Salmann Tamimi
Salmann Tamimi was a founding member of the Association Iceland-Palestine and the Association of Muslims in Iceland.
Biography
Salmann was born in 1955 in the West Bank and grew up in Wadi El Joz in east Jerusalem. His father was Salim Abu Khaled al Tamimi, a businessman and passionate activist, and his mother Salim's second wife Nazima abu Rajabb al Tamimi; his elder siblings are, in order of age, Younes, Rawda, Safah, Amneh, along with his younger sister Amal. Younes moved to Iceland in 1966, Amneh some years later, and Salmann in 1971, at the age of sixteen. He had been travelling to the US but stopped over in Iceland to see his brother Younes and decided to stay.Salmann's first partner was Þórstína Björg Þorsteinsdóttir, with whom he had María Björg Tamimi and Nadia Tamimi. In the mid-1980s, he married Ingibjörg Sigurjónsdóttir, with whom he had Yousef Ingi Tamimi, Rakel Dögg Tamimi and Nazima Kristín Tamimi; the couple have five children together.
Salmann worked as a sailor and in construction before completing his studies in computer science at the University of Iceland. He then worked for Iceland's national hospital but was dismissed in 2006. In 2012, the Supreme Court of Iceland found that his dismissal was illegal.
In the later 1970s and 1990s, Salmann lived in Sweden. He now lives in Breiðholt in Reykjavík.
Family conflict
Salmann assisted his sister Amal and her children to move to Iceland in 1995, where Amal became the second foreign-born person to sit in the Icelandic parliament. Later, Amal accused Salmann to disown her over her partnership with an Icelandic man. According to Amal, Salmann tried to persuade Icelandic authorities to have her judged as an unfit mother. Amal claims that Salmann felt her daughters were not safe in her home because of her relationship with a Christian man. However, this has been disputed. Although Amal did start relationship with Icelandic man, the man was Salman’s former son-in-law, which resulted in Salman disowning her. In 2014, Amal said that she and Salmann are not on speaking terms.Political life
In 1987, Salmann founded the Association Iceland-Palestine. On 24 July 2014, Salmann made the headlines in Iceland for his comment on Israel at a Jerusalem Post news article about the funeral of Israeli soldiers: "To hell inshallah. Your friends will follow u. Victory to Hamas and Jihad Islami." Many condemned his remarks.In the 2014 municipal elections, Salmann was a candidate for Dögun. Salmann, however, has close ties with Björk Vilhelmsdóttir, a prominent member of the Social Democratic Alliance. Björk is married to Sveinn Rúnar Hauksson, chairman of the Association Iceland-Palestine.
Religious life
In 1997, Salmann founded the Association of Muslims in Iceland, being succeeded as its chair in 2010 by Ibrahim Sverrir Agnarsson. The Association of Muslims in Iceland has a mosque in Ármúli in Reykjavík, where Salmann is one of two imams.Since founding the Association of Muslims in Iceland Salmann has become one of the foremost spokesmen for Muslims in Iceland, making numerous media appearances both in Iceland and abroad. One issue on which he had a prominent role was the building of a new mosque in Reykjavik. In 2010, Salmann said that the Association of Muslims in Iceland would never raise funds abroad to build a mosque; by accepting funds abroad one jeopardised losing the reins of control. His successor, however, said that funds for the mosque would be raised abroad, including Muslims in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.