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Person

Yasir Qadhi

Nationality:

Pakistani-American
Born:

January 30, 1975
Occupation(s):

Academic & Islamic Scholar

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Yasir Qadhi is a Pakistani-American Muslim academic and religious scholar who preaches within the Salafist school of Sunni Islam. In 2011, Qadhi was labeled by the   New York Times as “one of the most influential conservative clerics in American Islam.” 1

Qadhi is the Dean of Academic Affairs at the Islamic Seminary of America and resident scholar of the East Plano Islamic Center in Plano, Texas. He was formerly the dean of Al-Maghrib Institute and taught in the religious studies department at Rhodes College. 2 He currently chairs the executive committee for the Fiqh Council of North America. 3

Qadhi’s teaching on jihad has drawn criticism for its alleged lack of clarity. 4 5 1 He is also a former Holocaust denier while several former students have been accused of being involved in terrorism. 6 1

Early Life and Education

Yasir Qadhi was born in Houston, Texas to Pakistani emigrant parents who had moved to the United States. 7 When he was five, Qadhi’s family moved to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he attended school, memorized the Qur’an, and graduated high school two years early. Qadhi moved back to the United States where he earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering at the University of Houston. After working for Dow Chemical, Qadhi returned to Saudi Arabia where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Arabic from the Islamic University of Medina’s College of Hadith and Islamic Sciences and a master’s degree in Islamic Theology from its College of Dawah. After nine years in Saudi Arabia, Qadhi returned home and earned a master’s degree and Ph.D. in religious studies and philosophy from Yale University. 1 8 9

Career and Influence

From 2004 to 2019, Yasir Qadhi was the dean of academic affairs at the Al-Maghrib Institute in Houston, Texas where he was also an instructor. 10 2 From 2010 to 2019, Qadhi also held a professorship at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee and was a visiting scholar in residence at the Memphis Islamic Center. 2 In 2019, Qadhi became the dean of academic affairs at the Islamic Seminary of America in Richardson, Texas, where he also teaches. Qadhi is also the Resident Scholar of the East Plano Islamic Center in Plano, Texas. 11

Qadhi has been published extensively and has had extensive influence throughout his career. He has authored the books An Explanation of the Four Principles of Shirk, Like a Garment: Intimacy in Islam, and The Sīrah of the Prophet: A Contemporary and Original Analysis. 12 13 14 Qadhi has presented several papers and academic lectures at various educational institutions. In April 2018, he delivered a lecture to Princeton University’s Department of Near Eastern Studies on the topic of “Violence in the Name of God.” 15

Qadhi reaches the largest portion of his audience through his YouTube channel, which has amassed a following of over 600,000 subscribers through his more than 2,000 videos that have accumulated over 100 million total views. 16 Qadhi’s videos include lectures on topics of conservative Islam, Muslim culture, and the tensions between American secularism and orthodox Islam. 17

Qadhi has received recognition from the broader American Muslim community for his impact. In 2024, he was the chairman of the executive committee for the Fiqh Council of North America, an affiliate of the Islamic Society of North America that applies sharia law and Islamic jurisprudence to modern contexts in the North American territories. 3

Qadhi also speaks and writes on the political tensions between Western and Eastern countries, particularly through his criticism of the United States’ involvement in Muslim countries. 18 In 2024, Qadhi encouraged Muslim voters not to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris for her support of Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza. 19

Views on Jihad

In his 2016 speech for the Islamic Society of North America, Qadhi attempted to define the variations of jihad that exist and reclaim its primary use from violent Islamic radicals. He argued that jihad at its most basic level is a struggle against whatever stands in the way of Islam, including one’s jihad against one’s own flaws on one’s path to becoming a servant of God. 4

However, in his attempt to defend what he considers true, peaceful jihad, Qadhi denied that violent Islam was a large threat. He has claimed that more people die from furniture accidents in the United States than from radical jihad “but we don’t spend a trillion dollars trying to correct furniture.” He also claimed that “we here in America are far more likely to be killed by a lone angry white Christian mass shooter, or even by a rogue policeman […] than by radical jihadists.” Qadhi condemned what he called the false, violent jihad of ISIS and al-Qaeda, but encouraged his audience to engage in a peaceful “American Muslim jihad” against those in America whom Qadhi says are Islamophobic. 4

Qadhi has condemned ISIS and Al-Qaeda, including after ISIS carried out terrorist attacks in Paris, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, and Turkey in 2015. 18 Qadhi also condemned ISIS in an open letter to the terrorist organization which he and 125 other Islamic scholars signed, denouncing the group’s violent approach to jihad. Still, the letter supported the larger project of rebuilding an Islamic caliphate in the Middle East under sharia law. 20 In response to his opposition, ISIS threatened Qadhi with death in 2016 along with other prominent Western Muslims who opposed the terrorist group. 21

Following the October 7, 2023 terrorist attack against Israel, Qadhi expressed his support for violent Palestinians and Hamas against what he considered to be Israeli occupiers. 22 23

As a professor, Qadhi has addressed students’ questions about the practical applications of violent jihad. 24 Some have claimed that Qadhi’s inconsistent teaching on jihad results in an unclear standard for his students and audience to follow, leading some to embrace a more radical stance on jihad. A 2011 New York Times profile on Qadhi listed his students who had gone on to embrace the more radical teaching of jihad, most notably supported by another Muslim cleric with links to Al-Qaeda and various terrorist attacks in the United States, Anwar al-Awlaki. 1 5

One such example of a radicalized former student of Qadhi at the Al-Maghrib Institute is Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian student who attempted to bomb a jetliner bound for Detroit on Christmas Day in 2009 with an explosive device he carried in his underwear. 1 25 Others include Daniel Maldonado, a New Hampshire convert who was convicted in 2007 of training with an Al Qaeda-linked militia in Somalia; Tarek Mehanna, a 28-year-old pharmacist arrested for conspiring to attack Americans; and two young Virginia men held in Pakistan in 2009 for seeking to train with militants. 1

Views on Israel-Hamas War

In addition to the letter he signed calling upon all American Muslims to abandon the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024, Yasir Qadhi has maintained a pro-Palestinian, pro-Hamas stance on the conflict in Gaza. In the letter, he and other American Muslim influencers called on the Muslim electorate to embrace pro-Palestinian candidates such as Jill Stein or Cornel West. 19

Qadhi claims that Israel’s war against Hamas to be genocide against Palestinian Arabs in Gaza and the West Bank. 23 In defense of Hamas’ attack against Israel on October 7, 2023, Qadhi argued that “targeting innocents during a time of war” is “a brutal reality.” He further justified the Hamas attack, stating that the Jews could not use the Holocaust to justify another Holocaust against Palestinians. Qadhi also compared the United States’ attacks on Japanese and German citizens during World War II as justification for Hamas’ attack. 26

In May 2024, Qadhi led a prayer protest service at Ohio State University which criticized antisemitism, Israel, and campus police who were arresting protesters on campus. However, during his speech, Qadhi also expressed his opposition toward a bill in the United States Senate that sought to expand the definition of antisemitism. The bill passed the United States House of Representatives and as of December 2024 awaited a vote in the Senate. 27

Other Views

Yasir Qadhi has been the source of other controversies, both in his former denial of the Holocaust and his controversial teachings within Islam. 6 28

In 2010, Qadhi was recorded saying that Nazi German dictator Adolf Hitler “never intended to mass-destroy the Jews.” Qadhi also claimed that “All this [the Holocaust] is false propaganda.” 6

The following year the New York Times reported he said that most Islamic studies professors in the United States are Jews who “want to destroy us.” 1

Qadhi eventually admitted that he was misinformed and said that the Holocaust was one of the worst crimes committed against humanity. 29 In July 2010, Qadhi was selected to participate in an official delegation of eight American imams and Jewish religious leaders to visit the concentration camps at Auschwitz and Dachau. 30

During a speech at the 2012 annual conference of the Islamic Circle of North America, Qadhi expressed anti-Americanism, stating that the Qur’an “destroys American capitalism.” 31

References

  1.  Elliot, Andrea. “Why Yasir Qadhi Wants to Talk About Jihad.” New York Times. March 17, 2011. Accessed December 8, 2024. https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/magazine/mag-20Salafis-t.html
  2. “Yasir Qadhi profile.” LinkedIn. Accessed December 8, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasir-qadhi-6589895b/
  3. “About.” Fiqh Council of North America. Accessed December 8, 2024. https://fiqhcouncil.org/about/
  4. “Yasir Qadhi – Reclaiming Jihad From The Radicals.” Muslim Central. November 7, 2016. Accessed December 8, 2024. https://muslimcentral.com/yasir-qadhi-reclaiming-jihad-radicals/
  5. “NYT Profile: Qadhi a Peaceful Radical.” Investigative Project on Terrorism. March 18, 2011. Accessed December 8, 2024. https://www.investigativeproject.org/2703/nyt-profile-qadhi-a-peaceful-radical
  6. Barrett, David and Sawer, Patrick. “Detroit bomber’s mentor continues to influence British mosques and universities.” The Telegraph. January 2, 2010. Accessed December 8, 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20100105040107/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/6924653/Detroit-bombers-mentor-continues-to-influence-British-mosques-and-universities.html
  7. “Education | Seeking Religious Freedom: From India to Houston – Finding Your Roots, Season 1, episode 5.” PBS. April 15, 2012. Accessed December 8, 2024. https://www.pbs.org/video/finding-your-roots-education-seeking-religious-freedom-india-houston/
  8. Dooley, Tara. “A CHANGING WORLD / American and Muslim / Islamic scholar, a Houston native, brings cultural insight to lectures on his religion.” Houston Chronicle. October 8, 2005. Accessed December 8, 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20110628233917/http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=2005_3909962
  9. “Yasir Qadhi – Education.” LinkedIn. Accessed December 8, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasir-qadhi-6589895b/details/education/
  10. “Yadir Qadhi on Facebook: ANNOUNCEMENT REGARDING MY AFFILIATIONS…” May 3, 2019. Accessed December 8, 2024. https://www.facebook.com/yasir.qadhi/posts/10156764231743300?__xts__[0]=68.ARBbW6OreD249y7TYFi1mW9DaLMcv7TV_S7BZKAG4SIuFN5LOl2NsXReWJZxQ9_RXwX0Dxa4AE0q_OJcrPwV4YBpoGHqxrvx7vMVZEZ0EauMSoh-QrxqyrVVrWOuGQAvvAT0xvm8t–oBdpyucSO5raRqrOLEfHJiAJoDjjK08VdPs9p9Sv1VlNxqoUDJaJ7I_eLu7TR3_1Th3s6XM4wI7IjyteJXM2F8LCylHXFc16RVAoj-9Udm1Ky4py49xobD2dlnWdD0H5_-MogRPyx3Lb98fQDOyad9j6eD51V7DMU3KTmecQF4JhZbLB9I3XvpLdt_hMf9_MZegFWZJKUD4m4qw
  11. “Yasir Qadhi – Administration and Staff.” Islamic Seminary of America. Accessed December 8, 2024. https://islamicseminary.us/administration-and-staff/#:~:text=Yasir%20Qadhi%20is%20the%20Resident,The%20Islamic%20Seminary%20of%20America.
  12. “An Explanation of Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahhab’s Four Principles of Shirk.” Amazon.com. Accessed December 8, 2024. https://www.amazon.com/Explanation-Muhammad-Abdul-Wahhabs-Principles/dp/1898649529
  13. “Like a Garment: Intimacy in Islam.” Amazon.com. Accessed December 8, 2024. https://www.amazon.sg/Like-Garment-Intimacy-Yasir-Qadhi/dp/1798705249
  14. “The Sirah of the Prophet (pbuh): A Contemporary and Original Analysis.” Amazon.com. Accessed December 8, 2024. https://www.amazon.com/Sirah-Prophet-pbuh-Contemporary-Original/dp/086037873X
  15. “Muslim Theologian Dr. Yasir Qadhi Responds To Violence in the Name of God.” Princeton University Department of Near Eastern Studies. April 2, 2018. Accessed December 8, 2024. https://nes.princeton.edu/events/muslim-theologian-dr-yasir-qadhi-responds-violence-name-god
  16. “About – Yasir Qadhi Official Channel.” Accessed December 8, 2024. https://www.youtube.com/user/YasirQadhi
  17. “Home – Yasir Qadhi Official Channel.” YouTube. Accessed December 8, 2024. https://www.youtube.com/user/YasirQadhi
  18. Shroder, Landon and Qadhi, Yasir. “A Conversation With Yasir Qadhi on Paris, Terrorism and Islam.” Fair Observer. November 24, 2015. Accessed December 8, 2024. https://www.fairobserver.com/region/north_america/a-conversation-with-yasir-qadhi-on-paris-terrorism-and-islam-12105/#
  19. A Farooq, Umar. “Leading US imams and scholars urge Muslim voters to snub Kamala Harris over Gaza.” Middle East Eye. September 30, 2024. Accessed December 8, 2024. https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/leading-us-imams-and-scholars-urge-muslim-voters-snub-kamala-harris-over-gaza
  20. Mauro, Ryan. “Muslim Leaders Sign Letter Against ISIS, But Endorse Sharia [incl. Hatem Bazian, Hamza Yusuf, Joseph E.B. Lumbard].” Middle East Forum, Campus Watch. October 1, 2014. Accessed December 8, 2024. https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/muslim-leaders-sign-letter-against-isis-but
  21. Goodstein, Laurie. “Muslim Leaders Wage Theological Battle, Stoking ISIS Anger.” New York Times. May 8, 2016. Accessed December 8, 2024. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/09/us/isis-threatens-muslim-preachers-who-are-waging-theological-battle-online.html?_r=0
  22. [1] A Farooq, Umar. “Leading US imams and scholars urge Muslim voters to snub Kamala Harris over Gaza.” Middle East Eye. September 30, 2024. Accessed December 8, 2024. https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/leading-us-imams-and-scholars-urge-muslim-voters-snub-kamala-harris-over-gaza
  23. Butt, Salman, Suleman, Umer, and Qadhi, Yasir. “What Shaykh Dr. Yasir Qadhi has learnt in 12 months of genocide.” Islam21C. October 10, 2024. Accessed December 8, 2024. https://www.islam21c.com/podcast/what-yasir-qadhi-has-learned-during-genocide/
  24. “3/18/11: Yasir Qadhi ’09MPhil.” Yale Alumni Journal. March 18, 2011. Accessed December 8, 2024. https://www.yalealumnimagazine.com/blog_posts/1048-3-18-11-yasir-qadhi-09mphil
  25. “Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab Sentenced to Life in Prison for Attempted Bombing of Flight 253 on Christmas Day 2009.” Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs. February 16, 2012. Accessed December 8, 2024. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/umar-farouk-abdulmutallab-sentenced-life-prison-attempted-bombing-flight-253-christmas-day
  26. “Texas Imam Dr. Yasir Qadhi On Events Of October 7: The Brutal Reality Is That Civilians Are Targeted In War; MEMRI Is The Joseph Goebbels Of Our Time; Jews Should Not Invoke The Holocaust To Inflict Another Holocaust.” MEMRI. October 13, 2023. Accessed December 8, 2024. https://www.memri.org/tv/texas-imam-yasir-qadhi-october-seven-civlians-targeted-war-dresden-hiroshima-nagasaki-memri-goebbels
  27. Shillcock, George. “Muslim community condemns anti-Semitism and Israel during prayer service at Ohio State.” WOSU Public Media. May 3, 2024. Accessed December 8, 2024. https://www.wosu.org/politics-government/2024-05-03/muslim-community-condemns-anti-semitism-and-israel-during-south-oval-prayer-service
  28. Ahmad, Shahzad and Malik, Zafir. “Four Lies and No Truths: What Dr Yasir Qadhi Got Wrong About Islam Ahmadiyya.” Review of Religions. March 29, 2023. Accessed December 8, 2024. https://www.reviewofreligions.org/42080/four-lies-and-no-truths-what-dr-yasir-qadhi-got-wrong-about-islam-ahmadiyya/
  29. Qadhi, Yasir. “GPU ’08 with Yasir Qadhi: When Islamophobia Meets Perceived Anti-Semitism.” Muslim Matters. November 19, 2008. Accessed DEcember 8, 2024. http://muslimmatters.org/2008/11/10/gpu-08-with-yasir-qadhi-when-islamophobia-meets-perceived-anti-semitism/
  30. Sterling, Joe. “U.S. Muslim group denounces ‘historic injustice of the Holocaust’.” CNN. August 19, 2010. Accessed December 8, 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20100822202804/http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/08/19/u-s-muslim-group-denounces-historic-injustice-of-the-holocaust/
  31. “ICNA Embraces America’s Favorite Salafi Preacher.” Investigative Project on Terrorism. August 1, 2012. Accessed December 8, 2024. https://www.investigativeproject.org/3692/icna-embraces-america-favorite-salafi-preacher
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