Tariq Al-Suwaidan

Tareq Mohammed Al-Suwaidan is a Kuwaiti researcher, author, Islamic preacher, historian and media figure, and a trainer in management and leadership, born in Kuwait. He became known for television programmes on Islamic history, thought, self-development and leadership, and the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre listed him among The Muslim 500 most influential Muslims in 2022, 2023 and 2024. ^{1 2}

He is a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, and was general manager of Al-Resalah satellite television from 2006 until its owner, Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, dismissed him in 2013. ¹

The sources give two dates for his birth: the Arabic article and Wikidata give 15 November 1953 in Kuwait, while the English article gives 15 September 1953; the museum records the Arabic article's date and states the disagreement openly. ^{1 2}

Al-Suwaidan was trained in the classical Islamic sciences in his youth, and lived and studied in the United States from the age of seventeen for twenty years. He took a bachelor's degree in petroleum and natural gas engineering from Penn State University in 1975, a master's in petroleum engineering from the University of Tulsa in 1982 with honours, and a doctorate in petroleum engineering from the same university in 1990, also with honours. ^{2 1}

He began in the oil sector: reservoir-engineering supervisor at the Kuwaiti Ministry of Oil from 1975 to 1977, and assistant professor at Kuwait's College of Technological Studies from 1977 to 2001. He has chaired the Gulf Innovation Group (Innovation Group) since 2001 and has worked as a professional trainer in personal development and general management since 1992. ¹

In media he became a television personality who prepared and presented many Islamic programmes on subjects from Qur'an broadcasting and stories of the Prophet ﷺ to notable women and Andalusian history; his shows aired on Kuwait Television, the First Channel, Space Channel and MBC. ²

Al-Suwaidan was general manager of Al-Resalah Satellite TV, the brainchild of Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal. In August 2013 Prince Talal fired him, writing on his account that he had sacked Tarek Al-Suwaidan "for admitting he belongs to the Brotherhood movement", and writing to him that there was no place for a Muslim Brotherhood member on the channel; the prince also criticised him as having "extremist inclinations". ^{2 1}

In 2014 the Saudi authorities banned the sale of his books and Salman al-Ouda's in the kingdom; before that he had also been barred from the Makkah pilgrimage. ²

Al-Suwaidan was one of the founders of the American Creativity Academy in Kuwait, a private institution offering an American college-preparatory education within the context of Islamic values, and was its general manager from 1997 to 2001. ^{2 1}

He is also a founder of the Advanced Generations School (AGS) in Saudi Arabia, a Canadian school with an Islamic identity whose students study English under the Canadian curriculum alongside Islamic and Arabic classes, and co-founder of the Etqan Global Academy (EGA) in Qatar, an accredited International Baccalaureate school built on sixty thousand square metres in the Al Kheesa area. ^{2 1}

He has delivered courses and lectures to dozens of bodies in Kuwait, the Gulf, the Arab world, Malaysia, Europe, America and Australia, and, according to the Arabic article, has trained more than fifty thousand trainees. ¹

Al-Suwaidan is the author of 54 books and spoken-word audio albums, and several of his books have been translated into English and French. ²

His historical and Islamic works, as the sources list them, include Palestine: The Illustrated History; Andalusia: The Illustrated History; The Jews: The Illustrated Encyclopedia (2009); Great Women in Islam; biographies of the four imams — Imam Abu Hanifa An-Numan, Imam Malik, Imam Al-Shafi'i and Imam Ahmad Ibn-Hanbal; The Illustrated History of Islam; Stories of the Prophets in Al-Quran; Secrets of Hajj and Umrah; and A Concise Summary of Islamic Creed. ^{1 2}

His management and development books include Skills of Influencing, The Art of Giving, Revisiting Our Concepts, The School of Life, Leadership in the Twenty-First Century, Making the Leader and Time Management. ^{1 2}

His audio and television series include Stories of the Prophets, The Eternal Biography (al-Sira al-Khalida), The History of Andalusia, Eternal Women, Masterpieces of Stories, Life Taught Me, Winds of Change, Making Success, and Making the Leader on Al-Resalah. ¹

This section sets out different positions as reported in the sources. It is not a verdict by the museum.

Muslim Brotherhood membership. Al-Suwaidan is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood in Kuwait, was described in US State Department cables as a "moderate Islamist", and supported the Brotherhood against the 2013 military coup in Egypt. ^{2 1}

Women's rights. He is a strong supporter of women's rights within Islamic sharia law and took part in the Doha Debates arguing for women's political and social rights, saying there: "Women are equal to men. This is the basis of Sharia"; he called forced marriages "un-Islamic". ²

Other reported positions. He condemned the 9/11 terrorists, saying they are dangerous to themselves, to the Arab world, to the Islamic world and to Islam itself, and he is a signatory of A Common Word, the open letter from Muslim scholars to Christian leaders. ²

Bans and listings. He was subsequently banned from the United States, according to the English article. In May 2007 US federal prosecutors listed him among unindicted co-conspirators in the terrorism-financing case against the Holy Land Foundation; a federal court later ruled that the list of unindicted co-conspirators should not have been released to the public. ²

In November 2014 the Belgian government banned him from a Muslim fair in Brussels; its prime minister and interior minister said he held "unacceptable anti-Semitic beliefs", resting on a July 2014 sermon quoted in the article. Al-Suwaidan wrote that the ban came "under pressure from the Zionist Lobby" and that its reason was his candid position on Zionism and the crimes of the Israeli occupation. ²

In statements quoted in the article he urged young people to undertake what he calls "electronic jihad" against Israeli and Zionist websites. In a January 2022 interview with Al-Estiklal he spoke of cultural diversity and integration in Europe as part of an Islamic philosophy that did not erase the cultures of others. ²

The English article reports, citing media outlets and BBC News Arabic of 7 December 2025, that a Kuwaiti Emiri decree was issued withdrawing the citizenship of Tariq Al-Suwaidan, amid an ongoing process of withdrawing Kuwaiti citizenship in batches since the previous year. The Arabic article likewise records the government decree of December 2025 and lists him as stateless from 2025, his citizenship having been Kuwaiti until that year. The museum records this as a report carried by its sources, not as a fact it has verified itself. ^{2 1}

He has six children, including Mafaz Al-Suwaidan, as the sources state; the museum publishes no further family detail. ^{2 1}

His programmes aired on several Arab channels, he has written dozens of books, several translated, and he was listed among The Muslim 500 for three consecutive years (2022–2024) — ranks and figures the sources carry with their dates. ² His own published videos direct viewers to his official YouTube channel, @dralsuwaidan, alongside his official website — the channel that carries his history, management and leadership programmes. ³

In the first episode of his Practical Administration course on Assabile, al-Suwaidan describes his scholarly project in management: he is writing — unpublished so far — a rewriting of the science of management on the philosophy of tawhid and the principle of following the Prophet, using Muhammad al-Ashqar's thirteen-role classification of the Prophet's acts in Af'al al-Rasul wa-Dilalatuha ala al-Ahkam al-Shar'iyya. ^{4 5} He mentions having written about seven strategic plans for companies in the preceding three years, and that he adjusts Pfeiffer's strategic-planning method with his own practical experience. ⁶ Among the values he says he planted in his organisations: democracy in decisions (his vote equal to any executive-committee member's), complete transparency (no secret salaries or bonuses, open budgets), the open-door principle for any employee, productivity rather than attendance as the measure, and no sectarian or gender discrimination. ^{7 8 9} He describes his consulting method: a set of questions whose answers are collected from the organisation's own people, then recast into a model with diagnosis, solutions, implementation steps and indicators — the answers and solutions coming from the people themselves. ^{10 11} He mentions a book and an album of his on 'the learning organisation', and that he delivered the course after returning from Canada; internal cues — the 2007 book Know How and the just-announced iPhone — date it to about 2007. ^{12 13 14}

In the second episode of Practical Administration, al-Suwaidan mentions that he ran the American Creativity Academy in Kuwait — a school from primary to secondary whose mission was 'the best education in the Middle East in an ethical and creative environment' — and that this sentence took six weeks to write, starting from a half-page draft. ^{15 16} He recounts that an asset-management company he worked for bought a profitable Malaysian timber firm and lost it within a year because it lay outside their core business, selling it at a ten per cent loss 'to learn their lesson'; his rule: never enter a business you do not understand. ^{17 18} He says the strategic plan of al-Resalah channel was written on his model in a single day, nine to nine, by the nominal-group method. ¹⁹ Among his rules of reward: a manager's share of profits is usually three to five per cent, half to one per cent in listed companies, and never exceeds ten per cent for someone entrusted with the whole business (needs_source: the figures are from his experience). ²⁰

In the third episode al-Suwaidan gives his personal rules of leadership: a leader does not attend more than fifty per cent of working hours; he accepts no job description for himself so that he remains a reference entitled to intervene in anything; and he keeps the financial decision — signing cheques — because watching the money reveals everything that goes on. ^{21 22 23} He mentions that he studied under Ken Blanchard, and that he ran some seventy projects in his life, all with other people's money, not his own — some won and some lost. ^{24 25} Among his declared personal rules: at his academy he rejected Arab applicants with more than ten years' experience for want of a self-development system, and he trained his daughter to own her homework by the 'your monkey' rule rather than solve it for her. ^{26 27} He declares that his own DISC pattern is 'ba' — an influencer, people-focused and fast — fifteen points ahead of his second letter. ²⁸

In the fourth episode al-Suwaidan says of himself: he does not reward his children for success in its moment but links them to the idea and the goal; he built a 'points bank' at the American Creativity Academy — points for grades, conduct and activity, redeemed for prizes including travel tickets and shares, with a prize for the most improved — instead of honouring the top students alone; he changed the academy's structure six times in three years as results outgrew the plan; and he learnt the 'ideal employee' critique from Stephen Covey. ^{29 30 31 32} He recounts that in military service he refused to be abused by an officer, telling him that whoever cursed him would be cursed alike, and passed his service without insult (personal anecdote). ³³

In the fifth episode al-Suwaidan says of himself: he redoes the field-selection table every two or three years — last time six months before; his field is thought — 'spreading the thought that uplifts the ummah' — with management supporting it; he sits to plan his life goals by the Kaaba; he keeps his goals in the organiser, scheduling a year ahead, even fourteen months; he changed specialisation after his doctorate; his memory is selective — he can reteach a whole course yet forgets some relatives' names; he reads Western nutrition books and calls himself 'the worst' at health and exercise though he eats no red meat at all and drinks diet sodas after weaning himself down from a ten-per-cent mix; he periodically visits the Jarir and Obeikan bookshops for the new translations, taking his family for hours — the ruse that made his eleven-year-old son love reading after persuasion and deterrence both failed. ^{34 35 36 37 38 39 40}

In the opening of his programme 'Al-Mubdi'un', al-Suwaidan says he lived with the lives of the greats for years as though sitting at their hands, sharing their stances and keeping vigil with their cares, until he extracted the secrets of their creativity; that he thought of naming the programme 'Secrets of the Greats'; and that his motive is a duty towards the youth, to convey these secrets not for fame and money but to contribute to building Islamic civilisation anew. ^{41 42 43}

• The defined source entities cited above, recorded in data/source/.

For the first episode on 'Islamophobia' al-Suwaidan hosted experts resident in the West — Adel Darwish, Azzam al-Tamimi, Oraib al-Rantawi, Emad Hussein, Ali al-Sawa and researcher Nur Issa — running the debate by his method: audience votes on the phenomenon, then its greatest cause, then Arab media's role ^{44 45 46 47}. The results: 51% judged it real; 55% named 'Jewish fingers' the greatest cause — surprising him; and 57% saw Arab media improving ^{48 49 50}.

Al-Suwaidan steered the maturity-versus-reactivity episode with a panel — Bassam al-Amoush, Mahmoud Rashdan, Salah al-Din al-Jurshi, Khaled Hroub, Sayyid al-Fayiz, Mahmoud Sayyid Daghim, Ma'mun Jarrar, Ahmad Izz and Samer Khayr — and four audience polls ^{51 52 53 54}. He told his famous anecdote: after his first TV programme in 1992 a woman called thanking him 'for speaking of religion while smiling' — he flipped through the channels and found there was indeed a problem of form ^{55 56}. He concluded that Islam is one with graduated levels of address — as the Prophet sent Mu'adh beginning with tawhid — that the bigger problem lies in content, and that the umma needs a reference gathering its senior scholars ^{57 58 59 60}.

Al-Suwaidan steered 'democracy: justice or despotism?' with a panel of practitioners — Ishaq al-Farhan, Munir al-Bayati, Abd al-Latif Arabiyat, Ali al-Atoum, Azzam al-Tamimi and Mahdi al-Dajani — and two polls ^{61 62}. He noted the shift from the era of 'democracy is unbelief': only 16% now see total conflict ^{63 64}. And he summarised that the dispute, after debate, narrowed to 'parliament's right to legislate' ⁶⁵.

Al-Suwaidan steered 'implementing the sharia: totality or stages?' with a sharia panel — Ahmad Nawfal, Muhammad al-Khatib, Hamza Mansur, Hayil Abd al-Hafiz and Fakhri Abu Sufiya — and two polls ^{66 67}. He noted the telling result: 69% see the concept clear in general but not in detail ⁶⁸. After the debate he concluded the generalities are agreed, the details need ijtihad and codification, and the path combines tarbiyya with participation ^{69 70 71}.

Al-Suwaidan steered 'secularism and Islam: conflict or concord?' with a panel — Omar al-Shobaki, Ammar Ali Hassan, Muhammad Jamal Hishma and supporting guests — and four polls including a viewers' SMS vote ^{72 73 74 75}. He closed by concluding the common ground is authentic to Islam, and 'centrist Islam dispenses with secularism' ^{76 77}.

Al-Suwaidan steered the patriotism-and-nationalism episode with three specialists and three polls ^{78 79 80}. In closing he confessed personal pride in his Arabness — 'I understand the Qur'an' — fixing the episode's rule: no conflict without fanaticism ^{81 82 83}.

Al-Suwaidan steered the programme's most sensitive episode — kufr and takfir — with aqida scholars and du'at, and two polls ^{84 85}. He closed affirming: the exceptions do not cancel the rule — Islam does not collide with religious freedom, and the established text is revered and applied with the etiquette of capability ^{86 87 88}.

In the takfir sequel al-Suwaidan steered 'is the ruling open or closed' with three polls ^{89 90 91} — the standout result: 88% confine issuing takfir to an official sharia body, not a single scholar or judge ⁹².

Al-Suwaidan steered the wala'-and-bara'-among-Muslims episode — the concept's most sensitive application — with several polls including disavowal of peace-with-Israel advocates (63%) and the need to regulate the concept (63%) ^{93 94 95}. The episode distilled its rule: bara' from the act, not the person ⁹⁶.

Al-Suwaidan steered the Arab-world human-rights episode with three polls ^{97 98 99} — the standouts: 69% judged the covenants worthless and only 9% endorsed international intervention.

Al-Suwaidan steered 'emigration to the West: hope or pain' with polls and brain-drain statistics he presented himself ^{100 101 102}. He closed with the cure being an attracting, not repelling, environment — good governance, rule of law, welfare ^{103 104}.

Al-Suwaidan evaluated the Arab satellite experiment with statistics he presented (79 variety, 37 government, 52% violence in children's slots) and polls ^{105 106 107 108}.

Al-Suwaidan steered the satellite-fatwa episode with scholars and polls — noting the surprise that only 15% turn to the channels' most-learned versus 42% to the academies ^{109 110}.

Al-Suwaidan steered the women's-empowerment episode with polls — the standout: only 35% fully endorsed government support while most confined it outside politics ¹¹¹.

Al-Suwaidan steered the Arab-woman-and-international-conventions episode, closing with his rule: take what lifts injustice from women, reject what collides with religion — 'and this is the wasatiyya' ^{112 113 114}.

Al-Suwaidan steered the episode on the scarcity of female symbols across history — stressing the aim was not to weaken woman but to explore how the barrier is broken ^{115 116 117}.

Al-Suwaidan steered the resistance-versus-terrorism episode, closing with his equation: the right to resist occupation is undisputed, while aiming weapons at civilians is terrorism — 'a cause of God's anger before the West's curse' ^{118 119 120 121}.

Al-Suwaidan steered the youth cultural crisis episode with polls and figures — 71% a real crisis, and the 47%/43% split on the satellites-and-internet effect ^{122 123 124}.

Al-Suwaidan devoted an episode to the youth reading crisis and its figures — 5% of the world and 1% of its books — and a poll finding busyness the weakest excuse (12%) against bad writing ^{125 126 127}.