Patrick Sookhdeo
Dr Patrick Sookhdeo is director of the Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity and International Director of the Barnabas Fund.
Contents
Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity
In 1989 Sookhdeo founded the Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity [1] which became his main work focus in that period. According to Sookhdeo's personal website:
- In the early 1990s, it was the Institute IISIC that took priority, and its ground-breaking research soon revealed the Islamist terrorist organisations that were brutally attacking Christians in various Muslim contexts. A database recording details of thousands of radical Islamic organisations and groups was created. In the early 1990s the Institute produced a paper about Osama bin Laden and his influence. As a result of this research work, Robert Lambert from Special Branch of the British police force made contact with Patrick Sookhdeo, as Director of IISIC, and requested his assistance in locating and analysing these Islamist organisations and their ideological positions.
- After 9/11, Special Branch approached Dr Sookhdeo again to look at how the Islamist movements had developed since the early 1990s, their current expressions in the UK, and their objectives. This work with Robert Lambert later developed into the Muslim Contact Unit of Special Branch. It was during this period, as unpaid adviser to Special Branch, that Dr Sookhdeo wrote his book Understanding Islamic Terrorism, which was one of the first of its kind. [2]
Background
Sookhdeo was born in what was then British Guyana in 1947. His father was a Hindu who converted to Islam in order to marry his mother. The family migrated to Britain in the early 1960s. By 1969, Sookhdeo had converted to Christianity and begun training for the Anglican priesthood.[3]
He holds a Ph.D. from the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies on the impact of Islam on society. He also holds doctorates from Western Seminary, Portland, Oregon and Nashotah House Episcopal Seminary, Wisconsin.
In 2007 Sookhdeo was:
- a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Defence Academy of the UK, Adjunct Professor of the George C. Marshall European Centre for Security Studies, and Visiting Fellow at Cranfield University, UK. He is an adviser to the British armed forces on Iraq and Afghanistan. He is also the director of the Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity and of the Barnabas Fund.[4]
In June 1999, Sookhdeo visited Israel as part of a delegation sponsored by the Anglo Israel Association.[5]
Affiliations
- Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity
- Barnabas Fund
- CounterJihad Europa
- Defence Academy of the UK
- George C. Marshall European Centre for Security Studies - Adjunct Professor in 2007
- Cranfield University, UK - Visiting Fellow
- MOD - adviser to the British armed forces on Iraq and Afghanistan
Website
References
- ↑ Islam, the West and the need for honesty, by Tony Parkinson, The Age, 16 October 2004.
- ↑ Patrick Sookhdeo, Biography, personal website, acc 24 June 2013
- ↑ Islam, the West and the need for honesty, by Tony Parkinson, The Age,16 October 2004.
- ↑ Biographies, CounterJihad Europa, accessed 21 December 2008.
- ↑ Coventry 'Cross of Nails' Presented To Ecumenical Theological Fraternity, Christians and Israel - Autumn 1999, Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, accessed 21 December 2008.
