Akbar Ahmed

Akbar S. Ahmed is currently the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies & Professor at the School of International Service in the American University. He is the former Pakistan High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Professional Career

Akbar S. Ahmed was the First Distinguished Chair of Middle East and Islamic Studies at the US Naval Academy, Annapolis and a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. He has served as a Visiting Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and has taught at Princeton and Harvard Universities. He was the Iqbal Fellow (Chair of Pakistan Studies) and Fellow of Selywn College at the University of Cambridge. In the Fall of 2012, Ahmed was the Diane Middlebrook and Carl Djerassi Visiting Professor of the Centre for Gender Studies at the University of Cambridge.

He joined the Civil Service of Pakistan (CSP), the elite cadre of the Central Superior Services of Pakistan in 1966, and held senior level posts in Pakistan and Bangladesh—including Commissioner, Quetta; and Political Agent, South Waziristan Agency. He also served as the High Commissioner from Pakistan to the UK.

He is also an author, poet and a playwright.

Education

He has taught at Princeton, Harvard and Cambridge University and has received 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.

Notable Work

Ahmed has also been a leader in interfaith dialogue among both Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic faiths. Along with Judea Pearl, father of slain journalist Daniel Pearl he has had public dialogues in an effort to dispel hate and ignorance. For their efforts they were awarded the Purpose Prize in 2007. Ambassador Ahmed was also the recipient of the first Gandhi Center Fellowship of Peace Award in 2004.

He is also an author of over a dozen award-winning books, including the celebrated Discovering Islam and Journey Into Islam, with many having been translated into numerous languages, including Chinese and Indonesian. He is also a playwright with three of his shows being staged in the Washington D.C. area. His current project is called Journey into America: the Challenge of Islam, it is a book but also a documentary film about Muslims in America. He has many distinctions, such as the Star of Excellence, one of the highest honors that Pakistan gives, and has spoken at many distinguished lectures.

Futher Information

Waziristan to Washington: A Muslim at the Crossroads, by Elise Alexander

Interview with Professor Ahmed from the Foreign Correspondent, September 19, 2001.

External Links and References

ICD Talking Cultural Diplomacy

U.S. Naval Academy