Hamed Abdel-Samad und Constantin Schreiber im Gespräch: With God On Their Side. Die unheilvolle Allianz von Politik und Religion

The developments in the US are shocking. In Beijing, Xi Jinping is consolidating his power with the help of Confucianism, whilst Netanyahu governs with the support of Orthodox MPs. In Europe, too, right-wing populists and anti-liberal ideologies are joining forces.

Hamed Abdel-Samad’s book offers a disturbing assessment of the current state of affairs. He fears that the Enlightenment project – the separation of power and religion – is not merely in retreat, but is drawing to a close.

Hamed Abdel-Samad, born in 1972 near Cairo, is one of the leading Western critics of religion and, in the Arab world, one of the most prominent critical intellectuals thanks to his YouTube channel. Since 2025, he has been a visiting professor at the Faculty of Law at Keio University in Tokyo. His books are all bestsellers and cause quite a stir. In 2013, a fatwa was issued against Hamed Abdel-Samad; he has been living under constant police protection ever since.

The author, journalist and former ‘Tagesschau’ newsreader Constantin Schreiber (born in 1979) was awarded the Grimme Prize in 2016. Through the German Tolerance Foundation, which he founded in 2019, he promotes intercultural exchange. His most recent publications with Hoffmann und Campe include the crime novel *Echnaton’s Curse* (2025), the debate book *Let’s Speak Openly!* (2024) and the *Spiegel* bestseller *A Silver Lining* (2023). His new book, *The Power of Islam*, is due to be published on 7 October 2026.