Johannes "Hans" J. G. Jansen (born 17 November 1942, Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

) is a retired scholar of contemporary Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

 in the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

.

Jansen is a graduate of the University of Amsterdam, his doctorate in Arabic is from the University of Leiden. He has worked in Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

, where he was the Director of the Dutch Institute in Cairo

Cairo

Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...

. From 1983 he was an associate professor of Arabic and Islamic studies at Leiden University

Leiden University

Leiden University , located in the city of Leiden, is the oldest university in the Netherlands. The university was founded in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, leader of the Dutch Revolt in the Eighty Years' War. The royal Dutch House of Orange-Nassau and Leiden University still have a close...

. Up to 2008, he was Professor of Modern Islamic Thought at the University of Utrecht.

He is a regular newspaper columnist and frequent media commentator. He was a principal witness in the trial of Geert Wilders

Trial of Geert Wilders

A trial of Dutch politician Geert Wilders took place in the Netherlands in 2010–2011. Wilders was accused of criminally insulting religious and ethnic groups and inciting hatred and discrimination...

, during which a judge allegedly tried to convince him that the trial was justified. As a result, the judges were substituted and a retrial was ordered.

Publications

Books in Dutch:

• Inleiding tot de Islam (1987)
• De Koran uit het Arabisch Vertaald door Prof. dr. J.H. Kramers (1992) (edited by Asad Jaber & Johannes J.G.Jansen)
• Nieuwe Inleiding tot de Islam (1998)
• Het Nut van God (2001)
• God heeft gezegd: terreur, tolerantie en de onvoltooide modernisering van de islam (2003)
• De radicaal-islamitische ideologie: Van Ibn Taymiyya tot Osama ben Laden, Oratie Universiteit van Utrecht, 3 februari 2004
• Islam: een hoorcollege over de islamitische godsdienst en cultuur (2005, audio-cd)
• De historische Mohammed: de Mekkaanse verhalen (2005)
• De historische Mohammed: de verhalen uit Medina (2007)
• Bombrieven (2008, correspondence with Abdul-Jabbar van de Ven)
• Islam voor varkens, apen, ezels en andere beesten (2008)
• Zelf Koran lezen (2008)
• Eindstrijd, edited by Jansen & Snel (2009)

Books in English (Many other titles are not yet available in English):

• The Interpretation of the Koran in Modern Egypt (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1974)
• The Neglected Duty: The Creed of Sadat’s Assassins and Islamic Resurgence in the Middle East (New York: Macmillan, 1986)
• The Dual Nature of Islamic Fundamentalism (London: Hurst & Company, 1997) ppls

External links

• Interview at religioscope site