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INTRODUCING...

photoDr. Akbar S. Ahmed

 

Ambassador Akbar Ahmed, Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies, American University in Washington DC, was the High Commissioner of Pakistan to Great Britain. He has advised Prince Charles and met with President George W. Bush on Islam. His numerous books, films and documentaries have won awards. His books have been translated into many languages including Chinese and Indonesian. Ahmed is “the world’s leading authority on contemporary Islam” according to the BBC.
 
Education:
 
Ahmed has been Visiting Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton and has taught at Princeton, Harvard and Cambridge Universities. Ahmed was awarded the Honorary Doctor of Laws by the University of Liverpool, received his PhD at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University, MA and Diploma in Education from Cambridge University, and Bachelor of Social Sciences (Honors) from Birmingham University.
 
Recent Publications:
 
Ahmed’s book Journey into Islam: The Crisis of Globalization is published by the Brookings Institution Press (“Book of the Week,” “The Colors of Allah,” review by Edward Mortimer June 23, Guardian; “Washington policy-makers and journalists should read this book,” review by Tony Blankley, The Washington Times, June 20; “a fascinating read,” Tavis Smiley on the Tavis Smiley Show; “utterly readable book and really quite gripping ... why are there not more Akbar Ahmeds?” Milt Rosenberg on the Milt Rosenberg Show; “a deeply moral work ... which confirms Ahmed’s position as preeminent Muslim public intellectual”, review by Professor Tamara Sonn, Emel magazine, September). The Interfaith Conference of Richmond has published a six-week course as a Guide to understanding Islam based on Journey into Islam. His book with Amineh Hoti, Knowledge: Why Civilizations Rise and Fall, is with Polity Press, Cambridge.
 
“Islam in Today’s World: A Conversation with Akbar Ahmed” was featured in Anthropology Today, Vol. 23, No. 1, in February 2007. Ahmed’s article “Talking Can Stop Hate” was featured as the “Big Idea!” in AARP the Magazine, in the March/April 2007 issue and “Bush Still Doesn’t Get It” featured in the Outlook section of the Washington Post (July 22, 2007).

Ahmed’s play, Noor,  was part of the summer Festival at Theater J in Washington, DC in 2007 (“Akbar Ahmed’s ‘Noor,’ A Paean to Religious Tolerance,” by Ted Merwin, Washington Post, July 26), and he has just finished writing two plays called The Trial of Dara Shikoh and Muslim Monologue. He is working on Gandhi and Jinnah Return Home and Babar the Tiger.
 
Media:

Ahmed is regularly interviewed on CNN, CBC, the BBC, ARY TV and has appeared several times on the Oprah Winfrey Show and Night Line. He presented and narrated “Living Islam”, the six-part BBC television series, in 1993 and “The Glories of Islamic Art”, the three-part television series for Channel 5, UK, broadcast in 2006. He initiated, developed and completed “The Jinnah Quartet” – a feature film, a documentary and two books on M.A. Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. Ahmed is Consultant and interviewed for “Rumi Returning”, a major television film on the mystic poet. He is an expert panelist with the new online feature, “On Faith,” for the Washington Post and Newsweek. He has recorded 12 lectures for an audio CD series, “Encountering Islam”, for NowYouKnow Media, Washington DC and is Senior Advisor to an innovative on-line project for an Islamic syllabus for Jones Knowledge Inc.
 
Distinctions/ Distinguished Lectures:
 
Ahmed was awarded the Star of Excellence, one of Pakistan’s highest honors and the Sir Percy Sykes Memorial Medal by the Royal Society for Asian Affairs in London. In 2005 the National Cathedral held a special Evensong Service to honor Ahmed, he was given the First Annual Bridge Builder’s Award from the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington and he received the “Humanitarian Award”, the highest honor of the Chapel of Four Chaplains. In 2004he was given the Professor of the Year Award for Washington DC by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the first Gandhi Center Fellowship of Peace Award and invited to join the World Wisdom Council. He delivered the Keynote Address at the Annual Conference of the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions at Monterrey, Mexico on September 23,2007.
 
Ahmed is Centennial Honorary Chair of the Washington National Cathedral Centennial Celebration (along with Presidents Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, and Justice Sandra Day O’Connor). He has been a Trustee since 2001 of the World Faiths Development Dialogue set up by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the President of the World Bank and is a Trustee on the Board of the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions. He is a Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Hasan Family Foundation and was a Senior Fellow of The Case Foundation. He spoke at the Chairman’s Distinguished Speakers Lecture Series at the Pentagon and gave the inaugural lectures for the first Chair in Jewish-Muslim Studies at the University of Illinois-Chicago. He lectured at a World Affairs Council event along with Dick Cheney, Dr. Henry Kissinger and Bernard Lewis. He was Member Host Committee for Internews’ 25th anniversary celebration in May 2007. He was the first Muslim to lecture at the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC. and was Principal Investigator for “Islam in the Age of Globalization”, a project supported by The Brookings Institution, American University and The Pew Research Center, and Visiting Fellow at Brookings in addition to his appointment at American University.

Ahmed delivered the Keynote Address at a Conference on “The Way Forward” at the Centre for Muslim-Jewish Relations, Cambridge, the Keynote Address at the 60th Anniversary of the Independence of India and Pakistan, hosted by the University of Southampton, gave a special lecture at the London School of Economics and was invited as an “expert” to address the All-Parties Committee on Terrorism at the House of Commons in the summer of 2007. He has been invited to present the Keynote at the Drury University, Convention Series, 2007-08 and the McMurrrin Lecture in Religion and Culture, University of Utah, Tanner Humanities Center, 2008-09. In November, he and Dr. Pearl will deliver the Keynote Address at the Greater Kansas City Festival of Faiths.
  
Ahmed led a Muslim delegation to the Holocaust Museum in December 2006, attended President Ford’s funeral ceremony at the National Cathedral where he was part of the “Procession Order” as “Representative of Faith” escorting the casket, and delivered the invocation at the Mayor’s Inaugural Prayer Service in Washington DC. Ahmed is presently Non-Resident Senior Fellow at Brookings. He is a member of the “Incident Management Team” for the Department of Homeland Security and was mentioned in “Congressional Record – Proceedings and Debates of the 109th Congress, Second Session, Washington, Friday, September 29, 2006, House of Representatives: “Tribute to Dr. Judea Pearl and Dr. Akbar Ahmed”. Along with Dr. Judea Pearl, Ahmed was finalist in the “Most Inspiring Person of the Year 2005” poll conducted by BeliefNet and was awarded the first ever “Purpose Prize Award” in 2006.


October, 2007

 
On Akbar Ahmed
 

 

  • “Professor Akbar Ahmed the world’s leading authority on contemporary Islam,” BBC, Radio 2, “Good Morning Sunday”, October 24, 2004.
 
  • “His voice needs to be heard, and his courage strengthened,” Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace laureate.
 
  • “He is one of the few people in the world today who can interpret the one to the other from a position of affection for both East and West. Of his many gifts and talents he is a peacemaker in the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi and Desmond Tutu,” The Rt. Rev. James Jones, Bishop of Liverpool, CMJR, Cambridge website.
 
  • “Dr Akbar Ahmed deserves to win the Nobel Peace Prize. He is one of the great peacemakers in the world today. I place him along with the Dalai Lama and Gandhi,”
    Jan Du Plain, “On Faith,” Washington Post/Newsweek online comment.
 
  • “Thank you for the wisdom and generosity of spirit you are constantly showing through your spoken and written words. I cannot tell you how important your voice is right now. These are fateful times - and in you classic Islam has a spokesman and role model of supreme grace and dignity. May God/Allah be with you in all you do - and I thank you from the depth of my heart.” Sir Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the UK, correspondence in 2005.
 
  • “I genuinely hope you will consider a return trip in the future with your friends and family, and I hope you will allow us to call on you from time to time for advice and counsel. We are deeply grateful to you for the rich, intelligent and soulful presentation. Your recorded lecture is wildly popular.” Thomas Becker, President, Chautauqua Institution, August 7, 2007.
 
  • “Professor Ahmed has been described as building bridges of understanding where others build walls of fear, and it is for his wisdom, his unfaltering moral compass, and his selfless contribution to the drive for dialogue and friendship between peoples of different backgrounds that we honour him. In a world that is getting ever smaller it is a contribution that was never more important than it is today … Chancellor, in the name of the Council and Senate I present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, in this University, Akbar Ahmed.” Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor Christopher Gaskell on conferment of honorary Doctorate of Laws, University of Liverpool, July 6, 2007.
 
  • “Akbar Ahmed, the leading Islamic scholar in the world” Channel 5 TV, UK.
 
  • “Tony Blair would do well to listen to Akbar Ahmed, one of the world’s leading authorities on Islam, when he takes up his new role as Middle East envoy in earnest,” Anthea Lipsett, Education Guardian, June 28, 2007.
 
  • “The leading thinker and scholar of contemporary Islam, Professor Akbar Ahmed” Jewish Chronicle, UK, November 16, 2006.
 
  • “Professor Ahmed… a world authority on the subject” in “Islam’s Heritage, Christianity’s Future”, by Judith Bumpus, The Art Newspaper, Vol. XVI, February 2007.
 
  • Akbar Ahmed one of “three of Pakistan’s greatest diplomats”, page IX, Shameful Flight, by Stanley Wolpert, 2006.
 
  • “Professor Akbar S Ahmed, arguably one of the most distinguished scholars that Pakistan has produced and certainly the only one with credibility in the West,” Shahed Sadullah, The News, July 7, 2007.
 
  • “Thank you for taking time from your busy schedule to speak at the Joint Staff Distinguished Speakers Lecture Series on August 9, 2005. Your poignant remarks and expert perspective provided the military and civilian audience a greater understanding of Islam and its relationship with the Western world. You will be pleased to know the feedback I received gave you outstanding reviews for your informative lecture,” General Myers while Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff.
 
  • “I would like to thank you for helping to make our panel …. such a success ... I was delighted to have the opportunity to hear you and your colleagues express so eloquently the importance of interfaith dialogue and understanding,” Karen Hughes, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, May 3, 2006.
 
  • “One of the most distinguished Muslim scholars today …Professor Ahmed comes with impeccable credentials” Lord George Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury. Pakistan Link, January 9, 2004.
 
  • One of the UK’s leading Muslim magazines, had a feature story with illustrations and called him “the new Ibn Khaldun,” Emel, Nov/Dec 2004.
 
  • “Prof Akbar Ahmed, hailed long time ago as the most notable Muslim anthropologist since the legendary Ibn Khaldun,” “Commentary,” Ambassador Ghori, Pakistan Link, June 2, 2005.
 
  • “He is my teacher and my friend; we have traveled and spoken together on numerous occasions ... His unfaltering moral compass has led him to many nations to speak on behalf of religious tolerance and human dignity. His courage is the only thing that equals that conviction for often his position has placed his safety in jeopardy, but he continues to travel the globe to bring peace and understanding … I am honored as a rabbi and teacher here in Washington to have Dr. Ahmed join us, but even more, as the child of a survivor, I am so thankful that Akbar’s life work honors the memory of all who were lost due to hatred. May he continue to be blessed in his work and go from strength to strength,” Bruce Lustig, Senior Rabbi of Washington Hebrew Congregation, June 17, 2006.
 
  • “Thank you for speaking at the Council’s Eleventh National Conference. You helped make it our best one yet. Council members appreciated the opportunity to hear your insights and interact with you. It was great to have you here. Thank you for doing this,” Ambassador Richard Haass, President, Council on Foreign Relations, June 16, 2006.
 
  • “I just completed the evaluation and you were the speaker the respondents liked best. Now that is an honor. Congratulations,” Dr. Karen Collias, Program Director, World Affairs Council of Philadelphia, wrote on June 24, 2006, after the conference in which he spoke alongside Richard Cheney, Vice President of the United States, Dr. Henry Kissinger and Professor Bernard Lewis.
 
  • “The Committee is interested in your perspective as a highly respected Islamic scholar on the current struggle within Islam among moderates and more extreme factions, and its historical underpinnings. We also would like to hear your views on how the United States can approach building a closer, more productive long term relationship with Muslim populations worldwide,” Senator Richard G. Lugar, Chairman, The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, invited him to offer his “testimony,” July 18, 2006.
 
  • “Akbar Ahmed – Judea Pearl dialogue at Hamilton.” “Ibn Khaldun once said ‘He who finds a new path is a pathfinder, even if the trail has to be found again by others; and he who walks far ahead of his contemporaries is a leader, even though centuries pass before he is recognized as such.’ Ibn Khaldun was talking about people like you. You are a pathfinder. By leading Jews and Muslims on the path toward greater mutual understanding, you walk far ahead of the world we live in, a world plagued on all sides by needless hatred. It may be a long time before Jews and Muslims learn to walk with each other on the path of peace and love. Be that as it may, you will be remembered in the future for being a pathfinder. It is my prayer that our world catches up with you speedily and in our lifetime. I know very little Arabic, but I know enough to say to you SHOOK-RAHN. Thank you, Dr. Ahmed, thank you very much,” “Thank You Speech” by Leslie Lasky, President of the Greater Hamilton Jewish Federation, Hamilton Canada, November 12, 2006.
 
 

 

Click here to view:

A Holy Trinity: Friendship Grows Among Three Men of Different Faiths 

by Gary Tischler

 

 

Honorarium Range: Negotiable

 
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