Hamed Abdel-Samad grew up in Egypt as the son of an imam. He came to Germany at the age of 23, and he has lived here for most of the last 15 years. He
worked as an academic in Erfurt and Braunschweig and conducted research at the Institute for Jewish History and Culture at the University of Munich before deciding to devote himself entirely to his writing. Though highly critical of Islam, Abdel-Samad has never turned away from the faith completely. His new book "Der Untergang der islamischen Welt" ("The Downfall of the Islamic World") is published by Munich's Droemer Verlag.
Hamed is a very intelligent and reasonable guy. While very much promoting secularism, he still considers himself to be a muslim and opposes quran literalism and fundamentalism.
And this interview with him is great although I don't agree with everything he says.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,717589,00.htmlSPIEGEL: You advocate a milder form of Islam. What remains of the core of the religion?
Abdel-Samad: My dream, in fact, is an enlightened Islam, without Sharia law and without jihad, without gender apartheid, proselytizing and the mentality of entitlement. A religion that is open to criticism and questions. As far as I'm concerned, I converted from faith to knowledge some time ago.
SPIEGEL: You became an atheist.
Abdel-Samad: No.
SPIEGEL: You might as well admit it. Being an atheist is nothing to be ashamed of.
Abdel-Samad: But it isn't true.
SPIEGEL: Not a single imam, Catholic priest or rabbi would believe you. Believing in God means accepting that something exists beyond knowledge. If you don't share this belief, why do you insist on calling yourself a Muslim?
Abdel-Samad: Believing in God can also mean being at odds with him. I don't pray regularly, and I don't fast during Ramadan. In that sense, I'm not religious. But I perceive myself as a Muslim. It's my cultural community. For me, Islam is also my homeland and my language, and my Arabic can't be separated from all of that. You can distance yourself from Islam but remain within the heart of Islam. I don't want to yield to the fundamentalists who preach violence. They are on the rise.
Topic: Interview with Hamed Abdel-Samad