Mohammad Salim Al-Awa (born December 22, 1942) is an Egyptian
Islamist thinker, widely considered to belong to the moderate
Islamic democratic strain. He is the former Secretary General of the
International Union for Muslim Scholars based in London, and head of the
Egyptian Association for Culture and Dialogue. Al-Awa has been called one of the few Islamic thinkers who has made a "serious attempt" at "defining what
Islamism would mean in a modern society," or "courageously delved into the realities of Islamic history and experimented with new interpretations."
His allegations that the
Coptic Orthodox Church was storing weapons in churches and monasteries worsened anti-Christian sentiment in Egypt, contributing to the
2011 Alexandria bombing
The 2011 Alexandria bombing was an attack on Coptic Christians in Alexandria, Egypt, on Saturday, 1 January 2011. 23 people died and another 97 were injured as a result of the attack, which occurred as Christian worshipers were leaving a New Y ...
which killed 23 people and injured another 97.
On 14 June 2011, Al-Awa declared his candidacy for the
2012 Egyptian presidential election in September of that year.
References
External links
*
iumsonline.net ''
Al Ahram Weekly
''Al-Ahram Weekly'' is an English-language weekly broadsheet printed by the Al-Ahram Publishing House in Cairo, Egypt.
History and profile
''Al Ahram Weekly'' was established in 1991 by the ''Al-Ahram'' newspaper, which also runs a French-langua ...
'', 30 October - 5 November 2003, Issue No. 662
Living people
1942 births
Egyptian Islamists
Egyptian writers
Members of the Egyptian Constituent Assembly of 2012
International Union of Muslim Scholars members
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