Ghaleb Bencheikh
Born in 1960 in Saudi Arabia, Ghaleb Bencheikh is an Islamic scholar and a physicist by training. He produces and hosts the programme “Questions d’islam” on France Culture and chairs the Fondation de l’Islam de France (Foundation for Islam in France).
Holding a doctorate in science from Sorbonne Université, where he defended a thesis in fluid mechanics in 1990, he pursued philosophical studies in parallel. His dual training in science and philosophy underpins his effort to renew Islamic theological thought, with particular attention to epistemology, Qur’anic exegesis and the relationship between faith and reason.
A long-standing figure of interreligious dialogue, he chairs the French chapter of Religions for Peace and sits on France’s Council of Elders for Secularism. He hosted the television programme “Islam” on France 2 from 2000 to 2019. His work addresses secularism, religious pluralism and the critique of radical readings of Islam.
He is the author of many works of scholarly outreach, including La Laïcité au regard du Coran (Presses de la Renaissance, 2005), Le Coran expliqué (Eyrolles), Petit manuel pour un islam à la mesure des hommes (Jean-Claude Lattès, 2018) and Les mots (et les maux) de l’islam (Eyrolles, 2023).
At the fifth Pluriel congress, held in Cordoba in February 2026, he opened the proceedings with a paper on axiological approaches to the Islamic phenomenon.
Resources of this researcher
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videos
Axiological approaches to the Islamic phenomenon
- Ghaleb Bencheikh
Paper presented at the 5th international congress of the University Platform for Research on Islam (Pluriel), held in Cordoba from 10 to 14 February 2026 on the theme “Ethics and Aesthetics i...
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videos
Belonging to the ummah: contemporary issues, ambiguities and challenges
- Ghaleb Bencheikh
Lecture of Ghaleb BENCHEIKH, Chairman of the World Conference of Religions for Peace and president of the Fondation de l’islam de France Lecture given at the second international Congress of ...
Resources related to
Islam Studies
publication
ʿAbd al-Mutaʿāl al-Ṣaʿīdī (1894-1971): A Defence of Religious Freedom
- Youssouf Sangare
Published in 2024 in the collective volume Théologies musulmanes du pluralisme religieux (ed. Emmanuel Pisani, Éditions du Cerf, proceedings of the ISTR symposium of 20-21 November 2021, pp. 65-88)...
publication
Islamic Lessons for Christians
- Gabriel Said Reynolds
Islamic Lessons for Christians (Oneworld Publications, 2026) is the latest book by Gabriel Said Reynolds, Crowley Professor of Islamic Studies and Theology at the University of Notre Dame. What, if...
article
Kenneth Cragg and the Event of the Qur’an
- Timo Güzelmansur
Article by Timo Güzelmansur published under the title Kenneth Cragg und das Ereignis des Koran on the theological portal feinschwarz.net (12 June 2026, open access). Timo Güzelmansur presents the A...
publication
Photographing Ordinary Islam
- Guillaume Chatagny
What does Islam concretely look like within a Muslim association? This is the question addressed by sociologist Guillaume Chatagny in this book, based on fieldwork conducted between 2017 and 2021 w...
article
Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas and the Pluriel working group on AI-assisted interreligious dialogue
- Wael Saleh
Text by Wael Saleh, researcher at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) and member of the Pluriel coordination committee. The simultaneous appearance of Leo XIV's encyclical Magnifica Human...
videos
From Lavigerie to PISAI: The Institutional History of the Missionaries of Africa’s Engagement with Islam
Delivered on 21 May 2026 at the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies (PISAI) in Rome, this lecture opens the series of conferences marking the institute's centenary (1926-2026). Fr. ...
publication
The Muslim Brotherhood in International Relations: Roles and Outcomes
- Wael Saleh
In this book published by TRENDS Research & Advisory (Abu Dhabi, May 2026), Wael Saleh, a member of Pluriel‘s coordination committee, examines the place and modes of action of the Muslim ...
videos
Opening address of the Cordoba congress
- Michel Younès
On Tuesday 10 February 2026 in Cordoba, Michel Younès, general coordinator of Pluriel and dean of the Faculty of Theology of the Catholic University of Lyon (UCLy), delivered the opening address of...