Soheib Bencheikh(Born 1961) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia graduated in Islamic Theology from Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt, and from the Université Libre of Brussels. He holds a Doctorate in Religious Sciences from the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (EPHE), Paris. He was nominated as Grand Mufti of the city of Marseille in 1995 by Dr. Dalil Boubakeur , the Rector of the Great Mosque of Paris. He is a member of the Conseil Français du Culte Musulman (Council of French Muslims) since its creation in 2003.

Bencheikh is an anti-fundamentalist religious leader and an assertive supporter of an Islam eager and capable to adapt itself to the modern world. He also is acknowledged as a reformer Muslim theologian committed to interreligious dialogue. He has written two books “Les Grandes Religions” and “Marianne et le Prophète : l’Islam dans la Laicité”, his famous book on the position and opportunities for Muslims in secular democrary.

References

• 'Marianne et le Prophète: L'Islam dans la France laïque', Paris, Bernard Grasset, 1998.