Islamic scholar Asghar Ali Engineer passes away at 73

Noted Islamic scholar and social scientist Dr Asghar Ali Engineer passed away in Mumbai on Tuesday morning after a prolonged illness.

Engineer, 73, breathed his last at his home in Santa Cruz. He is survived by a son and a daughter. A leader of the progressive Dawoodi Bohra movement, he was among those who led voices against the Syedna’s decision to support Narendra Modi in Gujarat.

Born in 1940, Engineer did BSc in civil engineering from Vikram University. Engineer was internationally known for his work on liberation theology in Islam and was chairperson of the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism, Mumbai.

A committed activist for the cause of national integration and communal harmony, Engineer received the Right Livelihood, or the ‘Alternative Nobel’, award in 2004. In 2011, he wrote A Living Faith, an autobiographical account of his work, the political events that shaped his views, his struggle against orthodox Bohra priesthood and his rise as a leader of social and religious reform.

Stating that his passing leaves a void, activist Teesta Setalvad said, “Asghar Ali Engineer saab was a mentor and inspiration beginning pathbreaking work on deconstructing communal politics soon after the Gujarat riots and targeted violence of 1969. He was also persecuted and beaten for standing up for Bohra human rights and reform. His children, Irfan and Seema suffered as he did too; being ostracised and kept away from his mother and grandmother’s funeral. He was a compassionate man of great conviction.”

Journalist Jyoti Punwani said, “The kind of interpretation of Islam that he did, which included women’s rights, is something that nobody in post-independent India did. The efforts he put into improving relations between Hindus and Muslims, is also something no one has worked on.”