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IIIT Mourns Dr. Hassan Hathout
Monday, April 27, 2009 :: 1039 Views
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 IIIT is greatly saddened by the loss of Hassan Hathout (1924-2009), MD, PhD, FRCOG, FRCSE, FACS, a multicultural physician, ethicist, poet, and leader of the Southern California Islamic community who died Saturday, April 25, 2009 at home in Pasadena, CA.
Dr. Hassan Hathout was born in Cairo, Egypt on Dec. 23, 1924. The son of a schoolteacher, he was educated at the University of Edinburgh where he earned the triple degrees of: Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and Doctorate of Philosophy in the field of Reproductive Genetics. Subsequent affiliations included Fellowship of the American College of Surgeons, International Federation of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and World Health Organization committee for medical ethics. Together with being a medical school Professor and Chairman of Obstetrics and Gynecology, he was an active member of the WHO committee on ethics of human reproduction, and a close affiliate to the Vatican.
He was also co-founder of the International Organization of Medical Sciences, designed with the primary goal of dissemination of God-guided medical ethics. Over the years, this organization has proven to be a valuable source of information for religious and secular communities on rapidly advancing, ethically controversial fields such as abortion, alternative medicine, genetic engineering, transplantation, and stem-cell research.
He taught obstetrics and gynecology in Kuwait, where he lived for 26 years before immigrating to the United States in the late 1980s. He quickly became involved in interfaith work in Los Angeles. With Beerman and Regas, he organized weekly prayer services for Muslims, Christians and Jews during the Persian Gulf War in 1991. The first service at All Saints in Pasadena drew more than 1,500 worshipers.
In 1998, Hathout delivered a sermon at the first White House celebration of Eid al-Fitr, the day marking the end of the Muslim holy month Ramadan. He also helped organize the Interfaith Center to Reverse the Arms Race, one of the first major inter-religious efforts in Los Angeles.
After Sept. 11, 2001, Hathout stepped up his efforts at bridge-building and called on Muslims to tone down anti-American rhetoric. He also spoke at Open Mosque Day, a program launched in 2002, in which more than two dozen mosques in Southern California invited non-Muslims to join in Islamic prayers, food and literature.
Dr Hassan Hathout’s many awards included awards from interfaith and humanitarian communities including the Jewish Christian Muslim Olive Branch for his efforts in making peace and harmony between people of different faiths, and the Initiatives of Change Life Changer award. He was author of numerous medical, ethical, and religious manuscripts, chapters, and books including: The Spirit of the Red Cross in the Teachings of Islam, The Humane Physician, Islamic Perspectives on Obstetrics and Gynecology, Reading the Muslim Mind, Thus Shall I Stand before God, and Audible Silence.
He also received ISNA community service recognition award at ISNA's west zone regional conference. In l999, the Islamic Center of Southern California conferred its American Muslim Achievement awards on Dr. Hassan Hathout.
He is survived by wife of more than fifty-six years, Salonas, a retired pathologist, his daughter, Eba, a Professor of Pediatrics at Loma Linda University Medical School in Southern California, grandchildren Sarrah and Hassaan Shahawy, and his brother Dr. Maher Hathout of the Islamic Center of Southern California.
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