Agha Khalid Saeed

Turkey, and throughout the Western and Muslim worlds.

Badri had a long-term relationship with the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) and Association of Muslim Social Scientists UK (AMSS UK). In July 1990 he participated in the first IIIT Summer School organized by the IIIT London Office jointly with Oxford University’s Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies. He also participated in the AMSS UK’s second annual conference: Social Responsibility: Challenges for the Future (London, October 2000). Since 2000 he was a regular participant in various AMSS UK events and the annual IIIT Summer School held in Turkey.

IIIT published and translated (and reprinted) some of his books into various languages, such as the best-selling “Contemplation: A Psychospiritual Study” (reprinted several times), as well as “Sustenance of the Soul,” one of its most requested titles.

His latest book in Arabic, currently at the printers, will to be jointly published by IIIT and Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University.

Deeply respected by all, Professor Badri’s legacy of intellectual contributions will continue long into the future. His passing is a great loss to the Muslim academic community.

In 2016, he was awarded the AMSS UK Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his profound contributions to psychology, psychotherapy, Islamic psychology and clinical psychology, as well as for his eminent career and scholarly achievements.

Aptly, the hadith narrated by Ibn Abbas applies to Badri. The Prophet asked, “Do you know what is the departure of knowledge?” and then stated, “It’s the death of the scholars” (Transmitted in “Musnad Ahmad,” with a sound chain).

He is survived by his wife Dr. Fatimah Abdullah (associate professor, Department of Usuluddin and Comparative Religion, Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences, IIUM) and seven children. ih

Sources: https://www.erminsinanovic.com/blog/ prof-malik-badri-1932-2021-a-giant-in-thefield-of-islamic-psychology, https://sapelosquare. com/2020/03/05/interview-malcolm-x-andthe-sudanese/ and https://www.aljazeera.com/ opinions/2020/3/19/malcolm-x-and-the-sudanese.

A Worker for Muslim American Empowerment

1948-2021

Agha Khalid Saeed (known to most as Agha Saeed), who was born in Quetta, Pakistan and became a towering Muslim American figure, passed away on Feb. 19 due to complications from Covid-19. He had also been suffering silently from Parkinson’s for more than eight years.

He spoke straight from his heart, meaning fearlessly. Aptly, Rep. Paul Findley (R-Ill., d.2019) described Saeed as “a driven man” (Jan./Feb. 1999, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs).

Muslim American history would be incomplete without recognizing his achievements and tremendous efforts on the community’s behalf, said Dr. Sami A. Al-Arian (director and public affairs professor, Center for Islam and Global Affairs, İstanbul Sabahattin Zaim Üniversitesi).

This and future generations of Muslim Americans, he stressed, particularly the youth, must appreciate the accomplishments of their community’s intellectuals, leaders and pioneers — people like Saeed, Dr. Ismail Al-Farouqi (murdered in 1986), Dr. Mohammad Taki Mehdi (d.1988), Dr. Jamal Barzanji (d. 2015) and Dr. Maher Hathout (d. 2015). Such individuals paved the way for our community’s empowerment, relentlessly opposed those who sought to marginalize it and fought to secure the respect and status our community deserves.

A Harvard-trained scholar (PhD, political science) who was involved in academia for decades, Saeed also wanted to make a real difference. Therefore, during the late 1980s and for over two decades thereafter, he led the effort to empower Muslim Americans in the political and public spheres.

Believing that respect and recognition is earned, he was active from the streets to university campuses and community centers, and from conference halls and TV studios to the corridors of Congress. He gradually became a renowned leader and voice fighting for recognition, inclusion and dignity.

By educating, mobilizing, organizing and uniting the major Muslim American political and civic engagement organizations, he inspired and mentored countless people in terms of their civic duties and political involvement.

A true visionary endowed with great intellectual and leadership skills, as well as real human decency, Saeed was regarded as a fierce fighter for truth and justice; a brave spokesperson for the weak, exploited, the poor and downtrodden; a sworn enemy of injustice, tyranny and dictatorships; and a passionate defender of civil and human rights in the tradition of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela.

And yet he remained a humble and loving person with a big, soft heart and teary eyes upon hearing of people’s suffering or pain.

In the early 1990s, he was among the first to establish the American Muslim Alliance, a nationwide political organization established to empower Muslim Americans through electoral politics. Despite the obstacles and resistance, Saeed never compromised his faith, tradition and values or sacrificed any great cause, regardless of the temptations or potential short-term rewards. From Palestine, Kashmir, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq to the genocides, massacres and famines in India, Burma and Somalia, he was leading, advocating, speaking up and devising the roadmap and setting the red lines.

Saeed always set the bar of moral clarity very high when it came to such issues as the status of Jerusalem; fighting occupation and racism, tyranny and dictatorships in the Middle East; opposing domestic racial tension and the entrenchment of the post-9/11 security state. In fact, he was instrumental in building coalitions and alliances to pursue the universal struggle against injustice, tyranny and racism.

He singlehandedly established and led the American Muslim Political Coordination Council during the 1990s to organize all