Mohammed Adam El-Sheikh

2024-04-14T16:58:06Z

2001:8F8:1335:F6A:A4EA:ED98:1B3C:6C02:

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'''Mohammed Adam El-Sheikh''' (January 1, 1945 - April 14, 2024) was the Sudanese American executive director of the [[Fiqh Council of North America]].

==Biography==
El-Sheikh was born in Sudan.<ref name="bsun1985">{{Cite news |last=P. L. Somerville |first=Frank |title=Local Muslims celebrate end of month-long Ramadan fast |work=[[The Baltimore Sun]] |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/378033475 |access-date=September 14, 2020}}</ref>

===Education===
El-Sheikh graduated from the faculty of Shari'ah and Law of [[Omdurman Islamic University]], Sudan, in 1969. In 1973 he was appointed by the Department of Justice to serve as a judge for the Shari'ah Courts.
While in the Sudan he was a member of the [[Muslim Brotherhood]].<ref name="murphy">{{Cite news |last=Caryle Murphy |date=September 12, 2004 |title=Facing New Realities as Islamic Americans |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14497-2004Sep11.html |access-date=February 28, 2014}}</ref>

In 1978, he was granted a scholarship to come to the United States in order to continue his higher education. He received his Masters of Comparative Jurisprudence (MCJ) from [[Howard University]] in 1980, his LLM from the National Law Center at [[George Washington University]] in 1981, and his Ph.D. in Comparative Jurisprudence from [[Temple University]] in 1986. His 1986 Ph.D. dissertation at Temple University was on "The applicability of Islamic [[penal law]] ([[qisas]] and [[diyah]]) in the Sudan."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mohamad, A. El-Sheikh, "The applicability of Islamic penal law (qisas and diyah) in the Sudan," 1986, Ph.D. dissertation, [[Temple University]], 332 p., accessed November 7, 2009 |url=http://www.ascleiden.nl/GetPage.aspx?datastore=4&url=%2Fpublications%2Fbibliographies%2Fislaminafrica%2Fref8216 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718105413/http://www.ascleiden.nl/GetPage.aspx?datastore=4&url=%2Fpublications%2Fbibliographies%2Fislaminafrica%2Fref8216 |archive-date=July 18, 2011 |access-date=April 6, 2020}}</ref>

===Career===
From 1983–1989 and 1994–2003, El-Sheikh was the imam at the [[Islamic Society of Baltimore]] in [[Catonsville]], [[Maryland]].

El-Sheikh was instrumental in founding the [[Muslim American Society]] in the US, in 1992, along with some other former members of the Muslim Brotherhood.<ref name=murphy/> He said that when they founded the society the founders' goals had changed, in that they no longer needed to operate secretly as they had in other countries when they were members of the Muslim Brotherhood. He said the founders felt "we should cut relations with the [Brotherhood] abroad and regard ourselves as Americans. ... We don't receive an order from any organization abroad, and [they] have no authority to tell us what to do".<ref name=murphy/>

He also helped launch the [[Dar Al-Hijrah]] [[mosque]] in [[Falls Church, Virginia]], and later was the [[Imam]] of the mosque between August 2003 and May 2005.<ref name=murphy/> Commenting in 2004 on the [[Decapitation|beheading]]s of American hostages [[Nick Berg]] and [[Daniel Pearl]], he said: <blockquote>beheadings are not mentioned in the [[Koran]] at all. According to Islamic penal law, killers will be sentenced to death, but the means of execution are not mentioned. ... we don't condone this. They are not following Islam. They are following their own whims.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Peronet Despeignes |date=June 20, 2004 |title=Koran doesn't call for beheadings, Islamic cleric says |work=[[USA Today]] |url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-06-20-koran-beheadings_x.htm |access-date=November 12, 2009}}</ref></blockquote>

And in 2004, speaking of Palestinian [[suicide bomber]]s, he said "if certain Muslims are to be cornered where they cannot defend themselves, except through these kinds of means, and their local religious leaders issued [[fatwa]]s to permit that, then it becomes acceptable as an exceptional rule, but should not be taken as a principle."<ref name="murphy" />

He left Dar Al-Hijrah in 2005 to become the executive director of the [[Fiqh Council of North America]], an association of [[Sharia|Islamic legal]] scholars.<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/10/AR2005061001869.html Sheridan, Mary Beth, "Leader Named at Mosque; Falls Church Site Selects Activist,"] ''[[Washington Post]]'', June 11, 2005, accessed November 7, 2009</ref> He is also the head of the Islamic Judiciary Council of the Shari'ah Scholars' Association of North America (SSANA).

==References==
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheikh, Mohammed Adam}}
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Sudanese Muslims]]
[[Category:American imams]]
[[Category:Temple University Beasley School of Law alumni]]
[[Category:Muslim Brotherhood leaders]]
[[Category:Howard University alumni]]
[[Category:George Washington University Law School alumni]]
[[Category:Sudanese emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:Omdurman Islamic University alumni]]
[[Category:American Muslim activists]]
[[Category:1945 births]]
[[Category:African-American Muslims]]

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Mohammed Adam El-Sheikh