Taha Abdul-Basser

Taha Abdul-Basser' is the Muslim Chaplain of Harvard University.

Abdul-Basser grew up in New York City and graduated form Harvard College in 1998.He studied at traditional Islamic schools in Yemen and is now a Ph.D. candidate in the Department Of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard working on a dissertation on post-formative Islamic ethics and traditional Arabic literary theory. He lives in a Boston suburb with his wife, Monifa Matthew (Harvard College `98) and their three children.

Abdul-Basser is Principal And Co-Founder of the StraightWay Ethical Advisory LLC, a consulting group offering Islamic ethical advisory consultation services to the sharia-compliant financial services sector.

In 2009 Abdul-Basser became embroiled in a controversy over whether Western and Islamic values can be compatible when he answered a question from a student AbOUT teh priciplr in Islamic law that the punishment for apostasy (converting away form the faith) is death. Abdul-Basser answered the student's question by reminding him that "Debating about religious matter is impermissible," then explaining that, “there is great wisdom (hikma) associated with the established and preserved position (capital punishment), and so, even if it makes some uncomfortable in the face of the hegemonic modern human rights discourse, one should not dismiss it out of hand." the full text of the email was published online by the Website TalkIslam.com