In the good old days, Tariq Ramadan lectured non-Muslims on Islam’s beautiful treatment of women, and I guess a lot of people bought it cuz Oxford, televised debates, best-selling books on the subject, etc. etc. When women started complaining that he was raping and torturing them, one of his friends was shocked, and mounted this moving defense:
“That [Tariq Ramadan] had many mistresses, that he consulted [porn] sites, that girls were brought to the hotel at the end of his lectures, that he invited them to undress, that some resisted and that he could become violent and aggressive, yes, but I have never heard of rapes, I am stunned,” [Bernard Godard] told French magazine L’Obs.
Compelling as this defense was, courts were undaunted, and just today he was sentenced to three years in prison, two suspended.