Khaled Abou El Fadl Explained

Khaled Abou el Fadl
Birth Date:23 October 1963
Birth Place:Kuwait City, Kuwait
Alma Mater:Yale University
Princeton University
University of Pennsylvania Law School
School Tradition:Islamic Modernism, Liberalism and progressivism within Islam
Occupation:Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law
Islamic scholar
Major Works:The Search for Beauty in Islam: Conference of the Books (2001)
Influences:Muhammad al-Ghazali
Discipline:Philosophy
Sub Discipline:Islamic philosophy

Khaled Abou el Fadl (Arabic: خالد أبو الفضل, pronounced as /ˈxæːled abolˈfɑdl/) (born October 23, 1963) is the Omar and Azmeralda Alfi Distinguished Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law where he has taught courses on International Human Rights, Islamic jurisprudence, National Security Law, Law and Terrorism, Islam and Human Rights, Political Asylum, and Political Crimes and Legal Systems. He is also the founder of the Usuli Institute, a non-profit public charity dedicated to research and education to promote humanistic interpretations of Islam, as well as the Chair of the Islamic Studies Program at the University of California, Los Angeles.[1] He has lectured on and taught Islamic law in the United States and Europe in academic and non-academic environments since approximately 1990.

Abou El Fadl is the author of numerous books and articles on topics in Islam and Islamic law. He has appeared on national and international television and radio, and published in such publications as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, and The Boston Review. His work has been translated into several languages including Arabic, Persian, Indonesian, French, Norwegian, Dutch, Russian, Vietnamese and Japanese.

Education

Abou El Fadl holds a B.A. in Political Science from Yale University, a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Islamic law from Princeton University. Abou El Fadl also has 13 years of instruction in Islamic jurisprudence, grammar and rhetoric in Egypt and Kuwait. After law school, he clerked for Arizona Supreme Court Justice James Moeller, and practiced immigration and investment law in the U.S. and the Middle East. He previously taught Islamic law at the University of Texas School of Law at Austin, Yale Law School and Princeton University.[2]

Views

Abou El Fadl believes that the usuli tradition "naturally leads Islam" to an ethical humanism, or a set of ideas about justice and beauty that help to achieve God's will.[3] He has criticized puritanical and Wahhabi Islam[4] for, among other things, its lack of interest in morality, which the Wahhabis argue "shouldn't affect the implementation of Koranic law."[3] He has strongly criticised the Saudi Arabian government and has accused them of systematic torture, murder, and failing to either understand or properly implement Islamic teachings.[5] [6] [7]

Abou El Fadl has described the terrorism of September 11 attacks as the logical conclusion of "a puritanical and ethically oblivious form of Islam [that] has predominated since the 1970s" and been promoted by religious authorities in Saudi Arabia and other countries, including the U.S. and Europe. He supports religious and cultural pluralism, democratic values and women's rights.[8] [9] [10]

He would like to return to the "Golden Age of Islam" where "numerous traditions" emphasized that the "pursuit of knowledge is an act of permanent worship" and to abandon the current state of affairs where "rampant apologetics" of Muslim thinkers has "produced a culture that eschews self-critical and introspective insight and embraces projection of blame and a fantasy-like level of confidence and arrogance."[3] He has criticised a "culture of ugliness in modern Islam".[11] He is a vocal supporter of the causes of Palestinians.[12]

Abou El Fadl argues that covering the hair is not mandatory for women in Islam.[13] [14] [15]

Controversies

Amidst the 2024 Israel-Hamas war, Abou el Fadl was captured on video spreading misinformation during a Friday sermon, claiming that "Indian Hindu nationalists" were volunteering to join the Israeli army, and that some of the worst massacres in Gaza were committed by them.[16] [17]

Awards and appointments

Abou el Fadl was awarded the University of Oslo Human Rights Award, the Leo and Lisl Eitinger Prize in 2007,[18] and named a Carnegie Scholar in Islamic Law in 2005.

He has served on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, and Board of Directors of Human Rights Watch. He continues to serve on the Advisory Board of Middle East Watch (part of Human Rights Watch) and works with human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and the Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights (Human Rights First) in cases involving human rights, terrorism, political asylum, and international and commercial law. In 2005, he was listed as one of LawDragon's Top 500 Lawyers in the Nation. He has been listed in the Arabian Business Power 500 List of the World's Most Influential Arabs (2011, 2012).[19]

Publications

His recent works focus on authority, human rights, democracy and beauty in Islam and Islamic law. His book, The Great Theft, delineated key differences between moderate and extremist Muslims, and was named one of the Top 100 Books of the year by Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail.

Books

Selected academic articles

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: UCLA - International Institute ..::.. Error. https://web.archive.org/web/20140102192648/http://www.international.ucla.edu/person.asp?Facultystaff_ID=429. dead. January 2, 2014. www.international.ucla.edu.
  2. Web site: UCLA School of Law Faculty Profile: Professor Khaled Abou El Fadl . 2012-07-16 . 2014-01-25 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140125223931/http://www.law.ucla.edu/faculty/all-faculty-profiles/professors/Pages/khaled-abou-el-fadl.aspx . dead .
  3. https://newrepublic.com/article/moral-hazard "Moral Hazard"
  4. The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists (Harper San Francisco, 2005)
  5. Web site: Watanabe . Teresa . 2006-08-27 . Islamic Law Professor Fears Unseen Enemy . 2023-09-08 . . en-US.
  6. News: Fadl . Khaled M. Abou El . 2018-11-12 . Opinion Saudi Arabia Is Misusing Mecca . en-US . . 2023-09-08 . 0362-4331.
  7. Web site: Portrait Khaled Abou el Fadl: "God Does Not Have an Equal Partner" - Qantara.de . 2023-09-08 . Qantara.de - Dialogue with the Islamic World . 11 January 2005 . en.
  8. Campo, Juan Eduardo (editor) (2009) "Abou El Fadl, Khaled" Encyclopedia of Islam Facts On File, New York, page 8,
  9. Web site: 2019-08-29 . What the Islamic tradition can teach us about human rights . 2023-09-08 . ABC Religion & Ethics . en-AU.
  10. Web site: 2018-09-04 . Islamic ethics for the modern world . 2023-09-08 . ABC Religion & Ethics . en-AU.
  11. El Fadl . Khaled Abou . 2002–2003 . The Culture of Ugliness in Modern Islam and Reengaging Morality . UCLA Journal of Islamic and Near Eastern Law . 2 . 33.
  12. Web site: el Fadl . Khaled Abou . 2014-08-08 . The Tragedy of Great Power: The Massacre of Gaza and the Inevitable Failure of the Arab Spring . 2024-05-26 . ABC Religion & Ethics . en-AU.
  13. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/5-muslim-scholars-on-the-permissibility-of-not-wearing-the-heads_b_610874fde4b0497e67026d7c
  14. https://www.searchforbeauty.org/2016/01/02/fatwa-on-hijab-the-hair-covering-of-women/
  15. https://www.searchforbeauty.org/2017/05/15/question-on-the-evidence-of-hijab-from-a-brother/
  16. News: UCLA professor: 'Hindus serve in IDF to kill Muslims, Israel broadcasts porn on Palestinian TV' . 2024-01-30 . The JERUSALEM POST . en.
  17. News: Hindu nationalists joining Israeli army to 'kill Muslims' in Gaza: UCLA professor . Fatima . Sakina . 2024-01-30. . en.
  18. http://www.uio.no/english/about/facts/human-rights/previous-winners/ Previous winners of The University of Oslo's Human Rights Award
  19. http://power500.arabianbusiness.com/power-500-2012/ Arabian Business Power 500 List of the World's Most Influential Arabs (2011, 2012)
  20. http://www.harvardilj.org/2011/04/online_52_el-fadl/ The Language of the Age
  21. http://www.scholarofthehouse.org/fatroppothjo.html "Fascism Triumphant?"
  22. http://www.bostonreview.net/el-fadl-the-crusader "The Crusader"
  23. Web site: "Speaking, Killing and Loving in God's Name," The Hedgehog Review, Spring 2004 (Article Included). Scholar of the House.
  24. Web site: The Death Penalty, Mercy and Islam: A Call for Retrospection. Scholar of the House.
  25. http://www.oneworld-publications.com/pdfs/Progsv_Muslims.pdf "The Modern Ugly and the Ugly Modern: Reclaiming the Beautiful in Islam"
  26. Web site: The Orphans of Modernity and the Clash of Civilisations (Article Included). Scholar of the House.
  27. http://www.scholarofthehouse.org/pjifrbotabai.html "Peaceful Jihad"
  28. Web site: "Islam and the Challenge of Democracy", Boston Review 28, no. 2 (April/May 2003) . 2012-07-18 . https://web.archive.org/web/20070119153747/http://bostonreview.net/BR28.2/abou.html . 2007-01-19 . dead .
  29. Web site: "Islam and Tolerance: Abou El Fadl Replies", Boston Review 27, no. 1 (February/March 2002) . 2012-07-18 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130522081144/http://bostonreview.net/BR27.1/islam.html . 2013-05-22 . dead .
  30. Web site: "The Place of Tolerance in Islam", Boston Review 26, no. 6 (December 2001/January 2002) . 2012-07-18 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120819142538/http://bostonreview.net/BR26.6/elfadl.html . 2012-08-19 . dead .
  31. http://www.merip.org/mer/mer221/islam-theology-power "Islam and the Theology of Power", Middle East Report 221 (Winter 2001)
  32. Web site: "What Became of Tolerance in Islam?" Los Angeles Times, September 14, 2001. Scholar of the House.

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