Nationality Lebanese American Doctoral advisor Annemarie Schimmel | Thesis year 1975 Main interest Religious studies | |
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Born 1935 (age 81–82) Qana, Lebanon Occupation Professor, Writer, Board member Board member of Editorial Board, Journal, Islam and Christian Muslim Relations. Awards Kent Doctoral Fellowship
Canada Council Fellowship
Fulbright Exchange of Scholars program for Malaysia (1994 – 1995).
Fulbright Exchange of Scholars program for Egypt and Lebanon (2000).
Fulbright Senior Specialists Program for Malaysia (2003). Thesis title Redemptive Suffering in Islam: A Study of the Devotional Aspects of ‘Ashura’ in Twelver Shi’ism Alma maters Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, American University of Beirut Institutions Hartford Seminary, Oxford University Press, University of Pennsylvania, University of Balamand, Tripoli Books The Qur'an and Its Interpreters, Islam: Faith and History, Redemptive suffering in Islām, The Crisis of Muslim History, Islam and the Third Universal | ||
Interview prof dr mahmoud m ayoub part 5
Mahmoud M. Ayoub is a Lebanese scholar and professor of religious and inter-faith studies.
Contents
Interview prof dr mahmoud m ayoub part 2
Early life
Mahmoud was born into a devout Muslim family in 1935 at Ayu Qana (South Lebanon), a city with a mixed and integrated Muslim and Christian population. His upbringing was socially integrated with events and people from both the Islamic and Christian religious faiths. Mr. Ayoub attended a British Presbyterian missionary school as a child, being taught according to Christian values and identifying as a Christian against his mother's wishes when abandoning the Islamic religion. He would eventually join an American Southern Baptist Church group seeking a more zealous approach of reaching others with the Gospel.
Education
After receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from the American University of Beirut in 1964, he moved to America to complete a Masters of Arts in Religious Thought from the University of Pennsylvania in 1966 and then a Doctorate in History of Religion from Harvard University in 1975. It was during his studies he resolved returning to the ideology of Islam as his mother had wished for.
Career
Mr. Ayoub is currently Faculty Associate of Shi’ite Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations and Co-Director at the Duncan Black MacDonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations for Hartford Seminary at Georgetown University.
From 1988 to 2008, Mahmoud was Professor and Director of Islamic Studies at the Department of Religion at Temple University in Philadelphia, an Adjunct Professor at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut, a Research Fellow at the Middle East Center at the University of Pennsylvania and a Tolson visiting professor at the Pacific School of Religion at Berkeley University.
In 1998, Dr. Ayoub helped develop and start a graduate Masters of Art level program in Muslim-Christian relations and comparative religion for the Centre for Christian-Muslim Studies at the University of Balamand in Lebanon. Mr. Ayoub has also taught at San Diego State University, the University of Toronto and McGill University.
Published work
Mahmoud Ayoub is author of various books and publications, some of which are:
Theological position
Mahmoud Ayoub promotes a moderate interpretation and understanding of Islamic theology.
A 2006 article about Muslim cab drivers and their adherence to the various religious rules and keeping the letter of the laws of Islam, when speaking to cab drivers transporting customers having alcoholic products, Ayoub is quoted saying "I know many Muslims who own gas stations [alcohol is prohibited in Islam] and sell ham sandwiches [pork is prohibited in Islam]. They justify it and I think rightly so; that they have to make a living."
In 2013 when responding to questions about ISIS/ISIL, Ayoub dismissed them as contrary to Islam, stating that extremism has always been a problem in the religion, noting that Islam is unique among faiths in that it was founded as both a religion and a state. Mahmoud clarified the ideal dynamic would be a balance between the two with the state remaining in ultimate control. He further stated that from Islam's earliest beginnings, some have challenged that balance and sought to impose brutal theocracies, citing one group early in Islamic history that acted much like ISIS, trying to found a theocracy and killing all those who resisted or disagreed with it. "My view is the action of ISIS is not unique. Extremism appears in every epoch of Islam."
At a lecture in 2013 at Oakwood University in Huntsville, Alabama, Ayoub said at the heart of the Islamic moral system is love, the basis for peace. In quoting a passage from the Hadith (collected sayings of Muhammad): "No one of you will be a true believer until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself."
In a 2014 article in The Jewish Exponent regarding religious observations, Ayoub's words are quoted “Repentance may be regarded as the cornerstone of religious life of both the individual and society.”
In the media
In 2009 Ayoub voiced his opinion regarding the idea of a U.S. Muslim college, believing Muslims are better off attending established American schools, saying U.S. Muslims badly need a seminary since there are none in the country: "I don't know that I would send my child to go to a college where they can only learn tradition. Young people have to live, I like mixing people. I don't like ghettos."
On 24 March 2015 the Peace Islands Institute brought together Mahmoud M. Ayoub and Neset Ulusal of Quinnipiac University for a discussion entitled "Muslim Voices Against Extremism".
In a 2015 article Mahmoud's work was mentioned as helping develop a scholarly approach to inter-faith relations between Islam and Christianity.
In 2016 Mr. Ayoub was mentioned being the “driving force behind establishing the chair and raising money for it” regarding the first academic chair in North America dedicated to Shi’i studies at Hartford to help complimenting and contrasting dialogue balancing the predominant Sunni view of Islamic thought.
Controversy
In 2008 Professor Mahmoud Ayoub was instrumental in persuading the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) into donating $1.5 million for the Temple University Seminary chair office. This effort was met with warnings from David Horowitz claiming the IIIT group had funded terrorism and having terrorist ties. After the university seemed unable to publicly respond with an open acceptance or rejection of the donation, the IIIT withdrew its offer in December of that year. Although IIIT had been investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the Department of Homeland Security after the domestic terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001, no charges were brought against their organization.
Awards
In 2012, Mr. Ayoub received the Distinguished Scholar Award from the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT).
Mahmoud has received a Kent Doctoral Fellowship, a Fulbright scholarship and a Canada Council Fellowship.