Tashbih Sayeed - Associate Fellow

As a historian, current affairs expert and specialist on Islamic, Western and South Asian Affairs, Tashbih Sayyed, has written extensively on issues concerning the Middle East, India-Pakistan relations and struggle between Islam and the West. Tashbih Sayyed has been on the forefront of the fight against the increasing influence of extreme wings of Islam among Muslims and its impact on world peace. He has spoken on the growing Islamist threat to world peace and Iran’s and Saudi Arabia’s contribution towards its spread.

Sayyed has been a frequent target of Islamists and Muslim fundamentalists for his views on Israel, Jews and Saudi Arabia’s role in the spread of religious extremism in the world. Islamists have been running a campaign to silence him for a number of years.

As a regular columnist for newspapers and author, Tashbih Sayyed has written outspokenly on the Islamist threat to the US. Sayyed speaks three languages: English, Urdu and Punjabi. He specializes in Islamic History, Middle East, South Asia and Central Asia. He has studied Political Science, History and International Relations in Pakistan, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. In addition, he has taught Political Science and International Relations in Universities in Pakistan, and has been a regular speaker on Israel-Palestine Conflict, Indo-Pakistan Relations, Afghanistan and India-China Affairs.

In 1967, he was part of a team of professionals assigned to establish a television network in Pakistan. In 1970, he headed the Current Affairs Department of Pakistan Television, and traveled extensively in the Middle East, Europe and Asia. As a television director and producer, he has produced hundreds of popular programs and talk shows in Pakistan. He has also edited two journals in Pakistan. As a host and the writer of a weekly current affairs program, “The World Tonight”, telecast in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, his research and insight into events shaping the political trends in the region have been widely acknowledged. His documentaries on Muslim culture and politics have also been very well received by a cross section of viewers in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh.

In his forthcoming book on Muhammad, Sayyed deals with the life of the prophet of Islam in a very secular manner, analyzing his life and politics as a worldly man with an objective of correcting the Muslim tradition of treating their history as theology. He believes that the manipulation of Muslim history and Holy Scriptures by Islamists is the root cause of today’s Islamic extremism. His latest book, The Scorpion’s Shadow, (to be published soon) is an overview of the history of Muslim extremism and an inquiry into the reasons for the rise of militancy in Islam.

Since 1990, he has been the Editor-in-Chief of a weekly newspaper, Pakistan Today (www.paktoday.com), and the Muslim World Today (www.muslimworldtoday.com), which is known for its liberal views. He is a former editor-in-Chief of a monthly magazine of news and views, “Our Times”.

Los Angeles Times, Jerusalem Post, Jewish Journal, Daily Bulletin, Chashm Andaz (A journal of Iranian-American Jewish Association Affiliated with Jewish Federation Council) have written about Sayyed and his newspaper a number of times. He has been quoted by major newspapers in the US, Russia, Germany, Israel, India and Bangladesh. He has won awards in Pakistan, United Kingdom and the US for his efforts to reform the Muslim mind of anti-Semitism. He was awarded the prestigious ‘Micah Award’ by American Jewish Committee, Orange County in 2003. He was also awarded by the American Jewish Congress, the Stephen S. Wise Humanitarian Award, “Profiles in Courage” in 2006 and an award for “Courage and Wisdom” by The “1939” Club, an organization of Holocaust Survivors and Descendants, in 2007.