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History_of_Allah-com, page : 10
Figure 2: Ahmad
Darwish with al-Ghum!r",
Sharjah 1977
In 1981, Ahmad Darwish moved to the United States “after receiving an invitation
from the Muhammad Ali Foundation”;7 he settled in the Chicago area (where
Muhammad Ali lived). Later, with an English woman from Bristol whom he
presents as a “poet … from an established English family” (Darwish, 1998) who converted
to Islam (Anne Khadija Stephens); they progressed the site in two languages Arabic and English . In the 1990s,
the family lived in Freemont, California, for a while before moving back to Chicago.
In 2006, after a quarter century in the United States, Ahmad abandoned his Linux
software business. He returned to live in Cairo (and Jakarta) and began to present
himself more outspokenly as a religious authority in his own right, as “Shaykh
Ahmad Darwish.”8 His path from systems engineer to turbaned Shaykh can be retraced
through an archaeology of Allah.com.
Figure 3: Shaykh
Ahmad Darwish,
2008
A HISTORY OF ALLAH.COM
111
Darwish with al-Ghum!r",
Sharjah 1977
In 1981, Ahmad Darwish moved to the United States “after receiving an invitation
from the Muhammad Ali Foundation”;7 he settled in the Chicago area (where
Muhammad Ali lived). Later, with an English woman from Bristol whom he
presents as a “poet … from an established English family” (Darwish, 1998) who converted
to Islam (Anne Khadija Stephens); they progressed the site in two languages Arabic and English . In the 1990s,
the family lived in Freemont, California, for a while before moving back to Chicago.
In 2006, after a quarter century in the United States, Ahmad abandoned his Linux
software business. He returned to live in Cairo (and Jakarta) and began to present
himself more outspokenly as a religious authority in his own right, as “Shaykh
Ahmad Darwish.”8 His path from systems engineer to turbaned Shaykh can be retraced
through an archaeology of Allah.com.
Figure 3: Shaykh
Ahmad Darwish,
2008
A HISTORY OF ALLAH.COM
111