the incidents of 1915. "Is there a serious mind or dedicated historian who could agree that studying and questioning the past can be regulated by legislation, and research could be penalized or criminalized," Ramadan asked. Ramadan said, "whether we agree or not with the Turkish official position, one should acknowledge that the right take on this very issue is - as it was decided by the current government - to set scientific research commission and to open a debate instead of deciding what should be the only right  political (and not scientific) interpretation of history." The Turkish government had recently been opening channels for constructive debates whereas the French decision was not only against any serious scientific approach but it was also counterproductive as it was clearly driven by tainted sentiment towards Turkey than noble quest for historical truth, Ramadan also said. Ramadan is among leading experts on Muslims in the West and movements in the Muslim world, and among the main intellectuals who can understand both Western and Islamic ways of thinking.