Dr. Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari: The Coolest Liberal Islamic Scholar Ever!

Posted on August 16, 2007
Filed Under Activism, Islam |

Boy am I glad I discovered this guy. I swear what he says is so sweet, it makes me want to weep. What a super sane dude. We need more like him and Dhiyaa Al-Musawi.

I can really relate to him and what he says. Just check out this and especially this. I couldn’t find anything substantial I disagreed with him on whether it’s Israel, the United States, Iraq, Afghanistan and more importantly Islam.

It looks like Dr. Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari and I are pretty much on the same page.

God bless him.

You may watch all his video clips here. They are very worthy of your time.

Comments

23 Responses to “Dr. Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari: The Coolest Liberal Islamic Scholar Ever!”

  1. Andrew Brehm on August 16th, 2007 7:03 pm

    What he says about the Lebanon war is what I said a while ago somewhere:

    These days getting half your country destroyed by Jews counts as a major strategic achievement among Arabs.

    It’s good to see that somebody notices!

    Andrew, posting from East-Jerusalem.

  2. Andrew Brehm on August 16th, 2007 7:06 pm

    I remember the chap interviewing him. That’s Bahraini television if memory serves.

  3. Roman Kalik on August 16th, 2007 7:23 pm

    Oy, Andrew! You never did send me that SMS to tell me that you’re in Israel! Email me next week, we need to meet up.

  4. Drima on August 16th, 2007 8:11 pm

    East Jerusalem? Summer holidays or what?

    Have fun there man.

    Roman, tell me how he’s like after you meet him.

    You could also throw Raccoon, Nominally Challenged, Nobody and Tsedek in the equation. :)

  5. Roman Kalik on August 16th, 2007 9:00 pm

    *if* I meet him, you mean. I’m in of the Air-Force as of the 26th.

  6. Andrew Brehm on August 17th, 2007 6:44 am

    “East Jerusalem?”

    Yes. West-Jerusalem is too expensive. :-)

    “Summer holidays or what?”

    No, I am studying in Haifa U for the summer.

  7. Roman Kalik on August 17th, 2007 6:45 am

    Just had a talk with Andrew on the phone, Drima. First impression: whiny Jew with two accents at the same time. ;-)

  8. The Raccoon on August 17th, 2007 1:52 pm

    Oy… Andrew… you have my cellphone number, right?

    Drop me an SMS, mate. Would love to meet up with you… and RK, if you guys are up for it :)

    Drima - I am shocked Dr. Al-Ansar is still breathing. He’s one smart and brave hunam bean.

  9. humble simpleton on August 17th, 2007 2:07 pm

    The world is full of stereotypes. One of them is “arabs=dumb idiots”, which is perfectly approved by the host saying:”At least they (terrorists) strike terror in the hearts of the enemies.” I would like somebody to tell him that they succeded in striking disdain in my heart. And am I your enemy? Because you are not mine.
    But this Dr. Al-Ansari is another league, maybe I would accept him as a president of my country. That was bulls-eye dear Drima. Show us people like this, who tear down the stereotypes and who earn our respect with just few words. Thank you Drima, you made my day.

  10. Roman Kalik on August 17th, 2007 2:24 pm

    Ready and willing, Raccoon. Andrew had best call you, or possibly the three of us ought to discuss this by email.

  11. Andrew Brehm on August 17th, 2007 2:50 pm

    The host also equated killing Jewish children with quid pro quo. But I have NEVER met an Israeli who planned to kill an Arab child or throw a rocket specifically into an Arab school or kindergarten.

    So what is he referring to?

    I did see pictures of terrorists launching rockets surrounded by children. I can imagine that these children will very likely be hit by whatever Israel throws into the terrorist position.

    Is the host referring to those children killed by Israel? Why doesn’t he ask the terrorists to send them away. It would be an experiment. Let’s see whom Israeli fire will follow: the terrorists or the children.

    What the suicide bombers do is create an image of Islam.

    And the image of Islam they create is that of a bearded thug launching rockets at kindergartens while using Arab children as human shields. That’s Islam. That is what Allah wants them to do.

    They think.

    There must be a second Quran around, one that says “Do kill Jewish children and do use Arab children as human shields, because they are both children of Abraham”, and all that is done because there is no other way of defending oneself against the evil Jews, although I am still missing the case for why such a defence is necessary or justified in the first place.

  12. Drima on August 17th, 2007 2:53 pm

    humble simpleton, my pleasure. :)

    I’ve been reading more about him lately. What I particularly love about this guy is that he’s an Islamic scholar. Since he’s well versed in Islam, he can easily use Islamic arguments based on theological reasoning to make his case even stronger. That gives him more legitimacy.

    As you can also observe, he’s supportive of reformists. Also usually it’s the secularists in the Arab world who express his views, not an Islamic scholar.

    Surely, he might be in the minority now, but as Islamic scholars like him become more vocal, we will increasingly be able to steal back the spotlight from the crazy loony Mullahs.

  13. Drima on August 17th, 2007 2:57 pm

    “Drima - I am shocked Dr. Al-Ansar is still breathing.”

    Raccoon, I am shocked at simply discovering people like him exist. Secularist Arabs with those views? Quite common. But an Islamic scholar? No, not really.

    I swear, I’m loving this guy.

  14. The Big Pharaoh on August 17th, 2007 4:51 pm

    I am an Al-Ansari fan. This man is just amazing. Makes you feel that el donya lessa be7′eer (the world is still alright)

  15. Drima on August 18th, 2007 3:10 am

    Hey BP! Walahi fi3lan yakhi!

  16. sudanesereturnee on August 18th, 2007 9:00 am

    I only watched the videos after reading the comments. And yes, he is very reasonable and I believe if all religions are practised the way he says it, then we’d not have the problems we currently have.

    The interviewers seem to focus more on his ’support’ of American presence in the gulf, his objection of the use of Islam for political purposes and so on. I am sure that if he is given the chance he can rock the boat of most Arab/Islamic regimes now that suppress and marginalise women, suppress other religions and people who are non-arabic/non-islamic.

    Nice videos.

  17. HalalHippie on August 18th, 2007 9:08 am

    Gotta love that guy!

  18. The Raccoon on August 18th, 2007 3:30 pm

    Drima -

    His existence doesn’t surprise me. Islam used to be a very progressive and humane religion… like in the days of Haroun Ibn-Rashid.

    I wonder why he hasn’t been murdered yet.

  19. Roman Kalik on August 18th, 2007 6:05 pm

    The funny thing here is that these videos are on MEMRI. You, the evil biased MEMRI that slanders Palestinians and Muslims. :-D

  20. Drima on August 18th, 2007 7:01 pm

    Roman, it’s obvious that MEMRI has an agenda as they always focus on Islam and Israel related pieces. I wasn’t surprised at all when I found out that a former Israeli Mossad agent (or intelligence adviser if I’m not mistaken) is behind it. Many Muslims bash it heavily as part of an evil campaign against us. It depends I guess. If you focus on the videos they broadcast portraying us in a negative light, then yes surely MEMRI is biased. But these kind of videos? Me surely like them. If it wasn’t for MEMRI, I think most of us will miss them. I want more!

  21. Roman Kalik on August 18th, 2007 7:27 pm

    Memri has an agenda, yes. Just like every other think-tank or similar has an agenda. But what they’re not is a conspiracy or a lie. They show reality, the same reality that the Arab news networks prefer to hide from the non-Arabic speaking public, and even from the Arabic-speaking public at times.

    That they have so many videos on this guy, though, is a clear indication that their agenda is not negative. Their agenda is to show the problems most of the Arabic public refuses to even admit.

  22. tsedek on August 18th, 2007 7:32 pm

    wow, he really is something this man ;-)

  23. Andrew Brehm on August 24th, 2007 12:10 pm

    Drima,

    Roman, Raccoon, and myself met in Tel Aviv.

    It turns out that we agree on many matters of politics, the three of us have totally different lifestyles. It was an interesting experience. The two are great guys!

    We talked about how we should meet you somewhere, perhaps Egypt?

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