Shabbir Akhtar

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Shabbir Akhtar
Shabbir Akhtar.jpg
Born1960
Died(2023-07-24)July 24, 2023 (aged 63)
NationalityBritish
EducationUniversity of Cambridge
University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Occupation(s)Philosopher
Writer
Poet
Multilingual scholar
Website www.shabbirakhtar.com

Shabbir Akhtar was a British Muslim philosopher, poet, researcher, writer and multilingual scholar. He was on the Faculty of Theology and Religions at the University of Oxford. His interests included political Islam, Quranic exegesis, revival of philosophical discourse in Islam, Islamophobia, extremism, terrorism and Christian-Muslim relations as well as Islamic readings of the New Testament. Shabbir Akhtar was also a Søren Kierkegaard scholar. Akhtar's articles have appeared both in academic journals and in the UK press. Several of his books have been translated into the major Islamic languages.

Contents

Early life and education

Shabbir Akhtar was born in Pakistan, raised in Bradford in the United Kingdom. After studying philosophy (BA and MA degrees) at University of Cambridge, Shabbir Akhtar got his PhD in philosophy of religion from University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada (1984), his thesis being "Religion in the Age of Reason: Faith and the Apostasy of Humanism."[ citation needed ]

Career

Shabbir Akhtar's first book, Reason and the Radical Crisis of Faith (1987), on the possibilities and complexities of upholding faith in a secular society, was described by anti-theist author Keith Parsons as "to be widely read. He argues with insight, wit, and lucidity. His arguments gain a special cogency from the scrupulous fairness with which Akhtar treats those whom he criticizes." [1]

After the publication of The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie, Akhtar represented the Bradford Council of Mosques in the ensuing media interest in the reactions of the Muslim community in the United Kingdom. On 27 February 1989 he published an article in The Guardian , in which he stated: "there is no choice in the matter. Anyone who fails to be offended by Rushdie's book ipso facto ceases to be a Muslim...Those Muslims who find it intolerable to live in a United Kingdom contaminated with the Rushdie virus need to seriously consider the Islamic alternatives of emigration ( hijrah ) to the House of Islam or a declaration of holy war ( jihād ) on the House of Rejection." [2] The article also included the much-quoted sentence: "The next time there are gas chambers in Europe, there is no doubt concerning who'll be inside them." [3]

In the mid-1990s, he taught philosophy in Malaysia but came back disillusioned of the belief that a majority Muslim society would really pursue reason in education. [4]

Recently, he has published books that are philosophical in approach and strident in presenting a certain point of view and trying to lay the foundation of modern Islamic philosophy. [5]

Publications

Books in English

Books translated into French

Books translated into Bosnian

Books translated into Indonesian

Book Contributions

Book reviews

Journal articles

Non-academic articles

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References

  1. Keith M. Parsons , "Reason and the Radical Crisis of Faith. Shabbir Akhtar ," The Journal of Religion 69, no. 2 (Apr. 1989): 273.
  2. Fischer, Michael M. J.; Abedi, Mehdi (1990). Debating Muslims: Cultural Dialogues in Postmodernity and Tradition. Univ of Wisconsin Press. p. 390. ISBN   978-0-299-12434-2.
  3. See Malise Ruthven "Islam in the Media" in Interpreting Islam Ed. Hastings Donnan. SAGE Publications (2002): p. 74; Kenan Malik. From Fatwa to Jihad. Atlantic Books, London (2009): p. 131
  4. Subki Bin Ahmad (29 September 1997). "Cooperative society". Times Higher Education . Retrieved 16 November 2013.
  5. Kersten, Carool (2010). "Review of Shabbir Akhtar, the Quran and the Secular Mind: A Philosophy of Islam". Sophia. 49 (3): 447–450. doi:10.1007/s11841-010-0194-4.