15. January 2015

Original column with Patt Morrison in the Los Angeles Times published here. Khaled M. Abou El Fadl is a professor of Islamic law at UCLA. (Los Angeles Times)

09. January 2014

Human rights and terrorism both are grand concepts. Human rights is a grand concept of an ultimate or absolute good, in many ways, like the idea of divinity or like the idea of light. Terrorism, on the other hand, is a grand concept of an ultimate or absolute evil, very much the antithesis of divinity and the antithesis of light. Although we human beings, including theologians, jurists and philosophers, produce a remarkable variety of terminology to negotiate our idea of good and our repulsion...

01. June 2006

By Khaled Abou El Fadl Not much time has passed between the first edition of Shattered Illusions and this substantially revised second edition, and yet in this relatively short time, so much that is de-stabilizing, deconstructive, demoralizing, and in fact down-right shattering, has taken place. At the most fundamental and basic level, so many lives have been destroyed and so many others have been denied liberty, physically assaulted and tortured that one struggles with the feeling that it is...

01. July 2005

By Khaled Abou El Fadl Since the early 1980’s commentators have been arguing that Islam is suffering a crisis of identity, and that the crumbling of the Islamic civilization in the modern age has left Muslims with a profound sense of alienation and injury. Challenges confronting Muslim nations such as the failure of development projects, the entrenchment of authoritarian regimes, and the inability to respond effectively to Israeli belligerence have induced deep-seated feelings of frustration...

01. March 2002

BY KHALED ABOU EL FADL Several years ago, I remember seeing a picture of Osama bin Laden that ominously foretold the tragedy that would come on 11 September. The picture showed bin Laden, with his typical slothful and even indifferent look, sitting while gripping his Kalashnikov with neatly organised and impressive looking books filling the background. What caught my attention in this picture were the titles of these books. With the help of a magnifying glass, I was able to figure out the...

01. December 2001

by Khaled Abou El Fadl Since the early 1980s, commentators have argued that Islam is suffering a crisis of identity, as the crumbling of Islamic civilization in the modern age has left Muslims with a profound sense of alienation and injury. Challenges confronting Muslim nations -- failures of development projects, entrenched authoritarian regimes and the inability to respond effectively to Israeli belligerence -- have induced deep-seated frustration and anger that, in turn, contributed to the...