Халед Әбу әл-Фадл: Ислам құқығы мен гуманизмді зерттеуші ғалым

UCLA professor of law, Islamic studies

Khaled Abou el Fadl (خالد أبو الفضل, ) (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. 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.

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.

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. He has criticized puritanical and Wahhabi Islam for, among other things, its lack of interest in morality, which the Wahhabis argue "shouldn't affect the implementation of Koranic law." 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. 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." He is a vocal supporter of Palestine.

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 some of the worst massacres in Gaza were committed by them. By Israeli law, only Israeli citizens are eligible for service in the Israeli military, and the only non Israeli people eligible for citizenship are the Jewish diaspora.

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.

"The Language of the Age: Shari'a and Natural Justice in the Egyptian Revolution" in: Law in the Aftermath of the Egyptian Revolution of 25 January (Harvard International Law Journal online, April 25, 2011). "Fascism Triumphant?" Political Theology 10, no. 4 (2009), pp. 577–581
"The Crusader", Boston Review 28, no. 2 (March/April 2006). "Speaking, Killing and Loving in God's Name", The Hedgehog Review 6, no. 1 (Spring 2004)
"The Death Penalty, Mercy and Islam: A Call for Retrospection" in: A Call for Reckoning: Religion and the Death Penalty (eds. Erik C. Owens, John D. Carlson & Eric P. Elshtain. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2004, pp. 73–105). "The Modern Ugly and the Ugly Modern: Reclaiming the Beautiful in Islam" in: Progressive Muslims (edited by Omid Safi. Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2003, pp. 33–77)
"The Orphans of Modernity and the Clash of Civilisations", Global Dialogue, vol. 4, no. 2 (Spring 2002), pp. 1–16. "Introduction" in: Shattered Illusions: Analyzing the War on Terrorism, London: Amal Press, 2002, pp. 19–44. "Peaceful Jihad" in: Taking Back Islam (edited by Michael Wolfe. Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press, 2002, pp. 33–39)
"Islam and the Challenge of Democracy", Boston Review 28, no. 2 (April/May 2003). "Islam and Tolerance: Abou El Fadl Replies", Boston Review 27, no. 1 (February/March 2002): pp. 51. "The Place of Tolerance in Islam", Boston Review 26, no. 6 (December 2001/January 2002): pp. 34–36. Translated into Arabic for publication in Al Rashad. "Islam and the Theology of Power", Middle East Report 221 (Winter 2001): pp. 28–33. "What Became of Tolerance in Islam" in: Beauty for Ashes (Edited by John Farina. New York, NY: Crossroad Publishing Company, 2001, pp. 71–75).