Bradford Council for Mosques has offered its deepest heartfelt condolences to the family of Dr Shabir Akhtar who sadly passed away in Oxford on July 25.
Dr Shabir Akhtar was a local lad who went on to become one of the brightest stars of his generation within the British Muslim community, achieving great feats.
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He came to the UK aged 8 and went from a comprehensive school in Bradford to study philosophy at St Catherine’s College, Cambridge in 1980. He graduated with a first-class honours degree and was a student of the Elisabeth Anscombe, a Catholic philosopher and one of the literary inheritors of Wittgenstein. He returned to Bradford to work on racial equality and rose to national prominence as a spokesperson for the Bradford Council for Mosques during the Rushdie affair. Seen frequently on television, he debated with the likes of Ian McEwan, Melvyn Bragg and Michael Ignatieff.
He wrote and published several books on Islam in the modern world and spent many years working on an Islamic response to Christianity. He was an accomplished scholar of comparative religion being fluent in Arabic, Greek and Hebrew. He spent the last years of his life in Oxford where he taught at the university. A poet and philosopher, he was one of a kind.
Imran Khan, the President of Bradford Council Said, “ We are extremely saddened with the sudden and sad death of Dr Shabir Akhtar.”
“Dr Shabir Was a man of exceptional intellect and prowess. His death at a relatively young age is an enormous loss to the Muslim and the wider intellectual community.”
“Dr Shabir served Bradford Council for Mosques throughout the Rushdie Affair which was perhaps one of the most difficult episodes in the life of the Muslim community.”
“His intellectualism and astuteness will be greatly missed.”
“We pass on our deepest heartfelt condolences to his family.”
