Ataullah Siddiqui


Ataullah Siddiqui was a Muslim scholar and academic who did much to promote interfaith relations.

English career

Of Indian origin, Ataullah Siddiqui completed his secondary education in Kalimpong and moved to Britain in 1982. There he became an academic, holding the position of professor of Christian-Muslim Relations and inter-faith understanding and course director of the certificate in Muslim chaplaincy course at Markfield Institute of Higher Education. Previously, he was the director of the institute from 2001 - 2008. He was also a visiting fellow in the School of Historical Studies, University of Leicester.
In the field of interfaith relations, he was a founder president and vice chair of the Christian Muslim Forum and a founder member of the Leicester Council of Faiths. His academic honours included a PhD from the University of Birmingham and an honorary doctorate from the University of Gloucestershire.
Siddiqui was the author of the 2007 report, commissioned by the UK government, entitled Islam at Universities in England: Meeting the Needs and Investing in the Future. He also contributed essays and articles, particularly on interfaith themes, to a number of other publications, and lectured widely.
He died of cancer in Birmingham on 8 November 2020 at the age of 66.

Scholarly publications

Christian-Muslim Dialogue in the Twentieth Century, Palgrave Macmillan Islam and Other Faiths Christians and Muslims in the Commonwealth: A Dynamic Role in the Future British Secularism and Religion: Islam, Society and the State , Markfield: Kube Publishing Beyond the Dysfunctional Family: Jews, Christians and Muslims in Dialogue with Each Other and With Britain , London: The Manor House Abrahamic Group