His work has been translated into several languages including Arabic, Persian, Indonesian, French, Norwegian, Dutch, Russian, Vietnamese and Japanese.
[2] Abou El Fadl believes that the usuli tradition "naturally leads Islam" to an ethical humanism, or a set of ideas about justice and beauty that help to achieve God's will.
"[3] He has strongly criticised the Saudi Arabian government and has accused them of systematic torture, murder, and failing to either understand or properly implement Islamic teachings.
[5][6][7] Abou El Fadl has described the terrorism of September 11 attacks as the logical conclusion of "a puritanical and ethically oblivious form of Islam [that] has predominated since the 1970s" and been promoted by religious authorities in Saudi Arabia and other countries, including the U.S. and Europe.
[11] He would like to return to the "Golden Age of Islam" where "numerous traditions" emphasized that the "pursuit of knowledge is an act of permanent worship" and to abandon the current state of affairs where "rampant apologetics" of Muslim thinkers has "produced a culture that eschews self-critical and introspective insight and embraces projection of blame and a fantasy-like level of confidence and arrogance.
It seems clear to me that despite my background and public identity — so easily accessible to the border guards — I was profiled.”[19] Despite Abou El Fadl’s opposition to Wahhabism and fundamentalism, anti-Muslim activist Daniel Pipes has criticized him for his work with The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim civil rights organization.