Raymond Ibrahim is an American research librarian, translator, author and
columnist. His focus is Arabic history and language, and current events. He is
the author of two books, Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on
Christians and The Al Qaeda Reader. Biography
Ibrahim was born in the United States to Coptic immigrants from Egypt. He is
fluent in Arabic and English. Ibrahim studied at California State University,
Fresno, where he wrote a Master's thesis under Victor Davis Hanson on an early
military encounter between Islam and Byzantium based on medieval Arabic and
Greek texts. Ibrahim also took graduate courses at Georgetown University's
Center for Contemporary Arab Studies and is studying toward a PhD in medieval
Islamic history at Catholic University. Career
Ibrahim was previously an Arab language specialist for the Near East section of
the Library of Congress, and the associate director of the Middle East
Forum. He is currently a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.
The 9/11 attacks played a pivotal role in framing Ibrahim's outlook. As he
explained in the Chronicle of Higher Education, the attacks occurred while he
was researching for his M.A. thesis, which centred on the role of jihad in
early Islamic conquests; consequently, Ibrahim's study expanded from history
and theology to politics, current events, al-Qaeda, Islamist
organizations, and watching Al Jazeera. He asserts an evident continuity between
the words, deeds, and goals of the 7th century mujahidin whom he studied and
that of 21st century Islamic radicals. He maintains that to truly understand
contemporary Islam and Islamism, one must first understand early Islamic
history and doctrine. Ibrahim is the editor and translator of
The Al-Qaeda Reader, which he published after discovering a hitherto unknown
Arabic al-Qaeda treatises; Ibrahim holds that document "proves once and for all
that, despite the propaganda of al-Qaeda and its sympathizers, radical Islam's
war with the West is not finite and limited to political grievances— real or
imagined- but is existential, transcending time and space and deeply
rooted in faith". Ibrahim is a regular contributor to
FrontPage Magazine. Reception
An article Ibrahim wrote on taqiyya that was commissioned and published by Jane's
Islamic Affairs Analyst on September 26, 2008, was later characterized by another
author in Jane's Islamic Affairs Analyst as being "well-researched, factual in
places but ... ultimately misleading". Ibrahim responded to this charge in his
rebuttal, "Taqiyya Revisited: A Response to the Critics."
References Publications
The Al Qaeda Reader, Doubleday, 2007, ISBN 978-0-385-51655-6
"How Taqiyya Alters Islam's Rules of War", Middle East Quarterly, Winter
2010, pp. 3–13 "Are Judaism and Christianity as Violent
as Islam?", Middle East Quarterly, Summer 2009, pp. 3–12
"An Analysis of Al-Qa'ida's Worldview: Reciprocal Treatment or Religious
Obligation", Middle East Review of International Affairs, Vol. 12, No. 3,
September 2008 "Studying the Islamic Way of War",
National Review Online, September 11, 2008
"Islam's Doctrines of Deception", Jane's Islamic Affairs Analyst, The Middle East
Forum, September 26, 2008 "Jesus and Mohammad, Version 2.0",
National Review Online, September 10, 2007
"The Two Faces of Al Qaeda", The Chronicle of Higher Education, Vol. 54,
Issue 4, p. B3, September 21, 2007 "Islam gets concessions; Infidels get
conquered", Los Angeles Times, December 5, 2006
External links Raymond Ibrahim website
Appearances on C-SPAN Publications on National Review
Publications on Fox News Publications on The American Spectator
Publications on The Algemeiner Journal Publications on Christian Broadcasting
Network