Islam
Bestseller Non-Fiction, Social Studies / Cultural Studies, Politics / Economics, Current Affairs, Non-Fiction
The sum of his thoughts: Abdel-Samad’s most important book yet
Hamed Abdel-Samad analyses the history of Islam, to show what’s next for Europe. Whether in the Middle Ages or the Enlightenment, Islam has consistently positioned itself as the continent’s antithesis. It built its empire from the rubble of Imperial Rome and saw itself as the legitimate leader of the world. The loss of power associated with the end of the Ottoman Empire didn’t change anything in this regard. Today, Muslims no longer come to Europe as conquerors, but mostly as peaceful migrants, yet Islamism arrives with them to fulfil its aims in Europe. Abdel-Samad gives an emphatic warning – “We must continue to talk about Islam, because the future of Europe depends on its future too.”
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.
The sum of his thoughts: Abdel-Samad’s most important book yet
Hamed Abdel-Samad analyses the history of Islam, to show what’s next for Europe. Whether in the Middle Ages or the Enlightenment, Islam has consistently positioned itself as the continent’s antithesis. It built its empire from the rubble of Imperial Rome and saw itself as the legitimate leader of the world. The loss of power associated with the end of the Ottoman Empire didn’t change anything in this regard. Today, Muslims no longer come to Europe as conquerors, but mostly as peaceful migrants, yet Islamism arrives with them to fulfil its aims in Europe. Abdel-Samad gives an emphatic warning – “We must continue to talk about Islam, because the future of Europe depends on its future too.”