Kacem El Ghazzali

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Kacem El Ghazzali in 2014

Kacem El Ghazzali ( Central Atlas Tamazight ⵇⴰⵙⵎ ⵍⵖⴰⵣⴰⵍⵉ Qasem Lɣazali ; born June 24, 1990 ) is a secular writer, activist and one of the few Moroccans who publicly professes atheism . He speaks Arabic as well as German, English and French. Best known for their unapologetic atheism, his writings emphasize the importance of freedom of thought, which is often lacking in Islamic countries.

His articles are published in the Richard Dawkins Foundation , Fair Observer , Huffington Post , Le Monde , NZZ , FAZ , Basler Zeitung and others. a. released.

In 2017 El Ghazzali received Swiss citizenship and was voted one of the 12 most influential Swiss intellectuals of the year by the Basler Zeitung . El Ghazzali was also named Swiss of the Year 2018 by the Sunday newspaper among 30 other personalities.

Life

Kacem El Ghazzali comes from a Sufist Berber family. His grandfather built a mosque in his village; his father, a dentist, wanted him to be an imam. But he left the restrictive Koran school, supported in this by his secretly atheist uncle, who also taught him Western literature, by Marx, Darwin, Spinoza, Voltaire. The Enlightenment fascinates him because he discovered that “the West” was once just as enslaved by religious dogmas. Even if Sufism preaches a mystical, "undogmatic" Islam within strict Islam, El Ghazzali found the religion of his family to be restrictive and controlling.

Briefly he turned to the left - "for them Marx was like an imam" - and at the age of 17 began to blog anonymously, criticizing the oppression and persecution of women, homosexuals and apostates in the Islamic world. After he was outed, his pursuit began. He hid in the big city of Rabat , where he was able to convince the Swiss ambassador with written evidence that he was being persecuted for religious reasons. And so he flew - “as a luxury refugee” - to Geneva in spring 2011 with the support of Swiss free thinkers. Until he was granted Swiss citizenship in 2017, he lived for six years as a recognized refugee in Switzerland.

He is one of the few openly atheist activists from Morocco and is a proponent of freedom, including religious and sexual.

Blogging and activism

HUMAN interview with El Ghazzali about his activism in Zurich in 2014

El Ghazzali was the author of the Bahmut blog until 2012 and has received a number of death threats for his views. His blog discussed topics from freedom of expression to political Islam. He was formerly head of the youth association of the Moroccan Center for Human Rights and is a board member of the Moroccan bloggers association and the blogger circle cyberdissidents.org, of which he is also one of the founders of the latter. In 2012 he started the “Mayasaminch” initiative, which is aimed at Moroccans who do not obey Ramadan and encourages them to eat in public. Moroccans living in non-Jewish families are prohibited by law from drinking, eating, or smoking in public during Ramadan. El Ghazzali was a speaker at the 47th session of the St. Gallen Symposium and was a member of the “Leaders of Tomorrow Knowledge Pool”.

In Switzerland, Kacem El Ghazzali repeatedly published articles that he published for the NZZ , BaZ and most recently for Weltwoche , among others . Kacem El Ghazzali has also published a number of articles for the Huffington Post .

At the end of 2017, Kacem El Ghazzali received Swiss citizenship and then announced in February 2018 that he wanted to join the FDP .

Human rights at the UN Human Rights Council

El Ghazzali with a view of Zurich, 2014

El Ghazzali has been the representative of the International Humanist and Ethical Union at the United Nations in Geneva since 2012 , where he indicted Saudi Arabia, among others, for persecuting free thinkers and liberals such as the poet Hamza Kaschgari and the blogger Raif Badawi . El Ghazzali also criticized his home country Morocco for silencing the voices of atheists with non-constitutional means. During the 25th session of the Human Rights Council, El Ghazzali criticized the fact that several states where convicted “blasphemers” are currently in jail are also current members of the Human Rights Council.

Raif Badawi Foundation

In September 2015 Ensaf Haidar announced the establishment of the Raif Badawi Foundation, which was named after her husband. He is serving decades in prison in Saudi Arabia and is sentenced to 1,000 lashes for his religious and political expressions of opinion. El Ghazzali was elected scientific director of the Raif Badawi Foundation for Freedom.

literature

  • Barbara Klingbacher: Reason for Escape: Disbelief. In: NZZ Folio (Topic: Atheism ). December 12, 2014.
  • Lucien Scherrer: The bad refugee. In: NZZ . September 29, 2017 (Quote: Kacem El Ghazzali was a Koran student and a Marxist, today he lives in Switzerland and is one of the most prominent critics of Islam. This has brought the refugee violent hostility, not just from Islamists. )

Web links

Commons : Kacem El Ghazzali  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Case in pointArab, not muslim . Freearabs.com. Archived from the original on April 5, 2013. Retrieved March 13, 2013.
  2. ↑ a b c Jean-Martin Büttner: Allah and the steadfast . In: Tages-Anzeiger , June 18, 2011. 
  3. ↑ a b Erik Ebneter, Hansjörg Müller: The 15 Most Important Thinkers 2017. (PDF) In: Basler Zeitung. Retrieved February 16, 2018 .
  4. ↑ https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/sonntagszeitung/standard/Besonderes-erreich--unsere-Schweizer-des-jahres-2018/story/30953697
  5. ↑ a b Lucien Scherrer: The Islam critic who also takes on the left - Kacem El Ghazzali was a Koran student and a Marxist, today he lives in Switzerland and is one of the most prominent critics of Islam. This has brought violent hostilities to the refugee. Not only by Islamists , NZZ 9/29/17
  6. ↑ Oliver Jeges : We atheists form a parallel society . The world . February 25, 2013. Retrieved February 25, 2013.
  7. ↑ Kacem El Ghazzali: The Time Has Come For A 'Sexual Spring' In The Arab World . In: The Huffington Post , February 5, 2016. Retrieved May 1, 2018. 
  8. ↑ Bahamut's blog . Bahmut.blogspot.com. Retrieved November 23, 2012.
  9. ^ Atheists and Islam: No God, not even Allah , The Economist. November 24, 2012. Retrieved November 23, 2012. 
  10. ^ Launches Blogger Board - News & Analysis . CyberDissidents.org. Archived from the original on December 1, 2012. Retrieved November 23, 2012.
  11. ↑ Moroccan Blogger Pushes Limits - News & Analysis . CyberDissidents.org. July 17, 2012. Archived from the original on August 21, 2013. Retrieved on November 23, 2012.
  12. ↑ http://www.symposium.org/sites/default/files/47StGallenSymposium_Top40final.pdf
  13. ↑ Kacem El Ghazzali: Why the Left prefers to marginalize Muslim critics of Islam | NZZ . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . December 9, 2017, ISSN  0376-6829 ( nzz.ch [accessed June 14, 2018]).
  14. ↑ Kacem El Ghazzali: The double game of the left . In: Basler Zeitung, Basler Zeitung . September 19, 2017, ISSN  1420-3006 ( bazonline.ch [accessed June 14, 2018]).
  15. ↑ World Week: The World Week | Weltwoche Online - www.weltwoche.ch: Breaking news: On the wrong side of history | Die Weltwoche, edition 22/2018. Retrieved June 14, 2018 .
  16. ↑ Kacem El Ghazzali. Retrieved June 14, 2018 .
  17. ↑ Writer | Kacem El Ghazzali. Retrieved June 14, 2018 .
  18. ↑ www.20minuten.ch, 20 minutes, 20 minutes, www.20min.ch: Ex-Muslim critical of Islam wants to stir up the FDP . In: 20 minutes . ( 20min.ch [accessed June 14, 2018]).
  19. ↑ iheu.org ( Memento from November 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  20. ↑ iheu.org
  21. ↑ International Humanist and Ethical Union - IHEU laments Human Rights Council member states who imprison “blasphemers” . In: iheu.org . Retrieved March 12, 2015.
  22. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from September 28, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.fondationraifbadawi.org
  23. ↑ see also Nigel Barley : The Ball of Lost Souls (leading article on the subject) .
personal data
SURNAME Ghazzali, Kacem El
ALTERNATIVE NAMES ⵇⴰⵙⵎ ⵍⵖⴰⵣⴰⵍⵉ (tzmS)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Moroccan secular blogger and writer
DATE OF BIRTH June 24, 1990