Usama Hasan

For Egyptian footballer, see Osama Hassan
Usama Hasan
Born London, United Kingdom
Ethnicity Pakistani
Citizenship British
Occupation Theologian, author, lecturer
Organization Quilliam
Religion Islam
Website unity1.wordpress.com

Usama Hasan is a British astronomer, lecturer and theologian who is currently a senior researcher in Islamic Studies at the Quilliam Foundation.[1]

He is a former senior lecturer in business information systems at Middlesex University,[1][2] and a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.[3][4] He has argued in favour of a compatibility between Islam and human evolution.[5]

Career

He has stated that he fought in Afghanistan against the Soviet occupation.[6][7]

Hasan was a member of the United Kingdom’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Projecting British Muslims delegations to Egypt in 2008[8] and to Afghanistan (Helmand) in 2010,[9] was a Keynote Speaker at the Anglo-Syrian government-sponsored conference "The Message of Peace in Islam" in Damascus in 2009,[10] and is a Patron of both the Forum for the Discussion of Israel and Palestine (FODIP)[11] and Friends of the Bereaved Families Forum.[12] Usama was also a speaker at the Google Ideas/Council on Foreign Relations Summit Against Violent Extremism (Dublin, 2011).[13]

He is Senior Researcher at the Quilliam Foundation.[1] He has appeared on television programmes, including BBC Hardtalk,[14] CNN,[15] and has also written various columns for The Guardian[16] and The Washington Post.[17]

Controversies

Evolution controversy

Hasan has argued that Islam is compatible with the theory of evolution, describing the story of Adam and Eve as "children's madrasa-level understanding" of human origins while pointing to antecedents of the modern theory of evolution among medieval Muslim philosophers like Ibn Khaldun and Ibn Miskawayh.[5] His lectures have been disrupted by hecklers and he claims to have received death threats.[4][18]

Hasan later retracted some of his views on evolution.[4] Several British Muslim writers, including Inayat Bunglawala and Yahya Birt, backed his right to free speech.[19][20] On 5 January 2013, he was featured in a debate against Yasir Qadhi titled Have Muslims Misunderstood Evolution?, in which he argued in favor of human evolution.[21]

Power struggles at the Masjid al-Tawhid

Hasan has complained about "extremism" at the London Masjid al-Tawhid mosque and in May 2012, as part of the arbitration process, he and all other trustees voluntarily stepped down from their positions as Trustee of the masjid.[22] In June 2012, the new Trustees of the Trust changed the locks of the Mosque doors and employed security guards.[23] According to the website of the Masjid al-Tawhid, the Hasan family "want to ... regain personal control of the mosque".[24][25]

Al-Shabaab video threat

In October 2013 Hasan was alerted by anti-terrorist police that he and other Muslim figures in the UK who had spoken out against Islamist extremism had been targeted by a propaganda video created by Al-Shabaab, the terrorist group responsible for the attack on the Westgate shopping mall in Kenya.[26] [27]

Views

Fatwa against ISIS

In 2014 he and others issued a fatwa condemning British Muslims fighting for the “oppressive and tyrannical” Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Their fatwa ”religiously prohibits” would-be British jihadists from joining the Islamic State and orders all Muslims to oppose ISIS' “poisonous ideology”.[28][29]

Summer fasting times

Usama believes that Muslims should fast shorter hours rather than the sunrise-to-sunset hours that most Muslims do as the day can run for 19 hours.[30]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Quilliam. Usama Hasan: Senior Researcher
  2. ↑ Middlesex University Staff directory. Usama Hasan. http://www.mdx.ac.uk/aboutus/staffdirectory/Usama_Hasan.aspx |accessdate=2012-07-15 Archived 19 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ↑ Muslim academic forced to retract evolution claim - The First Post http://www.theweek.co.uk/people-news/7269/muslim-academic-forced-retract-evolution-claim Accessed 15 July 2012}
  4. 1 2 3 "Imam fears 'nutters' could kill him for preaching evolution - London Evening Standard". Retrieved 2011-03-13.
  5. 1 2 Hasan, Usama (11 September 2008). "Knowledge regained - Guardian". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 2011-03-13.
  6. ↑ "Hardtalk - Usama Hasan". BBC News. 30 August 2007. Retrieved 2011-03-13.
  7. ↑ Dr Mathew Guest, Dr Elisabeth Arweck, Religion and Knowledge: Sociological Perspectives, p 36. ISBN 1409471160
  8. ↑ Dina Rabie (10 July 2008). "Projecting British Muslims". OnIslam. Retrieved 7 November 2013.
  9. ↑ "British Muslims visit Afghanistan". Gov.UK. 6 September 2010. Retrieved 7 November 2013.
  10. ↑ Usama Hasan. The Balance of Islam in Challenging Extremism. Quilliam, 2012: p. 4
  11. ↑ "What is FODIP?". FODIP. Retrieved 7 November 2013.
  12. ↑ "Contact UKFBFF". Friends of the Bereaved Families Forum. Retrieved 7 November 2013.
  13. ↑ "Summit Against Violent Extremism (SAVE)". Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved 7 November 2013.
  14. ↑ BBC Hardtalk http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/hardtalk/6970298.stm
  15. ↑ CNN http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/21/cleric-evolution-compatible-with-islam/?iref=allsearch
  16. ↑ The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/usamahasan?INTCMP=SRCH
  17. ↑ The Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/31/AR2009123102332.html
  18. ↑ Rowenna Davis. Sunday 6 March 2011 "London imam subjected to death threats for supporting evolution. Mosque suspends engineering lecturer Usama Hasan for 'antagonising' community and backing women's rights." Check |url= value (help).
  19. ↑ http://www.pickledpolitics.com/archives/12085 |accessdate=2011-03-13
  20. ↑ Inayat Bunglawala. Wednesday 9 March 2011 "Islam must engage with science, not deny it. Pressure put on a London imam to retract statements supporting the theory of evolution does Muslims a disservice." Check |url= value (help).
  21. ↑ Dr Usama Hasan featured on the panel of The Deen Institute event "Have Muslims Misunderstood Evolution?" retrieved 7 January 2013
  22. ↑ Arbitration Report May 2012. MUSLIM ARBITRATION SERVICE Masjid & Madrasah al-Tawhid Trust http://www.masjidtawhid.org/management/55-arbitration-report-may-2012 accessed 15 July 2012
  23. ↑ Masjid & Madrasah al-Tawhid Trust. Trust asserts control over the Mosque. Statement on events of Monday 18 June 2012. http://www.masjidtawhid.org/management/59-trust-asserts-control-over-the-mosque. accessed 15 July 2012
  24. ↑ A Response to the Statement of Sr Nazima Sheikh. Masjid & Madrasah al-Tawhid Trust http://www.masjidtawhid.org/management accessed 15 July 2012
  25. ↑ End of Arbitration, WFCOM Meeting, Disruption of Friday Announcement Masjid & Madrasah al-Tawhid Trust http://www.masjidtawhid.org/management accessed 15 July 2012
  26. ↑ Shiv Malik; Duncan Gardham & Vikram Dodd (17 October 2013). "Prominent UK Muslims under police protection after al-Shabaab threats". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 November 2013.
  27. ↑ Simon Hooper (26 October 2013). "British Muslims defiant over al-Shabab threat". Al Jazeera English. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
  28. ↑ Isis terror threat: Leading British Muslims issue fatwa condemning terror group. Zachary Davies Boren. The Independent 31st August 2014. Accessed 31 August 2014.
  29. ↑ FATWA ON THE SO-CALLED “ISLAMIC STATE” (FORMERLY “ISLAMIC STATE IN IRAQ & SYRIA”). The Sunday Times.
  30. ↑ . BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-33125736. Retrieved 6 November 2013. Missing or empty |title= (help)

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