Raymond Ibrahim

Raymond Ibrahim
Born1973 (age 50–51)
United States
Alma materCalifornia State University, Fresno (MA)
Occupation(s)Writer, author, translator, columnist
Websiteraymondibrahim.com

Raymond Ibrahim (born 1973) is an American author, translator, columnist, critic of Islam, and a former librarian. His focus is Arabic history and language, and current events.[1][2][3]

Early life and education

Ibrahim was born in the United States to Coptic immigrants from Egypt.[4] He is fluent in Arabic and English. Ibrahim studied at California State University, Fresno, where he wrote a master's thesis under Victor Davis Hanson on an early military encounter between Islam and Byzantium based on medieval Arabic and Greek texts. Ibrahim also took graduate courses at Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies and studied toward a PhD in medieval Islamic history at Catholic University.[5]

Career

Ibrahim was previously an Arabic language specialist for the Near East section of the Library of Congress,[6] and the associate director of the Middle East Forum. As of 2023, he is the Distinguished Senior Shillman Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and the Judith Friedman Rosen Writing Fellow at the Middle East Forum, an American conservative think tank.[7] He has been described as a part of the counter-jihad movement.[8]

Ibrahim is the editor and translator of The Al Qaeda Reader, which he published after discovering a hitherto unknown Arabic al-Qaeda document; Ibrahim believes the document "proves once and for all that, despite the propaganda of al-Qaeda and its sympathizers, radical Islam's war with the West is not finite and limited to political grievances — real or imagined — but is existential, transcending time and space and deeply rooted in faith".[4]

Ibrahim has appeared on and been interviewed by Al Jazeera, MSNBC, C-SPAN, NPR, and Reuters, and "regularly lectures, briefs governmental agencies, provides expert testimony for Islam-related lawsuits, and testifies before Congress."[7]

Reception

An article Ibrahim wrote on taqiyya, which was commissioned and published by Jane's Islamic Affairs Analyst on September 26, 2008,[9][10] was later characterized by another author in Jane's Islamic Affairs Analyst as being "well-researched, factual in places but ... ultimately misleading".[11] Ibrahim responded to this charge in his rebuttal, "Taqiyya Revisited: A Response to the Critics.[12]

Publications

  • Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood Against Islam. Post Hill Press. 2022. ISBN 978-1642938203.
  • Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West. Da Capo Press. 2018. ISBN 978-0306825552.
  • Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians. Regnery. 2013. ISBN 978-1621570257.
  • The Al Qaeda Reader. Doubleday. 2007. ISBN 978-0-385-51655-6.

References

  1. ^ "Terrorist letter's validity doubted". The Washington Times. October 18, 2005.
  2. ^ Min, Brian (July 1, 2019). "U.S. Army War College disinvites speaker critical of Islam". The College Fix. Retrieved August 15, 2020.
  3. ^ Bale, Jeffrey M. (2013). "Denying the Link between Islamist Ideology and Jihadist Terrorism: "Political Correctness" and the Undermining of Counterterrorism". Perspectives on Terrorism. 7 (5): 5–46.
  4. ^ a b "In Their Own Words; Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri explain their bloody actions." Archived 2012-11-03 at the Wayback Machine, The Washington Post, October 7, 2007
  5. ^ "Raymond Ibrahim". Hoover Institution. Retrieved April 21, 2017.
  6. ^ "Bin Laden writings to be translated", USA Today, Associated Press, January 20, 2005
  7. ^ a b "Fellows". Middle East Forum.
  8. ^ Pertwee, Ed (October 2017). 'Green Crescent, Crimson Cross': The Transatlantic 'Counterjihad' and the New Political Theology (PDF). London School of Economics. p. 268.
  9. ^ Ibrahim, Raymond (26 February 2009). "Taqiyya Revisited: A Response to the Critics".
  10. ^ "Jane's Islamic Affairs Analyst - Special Reports". Archived from the original on 2009-03-03. Retrieved 2009-08-19.
  11. ^ "Interpreting Taqiyya: Special Report", Jane's Islamic Affairs Analyst. IHS Jane's Information Group. November 12, 2008.
  12. ^ "Taqiyya Revisited: A Response to the Critics". Raymond Ibrahim. 26 February 2009.
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