Azzam Tamimi

Azzam Tamimi (sometimes spelled Azam Tamimi; born 1955) is a British Palestinian academic and political activist. He is currently a freelance presenter at Alhiwar TV Channel. He headed the Institute of Islamic Political Thought until 2008. Tamimi has written several books on Middle Eastern and Islamic politics, including "Power-Sharing Islam", "Islam and Secularism in the Middle East", Rachid Ghannouchi, Democrat within Islamism and Hamas: A History from Within.

Tamimi was born in 1955 and lived in Hebron in the West Bank until he was seven, when his family moved to Kuwait. His father had fought against Israel. After high school, Tamimi moved to London to attend college. In 1979, he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Combined Sciences from the University of Sunderland and a PhD in Political Theory from the University of Westminster in 1998. Tamimi is married with three children and lives in Willesden in northwest London. He and his family are British citizens. He often debates in public forums defending Islam against Christian apologists such as Jay Smith.

In 2005, Tamimi led a group of trustees in reforming the Finsbury Park Mosque, which was previously under the control of Abu Hamza al-Masri. The reformation of the mosque has widely been seen as successful.

Tamimi has stated that the War on Terror launched by the US and its allies in the wake of September 11 attacks is perceived by many in the Islamic world as a war on Islam. He accused US President George W. Bush of attempting to stop terrorism through war, political oppression and violations of human rights, saying that this would not work and would instead have the opposite effect.

Tamimi is a strong advocate for the Palestinian people and a supporter of Hamas, advising it on proposed changes to its charter. Tamimi hoped a revision of the Hamas charter would make it a non-antisemitic document. "All that nonsense about and conspiracy theories – all that rubbish will be out. It should have never been there in the first place." However, the revised document would still call for an end to Israel and the establishment of a Palestinian state on all of the Palestine mandate.

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