Biography of Dr. Tawfik Hamid, Muslim Reformer

Dr. Tawfik Hamid, a former member of a terror organization and current Islamic thinker and reformer.

Available for speaking engagements and interviews.

Born in Egypt to a secular Muslim family, Tawfik Hamid joined the extremist Islamic group Jamma'a Islameia, while he was a student in medical school. In his studies he was learning to heal, but in his thoughts, as he says, he "dreamed to die for Allah and to share in terrorist acts." His colleague in these formative days of the terror movement was Dr. Al Zawaheri, then an acquaintance with whom Tawfik used to pray, and now the number two person of Al Qaeda.

Eventually Dr. Hamid questioned the hatred and impulses to violence that participation in extremist Islam was fomenting within him. When he began to preach in Mosques to promote a message of peace instead of violence and hatred, however, he himself became a target of the Islamic extremists who had been his friends. They threatened his life, forcing him and his family to flee Egypt, then Saudi Arabia and from there to the West.

From his insider understanding of terrorist mentality, Dr. Hamid predicted the Twin Towers (9-11), Madrid, and London attacks. Now his mission has become to speak out against radical Islamic "a cancer that is spreading with frightening rapidity across the globe today."

A courageous as well as scholarly initiator of Islamic reformation, Dr. Hamid seeks to build new thinking within Islam to overcome the hatred and violent extremism that have metastasized within his religious tradition.

His most recent essay, "The Development of a Jihadist's Mind", had been published by the Hudson Institute. Other Op-ed articles "The Trouble with Islam" and "How to End Islamophobia" were recently published by the Wall Street Journal. In addition, he has been on numerous television and radio shows, including BBC Religion & Ethics, FOX News, CNN's Glen Beck Show, Denis Prager radio show and shortly on the sequel to the documentary, "Obsession".

Recently, on March 2007, he was a keynote speaker at the Intelligence Summit where he serves now on their Advisory Board.

His track record as a Muslim – speaking out very publicly against human rights abuses in the Islamic world includes a recent participation in a landmark Summit on Secular Islam detailed by Brett Stephens in the Wall Street Journal of March 6th, 2007 titled "Islam's Other Radicals" in which he refers to Dr. Hamid as a reformist and former member of Jamma Islameia; a terrorist group preached to by Ayman Al Zawaheri. Recently, Dr. Hamid spoke to a large group of various government officials and decision makers in Washington DC where he received very positive reviews.

Dr. Hamid holds degrees in Internal Medicine and Education.

Partial List of Speaking Engagements

Intelligence Summit – Washington DC 2006 and Florida 2007
Secular Islam Summit – Florida 2007
Georgetown University
University of Denver
Houghton College
Buffalo Community
Detroit Community
Director of National Intelligence (DNI)
Council for National Policy
Legacy Foundation
Koch Foundation
University of Miami
Houghton College, Buffalo, NY
New York Academy of Science
Peperdine University, California
American Jewish Committee
Soft Power Conference, Rome, Italy
The Pentagon
National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC)
Joint Counter Terrroism Task Force, New York
Many other Different law enforcment and Intelligence agencies

TV Interviews

Fox News
CNN – Glen Beck Show
ABC – Lateline – Australia
PM Buffalo – ABC Affiliate – Buffalo, NY
Michael Coren Show – Toronto, Canada

Newspaper Interviews

Wall Street Journal
Sunday Express – London, UK
Hudson Institute Website Magazine – US
National Post – Canada
The Star Ledger – Newark, NJ
Rocky Mountain News – CO
Intermountain Jewish News – CO
Detroit News – MI
Detroit Free Press – MI
Buffalo News – NY
Jerusalem Post – Israel
NY Daily News – New York City