Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad (born August 11, 1948) is an Palestinian American

Palestinian American

Palestinian Americans are Americans of Palestinian ancestry. It is difficult to say when the first Palestinian immigrants arrived at the United States; however, many of the first immigrants to arrive were Christians escaping persecution from the Ottoman Empire in the late 19th century...

 scholar and the president of the Minaret of Freedom Institute

Minaret of Freedom Institute

The Minaret of Freedom Institute is an Islamic libertarian organization established in 1993 and based in Bethesda, Maryland. It was co-founded by Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad, its president, and Shahid N. Shah...

, a libertarian

Libertarianism

Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...

 Muslim think-tank. He also is president of the Islamic-American Zakat Foundation

Islamic-American Zakat Foundation

The Islamic-American Zakat Foundation was founded in 1986 to assess, collect and distribute Muslim obligatory and voluntary charity primarily to aid the poor and needy in America. Affiliated with Local Independent Charities, it is included in a number of workplace campaigns including the Combined...

, a 501 (c)(3) tax-exempt religious and charitable organization which primarily serves poor and needy Muslims in the United States.

Biography

Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad was born en route to the United States when his family left Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

 in 1948. He was raised in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

 and earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 (1970) and a doctoral degree in astronomy

Astronomy

Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...

 and astrophysics

Astrophysics

Astrophysics is the branch of astronomy that deals with the physics of the universe, including the physical properties of celestial objects, as well as their interactions and behavior...

 from the University of Arizona

University of Arizona

The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...

 (1975).

Academic career

Ahmad teaches religion

Religion

Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...

, science

Science

Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...

 and freedom

Liberty

Liberty is a moral and political principle, or Right, that identifies the condition in which human beings are able to govern themselves, to behave according to their own free will, and take responsibility for their actions...

 at the University of Maryland, College Park

University of Maryland, College Park

The University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...

. He also has taught courses at Georgetown University

Georgetown University

Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...

, the Johns Hopkins University

Johns Hopkins University

The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...

, School for Advanced International Studies

Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies

The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies , a division of Johns Hopkins University based in Washington, D.C., is one of the world's leading and most prestigious graduate schools devoted to the study of international affairs, economics, diplomacy, and policy research and...

, and the Prince Alwaleed Center for Muslim–Christian Understanding.

Ahmad is the author of Signs in the Heavens: A Muslim Astronomer's Perspective on Religion and Science and Islamic Rules of Order, co-editor of Islam and the West: A Dialog, and co-author of Islam and the Discovery of Freedom. His address on "Islam, Commerce and Business Ethics" was published in Nicholas Capaldi’s Business and Religion: A Clash of Civilizations? He has been published by Middle East Policy, American Muslim Magazine, Economic Affairs and Georgetown Journal of International Affairs

Georgetown Journal of International Affairs

The Georgetown Journal of International Affairs is a semi-annual foreign policy magazine published by the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. The magazine takes a holistic approach to international relations, giving voice to leading academics,...

.

Ahmad has been a frequent guest lecturer at the Foreign Services Institute. He is also the Islamic chaplain

Chaplain

Traditionally, a chaplain is a minister in a specialized setting such as a priest, pastor, rabbi, or imam or lay representative of a religion attached to a secular institution such as a hospital, prison, military unit, police department, university, or private chapel...

 at the Perkins Hospital, Imam of the Dar-adh-Dhikr Mosque and arbitrator for the Coordinating Council of Muslim Organizations in the Greater Washington Metropolitan Area.

Ahmad has written and spoken on Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

 and legal and religious freedom, democracy

Democracy

Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...

 in the Muslim world

Muslim world

The term Muslim world has several meanings. In a religious sense, it refers to those who adhere to the teachings of Islam, referred to as Muslims. In a cultural sense, it refers to Islamic civilization, inclusive of non-Muslims living in that civilization...

, Islamic civil society

Civil society

Civil society is composed of the totality of many voluntary social relationships, civic and social organizations, and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society, as distinct from the force-backed structures of a state , the commercial institutions of the market, and private criminal...

, property rights in Islam, women in Islam and female circumcision, Middle East conflicts in Palestine and Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

, Palestinian human and property rights, terrorism and jihad, and American civil liberties. Ahmad has been an outspoken critic of the role of neoconservatives in shaping United States' foreign policy, especially in the Middle East.

During the 1990s Dean Ahmad participated in Maryland and national Libertarian Party

Libertarian Party (United States)

The Libertarian Party is the third largest and fastest growing political party in the United States. The political platform of the Libertarian Party reflects its brand of libertarianism, favoring minimally regulated, laissez-faire markets, strong civil liberties, minimally regulated migration...

 activities, including as platform committee chair and member of the judiciary committee. In 2001 Dr. Ahmad joined a delegation of American Muslims participating in the "First Conference on Jerusalem" in Beirut

Beirut

Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...

 which was "dedicated to the liberation of Jerusalem." He was a member of Academics for Ron Paul

Ron Paul

Ronald Ernest "Ron" Paul is an American physician, author and United States Congressman who is seeking to be the Republican Party candidate in the 2012 presidential election. Paul represents Texas's 14th congressional district, which covers an area south and southwest of Houston that includes...

 during congressman Paul's run for the 2008 presidential nomination

United States presidential election, 2008

The United States presidential election of 2008 was the 56th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on November 4, 2008. Democrat Barack Obama, then the junior United States Senator from Illinois, defeated Republican John McCain, the senior U.S. Senator from Arizona. Obama received 365...

.

External links

• Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad personal web site
• Islamic-American Zakat Foundation
• Reason magazine interview with Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad
• Public Broadcasting Service "Religion and Ethics" feature on "Ramadan Moon", including Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad and other guests, November 8, 2002, Episode no. 610.
• Public Broadcasting Service Discussion of "The Pope's Journey", featuring Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad, May 8, 2001.
• An Interview with Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad, featured on Free Market Mojo.