Denis M. MacEoin (26 January 1949 – 6 June 2022[citation needed]) was a British academic, scholar and writer with a focus on Persian, Arabic and Islamic studies.
Since 2014 he published a number of essays on current events with a Middle Eastern focus at the Gatestone Institute, of which he was a Senior Fellow.
"[2] In 2007 he authored a report entitled The Hijacking of British Islam,[3] which garnered considerable criticism labelling him as a neo-conservative[4] and accusations of forgery.
[1] He then taught at Newcastle University, but his Saudi sponsors dropped him for teaching "heretical subjects", following which he left academia.
[14] In 1982 and 1983 MacEoin wrote two critical articles in the journal Religion: "The Babi Concept of Holy War", which viewed the origins of the Bábí movement through the lens of jihad, martyrdom, and political struggles;[15] and "From Babism to Bahá'ísm: Problems of Militancy, Quietism, and Conflation in the Construction of a Religion",[16] which continued along the same themes, questioning the number of martyrs and Western re-interpretations of the Bábís.
In 1985 two Baháʼí authors, Afnan and Hatcher, published "Western Islamic Scholarship and Bahá'í Origins"[17] criticising MacEoin's recent articles.
[19] MacEoin responded again that, "The real issue is between academic and non-academic approaches to the subject... a believing bacteriologist and mathematician who are trying to defend their religion against what seems to them an attack on its integrity".
In 2007, Baháʼí author Moojan Momen wrote "Marginality and Apostasy in the Baha'i Community",[7] in the journal Religion, labelling Denis MacEoin as an "apostate" from the Baháʼí Faith, who "began to write academic papers attacking the Bahá'í Faith", focusing on the Bahá'í Administration.