Patrick Sookhdeo

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Patrick Sookhdeo, is a British Anglican canon. He is also the director of the Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity and of the Barnabas Fund. Sookhdeo is an outspoken spokesman for persecuted Christian minorities around the world. He has made many media appearances in Great Britain and is an advocate for human rights and freedom of religion.

Sookhdeo, a former Muslim is a commentator on jihadist ideology, and is the advisor[1] to British and NATO military officers on radical Islam.

Contents

[edit] Life

Patrick Sookhdeo was born in 1947 in Guyana into a Muslim family who had migrated from Asia. His family migrated to England in the early 1960s. In 1965, as a student, Sookhdeo made his first contact with a Christian prayer group.

"I had associated Christianity with racism, colonialism and violence. But when I met this group of people with religious values, they were not violent . . . they were people with genuine concern for a foreigner like myself. That began the change in my thinking."

Sookhdeo converted to Christianity in 1969 and pursued studies to become an Anglican priest and went on to obtain a Doctorate in Oriental and African studies. During that time Sookhdeo began exploring inter-faith dialogue and became increasingly concerned by the brutality being leveled at Christian minorities in Islamic nations, including death penalties for conversions from Islam.

During 1975 to 1978, Sookhdeo founded the "In Contact" organisation, largely based in the Plaistow and Whitechapel areas of London. "In Contact" was considerably involved in the various Christian movements in the East End, particularly Tower Hamlets Fellowship (one of the early house Churches), and had close links to many of the other East End churches. During this period, Sookhdeo was also one of the organisers of the early "Greenbelt" Christian Arts Festivals.

In 1989, Sookhdeo created the London based Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity, and saw the creation of a global database on extremist movements and ideologies whose followers were persecuting religious minorities across the Muslim world . By 1991, Sookhdeo was predicting that an "Islamic storm" was on the horizon. He also runs the Barnabas Fund, a charity that supports persecuted Christian minorities around the world. He subsequently obtained a PhD in Islamic Studies at the University of London.

He has authored several books, including, Understanding Islamic Terrorism. A number of his books have been translated into German, and at least one book is translated into Norwegian (A Christian's Pocketguide to Islam/Den kristnes lommeguide til Islam). Sookhdeo has argued for banning of a particular translation of the Koran in the UK,[2] and also criticised Channel 4 for showing a documentary that set out the role of Jesus in Islamic theology saying that since the Muslim view of Jesus denies his divinity (Muslims see Jesus as a prophet not the son of God) it is offensive to Christians for this view to be broadcast.

[edit] Criticism

The Muslim Association of Britain, has accused him of ignorance of the subtleties of Islamic theology and of cherry picking verses from the Qur’an to make his points.[3]

Some Christian church leaders in Britain have criticised him for speaking about the discrimination that Christians face in Muslim countries, because they think it hinders inter-faith relations within Britain. [4]. Sookhedeo has been criticised by Church of England figures on the grounds of ecumenicalism both for his call to ban a particular translation of the Koran,[2] and for his criticism of the Channel 4 documentary on Jesus in Islam.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Parkinson, Tony "Islam, the West and the need for honesty" Age, The (Melbourne), 16 October 2004
  2. ^ a b There is one particular version of the Qur’an in English which Dr Sookhdeo believes should be banned in the UK because it clearly advocates violence. This version is called “Interpretation of the Meanings of the Noble Qur’an in the English Language” by Dr Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din Al-Hilali and Dr Muhammad Muhsin Khan ( Darussalam Publishers and Distributors, Riyadh, 1996).(email from Barnabas Fund)
  3. ^ Response to: Patrick Sookhdeo Evening Standard (27th July 2005)
  4. ^ Dr Sookhdeo's Reply to two Methodist leaders in The Methodist Recorder, 2003-03-17

[edit] Works

[edit] Articles

[edit] Books and booklets

[edit] Co-authored

[edit] Edited

  • 1974 – All One in Christ: The Biblical View of Race, Marshall, ISBN 0-551-05398-4
  • 1978 – Jesus Christ the Only Way: Christian Responsibility in the Multicultural Society, Paternoster Press, ISBN 0-85364-236-2
  • 1988 – New Frontiers in Mission, Baker Publishing Group, ISBN 0-8010-8284-6
  • 2004 – The Persecuted Church, Lausanne Committee for World Evangelisation

[edit] Interview

[edit] Sermons

  • MP3 of sermon giving at St. Paul's Anglican Church Carlingford on "Islam & Christianity". [1]

[edit] See also