Hamed Abdel-Samad

Hamed Abdel-Samad, born in Cairo in 1972, studied English, French, Japanese, and Political Science in college. He has worked for UNESCO and held a professorship in Islamic Studies at the University of Erfurt and at the Institute for Jewish History and Culture at the University of Munich. Abdel-Samad was a member of the German Islam Conference and is one of the most profiled Islamic intellectuals in the German-speaking world. His autobiography My Farewell from Heaven caused a sensation: “His expectations for his countrymen are the same as those he has himself embraced: enlightenment through the breaking of taboos” (ZDF-Aspekte). As a result of his taboo-breaking, an official fatwa was placed on him in 2013. Since then, he has lived under permanent police protection.