Kacem El Ghazzali

Kacem El Ghazzali
El Ghazzali in 2020
Born (1990-06-24) 24 June 1990 (age 34)
Sidi Kacem, Morocco
NationalityMoroccan, Swiss
Occupation(s)Essayist, human rights activist
Known forInternational representative of IHEU at the UNHRC
Websitekacemelghazzali.com

Kacem El Ghazzali (Berber languages: ⵇⴰⵙⵎ ⵍⵖⴰⵣⴰⵍⵉ, Arabic: قاسم الغزالي; born 24 June 1990), is a Moroccan-Swiss secularist essayist and activist and is one of the few publicly atheist Moroccans.[1] Kacem speaks English, as well as German, French, Arabic and Berber.[2] Mostly known for his publicly voiced atheism, his writings stress the importance of freedom of thought which, in his view, is lacking in countries dominated by Islam. His articles have been published in/by the Richard Dawkins Foundation, Huffington Post, Le Monde, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Basler Zeitung, Tages Anzeiger, Berlingske and others.

In 2017, El Ghazzali was granted Swiss citizenship, and was chosen as one of the 14 most influential Swiss intellectuals of the year by the Basler Zeitung.[3] El Ghazzali was also named Swiss of the Year 2018 by the Sunday newspaper SonntagsZeitung among 30 other personalities.[4] In the same year he was one of the 200 most prominent Zurich personalities of the Swiss Magazine Who is Who.

  1. ^ "Case in point: Arab, not muslim". Freearabs.com. Archived from the original on 2013-04-05. Retrieved 2013-03-13.
  2. ^ Büttner, Jean-Martin (2011-06-18). "Allah und der Standhafte". Tages-Anzeiger (in German). ISSN 1422-9994. Retrieved 2017-04-08.
  3. ^ Erik Ebneter & Hansjörg Müller (2 January 2018). "Die 15 wichtigsten Denker 2017" (PDF). Basler Zeitung (in German). Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 February 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  4. ^ "Besonderes erreicht – unsere Schweizer des Jahres 2018". Tages-Anzeiger (in German). 2018-12-30. ISSN 1422-9994. Retrieved 2019-08-27.