Shabbir Akhtar

Shabbir Akhtar (born 1960) is a British-Pakistani Islamic 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 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 is 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.

Shabbir Akhtar
Born1960
Pakistan
NationalityBritish
OccupationIslamic Philosopher
Writer
Websitewww.shabbirakhtar.com

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 "Religion in the Age of Reason: Faith and the Apostasy of Humanism."

Career

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
  • Be Careful with Muhammad! Salman Rushdie and the Battle for Free Speech, Jakarta: Bijak, 2020, 187 p.
  • The New Testament in Muslim Eyes: Paul's Letter to the Galatians, London: Routledge, 2018, 284 p.
  • Islam as Political Religion: The Future of an Imperial Faith, London: Routledge, 2010, 301 p.
  • The Quran and the Secular Mind: A Philosophy of Islam, London: Routledge, 2008, 400 p.
  • Love in the Wrong Season: Collected Poems, London: Melisende, 2000, 77 p.
  • The Muslim Parents' Handbook: What Every Muslim Parent Should Know, London: Ta-Ha Publications, 1993, 120 p.
  • Muslim Poetic Imagination, London: Scorpion, 1992, 87 p.
  • The Final Imperative: An Islamic Theology of Liberation, London: Bellew, 1991, 116 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 Light in the Enlightenment: Christianity and the Secular Heritage, London: Grey Seal, 1990, 213 p.
  • A Season in the Ghetto: Collected Poems, London: Regency, 1989, 48 p.
  • Be Careful with Muhammad!: The Salman Rushdie Affair, London: Bellew, 1989, 136 p.
  • The Mother of Judas Iscariot and Other Poems, London: Regency, 1988, 36 p.
  • Reason and the Radical Crisis of Faith, New York: Peter Lang, 1987, 281 p.

Book Contributions
  • 'Prophet Warning: Justification, Retribution and Salvation in Islam – A Comparative Study’, in P. Koslowski (ed.), The Anxiety of End-Time (Munich: Wilhelm Fink, 2012).
  • ‘The Revival of Philosophy among Muslims’, in D. Cheetham and R. King (Eds.) Contemporary Practice and Method in the Philosophy of Religion (London: Continuum/T&T Clark, 2008).
  • ‘The Dialogue of Islam and the World Faiths: The Role of Speculative Philosophy’, in P. Koslowski (ed.), Philosophy Bridging the World Religions (Boston, Mass.: Kluwer Academic, 2003).
  • ‘The Limits of Internal Hermeneutics’ and ‘Critical Quranic Scholarship and Theological Puzzles’, in H. Vroom and J. Gort (eds.), Holy Scriptures in Judaism, Christianity and Islam (Amsterdam, Atlanta: Rodopi, 1997).
  • ‘The Possibility of a Philosophy of Islam’, in O. Leaman and S.H.Nasr (eds.), The Routledge History of Islamic Philosophy (London: Routledge, 1995).
  • ‘Relationships Between Muslim Parents and Children in a Non-Muslim Country’, in M. King (ed.), God's Law versus State Law (London: Grey Seal, 1995).
  • ‘The Future of Christian-Muslim Relations’, in D. Cohn-Sherbok (ed.), The Canterbury Papers, (London: Bellew, 1992).
  • ‘The Limits of Liberalism’ in Bhikhu Parekh (ed.), Free Speech (London: Commission for Racial Equality, 1990).
  • ‘Art or Literary Terrorism?’, in D. Cohn-Sherbok (ed.), The Salman Rushdie Controversy in Interreligious Perspective (Lampeter: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1990).

Book Reviews
  • Religion in the Age of Rage: The Uses and Abuses of Faith, The Muslim World Book Review, 40:3, 2020.
  • The Twin 'Terrors': Political Islam and the Shari'ah, The Muslim World Book Review, 39:1, 2018.
  • ‘At War with Modernity’ by D. Pryce-Jones, Muslim World Book Review, Vol.14, No. 1 (1993), pp. 4–5.
  • ‘Where East meets West’ by M. Abul-Fadl and ‘Cultural Schizophrenia’ by D. Shayegan, Muslim World Book Review, Vol.13, No.3 (1993), pp. 25–27.
  • ‘The Arab Christian’ by Kenneth Cragg, Muslim World Book Review, Vol.13, No.1 (1992) pp. 49–50.
  • ‘Islam in a World of Diverse Faiths’ by Rabbi D. Cohn-Sherbok, Muslim World Book Review, Vol.12, No.2 (1992), pp. 30–32.
  • ‘The Uneasy Alliance: Religion, Refugee Work, and US Foreign Policy’ by Bruce Nichols, Ethics, Vol. 100, No.1 (1989), p. 225.
  • Review of Theism by Clement Dore, The Journal of Religion, Vol. 66, No. 4 (Oct., 1986), pp. 451–452

Journal articles

Non-academic articles

 
^Akhtar, Shabbir (1 October 2020). "Killing for the sake of something called Art". The Jakarta Post.

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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