In 2006, at the age of eighteen, Benhaddou became the youngest Flemish imam up to that point. He is committed to the fight against radicalization of Muslims in the Western world. As a connecting figure, he tries to counter polarizing tendencies in society and to reconcile Western values of the Enlightenment with the values from the Koran. According to him, human rights can be a frame of reference for social consensus and the basis for all religions. Khalid is a director at the Flemish Peace Institute and a member of the Medical Ethics Committee of Ghent University Hospital. In 2019 he was appointed as assignment holder Diversity at Ghent University. Benhaddou (co-)wrote a number of opinion books, including Is this now Islam? (2016) and is co-author of Halal or not? (2018) and Lost in enlightenment (2019). A series of conversations between Paul Cliteur, Rik Torfs and himself, moderated by Lisbeth Imbo, were transcribed and published in 2017 in Is God still allowed - A liberal, a Christian and a Muslim in conversation.
- Photo by Jef Boes
