Anwar Shaikh
Mohammad Anwar Shaikh (born June 1, 1928 as Haji Mohammad - November 25, 2006) was a Punjabi-born Pakistani author residing in Cardiff[1]. He was born into an Islamic Sunni family of Kashmiri ancestry in Gujrat, Punjab. His mother could recite a large part of the Qur'an from memory. During the violent days of the Partition of India in 1947 he, then filled with Islamist fervor, killed on one day two Sikhs, a father and his son. In his youth, Shaikh was a young ardent believer. He later killed another Sikh. But when he reached the age of 25, he began doubting Islam and later became its ardent critic, and memories of his crime have haunted him ever since. Thereafter he immigrated into U.K., married a Welsh woman, and became a successful businessman. The importance of Shaikh's work was recognised by Tariq Ali who devoted a chapter of his book 'The Clash of Fundamentalisms' to his views and the reaction they provoked.[2]
Shaikh was living in Cardiff when a fatwa was issued against him from his homeland Pakistan in 1995, where at least fourteen clerics issued death sentences against him for renouncing and criticising Islam.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Works
- Islam: The Arab National Movement
- Islam: Sex and Violence
- Islam and Human Rights (book available online)
- This is Jihad
- Islam: The Arab Imperialism (book available online)
- Eternity
- Faith and Deception
- Taxation and Liberty
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b The Rushdie Affair: The Novel, the Ayatollah, and the West by Daniel Pipes, Pg. 283
- ^ The Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity, Page, Pg. 157-165
[edit] External links
- 1996 interview by Chandigarh Times, India (same interview)
- Arab Imperialism, by Anwar Shaikh - Book available online at Faith Freedom International
- Islam and the People of the Book - article by Anwar Shaikh
- Dr. Anwar Shaikh : A Great Soul, A Great Fighter for Truth - International Opinion
