Rashad Khalifa

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Rashad Khalifa
Born (1935-11-19)November 19, 1935
Egypt
Died Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist.
Tucson, Arizona, US
Nationality Egyptian-American
Occupation Biochemist
Known for Quran code
Children Sam Khalifa and Beth Khalifa

Rashad Khalifa (Arabic: رشاد خليفة‎‎; November 19, 1935–January 31, 1990) was an Egyptian-American biochemist, closely associated with the United Submitters International. He was assassinated on January 31, 1990.

Life

Khalifa was born in Egypt on November 19, 1935. His father was a Sufi who is reported to have led a group with thousands of followers.[1]

Khalifa obtained an honors degree from Ain Shams University, Egypt, before he emigrated to the United States in 1959, later earning a Master's Degree in biochemistry from Arizona State University and a PhD. from University of California.[1] He became a naturalized U.S. citizen and lived in Tucson, Arizona.[citation needed]

Khalifa worked as a science adviser for the Libyan government for about one year, after which he worked as a chemist for the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, then became a senior chemist in Arizona's State Office of Chemistry in 1980.[citation needed]

He was central to the founding of the United Submitters International, (USI), an offshoot Islamic group.[2] He coined the phrase "Final Testament" in reference to the Quran.[3]

Doctrine

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Main article: United Submitters International

Khalifa said that he was a messenger of God and that the archangel Gabriel "most assertively" told him that chapter 36, verse 3, of the Quran, "specifically" referred to him.[4][5] His followers refer to him as God's Messenger of the Covenant.[6] He promoted a strict monotheism and was a prominent Quranist, rejecting the hadith and sunnah as fabrications attributed to Muhammad by later scholars.

He wrote that the Quran contains a mathematical structure based on the number 19 and made the controversial claim that the last two verses of chapter nine in the Quran were not canonical, telling his followers to reject them.[7] His two-fold reasoning was that the verses, in addition to disrupting an otherwise flawless nineteen-based pattern, were sacrilegious inasmuch as they appeared to endorse worship of Mohammed. Starting in 1968, Khalifa used computers to analyze the frequency of letters and words in the Quran. In 1974, he claimed that he had discovered a mathematical code in the text of the Qur'an involving the number 19. The details of this analysis are available in his book, Quran, the Final Testament.[8]

Khalifa's research did not receive much attention in the West. In 1980, Martin Gardner mentioned it in Scientific American.[9] Gardner later wrote a more extensive and critical review of Khalifa and his work.[10]

Khalifa's first publicized report in the Arab world appeared in the Egyptian magazine Akher Sa'a, in January 1973.[11] Updates of his research were subsequently published by the same magazine later that year and again in 1975.[12][13]

Assassination

On January 31, 1990, he was found stabbed to death inside the Masjid (Mosque) of Tucson Arizona, his place of employment.[14] He was stabbed multiple times. Nineteen years after the murder, on Tuesday, April 28, 2009 the Calgary Police Services of Canada arrested Glen Cusford Francis, a 52-year-old citizen of Trinidad and Tobago, on suspicion of killing Rashad Khalifa.[15] Investigators in Tucson learned that Francis, who was going by the name Benjamin Phillips, had begun his studies under Khalifa in January 1990. Phillips disappeared shortly after the slaying,[15] and was said to have left the country. An investigation revealed Phillips and Francis were the same man upon discovering fingerprints found in Phillips' apartment. A specialty unit of the Tucson Police Department progressed in its investigation in 2006 and in December 2008 and was able to use DNA testing on forensic evidence from the crime scene to tie Francis to the assassination.[16] In October 2009, a Canadian judge ordered his extradition to the United States to face trial.[17] The trial for the assassination began on December 11, 2012. On December 19, the jury, after a three-hour deliberation, found Glen Francis guilty of first-degree murder.[18]

Prior to the Francis trial, James Williams, an alleged member of the Jamaat ul-Fuqra organization, was convicted of conspiracy in the slaying.[19] Williams disappeared on the day of his sentencing and could not be found.[20] In 2000 Williams was apprehended attempting to re-enter the United States and sentenced to serve 69 years in prison. His convictions were upheld on appeal by the Colorado Court of Appeals except for one count of forgery.[21][22]

CBS News reported that Muslim extremist Wadih el-Hage was "connected to the 1990 stabbing death... Rashad Khalifa was hated by Muslims opposed to his teachings. He is considered a false prophet by Muslims. El-Hage, who was indicted for lying about the case, called the assassination 'a good thing.'"[23] If true, Khalifa would be possibly the first American killed by an operative of Al Qaeda in the United States.[24]

Bibliography

  • Miracle of the Quran: Significance of the Mysterious Alphabets, Islamic Productions, St. Louis, Missouri, 1973.
  • The Computer Speaks: God's Message to the World, Renaissance Productions, Tucson, Arizona, 1981.
  • Qur'an: The Final Scripture, Islamic Productions, Tucson, Arizona, 1981.
  • Qur'an: Visual Presentation of the Miracle, Islamic Productions, Tucson, Arizona, 1982.
  • Qur'an, Hadith and Islam, Islamic Productions, Tucson, Arizona, 1982.
  • Qur'an: The Final Testament, Islamic Productions, Tucson, Arizona, 1989.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 http://www.submission.org/khalifa.html
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Quaranic Sciences - Page 277, Abbas Jaffer - 2009
  4. ↑ Appendix ii, (21), Authorized English Translation of the Quran, Dr. Rashad Khalifa, PhD.
  5. ↑ http://www.masjidtucson.org/quran/appendices/appendix2.html
  6. ↑ http://submission.org/messenger/
  7. ↑ ″[T]he idol worshipers were destined to tamper with the Quran by adding 2 false verses (9:128-129).″
  8. ↑ Khalifa, Rashad. Quran, the Final Testament.
  9. ↑ Gardner, Martin (1980), Mathematical Games, Scientific American, September 1980, pp16–20.
  10. ↑ The numerology of Dr. Rashad Khalifa - scientist, Martin Gardner, Skeptical Inquirer, Sept-Oct, 1997
  11. ↑ Akher Sa'a magazine, Egypt, January 24, 1973.
  12. ↑ Akher Sa'a magazine, Egypt, November 28, 1973.
  13. ↑ Akher Sa'a magazine, Egypt, December 31, 1975.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.[dead link]
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.[dead link]
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Eric Anderson, Slain Islamic leader was outspoken; Khalifa's teachings from Tucson angered Muslims worldwide, Denver Post, 21 October 1993, p21.
  20. ↑ Dick Foster, Extremist is 'not to be found'; Little hope held of finding Al-Fuqra fugitive, Rocky Mountain News, 25 February 1994, p8.
  21. ↑ People v. James D. Williams, (Colo. App. 01CA0781, Aug. 7, 2003) (not selected for official publication)
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ http://s3.amazonaws.com/911timeline/2001/arizonarepublic092801.html

External links

Resources

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