Dr. Tarek Elgawhary is a teacher, writer, and scholar of comparative religions and Islamic studies. He is the founder of the Making Sense of Islam platform dedicated to developing tools to help Muslims connect and be present with their beliefs and daily practices.
Tarek currently serves as the General Director of the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought (Amman), Professor of Shafi‘i Fiqh at the WISE University, the US representative for the General Secretariat for Fatwa Authorities Worldwide, and the scholar-in-residence of the Islamic Community Center of Potomac. In these various capacities he teaches, lectures, and writes about normative Sunni Islam and how it is expressed and practiced in the modern world.
Tarek’s educational background is a bit unorthodox and eclectic. He spent his western education in the space of comparative religions, having earned a BA in comparative religions with a focus on Jewish studies, and an MA in a specialized program focusing on Islam and Hinduism (both from the George Washington University). Tarek’s graduate studies culminated with his PhD, from Princeton University in Islamic law. Tarek was also trained at al-Azhar Seminary in Cairo, Egypt between 2003-2007 where he studied and was licensed in the traditional Islamic sciences.