Hamza Andreas Tzortzis

Hamza Andreas Tzortzis is a British Muslim speaker, researcher and author of Greek descent, born in 1980 as Andreas Tzortzis. He embraced Islam in 2002 and became known for public lectures and debates in defence of Islam in Britain and abroad, and for his book The Divine Reality: God, Islam and the Mirage of Atheism (2016). He was a senior researcher with the Islamic Education and Research Academy (iERA) before joining the Sapience Institute in 2020. ^{1 2}

He was born in 1980 to Greek parents, his family hailing from the village of Raveni in northern Greece, and converted to Islam in 2002. He holds a Master of Arts and a Postgraduate Certificate in Philosophy from the University of London. ^{1 2}

Tzortzis was a senior researcher for a 2010 iERA survey of non-Muslims' views of Islam in the United Kingdom, which reported that three-quarters of non-Muslims believed Islam was negative for Britain. ¹

He has been a guest speaker in the United Kingdom and Australia, contributed to the BBC discussion programmes The Big Questions and Newsnight, and was a finalist for Religious Advocate of the Year at the British Muslim Awards in 2015. He stepped down from his role at iERA and joined the Sapience Institute as of 2020. ¹

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

Press descriptions and his response. Andrew Gilligan described Tzortzis in a 2010 Telegraph article as "a former researcher for the hardline Hittin Institute" who "chaired the launch event of iERA," an organisation he described as hosting well-known British Muslim extremists. Tzortzis calls such descriptions misrepresentations and lies. ¹

The Keele cancellation. After Keele University cancelled a speech by Tzortzis, the Stoke Sentinel called him a "radical Islamic speaker" and a former member of Hizb ut-Tahrir. ¹

His stated positions. He has stated that he does not believe in apostasy laws, which he calls "outdated"; he criticises child marriage, opposes extremism, and has described the Islamic State as "spiritually diseased, sick people." Nevertheless, India's National Investigation Agency named him in a 2016 chargesheet against Islamic State suspects as having directly or indirectly influenced them. He has also said that, while he still sees homosexuality as "sinful" in the eyes of God, he condemns any violence towards the homosexual community. ¹

Academic discussion of his book. Stefano Bigliardi examined Tzortzis's discussion of science in The Divine Reality in an article in the journal Zygon (2024). ¹

His principal book is The Divine Reality: God, Islam and the Mirage of Atheism (FB Publishing, 2016), translated into Arabic the same year (Markaz Dalil, translated by Naif al-Mal) and into Bengali in 2020. ¹

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