Anirudh Gyan Shikha (1 June 1928 – 25 November 2006; known as Anwar Shaikh) was a British India-born British writer, who spent much of his adult life in Pakistan and United Kingdom, dying in

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

.''The Rushdie Affair: The Novel, the Ayatollah, and the West'' by Daniel Pipes, Pg. 283

Biography

Born Hajji Muhammad Shaikh, he was born into a family descended from

Kashmiri Pandit The Kashmiri Pandits (also known as Kashmiri Brahmins) are a group of Kashmiri Hindus and a part of the larger Saraswat Brahmin community of India. They belong to the Pancha Gauda Brahmin group from the Kashmir Valley, located within the In ...

converts to

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

in the city of Gujrat located in the north of

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

. He was born on the day of the Haj, or pilgrimage, in 1928, which prompted his parents to attach 'Hajji' to his first name, but he was also born with aposthia (in which boys are born without

foreskin In male Human body, human anatomy, the foreskin, also known as the prepuce (), is the double-layered fold of Human skin, skin, Mucous membrane, mucosal and Muscle tissue, muscular tissue at the distal end of the human penis that covers the glans ...

), which was seen as an even greater omen for a bright future; thus his name then became Muhammad Anwar Shaikh, with Anwar meaning radiant in the Arabic language. In his youth, he was a devout

Sunni Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr () rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Mu ...

along with his family. During the violent days of the

Partition of India The partition of India in 1947 was the division of British India into two independent dominion states, the Dominion of India, Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan. The Union of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Paki ...

, he became involved with Muslim nationalist groups and participated in violent attacks against non-Muslims. On one occasion he was involved in the killing of a Sikh father and his son. On another occasion, he bludgeoned another Sikh man he encountered on a Darabi road with a long knife. Memories of these crimes were said to have haunted him ever since. As he reached the age of 25, Shikha left Islam and expressed his perspectives through theological writings. He emigrated to the United Kingdom, married a Welsh woman, and became a successful businessman dealing in property development. At around this time, Shikha also converted to the Hindu religion practised by his ancestors. He subsequently adopted the name Anirudh Gyan Shikha. The importance of Shikha's work was recognized by

Tariq Ali Tariq Ali (;; born 21 October 1943) is a Pakistani-British political activist, writer, journalist, historian, filmmaker, and public intellectual. He is a member of the editorial committee of the ''New Left Review'' and ''Sin Permiso'', and co ...

, who devoted a chapter of his book ''The Clash of Fundamentalisms'' to his views and the reaction they provoked. Shikha was living in

, when a

fatwa A fatwa (; ; ; ) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (sharia) given by a qualified Islamic jurist ('' faqih'') in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist issuing fatwas is called a ''mufti'', ...

was issued against him from his homeland

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

in 1995, where at least fourteen fundamentalist clerics issued

death sentence Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

s against him for apostasy. He died in Cardiff on 25 November 2006. Ali wrote that Shikha had gained notoriety among British Muslims. Many Muslims around the world, especially those of the subcontinent origin, have urged prominent Muslim scholars to write a rebuttal of Shikha's ideas. Tariq Ali, Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity (2002).

Works

*Islam: The Arab Imperialism, Cardiff, Principality, 1998. *The Vedic Civilization *Islam: The Arab National Movement *Islam: Sex and Violence *Islam and Human Rights *This is Jehad! *Eternity *Faith and Deception *Taxation and Liberty *Islam and Terrorism *Sexual Conflict

References

External links

Islam Watch – Books by Anwar Shaikh
*
Arab Imperialism, by Anwar Shaikh

Review of this book by Daniel Pipes

Review by Koenraad Elst
Islam and the People of the Book
– article by Anwar Shaikh {{DEFAULTSORT:Shaikh, Anwar 1928 births 2006 deaths Writers of Pakistani descent British writers Welsh people of Kashmiri descent Pakistani emigrants to Wales Pakistani people of Kashmiri descent Welsh Hindus Converts to Hinduism from Sunni Islam Pakistani former Sunni Muslims Welsh former Sunni Muslims Former Muslim critics of Islam Writers from Cardiff Welsh people of Punjabi descent British writers of Pakistani descent Converts to Hinduism from Islam

Biography

Works

See also

Further reading

References

External links