Nabeel Qureshi (Urdu: ???? ??????; April 13, 1983 - September 16, 2017) was an American Christian convert from the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam. He was a speaker with Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM) from 2013 until 2016 and the author of three books, Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity (Zondervan, February 2014), Answering Jihad: A Better Way Forward (Zondervan, March 2016), and No God But One--Allah or Jesus (Zondervan, August 2016).
Video Nabeel Qureshi (author)
Background
Qureshi was born into a family of Ahmadi. With his father in the US Navy, he moved around many times as a youth before settling in Virginia. Qureshi studied Islamic apologetics and engaged Christians in religious discussions. After one such discussion with a Christian at his university, David Wood, the two became friends and began a years-long debate on the historical claims of Christianity and Islam. Qureshi's resulting conversion to Christianity was chronicled in his first book, Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus. In addition to being a New York Times bestseller, Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus was awarded the Christian Book Award for the categories of both "Best New Author" and "Best Non-Fiction" of 2015, the first time in award history. Christianity Today heralded Qureshi as one of "33 Under 33" in its cover story on emerging religion leaders in July 2014.
Qureshi lectured to students at more than 100 universities, including Oxford, Columbia, Dartmouth, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, and the University of Hong Kong. He has participated in 18 moderated, public debates around North America, Europe, and Asia. In 2015, Qureshi debated at Wayne State University with Muslim scholar Shabir Ally.
Maps Nabeel Qureshi (author)
Education
Qureshi earned a bachelor's degree from Old Dominion University with an emphasis in interpersonal communication and a minor in biology, an M.D. from Eastern Virginia Medical School, an M.A. in Christian apologetics from Biola University, an M.A. in religion from Duke University, and an M.Phil. in Judaism and Christianity in the Graeco-Roman World from the University of Oxford. Qureshi was unable to finish his D.Phil. in New Testament studies at the University of Oxford due to his battle with stomach cancer.
2010 arrest in Dearborn
Beginning in the late 2000s, Qureshi began attending the Dearborn Arab Festival. In 2009, Qureshi, and other members of Acts 17 Apologetics were kicked out of the fair on the pretense that they were passing out Christian literature. The facts are that Qureshi walked up to a booth with the sign "Got Questions? We've got answers," picked up a brochure on Islam and asked a question, as the booth's sign invited anyone to do. As Qureshi was engaged in conversation, a Muslim man walked by, snatched the brochure out of Qureshi's hand, and approached security personnel with it. Security personnel used this to create a confrontation with Qureshi and his colleagues, telling them to leave without telling them why, and ultimately assaulting them. Returning in 2010, Qureshi and his colleagues resolved not to engage anyone in conversation unless it was initiated by someone else. Furthermore, the members of Acts 17 Apologetics filmed the entirety of their interactions, as they had done the previous year. During the 2010 Festival, Qureshi was shown being asked questions by a small crowd of Muslim teenagers. Police officers soon arrested the group and confiscated their video cameras, charging Qureshi with disturbing the peace and refusing a lawful order from a police officer. Qureshi and his group spent a night in jail for this arrest.
Soon after the arrest, Dearborn mayor John B. O'Reilly, Jr. released a statement indicating that the missionaries were engaged in hostile, angry shouts with the crowd, blocking access to the booths. The mayor stated that Qureshi was getting violent and confrontational with police officers attempting to peacefully calm the situation. After reviewing the video evidence, a jury found Qureshi not guilty on all counts. A separate civil suit found that Dearborn, Michigan had violated Qureshi's constitutional rights, finding that there was no basis in law for his arrest. In 2013, the city then settled the suit. As part of the settlement, the city had to issue a formal apology and maintain that apology on their website for three years.
Commentary on Wheaton College comments
In December 2015, the private Christian university Wheaton College suspended Larycia Hawkins over a public comment she made in a hijab that Muslims "like me, a Christian, are people of the book. And as Pope Francis stated last week, we worship the same God." The suspension was criticized by the Chicago Tribune, which described Wheaton's actions as "bigotry... disguised as theology." Yale professor Miroslav Volf said, "There isn't any theological justification for Hawkins's forced administrative leave. Her suspension is not about theology and orthodoxy. It is about enmity toward Muslims."
Qureshi received many requests to provide input on the Wheaton College suspension. Qureshi had many Ahmadi family members and friends, and regularly encouraged Christians to consider gestures of solidarity with the hope that, somehow, this affection will trickle down. He even recommended that Christian women consider wearing the hijab in certain circumstances, and counseled Christian men to consider fasting with their Muslim neighbors during the month of Ramadan, as long as it is clear these gestures are out of Christian love and not submission to Islam.
On January 13, 2016, Volf and Qureshi debated the topic "Do Muslims and Christians worship the same God?" on an episode of Seeking Truth with Julie Roys arguing the position that they are not the same god.
Commentary on international Islamic terrorism
Qureshi commented on international Islamic terrorism in several media outlets, including USA Today, Fox News, Newsmax TV, The Blaze and the Huffington Post where he detailed his conversion to Christianity and his belief that Islam is inherently a violent religion.
Cancer diagnosis and death
On 30 August 2016, Qureshi announced that he was in the advanced stages of stomach cancer. Qureshi took to his Facebook page to inform fans and followers of his illness saying the prognosis was "quite grim."
"This is an announcement that I never expected to make, but God in His infinite and sovereign wisdom has chosen me for this refining, and I pray He will be glorified through my body and my spirit," Qureshi wrote. "My family and I have received the news that I have advanced stomach cancer, and the clinical prognosis is quite grim. Nonetheless, we are going to pursue healing aggressively, both medical and miraculous, relying on God and the fact that He is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine." Qureshi died of stomach cancer on September 16, 2017, at the age of 34.
References
External links
- Quotations related to Nabeel Qureshi (author) at Wikiquote
- Bismika Allahuma, Some Thoughts On The Death Of Nabeel Qureshi, 21 September 2017
- Christianity Today, Died: Nabeel Qureshi, Author of 'Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus', 16 September 2017
Source of article : Wikipedia
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