Almuslih

Progressive, Enlightened Voices from the Arab World

Abd al-Hamid al-Ansari

The Former Dean of Islamic Law at Qatar University, Dr. Abd al-Hamid al-Ansari is considered to be one of the leading defenders of enlightened and progressive thought and modernism in the Arab world. He has written extensively on the progressive politicization of religion, on the implications of Islamists in power, on the misuse of religious influence and the need to challenge this with liberal intellectual currents. He has also focused on the damage wrought by the culture of hate, on the need for reform in religious discourse and the need for intellectual reform at a deeper level. He has formulated a 7-fold programme for religious reform: 1) the application of the UN Security Council’s prohibition on religious incitement; 2) the revival of humanitarian discourse in the mosque; 3) the removal of religious coercive power which acts at the expense of civic institutions; 4) the prohibition of fatwas of takfīr and those which denigrate the beliefs of others; 5) the control of Muslim charity institutions and the obligation to transparency; 6) the criminalization of the use of pulpits for political or ideological purposes; 7) the re-examination of education methods and the removal of extremists from the educational sector.