Zaki Badawi

To him, this meant an Islam that was inclusive, moderate, tolerant and without the rancour or hostility that marked attitudes to Western values prevalent in some of the more zealous sects of Arabia and the Middle East. He therefore devoted his life in Britain to building bridges — of faith, of dialogue and of scholarship. It is thanks largely to his pioneering work in the 1990s in helping to establish a forum for the three Abrahamic faiths — Christianity, Judaism and Islam — and his tireless, behind-the-scenes work in reaching out to British society and institutions that Britain has fared so much better than other European nations with Muslim minorities in integrating its Muslim citizens. But for Badawi, Britain might have fared far less well in avoiding the social alienation that has marked relations between Muslims and the rest of society in France.

Equally, however, Badawi was an outspoken voice in upholding Muslim dignity and the true values of his faith when these came under attack. This was never more crucial than in the aftermath of the September 11 atrocities in America. And when many other leading Muslim scholars were reluctant to speak out to condemn violence or denounce terrorism, he wrote an article for The Times in which he insisted that taking revenge on the innocent was abhorrent to Islam. He gave a warning that no society was immune from violence, and the worst was one which donned the garb of religion. But he said the Koran emphasised that those who disturbed the peace of society and spread fear and disorder deserved the severest punishment that could be imposed.

His denunciation of violence and extremism was forcefully repeated again last year, when he joined religious leaders in commemorating the victims of the London bombings and in calling for tolerance and calm. Again, his words, among others, may have helped Britain to avoid any widespread and violent backlash against Muslims across the country.

Born in Cairo in 1922, Badawi studied at al-Azhar University, where he claimed to have gained his rebellious streak. “I have always refused to be deferential, even to heads of state,” he told a journalist in January 2003. “Irreverence is part of my Islamic culture, of my training at al-Azhar.”

It did nothing to harm his studies: after an undergraduate degree in theology, Badawi gained a master’s degree in Arabic language and literature and the King Faruq First Prize for best postgraduate student. After gaining his doctorate, he returned to teach at al-Azhar before coming to Britain for the first time in 1951. He gained a degree in psychology from University College London, followed by a doctorate from London University in modern Muslim thought.

He then spent several years in South-East Asia, setting up the Muslim College of Malaya and taking teaching posts in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. He took up professorships in Kano and Zaria, Nigeria, and in Jeddah. He returned to London as a research professor for the Haj Research Centre of the King Abdul Aziz University in Saudi Arabia.

Badawi first came to grips with the British way of life, and the challenges it held for Muslims, in 1978 when he took the post of director of the Islamic Cultural Centre (ICC), while also serving as chief imam of the London Central Mosque in Regent’s Park. He helped to establish the Shariah Council, to reconcile conflicts between Islamic and British law. He found it incredible that most imams would not — and could not — preach in the language of their adopted country, and he was the first Muslim to make this criticism clear.

He doubted, too, that priests or teachers could reach out to young British Muslims as if they were on home soil in Pakistan or Bangladesh, and was quite sure they should not try. As British Muslims became third and fourth-generation citizens, he felt certain that the cross-pollination of ideas needed a new, Westernised approach, and an awareness and respect of all faiths, in order to make sense of it.

The prospectus of the Muslim College, which he established in 1986 to train imams in the new approach, and where he served as principal, states that the training of “traditional” imams “is not always sufficient to deal with the cultural environment of modern Western Europe and the USA, nor with problems arising from interaction with Western societies”.

Perhaps most infuriating to fundamentalists was Badawi’s firm belief in the idea of British Muslims, with British as a badge of honour, a social and cultural designation, not a mere branch of one contiguous caliphate. “Within a couple of generations Muslims will lose their cultural baggage. Indian and Pakistani ways will disappear. They will adopt Western cultural values, and the whole community will be brought together as British Muslims,” he said.

A dislike of “cultural baggage” was at the heart of Badawi’s rebellious streak. He campaigned against female genital mutilation, insisting that it was an outmoded cultural, not religious, practice with no causal link to Islam. He stated that the fatwa had become overused, and that those who proclaimed them usually had no divine sanction. “Since Ayatollah Khomeini issued his against Salman Rushdie, everyone has opened a fatwa shop,” he said.

Badawi incurred the wrath of Britain’s imams in 1989 when he stated that, much as he disliked his book, should Rushdie knock at his door with the youth of Bradford at his heels, he would certainly give him sanctuary. He wished to restore the idea, lost in the Iranian Revolution, of loving the sinner, hating the sin.

Naturally, Badawi’s belief in a type of Islam both acceptable to and supportive of Western society made him an “Uncle Tom” character to many imams. He seemed to represent the face of Islam that liberal, middle-class Britain hoped to do business with.

He was certainly an antidote to the gloom of 9/11 and the London bombings. Badawi, in explaining the religion’s ability to adapt, would often refer to its golden age, its absorption of other faiths and its role in preserving the Classics. Such reasoned Islam, between mosque and minaret, he hoped would come to prominence in Britain.

Badawi prepared 38 articles on financial management with respect to Muslim law. In Britain, where most people maintain an enduring faith in the property market, Badawi’s work in establishing sharia-compliant or “halal” mortgages may prove the most binding part of his work to bring the next generation into the fold. At the Islamic Real Estate Finance conference in London in July 2003, Badawi explained how Muslims could take advantage of his schemes, backed by the Treasury, to own property in Britain or overseas.

In 1997 Badawi established, with Sir Sigmund Sternberg and the Rev Marcus Braybrooke, the Three Faiths Forum — “To encourage friendship, goodwill and understanding amongst people of the three Abrahamic monotheistic faiths in the UK and elsewhere”. He was vice-chairman of the World Congress of Faiths and director/trustee of the Forum Against Islamophobia and Racism (Fair). He was a founder-trustee of the Festival of Muslim Cultures, and it was his vision for UK Muslims to take a more prominent role that inspired the festival, which was launched this month.

Yet Badawi, given to the celebration of compatible faiths rather than a grudging cognisance of “people of the book”, remained a maverick — albeit an increasingly important one.

Turned back from JFK Airport by US authorities in July last year, Badawi showed pity rather than anger. “They were very, very embarrassed and I felt sorry for them.” He said, adding: “America is a lovely country. There is no reason why it should behave like that.” Badawi had joined Iqbal Sacrani and other leaders of the faith todenounce the perpetrators of the London bombings eight days earlier. Their points of agreement were relatively few, however. Sacrani ‘s recent statement that homosexuality is “not acceptable” and the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) boycott last year of the Holocaust remembrance ceremony will give many cause to miss a peacemaker who would, wherever possible, give words of support and, where not, keep his own counsel.

In private, Badawi was jovial, warm and hospitable. He enjoyed nothing more than a friendly, reasonable debate on the values of Muslims in Britain today and the challenges of reconciling Islam and modernity in Britain and across the wider Muslim world.

He was, however, saddened by the growth of extremist sects and their appeal for many young, disillusioned Muslims. And he blamed the Government and press for listening to the self-publicists who, he believed, were trying to impose their leadership on the Muslim community in Britain.

Partly this was because he found that his own moderation was increasingly under attack from younger, more assertive leaders, and partly it was the natural resentment of an older man for those who, he believed, had elbowed him out of the limelight.

But he relished his own acceptance into British society (he was a member of the Athenaeum) and the recognition he was accorded by other scholars and academics. Even in old age — which was certainly not visible in his face — he was active in writing, lecturing and preaching. He was glad that many of his causes, especially the demand that imams should be properly trained and speak good English, were finally recognised by the Government. The MCB, which now represents the main umbrella group of British Muslim organisations, was planning a ceremony to honour his scholarship, faith and role as a pioneer in British-Muslim relations. But he died before any such proposal could be advanced.

He was appointed OBE (hon) in 1998 and KBE in 2004. He is survived by his wife, Maryam, and by a son and a daughter.

Zaki Badawi, Muslim community leader, teacher and theologian, was born on August 11, 1922. He died on January 24, 2006, aged 83.