Sven Kalisch (also previously Muhammad Sven Kalisch, born March 21, 1966) is a German scholar, formerly an Islamic theologian. He converted to Islam at age 15, became the first in Germany to hold a chair in Islamic theology (at

University of Münster The University of Münster (, until 2023 , WWU) is a public research university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. With more than 43,000 students and over 120 fields of study in 15 departments, it is Germany's ...

), then in 2008 announced that he had come to the conclusion that the Islamic prophet

Muhammad Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...

probably never existed. Official Islamic groups in Germany have referred to him as an

apostate Apostasy (; ) is the formal disaffiliation from, abandonment of, or renunciation of a religion by a person. It can also be defined within the broader context of embracing an opinion that is contrary to one's previous religious beliefs. One who ...

. Germany's Muslim Coordinating Council withdrew from the advisory board of professor Kalisch's centre.

Biography

Kalisch converted from

Protestant Christianity Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes justification of sinners through faith alone, the teaching that salvation comes by unmerited divine grace, the priesthood of all believers, and the Bible as the sole infallible sour ...

to Islam at the age of 15. He adopted the

Zaidism Zaydism () is a branch of Shia Islam that emerged in the eighth century following Zayd ibn Ali's unsuccessful rebellion against the Umayyad Caliphate. Zaydism is one of the three main branches of Shi'ism, with the other two being Twelverism a ...

branch of

Shia Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political successor (caliph) and as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community (imam). However, his right is understood ...

Islam. In 1997 he completed his PhD in

Islamic jurisprudence ''Fiqh'' (; ) is the term for Islamic jurisprudence.Fiqh
Encyclopædia Britannica ''Fiqh'' is of ...

. Kalisch was a member of the administrative council of the Germany Muslim Academy and worked for the Islamic Centre Hamburg (Shi'ite). From 2004 to 2010, he was professor of Islamic Religion at the ''Centrum für religionsbezogene Studien'' (CRS) of the

. Kalisch declared in 2008 and 2009 that he had doubts as to the

historicity of Muhammad The historicity of Muhammad refers to the study of Muhammad as a historical figure and critical examination of sources upon which traditional accounts (the Quran, ''sīrah'', ''hadith'' especially) are based. The majority of classical scholars be ...

, as expressed by the "Saarbrücken School", which is part of the greater movement of the Revisionist School of Islamic Studies. In 2010 Kalisch renounced Islam. His department was then renamed the department for "the intellectual history of the Middle East in the post-antiquity period".Neues Aufgabengebiet für Sven Kalisch
'New domain of activity for Sven Kalisch' (in German). WWU Münster, 13 July 2010.

Publications

*''Frieden aus der Sicht des Islam.'' in: Islam im Dialog, Année 1, numéro 4, Winter 2002, S. 13-28. *''Islamische Wirtschaftsethik in einer islamischen und in einer nichtislamischen Umwelt.'' in: (Coll.): Christliche, jüdische und islamische Wirtschaftsethik – Über religiöse Grundlagen wirtschaftlichen Verhaltens in der säkularen Gesellschaft, Marburg 2003, S. 105–129. *''Usul az-Zaidiya wa-nascharāt al-firaq al-islāmiyya.'' (en arabe, « Les fondamentaux de Zaidiya et les publications des sectes islamiques »), in: Al-Masār, Vol. 5, Issue 2, 2004, p. 27–70. *''Glaube und Gesetz aus Sicht der islamischen Rechtsschulen'' in: Murest, Multireligiöse Studiengruppe (dir.): Handbuch interreligiöser Dialog. Aus katholischer, evangelischer, sunnitscher und alevitischer Perspektive. Cologne 2006. *''Islam und Menschenrechte: Betrachtungen zum Verhältnis von Religion und Recht'' in: Hatem Elliesie (dir.): Islam und Menschenrechte (Islam and Human Rights / الإسلام وحقوق الإنسان), Leipziger Beiträge zur Orientforschung, Band 26, Beiträge zum Islamischen Recht VII, Frankfurt a.M. / New York et al. 2010, S. 49-72. .

References

External links

Translated excerpts from an article by Kalisch

Full German text of article by Kalisch
Living people Academic staff of the University of Münster University of Hamburg alumni German former Shia Muslims German former Christians 1966 births {{Germany-academic-bio-stub