Qadhi was previously affiliated with Salafism, but has since left it.[14] He now identifies himself as a Wasatist[5] and has been described as such.[4][6]
Early years
Qadhi was born in Houston, Texas to PakistaniMuhajir parents.[15] His father, a doctor by profession, founded the first mosque in the area, while his mother is a microbiologist, both from Karachi in Pakistan and whose ancestral homeland is Uttar Pradesh in India.[15] When he was five, the family moved to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he attended local schools. By 15 he had memorized the Qur'an and graduated from high school two years early as class valedictorian.[16] He returned to the United States, where he earned a B.Sc in Chemical Engineering at the University of Houston.[17]
Professional career
After a short stint working in engineering at Dow Chemical, in 1996 Qadhi enrolled at the Islamic University of Medinah in Medina, Saudi Arabia. There, he earned a bachelor's degree in Arabic from the university's College of Hadith and Islamic Sciences and a master's degree in Islamic Theology from its College of Dawah.[17][18][19] Qadhi returned to the United States after working and studying for nine years in Saudi Arabia.[19] He completed a doctorate in theology at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.[17][18]
Qadhi taught in the Religious Studies Department of Rhodes College, in Memphis, Tennessee. He previously was the Dean of Academic Affairs and an instructor for the AlMaghrib Institute,[18] a seminar-based Islamic education institution founded in 2001. The instructors travel to teach Islamic studies in English. He moved to the Dallas metropolitan area in early 2019, becoming the resident scholar of the East Plano Islamic Center. He is the Dean of Academic Affairs at The Islamic Seminary of America.[20]
Qadhi has presented papers on jihad movements. In 2006, at a conference at Harvard Law School, Qadhi presented a 15-minute analysis of the theological underpinnings of an early militant movement in modern Saudi Arabia headed by Juhayman al-Otaibi. The movement had gained international attention when it held the Grand Mosque of Mecca hostage in 1979.[22]
In September 2009, he presented a paper at an international conference at the University of Edinburgh on understanding jihad in the modern world. He said the specific legal ruling (fatwa) of the 13–14th century theologian Ibn Taymiyya on the Mongol Empire has been wrongfully used in the 20th and 21st centuries by both jihadist and pacifist groups to justify their positions.[23][24] The paper has been critiqued by some Salafi commentators, who say that they in fact did not revise the definition of Jihad.[25]
Sufism and veneration of the saints
Qadhi believes that the practice of some Sufi Muslims visiting the graves of Sufi saints and calling upon Muhammad and calling upon them for help or guidance is not shirk (polytheism) but said it is haram, sinful, an evil innovation, and called it a stepping stone and gateway to shirk but not shirk in and of itself.[26] Qadhi has also stated that these Muslims should still be regarded as Muslims, though misguided.[26] He believes that questioning whether veneration of Sufi saints at gravesites can be called shirk is highly problematic because that would mean accusing many Muslim scholars who hold affirmative views towards it of committing shirk and being out of the fold of Islam.[26] He has said it is not shirk in and of itself unless they believe they are calling out to a god, intend to worship or believe in the saints to have independent powers in and of themselves.[26] He has also stated that Sufi Muslims that participate in the practice do not believe in the saints to be gods and don't intend it to be worship when calling upon them, nor do they believe that the saints are giving assistance to them completely independently from God.[26]
Views on social issues
Yasir Qadhi has criticized progressive Muslims who interpret Islamic law as supporting homosexual relations, saying these teachings contain "very little Islam".[27]
In regards to religious liberties, Qadhi believes that Islamic teachings don't support or require that Muslim business owners discriminate or refuse service to LGBTQ individuals. Nonetheless, Qadhi expresses concern that Islamic institutions may face issues if they speak in a vulgar manner and employ or fire employees that don't conform to conservative beliefs regarding sexual behaviors.[27]
Death threat by Islamic State of Iraq and the Syria
Some of his statements have been controversial, including comments in a speech in 2001 questioning Hitler's motives in the Holocaust. He later stated that he regretted those comments and visited the Auschwitz concentration camp with a delegation of Muslim leaders.[15]
In January 2010, the British The Daily Telegraph reported that in 2001 Qadhi had described the Holocaust as a hoax and false propaganda, and had said that "Hitler never intended to mass-destroy the Jews."[29][30] 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."[16]
Qadhi denied stating that the Holocaust was a hoax or that it was false propaganda, but in 2008 admitted that he had briefly held mistaken beliefs about the Holocaust, and had said "that Hitler never actually intended to massacre the Jews, he actually wanted to expel them to neighboring lands." Qadhi said that his views were wrong and said "I admit it was an error".[31] Qadhi added that he firmly believes "that the Holocaust was one of the worst crimes against humanity that the 20th century has witnessed" and that "the systematic dehumanization of the Jews in the public eye of the Germans was a necessary precursor" for that tragedy.[31] More generally, he said that he "fell down a slippery slope", expressing anger at actions of the Israeli government in the form of anti-Semitic remarks he later recognized as wrong.[16]
In July 2010, Qadhi was selected to participate in an official delegation of eight U.S. imams and Jewish religious leaders to visit the concentration camps at Auschwitz and Dachau. The imams subsequently released a joint statement condemning anti-Semitism and labeling Holocaust denial as against the ethics of Islam.[32]
The Times newspaper reported that British Charity Commission regulators contacted three Islamic charities about Qadhi's 2015 tour, where he allegedly made controversial comments and told students that "killing homosexuals and stoning adulterers was part of their religion." He also clarified to them that these punishments were only applicable in an Islamic society and were not to be applied in the West.[33][34]
On June 8, 2020, Qadhi was interviewed by Muslim apologist Mohammed Hijab, where he was asked about the "perfect preservation of the Qur'an," a popular Islamic apologetical argument, in light of different Qira'at and Ahruf. During the interview, Qadhi said, "The standard narrative has holes in it. That's what I'm gonna say. The standard narrative does not answer some very pressing questions."[35][36] His comments became fodder for Christian polemicists, becoming an Internet meme, and prompted negative reactions from Muslim scholars and proselytizers, leading Qadhi to private the video on his YouTube channel.
Qadhi has since clarified in a video uploaded to the EPIC (East Plano Islamic Center) Masjid's YouTube channel that his statements were referring to the preservation of the Qira'at and Ahruf themselves rather than the preservation of the Qur'an. Qadhi reiterated that disbelief in the perfect preservation of the Qur'an is considered "kufr"; disbelief in Islam itself.[37]
In an April 2024 interview, Harvard UniversityIslamic studies PhD candidate Javad T. Hashmi joked that he considered naming his lecture on the preservation of the Qur'an, as part of a course taught alongside New Testament scholar Bart D. Ehrman, "Holes in the Narrative," as a reference to Qadhi's controversial comments.[38]
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