Soheib Bencheikh

Soheib Bencheikh (Arabic: صهيب بن الشيخ; born 20 December 1961, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia)[1] is an Islamic religious leader and author and would-be French politician.

He holds a doctorate in Religious Sciences from the École pratique des hautes études (EPHE), Paris, France.

Bencheikh is an anti-fundamentalist religious leader[3] and an assertive supporter of an Islam eager and capable to adapt itself to the modern world.

Among other "modernist" points of view, he stated that education is the best protection of women's honor and well-being (and not the headscarf, which he says is not mandatory).

Bencheikh attempted to run for president in the 2007 French presidential election but failed to get the 500 endorsements needed in order to become an official candidate.