Paris Letter: Tariq Ramadan's press conference was nearly over when an Israeli journalist stood up to complain that no Israeli or Jewish journalists had been called upon to ask questions, writes Lara Marlowe.
Mr Ramadan - the idol of young French Muslims, and possibly the most controversial public figure in the country - sat silently as accusations rose to deafening pitch.
Finally, a correspondent from the Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv blurted out his question: "Does a Jewish intellectual - or a Jew, full stop - have the right to support the existence of an independent and sovereign country: Israel?" Of course, Jews have the right to support the existence of Israel, Mr Ramadan replied. Yet again, he said, his meaning had been distorted.
For the past six weeks, Mr Ramadan's article "Criticism of the (new) sectarian intellectuals" has dominated the opinion pages of French newspapers. In it, the professor of philosophy and Islamic studies at the University of Geneva accused "French-Jewish intellectuals, hitherto considered as universalist thinkers," of "developing analyses orientated by sectarian concerns". Mr Ramadan named the philosophers Mr Alain Finkelkraut, Mr Bernard-Henri Lévy, Mr André Glucksmann and Mr Pierre-André Taguieff (who is not Jewish) as well as the editorialist Mr Alexandre Adler and the socialist politician Mr Bernard Kouchner as examples of intellectuals who blindly support Israel. Mr Lévy and Mr Glucksmann denounced the "anti-Semitic obsession" of what they called "a nauseating text", and the Union of Jewish Students of France filed a lawsuit against Mr Ramadan.
The controversy only strengthened Mr Ramadan's following in the French immigrant banlieues, where audio- and video-cassettes of his speeches circulate and he enjoys the status of a pop star. Over the past decade, Mr Ramadan has built what might be called a "Muslim Pride" movement, comparable to Black Pride in the US in the 1960s.
"His patrician manners and self-confidence fascinate people," says Mr Christophe Ayad of the newspaper Libération. "With him, Islam is no longer a handicap but a source of pride." Born in Geneva in 1962, Tariq is the son of Said Ramadan (a theologian expelled from Egypt by Nasser) and Wafa al-Banna (the eldest daughter of Hassan al-Banna, who founded the Muslim Brothers in 1928). The Brothers started modern political Islam.
A Swiss citizen, Mr Ramadan sees his place in the West, not in the Arab world which he describes as corrupt and backward. European and American Muslims, he says, "are faithful to their roots but are in every way citizens of their societies. For the first time, and particularly in France, which has the biggest Muslim community, they're taking charge of their lives. They're saying what they think and they're being heard. People in France aren't used to that, and it creates tension."
Mr Ramadan's invitation to the European Social Forum, which ended at the weekend, split the French left, with the Greens and Communist Revolutionary League defending his right to speak and the Socialists opposing his presence. Three prominent Socialist members of the National Assembly published an open letter in the Nouvel Observateur saying that Mr Ramadan should be banned from the Forum because, by designating the intellectuals as Jewish, he had "joined the classic tradition of the extreme right. It is fascists who think and speak thus." This evening, Mr Ramadan is scheduled to debate with the Interior Minister, Mr Nicolas Sarkozy, on the political chat show 100 Minutes to Convince. The Jewish station, TFJ, has severely criticised Mr Sarkozy for agreeing to appear with Mr Ramadan. "The minister is wrong to raise Tariq Ramadan's standing," said the Socialist deputy Mr Julien Dray. "Ramadan will always win, because he doesn't say what he really thinks in public."
Duplicity is the charge most often levelled against Mr Ramadan. His adversaries accuse him of preaching jihad to young Muslims and using honeyed words about moderation and reform to non-Muslims.
"It's an absolute lie!" says Mr Alain Gresh, the editor of Le Monde Diplomatique, who wrote the book Islam in Question with Mr Ramadan.
An atheist of Jewish-Egyptian origin, Mr Gresh refers to an in-depth study of Mr Ramadan's works by Khadija Mohsen-Finan, a researcher at the French Institute for International Relations. In dozens of debates between Mr Gresh and Mr Ramadan before Muslim audiences, Mr Ramadan's message never varied.
Mr Gresh says that accusations of links between Mr Ramadan and al-Qaeda - to which the tabloid Le Parisien devoted a whole page - are equally absurd. "He has denounced al-Qaeda and bin Laden dozens of times. He has written and spoken dozens of times against anti-Semitism. Nobody reads his texts."
Mr Ramadan is constantly called upon to denounce evil acts committed by Muslims. "You've never condemned the (Palestinian) suicide bombers!" an Israeli journalist alleged at his press conference. "I have done it, cher monsieur," Mr Ramadan sighed wearily. "I have condemned them. I said the suicide bombings had to be condemned as acts, but that the silence of the international community explained their context."
At this highly charged time, many French people find Mr Ramadan's tight-rope act intolerable.
Tariq Ramadan insists he is a reformer, not a fundamentalist, that Muslims can be good citizens in a secular Europe, that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must not be grafted onto the French banlieues. For the first time, a charismatic and articulate leader has emerged among French-speaking Muslims. And many French people would like to destroy him.