Abd al Haqq Kielan (, born 22 June 1941) is a Swedish

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

cleric. He is an

imam Imam (; , '; : , ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Islam, Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a prayer leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Salah, Islamic prayers, serve as community leaders, ...

at the mosque in

Eskilstuna Eskilstuna () is a Urban areas in Sweden, city and the seat of Eskilstuna Municipality, Södermanland County, Sweden. The city of Eskilstuna had 69,948 inhabitants in 2020, with a total population of 107,806 inhabitants in Eskilstuna municipality ...

and at the Islamic Association in Stockholm. He is also chairman of the Swedish Islamic Society and permanent secretary of the Swedish Islamic Academy. Kielan was born Leif Karlsson in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. He first came in contact with Islam during a travel to

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

in 1963. He converted to the religion in 1984 when he also changed his legal name to Abd al Haqq Kielan, an

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

name which loosely means "humble servant of the truth". Kielan caused controversy after an interview in 2004 where he said that "it's doubtful" whether women should be entitled to their own social life outside the home. In the interview he also said that women should not be entitled to marry on their own initiative, and that "according to the

Law of Moses The Law of Moses ( ), also called the Mosaic Law, is the law said to have been revealed to Moses by God. The term primarily refers to the Torah or the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. Terminology The Law of Moses or Torah of Moses (Heb ...

, adultery is punishable by death by stoning for both the sexes".

References

1941 births People from Eskilstuna Swedish imams Converts to Islam 21st-century imams Living people {{Islam-bio-stub