Antoine Sfeir

Antoine Sfeir (November 25, 1948, Beirut, Lebanon - October 1, 2018, Paris, France) was a journalist and political scientist and author of numerous works on subjects related to the Middle East and the Muslim world.

Founder of Les Cahiers de l'Orient (Notebooks from the East), he chaired the Center for Studies and Reflection on the Near East (Cerpo) and the Free Institute for the Study of International Relations (ILERI), and taught international relations at the CELSA Sorbonne University.

Biography Early life Antoine Sfeir was born on November 25, 1948 in Beirut, Lebanon, in a family of Maronite Christians. At one and a half years old, he contracted polio. From this illness, he kept a slight lip defect (facial paralysis) for the rest of his life.

He studied at the Collège Notre-Dame de Jamhour then at the Saint Joseph University of Beirut, and began studying medicine.

Career Sfeir was the editor of the French journal, Les Cahiers de l'Orient (Notebooks from the East), a quarterly publication devoted to the Arab and Muslim world, and the president of the CERPO (Study and Research Center on the Middle East). A former professor of international relations at the CELSA (Paris-Sorbonne University) school, he was also president of the ILERI international relations school (Institut Libre d'Etude des Relations Internationales).

On 13 June 1976, he was kidnapped by pro-Syrian militiamen from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. He was held captive for seven days, during which he was tortured (bayonet in the back, blows with the butt on the fingers and in the jaw, torn nails). This episode pushed him to leave Lebanon to take refuge in France, where he arrived on 3 September 1976. His knowledge of Arab countries and the Muslim world means that he quickly becomes an expert solicited by French media to decipher current events in the Middle East.

A recognized expert on Islam, Sfeir warned against the dangers of radicalism as soon as in the 2000s : "...foreign imams often found an all too willing audience in France's rundown immigrant suburbs. The kids there already watch Arab stations on satellite TV, with their bloodthirsty slogans and anti-western propaganda. They've already been totally radicalized."

Sfeir wrote numerous books about Islam and the Middle East; one of which was The Columbia World Dictionary of Islamism, translated by John King (Columbia University Press). He was often interviewed about international affairs on television talkshows, newspapers, and Administration commissions.

In his book Tunisie, terre de paradoxes published in 2006, he was accused of supporting the regime of Ben Ali in particular by denying its police and authoritarian character. Sfeir replied that he always considered "the Tunisian people as an example for the whole region" in terms of education, modernization and regional integration, as well as in the fight against religious fundamentalism". But in February 2011, Sfeir admitted that he was "heavily mistaken" on Tunisia and the Ben Ali regime.

Sfeir was made an Officer of the Legion of Honour in 2009. He died on 1 October 2018.

Family Antoine Sfeir is the father of three daughters, the eldest of whom, Marie-José, Les Cahiers de l'Orient.

Honours Legion of Honour – Officer National Order of Merit – Officer

Works