Yasir Qadhi
Encyclopedia
Yasir Qadhi formerly named Yasir Kazi, is an American Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

 writer and Islamic instructor for the Al-Maghrib Institute
Al-Maghrib Institute
AlMaghrib Institute is a 501 nonprofit organization which focuses on teaching Islamic Sciences to Muslim communities within United States, Canada, United Kingdom and now Malaysia...

. He has written a number of books and spoken in lectures about Islam and contemporary issues on Muslims.

Biography

Qadhi was born in Houston, TX, to parents of Pakistani origin, however; Qadhi has also stated that he hails from Lucknow, India. He completed his primary secondary education in Jeddah
Jeddah
Jeddah, Jiddah, Jidda, or Jedda is a city located on the coast of the Red Sea and is the major urban center of western Saudi Arabia. It is the largest city in Makkah Province, the largest sea port on the Red Sea, and the second largest city in Saudi Arabia after the capital city, Riyadh. The...

, Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...

, graduating as a valedictorian of his class. Afterwards, he returned to Houston to complete a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from the University of Houston
University of Houston
The University of Houston is a state research university, and is the flagship institution of the University of Houston System. Founded in 1927, it is Texas's third-largest university with nearly 40,000 students. Its campus spans 667 acres in southeast Houston, and was known as University of...

. When asked why he chose a secular degree instead of an Islamic one first, he remarked:
"As a Muslim child growing up in America, you are expected to become an engineer or a doctor. It is just understood."


Shortly after working for Dow Chemical for a short stint, he went to the Islamic University of Madinah in Madinah, Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...

 to attain both a bachelor's and master's degree in specific disciplines within Islamic studies
Islamic studies
In a Muslim context, Islamic studies can be an umbrella term for all virtually all of academia, both originally researched and as defined by the Islamization of knowledge...

. Initially, he completed a second bachelor's degree in Arabic from the university's College of Hadith and Islamic Sciences, and went on to complete an master's degree in Islamic Theology from the College of Dawah.

He returned to the United States in 2005, after nearly 10 years in Saudi Arabia. At the present time, he is teaching in the Religious Studies Department of Rhodes College
Rhodes College
Rhodes College is a private, predominantly undergraduate, liberal arts college located in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. Originally founded by freemasons in 1848, Rhodes became affiliated with the Presbyterian Church in 1855. Rhodes enrolls approximately 1,700 students pursuing bachelor's and master's...

, in Memphis, TN. Additionally, he is completing a doctoral
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...

 in theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...

 at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

 in New Haven, Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...

.

Qadhi describes himself as a revivalist in the Islamic sense, and likens some of the practices he endorses similar to those practiced by conservative Christian groups and Orthodox Jews in America, particularly with regard to dietary laws, family values, and modest dress for women.

Activities

Qadhi was recently featured in a front-page NY Times Magazine article by Pulitzer Prize winner Andrea Elliott
Andrea Elliott
Andrea Elliott is an American journalist and a reporter for The New York Times. She received the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing for a series of articles on an Egyptian-born imam living in Brooklyn.-Biography:...

 shedding light on Qadhi's activities and biography.

He is the Dean of Academic Affairs and instructor for the AlMaghrib Institute
AlMaghrib Institute
AlMaghrib Institute is a 501 nonprofit organization which focuses on teaching Islamic Sciences to Muslim communities within United States, Canada, United Kingdom and now Malaysia...

, a double-weekend based seminar that he and other American Muslims instructors run, where instructors travel to designated locations in the US, UK and Canada (and more recently, Malaysia) to teach Islamic studies in English. He gives regular sermons and lectures, and also appears on a number of Islamic satellite channels: (Islam Channel
Islam Channel
Islam Channel is a UK-based, free-to-air, English language, Islamic-focused satellite television channel funded by advertising and donations. It was reported in 2008 that UK government research found that 97.3% of Muslims watched the channel...

 in England; Huda TV in Egypt; Al-Fajr Channel in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

; and Peace TV
Peace TV
Peace TV is a Sunni Islamic satellite television network broadcasting globally 24/7 from Dubai, UAE. Peace TV programs are all in the English language and telecast free-to-air...

 in India, the UK, and the U.S), where he teaches theology, Seerah, Tajweed, and other topics. He is also one of the founding members and Islamic specialists at MuslimMatters.org, a blogzine for American Muslims.

Holocaust Remarks and Subsequent Revisionism

The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...

reported that, in 2001, Qadhi (whom the newspaper characterized as a "hard-line conservative preacher") described the Holocaust as a hoax, and claimed that "Hitler never intended to mass-destroy the Jews", and "All this [the Holocaust] is false propaganda". The telegraph also reported that Qadhi later retracted his statements, stating that he had been misled. Faced with the charges, Qadhi, acknowledging that he had briefly held mistaken beliefs about the Holocaust, wrote that even in the 2001 lecture he did not deny "the actual occurrence of the Holocaust, or express any support or admiration for Hitler, or claim that all Jews were worthy of being despised or hated". He called it a "one-time mistake", stating that "I firmly believe that the Holocaust was one of the worst crimes against humanity that the 20th century has witnessed."

In July 2010, he was selected to participate in an official delegation of US imams and religious leaders to visit the concentration camps at Auschwitz and Dachau. The Imams subsequently released a joint statement condemning anti-Semitism and labelling Holocaust denial as against the ethics of Islam.

Views on Jihad

Yasir Qadhi has presented papers on jihad
Jihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...

movements. In 2006, at a conference at Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...

, Qadhi presented a 15-minute analysis of the theological underpinnings of one of the first militant movements of modern Saudi Arabia, headed by Juhayman al-Otaibi
Juhayman al-Otaibi
Juhayman ibn Muhammad ibn Sayf al-Otaibi was a militant who led the takeover of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Islam's holiest site, in the last months of 1979.-Biography:...

, which gained international attention when it held the Grand Mosque
Grand Mosque
The Grand Mosque is another name for Masjid al-Haram, in Mecca, the holiest mosque in Islam.Grand Mosque may also refer to:*Grand Mosque in Adana, Turkey*Grand Mosque in Kuwait City, Kuwait*Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Bousher, Oman...

 of Mecca
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...

 hostage in 1979. In another paper, presented in September 2009 at an international conference at University of Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...

 on understanding jihad in the modern world, he discussed how a specific legal ruling (fatwā
Fatwa
A fatwā in the Islamic faith is a juristic ruling concerning Islamic law issued by an Islamic scholar. In Sunni Islam any fatwā is non-binding, whereas in Shia Islam it could be considered by an individual as binding, depending on his or her relation to the scholar. The person who issues a fatwā...

) of the medieval theologian Ibn Taymiyya was used both by jihadist and pacifist groups to justify their positions. The paper has been critiqued however by Salafi
Salafi
A Salafi come from Sunni Islam is a follower of an Islamic movement, Salafiyyah, that is supposed to take the Salaf who lived during the patristic period of early Islam as model examples...

 commentators.
Qadhi has been involved in de-radicalization efforts in the US, and was a participant in the US. Counter-Radicalization Strategy conference organized by the National Counterterrorism Center
National Counterterrorism Center
The National Counterterrorism Center is a United States government organization responsible for national and international counterterrorism efforts. It is based in a modern complex near McLean, Virginia called Liberty Crossing...

 in the summer of 2008.

Umar Abdulmutallab, the al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...

 member who attempted to bomb Northwest Airlines Flight 253
Northwest Airlines Flight 253
Northwest Airlines Flight 253 was an international passenger flight from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in Haarlemmermeer, Netherlands, to Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in Romulus, Michigan, United States...

 on Christmas Day 2009, was a student at "Ilm Summit", a 16-day AlMaghrib Institute Islamic education conference in August 2008 at which Qadhi was an instructor. Qadhi said of Abdulmutallab, who attended some of the classes that he taught, "He was a very quiet individual, tight-lipped and shy, and he did not ask a single question during the discussions. He barely interacted with the other students at the conference.". Qadhi recalled speaking to Abdulmutallab, and remembered that he was "very reserved in his responses." Abdulmutallab also attended two seminars organized by the AlMaghrib Institute in London in the months before the event in Houston. After the Houston event, Qadhi added, AbdulMutallab did not sign up for further Al Maghrib events, perhaps an indication that extremist ideas were beginning to influence him.

In 2006 Qadhi, noting that Muslims are routinely detained and questioned at airports and other ports of entry, said that the main problem the Muslim community has "is the presumption of guilt. It is the singling out of people just because of their looks or their identity." Qadhi said he himself was on a secret watch list, but had no idea how he got on the list. His name has since been cleared from that list.

Controversy

A document titled Pledge of Mutual Respect and Cooperation by which Qadhi attempted to unite various Muslim groups in North America was met with censure by his erstwhile Professors at the Islamic University of Madeenah who criticized his methodology. The pact faced criticism for his collaborating with the mystical sufi sects' members for what Qadhi considers the greater good of Muslims in North America. Qadhi has also stunned conservative Muslims by bringing up the notion of re-interpreting aspects of Islamic law to fit the current times. Qadhi's move away from the Salafi scholars of Saudi Arabia who nurtured his early immersion into Islam to liberal scholars like Dr. Yusuf al-Qaradawi was symbolically encapsulated by the highly controversial alleged shaking of CNN journalist Mona Eltahawy's hand.
Qadhi's blogzine MuslimMatters has been criticized for practicing selective free speech in the forums and succumbing to group think.

Books authored or co-authored


External links

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