Akbar Ahmed | |
|---|---|
اکبر صلاح الدین احمد | |
.jpg) Ahmed in 2016 | |
| Born | (1943-01-15)January 15, 1943 (age 82) |
| Education | Army Burn Hall College, University of Cambridge,School of Oriental and African Studies,University of London |
| Occupation | Scholar |
| Website | Official website |
Akbar Salahuddin Ahmed (born 15 January 1943) is aPakistani-American academic, author, poet, playwright, filmmaker and former diplomat.[2][3] He currently is a professor of International Relations and holds the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at theAmerican University, School of International Service inWashington, D.C.[2][3][4] Akbar Ahmed served as the Pakistan High Commissioner to the UK and Ireland. He currently is a Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center.
Immediately prior, he taught at Princeton University and served as a visiting professor at theInstitute for Advanced Study inPrinceton.[2][3][5] He also taught at Harvard University and was a visiting scholar at the Department of Anthropology.[5][6][7] Ahmed was the First Chair of Middle East and Islamic Studies at the US Naval Academy,Annapolis, and a Nonresident Senior Fellow at theBrookings Institution.[2][5] In 2004 Ahmed was namedDistrict of Columbia Professor of the Year by theCarnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and theCouncil for Advancement and Support of Education.[3] A former Pakistani High Commissioner to the UK and Ireland, Ahmed was a member of theCivil Service of Pakistan and served as Political Agent inSouth Waziristan Agency and Commissioner inBalochistan.[2][8][5] He also served as the Iqbal Fellow (Chair of Pakistan Studies) at theUniversity of Cambridge.[2][8][5] Ananthropologist and scholar of Islam, he completed his MA at Cambridge University and received his PhD from theSchool of Oriental and African Studies inLondon.[2][5] He has been called "the world's leading authority on contemporary Islam" by theBBC.[8][9][10][11]
Ahmed received theTamgha-i-Imtiaz (Medal of Excellence) andSitara-i-Imtiaz (Star of Excellence) from the Pakistani government for academic distinction and theSir Percy Sykes Memorial Medal by theRoyal Society for Asian Affairs in London.[3][12] He was also awarded the inauguralPurpose Prize in 2006 alongsideJudea Pearl[8] and is frequently named in the annual book,The Muslim 500: The World's 500 Most Influential Muslims,[13] and was named a 2015 Global Thought Leader byThe World Post and theGottlieb Duttweiler Institute.
He studied at Burn Hall School (nowArmy Burn Hall College) inAbbottabad from 1954 to 1959. Burn Hall was founded in 1943 by members ofSaint Joseph's Missionary Society of Mill Hill (MHM) inBritish India as a missionary school for boys. It was ceded toPakistan Army Education Corps in 1977 and was renamed Army Burn Hall College.[14][15] Ahmed entered the Pakistani civil service in 1966.[5][12] He graduated fromUniversity of the Punjab andUniversity of Birmingham and later attended Cambridge University doing anMA.[2][5] In 1978, Ahmed graduated with aPhD inAnthropology at theSchool of Oriental and African Studies,University of London.[2][5] At certain points in his life Ahmed held important government positions such as Political Agent for the South Waziristan Agency/North West Frontier Province (1978-1980) and in Baluchistan was Commissioner for the three districts (1982-1988) and Commissioner of the Sibi Division (1989).[8][5][12] Ahmed was the founder and served as Director of the National Centre for Rural Development inIslamabad and also a Director of the Centre for Social Sciences and Humanities, University Grants Commission in Pakistan.[5][12][6] In 1988 Ahmed became the Allama Iqbal Fellow atSelywn College, Cambridge for five years and by 1993 he was appointed as the first Muslim Fellow.[3][5] He also was the first Pakistani to serve on the Council of theRoyal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.[5]
Akbar Ahmed has held professorships at several North American educational institutions.[5] At Princeton University he taught courses and served as a visiting professor at theInstitute for Advanced Study inPrinceton.[2][3][5] He also taught at Harvard University and was a visiting scholar at the Department of Anthropology.[5][6][7] Ahmed was the First Chair of Middle East and Islamic Studies at the US Naval Academy,Annapolis, and a Nonresident Senior Fellow at theBrookings Institution.[2][5] In 2004 Ahmed was namedDistrict of Columbia Professor of the Year by theCarnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and theCouncil for Advancement and Support of Education.[3] He also taught at theQuaid-i-Azam University in Pakistan.[5]
Prior to the Brookings quartet of studies, Ahmed's projects included the Jinnah Quartet and Living Islam. The Jinnah Quartet comprised a feature film Jinnah (1998), with Christopher Lee in the title role; a documentary, Mr. Jinnah: The Making of Pakistan (1997); a graphic novel, The Quaid: Jinnah and the Story of Pakistan (1997); and a biographical study, Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity: The Search for Saladin (1997). Ahmed presented and narrated the six-part BBC TV series Living Islam (1993) and authored the accompanying book of the same name. Later, Ahmed served as Pakistani High Commissioner (ambassador) to the United Kingdom and Ireland from 1999 to 2000.
Ahmed's research interests focus onPashtuns and others including tribal groups, Muslim society and development anthropology.[6] He has conducted anthropological fieldwork with Pashtuns inAfghanistan, undertaken comparative studies of Islamic social customs inMorocco,Pakistan andSaudi Arabia and researching global Islam alongside its impacts on contemporary society.[3][7][16] Among his works on Pashtuns are:Millennium and Charisma Among Pathans (1976),Pukhtun Economy and Society (1980), and his wide-ranging studyThe Thistle and the Drone (2013) that focuses on Muslim hill peoples in Pakistan,Yemen,North Africa and afar as thePhilippines which examinesUS drone operations in the Muslim world, its subsequent consequences and reputation of the USA being considered synonymous with the drone.[2][17] Ahmed has criticized some anthropologists for studying "Muslim groups without reference to the Islamic framework".[18] Other areas of research interest include Modernity and Muslims along with Islam and the concept ofpostmodernism in relation to Muslim societies, cultures, media and the West.[19]
Ahmed has co-edited several books with other academics.[3] He has authored many articles and more than a dozen books that have won awards such asDiscovering Islam which became the basis for a six-part BBC TV series calledLiving Islam.[3][8] Other books arePostmodernism and Islam: Predicament and Promise which was nominated for an Amalfi Award andIslam Today: A short Introduction to the Muslim world was awarded by theLos Angeles Times as the best non-fiction book of the year.[3] Ahmed has written a biography of Muhammad Jinnah, Pakistan's first Governor General.[20] and a studyJourney into America: The challenge of Islam based on fieldwork withAmerican Muslims.[8] He has also written plays likeNoor andThe trial of Dara Shikoh which have been published and staged for audiences.[8] Ahmed's publications have been translated into other languages such asIndonesian andChinese.[8] Functioning between both worlds, through his writing and broadcasting Ahmed has attempted to bridge the Muslim-West world divide and encourage communication between both groups.[5] He has expressed admiration of English translations of Islamic classics in assisting him to "discover the riches" of "Islamic cultural legacy" and "appreciate critically the beneficial impact of the West".[5]
In the aftermath of9/11, Ahmed initiated a series of studies that were published by theBrookings Institution Press covering issues regarding relations between Islam and the West.[2] Ahmed has been engaged in a series of publicinterfaith dialogues across the US and abroad with Professor Judea Pearl, father of deceased reporterDaniel Pearl focusing on divisions between Muslims and the West and between Jews and Muslims.[4][21] For their efforts, he and Pearl were awarded the first Purpose Prize by theInterfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington at theNational Cathedral and Ahmed received the Herschel-King award for Interfaith Activism.[8] He has also been appointed as a Trustee of the World Faiths Development Dialogue by theArchbishop of Canterbury and has received the 2002 Free Speech Award from theMuslim Public Affairs Council based in Washington DC.[3] Ahmed has received accusations of being "a Zionist conspirator" and close to the West however he has felt that "dialogue, harmony, communication and debate" are for Islam and the West the key issues of engagement.[5]
Ahmed has been interviewed by the BBC,PBS,NPR,MSNBC, "Think Tank,"NBC Nightly News,CNN,CBS,Fox News, and other media organisations.[4][8] In addition toThe Daily Show andThe O'Reilly Factor, he has made several appearances on theOprah Winfrey Show.[4][8]
He has also served as an advisor to PresidentGeorge W. Bush andPrince Charles on Islam.[4] Ahmed has given lectures worldwide in places such as theUS Congressional retreat in Greenbrier,West Virginia, theNational Defense University in Washington DC, theState Department and theHouse of Lords in London.[4]
