Shabbir Akhtar

Shabbir Akhtar (born 1960) is a British-Pakistani philosopher, poet, researcher and writer. He is on the Faculty of Theology and Religions at the University of Oxford. His interests include political Islam, Quranic interpretation, revival of philosophical discourse in Islam, the thought of Søren Kierkegaard, Islamophobia, extremism and inter-faith dialogue as well as Islamic readings of the New Testament. His articles have appeared both in academic journals and in the UK press. Several of his books have been translated into the major Islamic languages.

Shabbir Akhtar
Born1960
Pakistan
NationalityBritish
OccupationPhilosopher
Writer

Personal life

Shabbir Akhtar was born in Pakistan, raised in Bradford in the United Kingdom and went to Canada for higher education.

Education

After studying philosophy (BA and MA degrees) at the University of Cambridge, Shabbir got a PhD in philosophy of religion from the University of Calgary (1984), his thesis being entitled: "Religion in the Age of Reason: Faith and the Apostasy of Humanism."

Career
  • 1994 to 1997 – Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the International Islamic University, Malaysia
  • 2002 to 2011 – Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Old Dominion University, USA
  • 2012 to present – Member of the Faculty of Theology and Religions at the Oxford University, UK
  • 2012 to present – Research Associate, Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies, Oxford.

His 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
  • Reason and the Radical Crisis of Faith, New York: Peter Lang, 1987, 281 p.
  • The Mother of Judas Iscariot and Other Poems, London: Regency, 1988, 36 p.
  • Be Careful with Muhammad!: The Salman Rushdie Affair, London: Bellew, 1989, 136 p.
  • A Season in the Ghetto: Collected Poems, London: Regency, 1989, 48 p.
  • The Light in the Enlightenment: Christianity and the Secular Heritage, London: Grey Seal, 1990, 213 p.
  • A Faith for All Seasons: Islam and the Challenge of the Modern World, London: Bellew, 1990, Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1991, 251 p.
  • The Final Imperative: An Islamic Theology of Liberation, London: Bellew, 1991, 116 p.
  • Muslim Poetic Imagination, London: Scorpion, 1992, 87 p.
  • The Muslim Parents' Handbook: What Every Muslim Parent Should Know, London: Ta-Ha Publications, 1993, 120 p.
  • Love in the Wrong Season: Collected Poems, London: Melisende, 2000, 77 p.
  • The Quran and the Secular Mind: A Philosophy of Islam, London: Routledge, 2008, 400 p.
  • Islam as Political Religion: The Future of an Imperial Faith, London: Routledge, 2010, 301 p.
  • The New Testament in Muslim Eyes: Paul's Letter to the Galatians, London: Routledge, 2018, 284 p.

Journal articles
  • "Religious Messages and Cultural Myths", Sophia, Vol.25, No.3 (1986), pp. 32–40.
  • "The Virtues of Fundamentalist Exegesis", Scottish Journal of Religious Studies, Vol.9, No.2 (1988), pp. 41–49.
  • "Is there an Epistemic Parity Between Faith and Rejection?", The Southern Journal of Philosophy, Vol.26, No.3 (1988), pp. 293–305.
  • "Miracles as Evidence for the Existence of God", Scottish Journal of Religious Studies, Vol.11, No. 1, Spring (1990), pp. 18–23.
  • "Faust and the New Idolaters: Reflections on shirk", Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, Vol.1, No.2 (1990), pp. 252–260.
  • "An Islamic Model of Revelation", Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, Vol.2, No.1 (1991), pp. 95–105.
  • "The possibility of a philosophy of Islam", History of Islamic Philosophy (Edited by Seyyed Hossein Nasr and Oliver Leaman), Routledge (1996), pp 2065-2077.
  • "The Dialogue of Islam and the World Faiths: The Role of Speculative Philosophy", Philosophy Bridging the World Religions, Kluwer Academic Publishers (2003), pp 21-37.
  • "Finding and Following Jesus: The Muslim Claim to the Messiah", Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research (2018).
  • "Can an Islamic Natural Theology Explain God’s Silence Today?", Renovatio, Fall 2019, pp 1-14.
gollark: Anyway, this should demonstrate Tux1's alternatecy excellently.
gollark: ```coqTheorem gollarks_alts : forall (alt : Tux1), owner alt = gollark.Proof. intro. simpl. reflexivity. Qed.```
gollark: Give me a minute.
gollark: Okay, I can do this mathematically.
gollark: https://wiki.mondecitronne.com/wiki/POOT-421I mean, *really*?

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. Michael M. J. Fischer, Mehdi Abedi. Debating Muslims: Cultural Dialogues in Postmodernity and Tradition. Univ of Wisconsin Press (1990): p. 390.
  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. Review of Shabbir Akhtar, The Quran and the Secular Mind: A Philosophy of Islam – Springer
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