Patrick Sookhdeo

Last updated

Patrick Sookhdeo
Born (1947-03-20) 20 March 1947 (age 77)
British Guiana
Education SOAS University of London
Organisation(s) Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity
Barnabas Fund

Patrick Sookhdeo (born 20 March 1947) is a British director of the Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity and was for 22 years International Director of the Barnabas Fund. Sookhdeo is an outspoken spokesman for persecuted Christian minorities around the world. He has made many media appearances in Great Britain and is an advocate for human rights and freedom of religion.

Contents

Sookhdeo is a commentator on jihadist ideology, and has lectured British and NATO military officers on Islamic extremism. [1]

Life

Patrick Sookhdeo was born in 1947 in British Guiana (now Guyana), [1] to an originally Hindu father who had become a Muslim in order to marry Sookhdeo's Muslim mother. His family migrated to England in the late 1950s, and in 1965 the student Sookhdeo converted to Christianity. In 1967 he pursued studies at London Bible College (now the London School of Theology) [2] and went on to obtain a doctorate in 2000 from London University's School of Oriental and African Studies. [1] During that time Sookhdeo began exploring interfaith dialogue and became increasingly concerned by the brutality being leveled at Christian minorities in Islamic nations, and the Islamic death penalties for conversion from Islam. [1]

In 1975 with his wife Rosemary, Sookhdeo founded "In Contact Ministries", now called Servants Fellowship International, [3] promoting evangelism and compassionate ministries in multi-cultural urban contexts in the UK. [4] [5] During this period, Sookhdeo was also one of the organisers of the early Greenbelt Christian arts festivals. [5]

In 1989, Sookhdeo created the London-based Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity, and this saw the creation of a global database on extremist movements and ideologies whose followers were persecuting religious minorities across the Muslim world. [1] By 1991, Sookhdeo was predicting that an "Islamic storm" was on the horizon. [1] He is the International Director of the Barnabas Fund, a charity that supports persecuted Christian minorities around the world. [6]

He is the author of numerous papers and author/editor of several books, including Global Jihad: The Future in the Face of Militant Islam (reviews of which are accessible here [7] [8] [9] ) and Understanding Islamist Terrorism. Melanie Phillips reported in The Spectator that Sookhdeo received death threats following the publication of Global Jihad. [10] A number of his books have been translated into German, Romanian and Russian, and at least one book is translated into Norwegian (A Christian's Pocketguide to Islam/Den kristnes lommeguide til Islam). [11] In 2007 he participated in the international counter-jihad conference in Brussels. [12] [13]

Sookhdeo's wife, Rosemary, is the author of Secrets Behind The Burqa. [14]

Sexual assault conviction

On 10 March 2014, The Independent newspaper reported that Sookhdeo had been arrested on suspicion of sexual assault against a woman. He has denied the charges. [15] On 18 May 2014, Sookhdeo was formally charged by British police with sexual assault on a woman. He was released on police bail to appear at the Swindon Magistrates' Court later in the month. [16] Following his arrest and indictment, Barnabas UK launched an internal investigation and temporarily suspended him from his duties. In June 2014, Sookhdeo was reinstated after the board decided that there was insufficient evidence of sexual assault. Later, it was alleged that Sookhdeo had used "intimidating and manipulative" language against two prosecution witnesses. [17]

On 23 February 2015, Sookhdeo was found guilty by a majority 10-2 verdict of the jury at Swindon Crown Court on the charge of sexual assault and unanimously on the two further charges of intimidating witnesses. He was ordered to serve a three-month community sentence, and ordered to pay £3500 prosecution costs and a £60 victim surcharge. [18] [19] [20] However, he was subsequently reinstated to his positions as a trustee of Barnabas Aid International and as the International Director and CEO of the Barnabas Fund. [21] Sookhdeo’s conviction drew mixed responses from within the British Christian community and media. By contrast, the Orthodox Anglican website Virtueonline's managing editor David Virtue criticized the legal process as a travesty, asserted Sookhdeo's innocence, and cited concerns about the complainant's behaviour and inconsistencies in her testimony. [22]

On 21 November 2015, Patrick Sookhdeo was arrested by the Metropolitan Police at Heathrow Airport on suspicion of indecent assault. [23] The following day, Sookhdeo resigned from all roles at Barnabas Aid International and Barnabas Fund due to the media publicity around his arrest. [24] In February 2016, the trustees of the Barnabas Fund defended Patrick Sookhdeo and announced his intention to appeal the conviction. [20] They reported that twelve senior Anglican figures had concluded after looking at the evidence that "there had been a concerted move to take Patrick Sookhdeo down and destroy the Barnabas Fund." [20] It also described Sookhdeo's arrest by armed officers from the Metropolitan Police at Heathrow after an 'all ports' alert had been issued for him, even though for a month prior, he had been living in his own home 100 metres from the police station which prompted the arrest. [20]

In early March 2016, it was reported that Patrick Sookhdeo was facing historical sexual assault charges against a woman dating back to 1977. [25] On 4 April 2016, Sookhdeo appeared in the Thames District Court where he was arraigned on one count of indecent assault on a woman aged 16 or over in Plaistow, East London, in 1977. At Snaresbrook Crown Court the jury unanimously found him not guilty on 2 August 2018. [26] [27]

Criticism and praise

Hamza A. Bajwa, News Editor of The Muslim Weekly , has criticised Sookhdeo, claiming that he presents a distorted image of Islam and Muslims, [28] [29] [30] and Mehdi Hasan in The Guardian accused him of being a "crude, anti-Islam propagandist". [31] Against this, Sheikh Dr Muhammed Al-Husseini, a Muslim scholar from the interfaith organisation Scriptural Reasoning, has said of Sookhdeo: "It is an absolute pleasure to be with somebody who is a very highly valued colleague, a deeply trusted colleague and for whose work I have the highest regard." [30] [32] A joint statement in support of Sookhdeo was also published by Muhammed Al-Husseini and Islamic thinker and reformer Tawfik Hamid as a response to the Guardian article. [33]

Works

Books and booklets

Co-authored or contributed

Edited

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al-Qaeda</span> Pan-Islamic Sunni Jihadist terrorist organization (established 1988)

Al-Qaeda is a pan-Islamist militant organization led by Sunni Jihadists who self-identify as a vanguard spearheading a global Islamist revolution to unite the Muslim world under a supra-national Islamic caliphate. Its membership is mostly composed of Arabs, but also includes people from other ethnic groups. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian, economic and military targets of the US and its allies; such as the 1998 US embassy bombings, the USS Cole bombing and the September 11 attacks. The organization is designated as a terrorist group by NATO, UN Security Council, the European Union, and various countries around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Persecution</span> Systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another individual or group

Persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another individual or group. The most common forms are religious persecution, racism, and political persecution, though there is naturally some overlap between these terms. The inflicting of suffering, harassment, imprisonment, internment, fear or pain are all factors that may establish persecution, but not all suffering will necessarily establish persecution. The threshold of severity has been a source of much debate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abu Hamza al-Masri</span> Egyptian-born British Islamist terrorist incarcerated in a US federal prison

Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, also known as Abu Hamza al-Masri, or simply Abu Hamza, is an Egyptian cleric who was the imam of Finsbury Park Mosque in London, England, where he preached Islamic fundamentalist views.

Abdullah el-Faisal is a Jamaican Muslim cleric who preached in the United Kingdom until he was convicted of stirring up racial hatred and urging his followers to murder Jews, Hindus, Christians, Americans and other "unbelievers".

Qutbism is an exonym that refers to the beliefs and ideology of Sayyid Qutb, a leading Islamist revolutionary of the Muslim Brotherhood who was executed by the Egyptian government in 1966. Influenced by the doctrines of earlier Islamists like Hasan al-Banna and Maududi, Qutbism advocates armed Jihad to establish Islamic government, in addition to promoting offensive Jihad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Religious violence</span> Violence practiced in the name of religion

Religious violence covers phenomena in which religion is either the subject or the object of violent behavior. All the religions of the world contain narratives, symbols, and metaphors of violence and war. Religious violence is violence that is motivated by, or in reaction to, religious precepts, texts, or the doctrines of a target or an attacker. It includes violence against religious institutions, people, objects, or events. Religious violence does not exclusively include acts which are committed by religious groups, instead, it includes acts which are committed against religious groups.

Dawah is the act of inviting people to Islam. The plural is daʿwāt (دَعْوات) or daʿawāt (دَعَوات).

Religious fanaticism, or religious extremism, is a pejorative designation used to indicate uncritical zeal or obsessive enthusiasm that is related to one's own, or one's group's, devotion to a religion – a form of human fanaticism that could otherwise be expressed in one's other involvements and participation, including employment, role, and partisan affinities. Historically, the term was applied in Christian antiquity to denigrate non-Christian religions, and subsequently acquired its current usage with the Age of Enlightenment.

The Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity (ISIC) is an independent non-profit academic institute which looks at the study of Islam, Christianity and Muslim-Christian relations.

The Global Relief Foundation (GRF), also known as Foundation Secours Mondial (FSML), was an Islamic charity based in Bridgeview, Illinois, until it was raided and shut down on December 14, 2001, and listed among the "Designated Charities and Potential Fundraising Front Organizations for Foreign Terrorist Organizations" ("DCPFFOFTO") by the United States Treasury Department in 2002. According to the US Treasury, "The Global Relief Foundation (GRF) … and its officers and directors have connections to, and have provided support for and assistance to, Osama bin Laden (OBL), al Qaeda (aQ), and other known terrorist groups (OKTG)." It was one of the few organizations registered with the Taliban.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jihadism</span> Islamist movements for jihad

Jihadism is a neologism for militant Islamic movements that are perceived as existentially threatening to the West. It has been applied to various insurgent Islamic extremist, militant Islamist, and terrorist individuals and organizations whose ideologies are based on the Islamic notion of lesser jihad from the classical interpretation of Islam. It has also been applied to various Islamic empires in history, such as the Rashidun and Umayyad caliphates of the early Muslim conquests, and the Ottoman Empire, who extensively campaigned against non-Muslim nations in the name of jihad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islamic extremism</span> Extreme or radical form of Islam

Islamic extremism, Islamist extremism or radical Islam refers a set of extremist beliefs, behaviors and ideology within Islam. These terms remain contentious, encompassing a spectrum of definitions, ranging from academic interpretations to the notion that all ideologies other than Islam have failed and are inferior. Furthermore, these terms may extend to encompass other sects of Islam that do not share such extremist views.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Religion in Saudi Arabia</span>

Islam is the state religion of Saudi Arabia.

Colleen Renée LaRose, also known as Jihad Jane and Fatima LaRose, is an American citizen who was convicted and sentenced to 10 years for terrorism-related crimes, including conspiracy to commit murder and providing material support to terrorists.

The use of politically and religiously-motivated violence dates back to the early history of Islam. Islam has its origins in the behavior, sayings, and rulings of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, his companions, and the first caliphs in the 7th, 8th, and 9th centuries CE. Mainstream Islamic law stipulates detailed regulations for the use of violence, including corporal and capital punishment, as well as regulations on how, when, and whom to wage war against.

From the time of Muhammad, the final prophet of Islam, many Muslim states and empires have been involved in warfare. The concept of jihad, the religious duty to struggle, has long been associated with struggles for promoting a religion, although some observers refer to such struggle as "the lesser jihad" by comparison with inner spiritual striving. Islamic jurisprudence on war differentiates between illegitimate and legitimate warfare and prescribes proper and improper conduct by combatants. Numerous conquest wars as well as armed anti-colonial military campaigns were waged as jihads.

Counter-jihad, also known as the counter-jihad movement, is a self-titled political current loosely consisting of authors, bloggers, think tanks, street movements and so on linked by beliefs that view Islam not as a religion but as an ideology that constitutes an existential threat to Western civilization. Consequently, counter-jihadists consider all Muslims as a potential threat, especially when they are already living within Western boundaries. Western Muslims accordingly are portrayed as a "fifth column", collectively seeking to destabilize Western nations' identity and values for the benefit of an international Islamic movement intent on the establishment of a caliphate in Western countries. The counter-jihad movement has been variously described as anti-Islamic, Islamophobic, inciting hatred against Muslims, and far-right. Influential figures in the movement include the bloggers Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer in the US, and Geert Wilders and Tommy Robinson in Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Golding</span> Political party leader of Britain First (born 1982)

Paul Golding is a British political leader who has served as the leader of Britain First, a far-right political party in the United Kingdom. He grew up in Erith.

Starting in the mid-1970s and 1980s, Salafism and Wahhabism — along with other Sunni interpretations of Islam favored by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf monarchies — achieved a "preeminent position of strength in the global expression of Islam."

The International Civil Liberties Alliance (ICLA) is an international counter-jihad organization that was originally founded in 2006, and which has spanned over twenty countries. Central to the organization has been Edward S. May of the Gates of Vienna blog, Alain Wagner and Christine Brim.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Parkinson, Tony (15 October 2004). "Islam, the West, and the need for honesty". The Age.
  2. ↑ "Sookhdeo leaflet" (PDF). Diocese of Exeter.[ permanent dead link ]
  3. ↑ "Servants Fellowship International, Charity Number 280859". Archived from the original on 18 February 2009. Retrieved 3 August 2011.
  4. ↑ "Persecuted Church" (PDF). Grosvenor Church Headquarters Quarterly. October–November 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 February 2021.
  5. 1 2 "Thirty" (PDF). Greenbelt Festivals. 2003. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 December 2010.
  6. ↑ Petre, Jonathan (18 December 2004). "Charles fights death penalty for converts". Daily Telegraph.
  7. ↑ "A review of Global Jihad. By Patrick Sookhdeo". CultureWatch. 12 November 2008. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
  8. ↑ "History News Network". hnn.us. Archived from the original on 9 July 2013. Retrieved 3 February 2022.
  9. ↑ "The Future In The Face Of Militant Islam". www.newenglishreview.org. Retrieved 7 November 2020.[ permanent dead link ]
  10. ↑ "Beware the New Axis of Evangelicals and Islamists". The Spectator. 4 March 2009. Archived from the original on 16 April 2009.
  11. ↑ "Den kristnes lommeguide til islam". Luther Forlag. Archived from the original on 24 July 2011.
  12. ↑ Othen, Christopher (2018). Soldiers of a Different God: How the Counter-Jihad Movement Created Mayhem, Murder and the Trump Presidency. Amberley. p. 103. ISBN   9781445678009.
  13. ↑ "Counter Jihad Brussels: 18-19 October 2007". International Civil Liberties Alliance. 20 October 2007.
  14. ↑ Rosemary, Sookhdeo (2008). Secrets Behind the Burqa. Isaac. ISBN   978-0978714147.
  15. ↑ Owen, Joseph; Milmo, Cahal (21 March 2014). "Exclusive: Controversial pastor arrested on suspicion of sexual assault" . The Independent. Archived from the original on 25 May 2022. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
  16. ↑ Owen, Jonathan (18 May 2014). "Head of Christian charity Patrick Sookhdeo faces sex assault charge" . The Independent. Archived from the original on 25 May 2022. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
  17. ↑ "Christian charity boss Patrick Sookhdeo denies groping women". Western Daily Press. 17 February 2015. Archived from the original on 23 February 2015.
  18. ↑ "Barnabas founder Patrick Sookdheo guilty of sexual assault". BBC News. 23 February 2015. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  19. ↑ James, Sam Burne. "Patrick Sookhdeo of Barnabas Aid International found guilty of sexual assault". Third Sector. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  20. 1 2 3 4 "Hard Pressed on Every Side: Challenges Faced by Barnabas Fund and Patrick Sookhdeo" (PDF). Barnabas Fund. 15 January 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 February 2016. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
  21. ↑ Woods, Mark (11 August 2015). "Patrick Sookhdeo: Why the Barnabas Fund's founder should keep silence". Christian Today . Retrieved 13 April 2016.
  22. ↑ Virtue, David (8 December 2015). "Dr Patrick Sookhdeo: The Story behind the Story, the Trial, Guilty Verdict, and Public Vilification". Virtueonline. Archived from the original on 16 May 2016. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
  23. ↑ Woods, Mark (24 November 2015). "Barnabas Fund's Patrick Sookhdeo arrested on suspicion of indecent assault". Christian Today. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
  24. ↑ Jones, Marcus (23 November 2015). "Patrick Sookhdeo steps down from Barnabas Fund". Premier. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
  25. ↑ "Patrick Sookhdeo: Man, 68, charged with sexual assault on woman almost 40 years ago". Daily Express . 4 March 2016.
  26. ↑ Premier (3 August 2018). "Founder of Christian charity cleared of assault charges - Premier". Premier. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  27. ↑ "Barnabas Fund founder Dr Patrick Sookhdeo in unanimous "not guilty" verdict: we reveal the facts". Anglican Mainstream. 8 August 2018. Archived from the original on 14 October 2018.
  28. ↑ "Sookhdeo's Paranoia of 'Global Jihad'". Archived from the original on 7 December 2010. Retrieved 20 February 2009.
  29. ↑ Jihad & Terrorism - Does Islam Need to be Reformed? (15 Dec 2007)
  30. 1 2 "Unbelievable? 3 Sep 2011". Premier Christian Radio. 3 September 2011. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  31. ↑ Hassan, Mehdi (8 September 2011). "How the fear of being criminalised has forced Muslims into silence". The Guardian.
  32. ↑ "Scriptural Reasoning website". Scriptural Reasoning. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
  33. ↑ Al-Hussaini, Muhammad; Hamid, Tawfil. "Statement in Support of Dr Patrick Sookhdeo" (PDF). Tawfik Hamid. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 January 2013. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.