Abdulaziz Sachedina
Abdulaziz Sachedina is Professor and International Institute of Islamic Thought Chair in Islamic Studies at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. He has been a professor for 33 years, beginning in 1975. He annually teaches courses on Classical Islam, Islam in the Modern Age, Islam, Democracy and Human Rights, Islamic Bioethics and Muslim Theology. He was born in Tanzania, his heritage originally is from India. He has an MA/PhD from the University of Toronto and has BA degrees from Aligarh Muslim University in India and Ferdowsi University of Mashad in Iran. He was one of the students of Dr. Ali Shariati in Iran.
In 1997, Grand Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi Golpaygani thanked him for his translation of a book on Imam Mahdi into English, originally written by Ayatollah Ebrahim Amini. The acknowledgement letter was published by the Iranian Hawza magazine.
In 1998, Grand Ayatollah Sistani issued a statement against Sachedina that advised Muslims not to listen to his talks or to ask him questions about religious matters..
In addition to his work at the university, Professor Sachedina has been a consultant to the Department of Defense regarding Middle Eastern affairs and was an adviser to those drafting the Constitution of Iraq that was put into effect in 2005.
He speaks Hindi, Urdu, Persian, Arabic, Gujarati, Swahili, and English.
He has also taught at the University of Virginia.
He is a Shia Muslim.
