Tawfik Hamid: Website and Beliefs, Bibliography, Articles, and a List of Books by Author Tawfik Hamid

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Tawfik Hamid (born in 1961) is an Egyptian scholar and author opposed to Islamic fundamentalism.

A self-described former member of the militant al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya Tawfik Hamid advocates a peaceful understanding of Islam that is compatible with universal human rights and intellectual freedom. He says he started to preach in mosques to promote his message of peace and as a result he says he became a target of Islamic militants who threatened his life. Hamid then migrated to the West where he has lectured at UCLA, Stanford University, University of Miami and Georgetown University against Islamic fundamentalism. He currently serves on the Advisory Council of The Intelligence Summit, an annual conference on security. Hamid has also appeared on television programs, including CNN's Glenn Beck Show, Fox News Channel, and the BBC's Religion and Ethics.

Website and Beliefs more less

Dr. Hamid owns and runs a website, IslamforPeace.org, that says its goal is "to revive Islam, save it from anachronistic interpretations, and make it a true power to support the values of liberty and humanity." Dr. Hamid says he believes in developing respectful and positive relationships with other nations and religions, a position he says he learned from the Qur'an.

Mission

Dr. Hamid writes that the real message of Islam has been hijacked by many people throughout history. These people defamed our religion and portrayed Islam incorrectly.

Methodology

Since his goal is to understand the Quran and teach others about it, Dr. Hamid's methodology incorporate three (3) processes in order to get a holistic understanding:

A probing analysis of the subtleties and complexities of the Arabic language to develop a more precise understanding of the Quran and the message it offers.
Knowledge of the historical circumstances which occasioned the revelation of key Quranic verses.
Interpreting Quranic suras (i.e., chapters) and verses holistically, in order to better appreciate their overall significance and synergistic qualities, rather than individually, which only leads to literal interpretations that do not take into account counter-verses and even whole segments of the Quran.

Core Activities

Dr. Hamid has worked towards developing respectful and positive relationships with other religions. He quotes the following Quranic Verse which establishes an important concept: that it is God Himself who "made us into nations and tribes," and so it is the will of God to have human diversity. We, as humans, have to look at this diversity as we look to flowers of different colors. Each one adds more beauty and complements the others."

 (49:13) O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other (not that ye may despise (each other). Verily the most honoured of you in the sight of Allah is (he who is) the most righteous of you. And Allah has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things).

Views on Radical Islam

In a 2009 Wall Street Journal article, Hamid said that Islam Should Prove It's a Religion of Peace, and called Islamic scholars and clerics, "to produce a Shariah book that will be accepted in the Islamic world and that teaches that Jews are not pigs and monkeys, that declaring war to spread Islam is unacceptable, and that killing apostates is a crime."

He says that Muslim fundamentalists believe that Saudi Arabia's petroleum-based wealth is a divine gift, and that Saudi influence is sanctioned by Allah. Thus the Salafist extreme brand of Sunni Islam that spread from the Saudi Arabia to the rest of the Islamic world is regarded not merely as one interpretation of the religion but the only genuine interpretation. The expansion of violent and regressive Islam, he continues, began in the late 1970s, and can be traced precisely to the growing financial clout of Saudi Arabia.

Views on Israel

Hamid said that most Muslims correlate the word Israel to the word “Azraeil” that sounds like "Israel" but means “Angel of death”. This created a link in the minds of most Muslim children the need to hate the word Israel. In an article titled "Why I loved Israel based on the Qur'an" he claims that according to the Qur'an, God gave the Israelites the land of Israel as their promised land (Quran 17:104: And We said thereafter to the Children of Israel, "Dwell securely in the land of promise". He explains the Quran went even further to consider the Promised Land as the permanent inheritance for the Israelites (26:59) "Thus it was, but we made the Children of Israel inheritors of such things (the Promised Land)" He continued by saying "No Muslim has the right to interfere with the gathering of the Jews in Israel, as this is the will of God himself"