12. November 2018
The rulers of Saudi Arabia derive much of their legitimacy and prestige in the Muslim world from their control and upkeep of the Grand Mosque and the Kaaba in Mecca and the mosque of Prophet Muhammad in Medina. King Salman, like the rulers before him, wears the title of the “Khadim al-Ḥaramayn as-Sarifayn,” which is translated as the “Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques” or, more precisely, “The Servant of the Two Noble Sanctuaries.” Despite the humility of the royal title, the...
19. July 2018
In attempting to publish his opinion, "On the Tariq Ramadan Affair", Dr. Abou El Fadl submitted the piece to eight media organizations. The only outlet that agreed to publish it was OpenDemocracy.net on 17 July 2018, after which it was circulated widely. After only one day, on 18 July 2018, OpenDemocracy.net substantially censored the article without Dr. Abou El Fadl's knowledge or permission. As a result, Dr. Abou El Fadl asked for his piece to be removed from the OpenDemocracy.net site. The...
18. January 2017
A bill requiring the U.S. State Department to declare the Muslim Brotherhood a "foreign terrorist organization" is very likely to become law in the coming days. Senator Ted Cruz, one of the sponsors of the law, stated in a press release that the Brotherhood "espouses a violent Islamist ideology with a mission of destroying the West." In the same press release, Cruz cited to what is known as the "civilization jihad" memorandum - a document in which he accuses American Muslim organizations such...
21. November 2016
Some months ago, I wrote an article warning that if Donald Trump wins the United States elections, it would be the end of the world as we know it. Sadly, as Trump prepares to take office, we now stand at the cusp of a momentous unfolding. President-elect Trump has already tapped the likes of Sarah Palin, Steve Bannon, Michael Flynn, Walid Phares and Frank Gaffney to guide his policies towards the world - and especially the Muslim world. The thing uniting those mentioned and many others...
01. August 2016
By Khaled Abou El Fadl I recall watching the Republican 2011 debates on Shari'a and Islam with a smouldering sense of frustration. Questions like "Would you appoint a Muslim to your cabinet?" seemed surreal in the country whose founding fathers generated the Federalist papers, leave alone the Independence Declaration or the U.S. Constitution. Listening to the latest round of Republication pontifications on Shari'a and Islam in 2016 transformed the smouldering frustration to indignation and...
26. July 2016
We are living through a time replete with malignant possibilities. As if it is not sufficiently frightening that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is poised to rule the most powerful - not to mention belligerent - nation in the world, other Western and non-Western states are laying the seeds for what can only be a truly poisonous future. The real tragic irony is that unless more level-headed and reasonable minds prevail very soon, our post-secular world is very likely to deteriorate...
27. June 2016
by KHALED ABOU EL FADL One of the truly sublime Muslim voices that for decades had been chanting endless mystical devotionals communing with God has been silenced by the bullet of an assassin. Amjad Sabri of the Sabri Brothers has been killed, and his unfortunate companion injured, by radicals in Karachi, Pakistan. A year earlier, a frivolous blasphemy case was filed against Sabri because radical Muslims did not like some of his Sufi lyrics about the Prophet and his family. As has become the...
06. August 2015
By Khaled Abou El Fadl Ramadan is a month in which Muslims are supposed to retreat from the materiality of their existence into an effort to realize their superior perennial and luminous nature. It is a month in which the exercise in self-denial is supposed to unshackle one's sense of empathy for the suffering and oppression of others. It is supposed to be a month of worship and peace. Muslims are exhorted to expend an extra effort avoiding bloodshed, violence and all offensive behaviour. Other...
23. April 2015
It was once a simple dream that breathed life into the hope-starved spirits of so many. Ever since the French landed on the shores of Egypt in 1798, we have been in the grip of a past alienated from its history, an identity divorced from its memory, and insecure flashes of pride defeated by a deep sense of indignity. Then came the Arab Spring! So many thought the Arab Spring would allow the region self-determination, and would shift the gaze of the world away from the twin spectres of oil and...
01. December 2014
By Khaled Abou El Fadl It is fair to say that no one is exactly sure what defines an Islamic state. There is no question that the Prophet Muhammad founded a city-state in Mecca and Medina and their vicinity. Many Islamic activists imagine that the Prophet's city-state can be transplanted into the context of the nation-state without any substantial difficulty. This, however, is an illusion. The challenges posed by the modern nation-state have led to a wide range of portrayals of the nature and...