Qanta Ahmed

Last updated

Qanta Ahmed
Born
United Kingdom
Nationality British-American [1]
Alma mater University of Nottingham
Occupation(s)Physician, author, women's rights activist, journalist, public commentator
Medical career
FieldSleep disorders
Institutions Stony Brook University, New York University

Qanta A. Ahmed is a British-American physician who came to prominence as a doctor specializing in sleep disorders. She has also worked as an author, women's rights activist, journalist, and public commentator.

Contents

Life and education

Ahmed is the daughter of Pakistani immigrants. [2] She grew up in London, and graduated from the University of Nottingham. She went to New York City for medical training in 1992. Without a US visa to extend her stay, she left to practice in Saudi Arabia for a year. She wrote down her daily experiences as a woman practicing medicine, and published them in a book. In June 2013, Ahmed visited Israel, speaking at universities and research institutes around the country. [3]

Ahmed became a US citizen in 2015, while maintaining her British citizenship. She currently resides in New York City. [4] [1]

Medical career

Ahmed practiced medicine in the National Guard Health Affairs in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. She returned to the US in 1996 and practiced at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, South Carolina and sleep disorders medicine in Garden City at the Winthrop University Sleep Disorders Center. [5]

As of 2011, Ahmed was associate professor of medicine at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook. [6] [7] She has also served as an Honorary Professor at School of Health and Life Sciences at Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland, and an Honorary Fellow at the Technion-Israel Institute of Science and Technology in Haifa, Israel. [1] In 2014, she was appointed media spokeswoman for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. [1]

Literary and journalism career

Ahmed is the author of In the Land of Invisible Women, an account of her experiences as a physician in Saudi Arabia. [8] [9] [10]

Ahmed has also worked as a public commentator, writing on issues ranging from medicine, to politics, feminism, Islam, and current affairs. She has also contributed articles to The Spectator , Huffington Post , The New York Post , The Daily Caller , USA Today , The Guardian , The Jerusalem Post , and The Daily Telegraph. She has also worked as media pundit for Al-Jazeera , CNN and Fox News. [1]

Views on Islam and Islamism

Ahmed is not an orthodox practicing Muslim and is critical of elements of Islam, the treatment of women in some contemporary Islamic societies, and the ideology of Islamism. She states that Islamists reject the liberal teachings of Islam and seek to impose a more sectarian strand of the faith on others through violence, exploiting democracy and manipulating non-Muslims who mistakenly ally themselves with Islamic extremists. Ahmed identifies herself as a feminist, and has also denounced radical Islam (violent jihadism and antisemitism in particular), and has been described by the media as a Muslim reformist. [11]

Ahmed stated that she formed many of her views after being denied a visa extension in the US after finishing medical training, and due to facing difficulties staying in America, accepted a job offer in Saudi Arabia "on a whim." She hoped that as a Muslim she would feel more accepted in Saudi society and be able to explore her religious heritage, but quickly found herself relegated to second-class medicineship due to her status as a woman, and disrespected or treated as inferior by her subordinates. She stated that while she was impressed by her Saudi colleagues' attachment to their faith, she also felt oppressed by compulsory veil laws in public and was shocked by the social shunning, racism, and antisemitism she witnessed, as well as unsound medical practices that were encouraged as a result of Saudi Arabia's governance under hardline Islamic laws. [12] [13]

In her commentary, Ahmed has argued "Islamists exploit democratic institutions to further their sectarian aims" and that "Exposing Islamists as dangerous totalitarians is not an act of anti-Muslim bigotry but an essential defense of both liberal democracy and Islam." Ahmed has cited the regime of Mohamed Morsi in Egypt as an example of the consequence of Islamists rising to power, and has said that not all Islamists are violent but use many different means to assert themselves. [14]

Ahmed has called on the US State Department to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. She stated "By encouraging separatism and indoctrinating its members with the totalitarian tenets of 20th-century Islamism, the Muslim Brotherhood seeks to disrupt the fabric of democracy." [14]

In 2018, she defended Boris Johnson over his comments regarding the burqa and niqāb. She stated "I am fully supportive of Boris Johnson’s rejection of the niqab. And I wonder how many of the former Foreign Secretary’s critics understand my religion, what this form of dress represents and the subjugation it implies." [15]

In 2019, Ahmed criticized US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar for her comments on the 9/11 attacks in which Omar said “CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something, and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties.” Ahmed described Omar's statement as an insult to both Muslims and the victims of 9/11. She furthermore disputed the factual accuracy of Omar's assertion about the foundation of CAIR, disputed her claims that Muslims in the US have been subjected to government-sponsored discrimination and concluded by stating "Omar should be honest. There is no escaping the fact that the atrocities of 9/11 were not simply committed by some people. Islamist jihadists were responsible and they came from within the Muslim fold."

Ahmed has also critiqued the term "Islamophobia," arguing that it has become a "shield for jihadis" and that the term should not be used in hate crime legislation in Western societies as it enables Islamists to exploit it. When discussing physical and verbal attacks against Muslims such as the Christchurch mosque attack and comments made by Australian senator Fraser Anning, Ahmed stated "This kind of bigotry is not hard to recognise or condemn. Nor does it require a new law. All of this matters because, while we’re getting better at thwarting terrorist attacks, we’re still fighting their ideological underpinning. As a secular pluralistic democracy, we have weapons: intellectual scrutiny, critical thinking and above all the insight to command the language of this war of ideas. And to use the word Islamophobia when talking about anti-Muslim xenophobia is to use the vocabulary and adopt the rulebook of the Islamists who wish to obfuscate their intent." [15]

Views on Israel

Ahmed is opposed to boycotts against Israel and has described the BDS movement as an attempt to vilify Israel. [3] Although Ahmed has expressed opposition to the occupation of the Palestinian Territories, she has also stated that handing them over at the present time would mean ceding the territories to "a virulent Jihadist ideology" and leaders calling for Israel's destruction. [3]

In 2010, Ahmed described herself as an "Accidental Zionist" and that "Eretz Yisrael is a vital shelter, an only shelter, from lethal, genocidal anti-Semitism... If we care for wider humanity at all, we must all be 'accidental' Zionists and want for the Jews, for the Israelis, what each Muslim already has for themselves: a future, a nation and a faith, secured." [16]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muslim Brotherhood</span> Transnational Sunni Islamist organization

The Society of the Muslim Brothers, better known as the Muslim Brotherhood is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Al-Banna's teachings spread far beyond Egypt, influencing today various Islamist movements from charitable organizations to political parties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hijab</span> Islamic head covering for women

In modern usage, hijab generally refers to variety of head coverings conventionally worn by many religious Muslim women as an expression of faith. Such women may be called "hijabi". Similar to the mitpaḥat/tichel or snood worn by religious married Jewish women, certain headcoverings worn by some Christian women, such as the hanging veil, apostolnik and kapp, and the dupatta favored by many Hindu and Sikh women, the hijab comes in various forms. Often, it specifically describes a scarf that is wrapped around the head, covering the hair, neck, and ears while leaving the face visible. The use of the hijab has grown globally since the 1970s, with many Muslims viewing it as a symbol of modesty and faith; it is also worn as a form of adornment. There is consensus among Islamic religious scholars that covering the head is either required or preferred. In practice, most Muslim women choose to wear it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islamic Human Rights Commission</span> Islamic non-profit organisation based in London

The Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) is a non-profit organisation based in London. Its stated mission is to "champion the rights & duties revealed for human beings" and to "promote a new social [and] international order, based on truth, justice, righteousness [and] generosity, rather than selfish interest." The group was established in 1997. The organisation, since 2007, has held consultative status with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islamic clothing</span> Customs of clothing associated with Islam

Islamic clothing is clothing that is interpreted as being in accordance with the teachings of Islam. Muslims wear a wide variety of clothing, which is influenced not only by religious considerations, but also by practical, cultural, social, and political factors. In modern times, some Muslims have adopted clothing based on Western traditions, while others wear modern forms of traditional Muslim dress, which over the centuries has typically included long, flowing garments. Besides its practical advantages in the climate of the Middle East, loose-fitting clothing is also generally regarded as conforming to Islamic teachings, which stipulate that body areas which are sexual in nature must be hidden from public view. Traditional dress for Muslim men has typically covered at least the head and the area between the waist and the knees, while women's islamic dress is to conceal the hair and the body from the ankles to the neck. Some Muslim women also cover their face. However, other Muslims believe that the Quran strictly mandate that women need to wear a hijab or a burqa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al-Muhajiroun</span> Militant network based in Saudi Arabia

Al-Muhajiroun is a proscribed terrorist network based and banned in Saudi Arabia and active for many years in the United Kingdom. The founder of the group was Omar Bakri Muhammad, a Syrian who previously belonged to Hizb ut-Tahrir; he was not permitted to re-enter Britain after 2005. According to The Times, the organisation has been linked to international terrorism, homophobia, and antisemitism. The group became notorious for its September 2002 conference "The Magnificent 19", praising the September 11, 2001 attacks. The network mutates periodically so as to evade the law; it operates under many different aliases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abaya</span> Simple, loose over-garment wore by women, especially Muslim women

The abaya, sometimes also called an aba, is a simple, loose over-garment, essentially a robe-like dress, worn by some women in the Muslim world including most of the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of the Horn of Africa. Traditional abayas are usually black and may either be a large square of fabric draped from the shoulders or head or a long kaftan. The abaya covers the whole body except the head (sometimes), feet, and hands. It can be worn with the niqāb, a face veil covering all but the eyes. Some women also wear long black gloves, so their hands are covered as well. It is common that the abaya be worn on special occasions, such as mosque visits, Islamic holiday celebrations for Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, and also during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Abdul HadiPalazzi, legally named Massimo Palazzi is the secretary general of the Italian Muslim Assembly, and the Khalifah for Europe of the Qadiri Sufi Order. Controversially in Muslim circles, as of April 2010, he not only supported Israel's right to exist but also encouraged Jews to re-settle in Hebron.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islamic feminism</span> Feminist discourse and practice articulated within an Islamic paradigm

Islamic feminism is a form of feminism concerned with the role of women in Islam. It aims for the full equality of all Muslims, regardless of gender, in public and private life. Islamic feminists advocate for women's rights, gender equality, and social justice grounded in an Islamic framework. Although rooted in Islam, the movement's pioneers have also utilized secular, Western, or otherwise non-Muslim feminist discourses, and have recognized the role of Islamic feminism as part of an integrated global feminist movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tareq Al-Suwaidan</span> Kuwaiti writer and businessman

Tareq Mohammed Al-Suwaidan is a Kuwaiti Islamic author and speaker, and businessman. He has been among the 500 Most Influential Muslims in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ed Husain</span> British Bangladeshi writer

Ed Husain is a British author and a professor in the Walsh School of Foreign Service in Georgetown University. As a political advisor he has worked with leaders and governments across the world. Husain is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) focused on U.S. foreign policy towards the Middle East generally, and specifically at the intersection of Arab-Israeli relations after the Abraham Accords, the geopolitical interplay of Arab Gulf states, China-Muslim world dynamics, and Islamist terrorism. As a professor at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, he teaches classes on global security, Arab-Israeli peace, and the shared intellectual roots of the West and Islam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Political views of Osama bin Laden</span>

Osama bin Laden took ideological guidance from prominent militant Islamist scholars and ideologues from the classical to contemporary eras, such as Ibn Taymiyya, Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, Sayyid Qutb, Nizamuddin Shamzai and Abdullah Azzam. During his middle and high school years, bin Laden was educated in Al-Thager Model School, a public school in Jeddah run by Islamist exiles of the Muslim Brotherhood; during which he was immensely influenced by pan-Islamist ideals and displayed strict religious commitment. As a teenager, bin Laden attended and led Muslim Brotherhood-run "Awakening" camps held on desert outskirts that intended to raise the youth in religious values, instil martial spirit and sought spiritual seclusion from "the corruptions" of modernity and rapidly urbanising society of the 1970s in Saudi Arabia.

Muslim supporters of Israel refers to both Muslims and cultural Muslims who support the right to self-determination of the Jewish people and the likewise existence of a Jewish homeland in the Southern Levant, traditionally known as the Land of Israel and corresponding to the modern polity known as the State of Israel. Muslim supporters of the Israeli state are widely considered to be a rare phenomenon in light of the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the larger Arab–Israeli conflict. Within the Muslim world, the legitimacy of the State of Israel has been challenged since its inception, and support for Israel's right to exist is a minority orientation. Pro-Israel Muslims have faced opposition from both moderate Muslims and Islamists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norah Al Faiz</span> Saudi deputy education minister (born 1956)

Norah bint Abdullah Al Faiz, also spelled Noura Al Fayez, is the first woman to hold a cabinet-level office in Saudi Arabia. She was vice minister of education from 2009 to 2015.

Syed Zaid Zaman Hamid, better known as Zaid Hamid, is a Pakistani far-right, radical Islamist political commentator and conspiracy theorist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Niqāb in Egypt</span> Face-covering veil in Egyptian society

In a predominantly Muslim society, as many as 90% of women in Egypt have adopted a form of veiling. A majority of Egyptian women cover at least their hair with the hijab. A hijab refers to a head covering that is worn by Muslim women. Although the phenomenon of wearing the niqāb, a veil which covers the face is not as common, the niqab in Egypt has become more prevalent. While a few women in Egypt wear a black niqab along with a billowing black abaya as seen in countries such as Saudi Arabia, many choose to wear different colors of the niqab or manipulate the hijab to cover their face. Regardless, the growing trend of munaqqabat, or women who wear the niqab, has alarmed the authorities. They have begun to see this dress as a security threat, because it hides the face, and because it is perceived as a political statement, a rejection of the state in favor of a strict Islamic system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al-Islah (Yemen)</span> Political party in Yemen

The Yemeni Congregation for Reform, frequently called al-Islah, is a Yemeni Sunni Islamist movement established in 1990 by Abdullah ibn Husayn al-Ahmar, Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, Abdul Majeed al-Zindani, with Ali Saleh's blessing. The first article of Islah basic law defines it as "a popular political organization that seeks reform of all aspects of life on the basis of Islamic principles and teachings".

Conspiracy theories are a prevalent feature of Arab politics, according to a 1994 paper in the journal Political Psychology. Prof. Matthew Gray writes they "are a common and popular phenomenon" that are important to understanding the political landscape of the Arab world. Variants include conspiracies involving Western colonialism, Islamic anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, superpowers, oil, and the war on terror, which is often referred to in Arab media as a "War against Islam". Roger Cohen theorizes that the popularity of conspiracy theories in the Arab world is "the ultimate refuge of the powerless". The prevalence of conspiracy theories reflects effective top-down dissemination of disinformation by state actors, rather than a unique susceptibility of Arab culture to conspiracy, as some have claimed. State hostility and weak protections for journalists present major obstacles to challenging conspiracy theories, as journalists struggle to gather information and put their lives at risk by contradicting their governments. The spread of antisemitic and anti-Zionist conspiracism in the Arab world and the Middle East has seen an extraordinary proliferation since the beginning of the Internet Era.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Petro-Islam</span> International propagation of Salafism and Wahhabism funded by oil-producing Arab countries

Petro-Islam is a neologism used to refer to the international propagation of the extremist and fundamentalist interpretations of Sunni Islam derived from the doctrines of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, a Sunni Muslim preacher, scholar, reformer and theologian from Uyaynah in the Najd region of the Arabian Peninsula, eponym of the Islamic revivalist movement known as Wahhabism. This movement has been favored by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the other Arab states of the Persian Gulf.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sahwa movement</span> Islamic social mobility movement in Saudi Arabia

Sahwa movement or al-Sahwa al-Islamiyya was a movement in Saudi Arabia from 1960–1980 which advocated for eradicating Wahhabi principles in Saudi society and replacing it with Qutbism. The most noticeable effects of the movement were significant restrictions on women's rights, religious freedom, and personal liberties. The movement's core doctrines were shaped by the fundamentalist tenets of Qutbism; such as theological denunciations of democracy and the belief that contemporary governments of the Muslim World have apostatised.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International propagation of Salafism</span>

Starting in the mid-1970s and 1980s, Salafism and Wahhabism — along with other Sunni interpretations of Islam favored by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf monarchies — achieved a "preeminent position of strength in the global expression of Islam."

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Bio". 24 May 2016.
  2. ↑ "Face to faith: The search for Muslim identity | Qanta Ahmed". TheGuardian.com . 11 December 2010. Archived from the original on 10 August 2017. Retrieved 18 July 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 Maltz, Judy (31 May 2013). "The many faces of Dr. Qanta Ahmed". Haaretz . Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  4. ↑ "Dr. Qanta Ahmed on Trump and Muslims in America - CNN Video". CNN . 9 December 2015.
  5. ↑ Sleep Medicine Specialist, NYU Winthrop Hospital, archived from the original on 11 September 2011.
  6. ↑ Ahmed, Qanta A. (7 January 2011). "Fulfilling Our Duty as Muslim-Americans". Wall Street Journal . Archived from the original on 2 June 2016. Retrieved 5 June 2016.
  7. ↑ Ahmed, Qanta. "Qanta Ahmed, MD". Huffington Post . Archived from the original on 23 April 2016. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  8. ↑ "Books: 'In the Land of Invisible Women'". Seattle Post-Intelligencer . 4 September 2008. Archived from the original on 21 February 2014. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  9. ↑ Schwartz, Stephen (8 September 2008). "Pierce the Veil". The Weekly Standard. Archived from the original on 19 September 2015. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  10. ↑ Harris, Nancy (17 September 2010). "Historical fiction helps Hingham woman appreciate her own era". Boston Globe . Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  11. ↑ "Muslim reformists sound off on attacks against Christians". Fox News . 11 June 2019. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  12. ↑ Ahmed, Qanta (2008). In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor's Journey in the Saudi Kingdom. Sourcebooks, Incorporated. ISBN   978-1402210877.
  13. ↑ "In the Land of Invisible Women".
  14. 1 2 Ahmed, Qanta A. (10 March 2017). "Designate the Muslim Brotherhood a Foreign Terrorist Organization". National Review . Archived from the original on 31 January 2018. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
  15. 1 2 Ahmed, Qanta (23 December 2018). "As a Muslim woman I'd like to thank Boris Johnson for calling out the burka". The Spectator . Archived from the original on 30 August 2019. Retrieved 16 March 2021.
  16. ↑ Ahmed, Qanta A (25 May 2011). "Adventures of an Accidental Zionist: Encounters with the Anxiety of Jewish Extinction". The Huffington Post . Archived from the original on 18 July 2017. Retrieved 24 November 2018..
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.