Tashbih Sayyed

Tashbih Sayyed (1941–2007) was a Pakistani-American journalist, and author and was the editor-in-chief of Our Times, Pakistan Today, and In Review. Sayyed worked from 1967 to 1980 for the Pakistan Television Corporation. In 1981, he emigrated to the United States. As a regular columnist for newspapers in the US, Pakistan, Germany and India, Sayyed claimed that he is recognized as a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad and wrote from this perspective about Islamism, and what he perceived as the Islamist threat to the US, Israel and the West.

He was also founder of the websites Muslim World Today and Pakistan Today (not the Pakistani newspaper of the same name). Sayyed is featured in the documentaries, Relentless: The Struggle for Peace in Israel and Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West.

Life and career

Tashbih Sayyed was born in India in 1941 to a Shiite Muslim family. Following the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan in 1947, his family left for Pakistan.

He started his career in journalism at Pakistan Television in 1967, ultimately becoming the controller and general manager of the station. During his last years at Pakistan Television, Sayyed became the founder of the station's current affairs programming. As a result of his liberal views, however, he came under attack by the Zia ul-Haq regime. He left his position at the station in 1980 and immigrated to the U.S. in 1981.

Death After Sayeed's death in 2007, his daughter Supna succeeded him as editor-in-chief of Muslim World Today and Pakistan Today.

Views on the Islamist movement

Sayyed criticized Palestinian extremism, saying that "Terrorists not only benefit from wide support through Palestinian society, they embody only too well the deepest hopes of the majority: to destroy the Jewish state". He criticized Arab nations of making the children and grandchildren of Palestinian refugees second-class citizens in Lebanon, Syria, or the Gulf States, and said that the refugees "cling to the illusion that defeating the Jews will restore their dignity".

He said that Arab dictators, the PLO and radical Islamist movements have used the media, mosques and universities to present Jews as unholy intruders, occupiers, murderers, and enemies of Islam.

He condemned the press that portrays the Israelis as villains, and "chooses to ignore all rules of ethical journalism when it comes to Israel".