Sven Kalisch (also 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 (german: Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, WWU) is a public university, public research university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. With more than 43,000 students and over ...

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

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...

probably never existed. Official Islamic groups in Germany have referred to him as an apostate. Germany's Muslim Coordinating Council withdrew from the advisory board of professor Kalisch's centre.

Biography

Kalisch converted from Protestant Christianity to Islam at the age of 15. He adopted the Zaidism branch of

Shia Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that the Prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his S ...

Islam. In 1997 he completed his PhD in Islamic jurisprudence. Kalisch was a member of the administrative council of the Germany Muslim Academy and worked for the

Islamic Centre Hamburg The Islamic Centre Hamburg (german: Islamisches Zentrum Hamburg) ( fa, مرکز اسلامی هامبورگ) is one of the oldest mosques in Germany and Europe and is abbreviated IZH. Established in Hamburg, in northern Germany, in the late 1950s ...

(Shi'ite). From 2004 to 2010, he was professor of Islamic Religion at the Centrum für religionsbezogene Studien (de) (CRS) in

. Kalisch declared in 2008 and 2009 that he had doubts as to the historicity of Muhammad (and also

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

and

Moses Moses hbo, מֹשֶׁה, Mōše; also known as Moshe or Moshe Rabbeinu (Mishnaic Hebrew: מֹשֶׁה רַבֵּינוּ, ); syr, ܡܘܫܐ, Mūše; ar, موسى, Mūsā; grc, Mωϋσῆς, Mōÿsēs () is considered the most important pro ...

), as expressed by the "Saarbrücken School", which is part of the greater movement of the

Revisionist School of Islamic Studies The Revisionist school of Islamic studies, (also Historical-Critical school of Islamic studies and skeptic/revisionist Islamic historians) Hoyland, ''In God's Path'', 2015: p.232 is a movement in Islamic studies that questions traditional Muslim ...

. 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
WWU Munster, 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 German former Muslims 1966 births {{Germany-academic-bio-stub