Sheikh Prof. Abdul Hadi Palazzi (Arabic: شيخ عبد الهادي بالاتسي‎), legally named Massimo Palazzi, is the leader of Italian Muslim Assembly and a co-founder and a co-chairman of the Islam-Israel Fellowship, based on what Palazzi believes are the authentic teachings of Muhammad as expressed in the Qur'an and the Hadith.
Palazzi was born in Rome, Italy to an Italian Catholic father who converted to Islam and a Muslim mother of Syrian descent.[1] [2] [3] After completing his secular and religious education in Rome and Cairo in 1987, he served as an Imam for the Italian Islamic Community. In addition to numerous Masters Degrees, Palazzi holds a Ph.D. in Islamic Sciences from the Institute for Islamic Studies and Research in Naples.[4]
He was appointed a member of the Board of Directors of the Italian Muslim Association in 1989, and is now its Secretary General.[5] Since 1991, he was a Director of the Cultural Institute of the Italian Islamic Community, with a program based on the development of Islamic education in Italy, refutation of fundamentalism and fanaticism, and deep involvement in inter-religious dialogue, especially with Jews and Christians, but also with Buddhists and others.
In 1997, Palazzi joined the International Council of the Root and Branch Association and his essay entitled "The Jewish-Moslem Dialogue and the Question of Jerusalem" was published by the Institute of the World Jewish Congress. He has also been a lecturer in the Department of the History of Religion at the Università della Terza Età in Velletri, near Rome.[6] [7]
In 1998, Palazzi and Dr. Asher Eder (Jerusalem) co-founded the Islam-Israel Fellowship, promoting a positive Muslim attitude towards Jews and Israel based on what Prof. Palazzi believes are the authentic teachings of Muhammad as expressed in the Qur'an and the Hadith. Prof. Palazzi serves as Muslim Co-Chairman of the Fellowship. Dr. Eder serves as the Jewish Co-Chairman. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Hadi_Palazzi

"The forced Wahabization of al-Harmayn (Mecca and Medina) and the oil wealth of the world's only Wahabi state, Saudi Arabia, has completely changed the face of the Islamic world and the way Islam is perceived by non-Muslims and even by some Muslims. Although the Saudi funded propaganda has failed to convert the majority of Sunnis to Wahabism, yet it has succeeded in creating small Wahabi oriented sectarian groups, like Ikhwan al-Muslimin, the so called Ahl-e-Hadith, and the pseudo Salafis. Some contents of that propaganda have strongly influenced the non-Wahabi Muslim perceptions of modernity and of the Judeo-Christian West, " said Sheikh Professor Abdul Hadi Palazzi, the Secretary General of the Italian Muslim Assembly , the Director of the Cultural Institute of the Italian Islamic Community, Rome, and the Co-Founder & Co-Chairman of the Islam-Israel Fellowship, Jerusalem, while delivering a lecture on "The Misinterpretation of Islam by Non-Muslims as well as Muslims", at the Persian Department of the University of Lucknow, under the joint auspices of the department and Open Space, on 28th July, 2009. With a doctorate in Islamic Sciences from the Institute for Islamic Studies and Research in Naples (by the authorization of the former Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia), and ijazzah, authorization to teach, both the Qur'anic exegesis and the Islamic Law, from the prestigious Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Prof. Palazzi backed his somewhat surprising positions with citations from the Qur'an and the traditional Muslim sources.
http://openspacelucknow.blogspot.com/2009/07/misinterpretation-of-islam-by-non.html