Sven Kalisch
Sven Kalisch (also Muhammad Sven Kalisch, born March 21, 1966) is a German who converted to Islam at age 15, became the first in Germany to hold a chair in Islamic theology (at University of Münster), then in 2008 announced that he had come to the conclusion that the prophet Muhammad probably never existed. Official Islamic groups in Germany have referred to him as an apostate. Germany's Muslim Coordinating Council withdrew from the advisory board of professor Kalisch's centre. Biography. Kalisch converted from Protestant Christianity to Islam at the age of 15. He adopted the Zaidism  branch of Shia Islam. In 1997 he completed his PhD in Islamic jurisprudence. Kalisch was a member of the administrative council of the Germany Muslim Academy and worked for the Islamic Centre Hamburg (Shi'ite). From 2004 to 2010, he was professor of Islamic Religion at the Centrum für religionsbezogene Studien (de) (CRS) in University of Münster. Kalisch declared in 2008 and 2009 that he had doubts as to the historicity of Mohammad (and also Jesus and Moses), as expressed by the "Saarbrücken School", which is part of the greater movement of the Revisionist School of Islamic Studies. In 2010 Kalisch  renounced Islam. His department was then renamed the department for "the intellectual history of the Middle East in the post-antiquity period".