Covering Islam and politics

Posted on April 22nd, 2008

Archived in Faith traditions, Islam, Webinars

Research Centers

ACADEMIC
• The Carolina-Duke-Emory Institute for the Study of Islam is a joint project of three southeastern universities. Its principal focus is on Islam overseas. Contact cdeisi@unc.edu.
• The Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University In Washington, D.C., describes itself as the only academic center in the U.S. that focuses only on the Arab world, from Morocco to the Persian Gulf. Michael Hudson is its director. Contact 202-687-5793.
• The Center for Afghanistan Studies at the University of Nebraska in Omaha is a center of research on the Afghan region, peoples and cultures, including the country’s politics. Thomas Gouttierre is its director. Contact 402-554-2376.
• The Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at New York University in New York City focuses on the study of the Middle East, especially on its economies, cultures and politics.
• Harvard University’s Islam in the West Program is a project of the university’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies. It focuses on the relationship between Islam and democracy in North America. Among the goals is to compare the attitudes of Muslims in Europe and Muslims in America. It conducts seminars, student workshops and surveys of Muslims and produces publications. Contact Jocelyne Cesari, chair of the program, 617-495-4055, jcesari@fas.harvard.edu.
• The Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies in Oxford, England, promotes the independent study of the Islamic world and conducts research, lectures, courses and leadership programs. It is currently conducting a string of seminars on democratization in the Islamic world. Contact +44 (0)1865 278 730, Islamic.studies@oxcis.ac.uk.
• The King Fahd Center for Middle East & Islamic Studies at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville promotes the study of the Middle East and North Africa. It sponsors lectures and events on the political situation in different parts of the Muslim world. Tom Paradise is interim director. Contact 479-575-4157.
• The Duncan Black Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations promotes teaching, research and publishing on global Islam and manages the Islamic studies program at Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Conn. Ibrahim Abu-Rabi is co-director. Contact 860-509-9530, aburabi@hartsem.edu.

THINK TANKS
• The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has a Carnegie Middle East Program. Marina Ottaway and Paul Salem are its directors. Contact 202-939-2263, mottaway@ceip.org and psalem@carnegie-mec.org.
• The Center on Islam, Democracy and the Future of the Muslim World is a program of the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C. It hosts seminars and lectures and conducts research on the role of Islam in the politics and government of the Islamic world. Hillel Fradkin is its director and a senior fellow. Contact 202-974-2400.
• The Center for Strategic and International Studies seeks to influence and develop international policy. It has a Middle East Program, http://www.csis.org/mideast/ which focuses on U.S. foreign policy in the region. Its Turkey Project focuses on U.S. policy and Turkish politics. The South Asia Program focuses on the politics and strategic developments in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Afghanistan. Contact H. Andrew Schwartz, vice president of external relations, 202-775-3242, aschwartz@csis.org.
• The Council on Foreign Relations is a nonpartisan think tank on American foreign policy based in New York City and Washington, D.C. Carla Hills and Robert Rubin are co-directors. Its Web site is searchable by region and country. Contact via the communications department, 212-434-9888.
• The Gallup Center for Muslim Studies is a research center that examines the views of the world’s Muslim population. Its current reports include “Islam and Democracy” and “Moderate vs. Extremist Views in the Muslim World.” Dalia Mogahed is its director. Contact via Sarah Van Allen, 202-715-3030 or 877-242-5587.
• The Institute for Social Policy and Understanding is an independent nonprofit think tank committed to research and analysis of U.S. domestic and foreign policies, with an emphasis on issues related to the Muslim community in the United States. Its Center for the Study of American Muslims promotes the scholarly study of the attitudes of American Muslims on many things, including education and politics. Its site includes a list of participating scholars and articles. To find scholarly experts on specific topics, contact ISPU’s director of research, Farid Senzai, fsenzai@ispu.org.
• The Minaret of Freedom Institute, based in Bethesda, Md., conducts independent scholarly research into issues involving Islam in the U.S. and policy issues affecting Muslim countries. The institute’s emphasis is on the Islam, freedom and free markets, and the political and economic implications of Islamic law. Contact Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad, 301-907-0947, mfi@minaret.org.
• The National Democracy Institute for International Affairs is a nonprofit organization that seeks to support democracies throughout the world. Its Web site is searchable by some countries. Kenneth Wollack is president. Contact 202-728-5520.
• The Saban Center for Middle East Policy is based at the Brookings Institution, a nonprofit organization that focuses on U.S. foreign policy through funding independent research, publishing and events. It is based in Washington, D.C. Contact director Martin S. Indyk via the office of communications, 202-797-6105, communications@brookings.edu.

MUSLIM ORGANIZATIONS
• ReligionLink maintains a list of Muslim organizations in its Islam source guide.

National and international sources

map

GENERAL

• Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im is a law professor at Emory University in Atlanta, where he teaches international law and comparative constitutional law, international institutions and Islamic law. His research includes human rights in cross-cultural perspectives, constitutionalism in Islamic and African countries, Islam and politics. Contact 404-727-1198, abduh46@law.emory.edu.
• Mohammed Ayoob is a professor of international relations at Michigan State University in East Lansing. He is the author of The Many Faces of Political Islam: Religion and Politics in the Muslim World (2007). Contact 517-353-3538, ayoob@msu.edu.
• Juan E. Campo is an associate professor of religious studies at University of California at Santa Barbara. He has served as co-director of the UCSB Center for Middle East Studies. He specializes in the comparative study of Islam, particularly in the Middle East and South Asia, and teaches courses on religion, politics and society in the Persian Gulf region. Contact 805-893-7136, jcampo@religion.ucsb.edu.
• Mona Eltahawy is an award-winning New York-based journalist and commentator and an international lecturer on Arab and Muslim issues. Her essays appear regularly in both the Arab and U.S. media. Contact info@monaeltahawy.com.
• John L. Esposito is founding director of the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University, where he teaches religion, Islamic studies and international affairs. He is an expert on Islam and its history, modernizing trends and forces, radicalism, terrorism, democracy, foreign policy and politics. Contact 202-687-8375, jle2@georgetown.edu.
• Fawaz A. Gerges is a professor of international affairs and Middle Eastern studies at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y. Gerges is a senior analyst and regular commentator for ABC News and a commentator for NPR’s Morning Edition. Areas of expertise include Islam and the political process, Islamist and jihadist movements, Arab politics, American foreign policy in the Middle East, the modern history of the Middle East, history of conflict, diplomacy and foreign policy. He did several years of field research on relations between the Islamists, jihadis and the West, particularly the United States, in several Middle Eastern countries. Contact 914-395-2299, fgerges@slc.edu, or reach him through Judith Schwartzstein in the Sarah Lawrence media department, 914-395-2219, judiths@sarahlawrence.edu.
• Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad is professor of Islam and Christian-Muslim relations at the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Her scholarly interests include Muslims in the West, Islamic revolutionary movements, 20th-century Islam and the intellectual, social and political history of the Arab world. Contact 202-687-2575, haddady@georgetown.edu.
• Sohail Hashmi is an associate professor of international relations at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass. He is an expert on Islam, pluralism, Islamic political thought and jihad. He posits that Islam lacks a tradition of political thought. Contact 413-538-2666, shashmi@mtholyoke.edu.
• Robert William Hefner is an anthropology professor and associate director of the Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs at Boston University, where he directs the program on Islam and civil society. His specialty is religion and politics in Southeast Asia and the Muslim world, with a particular focus on Islam, democratization and violence. He directed a multicountry Pew project called “Civil Democratic Islam,” on prospects and policies for civic pluralism and democracy in the Muslim world. Contact 617-558-2786, rhefner@bu.edu.
• Michael Hudson is director of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Among his areas of expertise is transnational Islamist movements. Contact 202-687-5648, hudsonm@georgetown.edu.
• Muqtedar Khan is an associate professor in the political science department at the University of Delaware in Newark. His specialties include international relations, political philosophy and Islamic political thought. He is the author of Jihad for Jerusalem: Identity and Strategy in International Relations (2004) and editor of Islamic Democratic Discourse: Theory, Debates and Philosophical Perspectives (2006) and Debating Moderate Islam: The Geopolitics of Islam and the West (2007). Contact 302-831-1939, mkhan@udel.edu.
• Peter P. Mandaville is an associate professor of government and politics and co-directs the Center for Global Studies at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. His expertise is in international politics and Islam. His current research is on the role of Muslim organizations and leadership in Europe and North America; madrassas and education in the Muslim world; and social/political development in the Muslim world. Contact 703-993-1054, pmandavi@gmu.edu.
• Andrew March is an assistant professor of political science at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. He is at work on a book about Islam and citizenship in liberal democracies and is an expert on Islam and democracy. Contact 203-432-4178, Andrew.march@yale.edu.
• James Piscatori is a professor and deputy director of the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia. He is formerly a senior scholar at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies in Oxford, England. He is a leading scholar in Islamic communities in the West. Contact via Jane O’Dwyer, office of communications, 02 6125 5001 / 0416 249 231, or contact the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies at 61 2 6125 4982.
• Timothy Samuel Shah is an adjunct senior fellow for religion and foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is an expert on religion and U.S. foreign policy, religion and democracy, global democratization, Third World religion and politics, especially in South Asia. He is based in Washington, D.C. Contact 240-912-5697, tshah@cfr.org.

EXTREMISM / TERRORISM

• Eric Brown is a research fellow at the Center on Islam, Democracy and the Future of the Muslim World, where he is co-director of the Net Assessment of Radical Islam project. Contact 202-974-2400.
• Khaled Abou El Fadl is an internationally recognized law professor and a fellow in Islamic law at the University of California, Los Angeles. His courses include human rights and terrorism. Contact 310-825-4841, abouelfa@law.ucla.edu.
• Tawfik Hamid describes himself as a former member of an Islamic extremist movement Jamma’a Islameia who now speaks out for political and religious reform in the Muslim world. Contact via publicist Maria Sliwa, 973-272-2861, msliwa@msliwa.com.
• David Harris is a senior fellow for terrorism and national security at the Canadian Coalition for Democracies in Toronto, Canada, and a former chief of strategic planning for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. He is an expert on terrorism networks in North America. Contact 416-963-8998.
• Bruce Hoffman is a professor in the security studies program at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He teaches graduate courses in terrorism and counterterrorism and insurgency and counterinsurgency, as well as other international security subjects. Contact 202-687-7847, brh6@georgetown.edu.
• Gilles Kepel heads the postgraduate program on the Arab and Muslim worlds at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Paris, France. He is the author of The War for Muslim Minds: Islam and the West (2004) and Jihad: The Trial of Political Islam. Contact gilles.kepel@sciences-po.fr.
• Sandra Mackey is a freelance journalist who has written widely on Islamic extremism, especially in Iraq and Lebanon. She is the author several books on Islam and politics in the Middle East including Mirror of the Arab World: Lebanon in Conflict (2008). She lives in Atlanta, Ga. Contact via Norton publicity, 212-869-0856, publicity@www.norton.com.
• Michael Radu is co-chairman of the Center on Terrorism, Counter-Terrorism and Homeland Security at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia. He has studied terrorist groups around the world and is an expert on terrorism and extremism in Turkey. Contact 215-732-3774.
• Gideon Rose is managing editor of Foreign Affairs magazine and an expert on terrorism, among other issues, in the Middle East and South Asia. He is based in New York City. Contact 212-434-9629, grose@cfr.org.
• Steven Simon is a senior fellow in Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and an expert on Islamic terrorism. He is the co-author of The Age of Sacred Terror and The Next Attack: The Failure of the War on Terror and a Strategy for Getting It Right. He is based in New York City. Contact 202-518-3437, ssimon@cfr.org.

U.S. FOREIGN POLICY

• As’ad AbuKhalil is a professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus in Turlock, Calif. He is a frequent critic of U.S. foreign policy, especially in the Middle East. He writes the blog Angry Arab. Contact 209-667-3536, aabukhalil@csustan.edu.
• Lawrence Mamiya is a professor of religion and Africana studies at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., who is an expert on African-American religion. He contributed an article, “African American Muslim Leaders and the War in Iraq” to the Feb. 24, 2008, issue of the journal Faith and International Affairs. Contact 845-437-7490, mamiya@vassar.edu.
• Walter Russell Mead is a senior fellow in U.S. foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations in its New York, NY, office. He is an expert on religion and U.S. foreign policy. Contact 212-434-9548, wmead@cfr.org.
• Samer Shehata is an assistant professor at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He teaches courses on comparative and Middle East politics, U.S. policy toward the Middle East, Islamist politics, Egyptian politics and society, culture and politics in the Arab world. Contact 202-687-0350, sss32@georgetown.edu.
• Steven Simon is a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C. He is an expert on Middle East politics and the relationship between religion and U.S. foreign policy, especially in the Middle East. Contact 202-518-3437, ssimon@cfr.org.
• R. Drew Smith is a political scientist and scholar-in-residence at the Leadership Center at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga. He wrote an article on the responses of black religious denominations to U.S. foreign policy in Iraq for the Feb. 22, 2008, issue of the journal Faith and International Affairs Contact 404-681-2800, rsmith@morehouse.edu.
• Frederick Streets is a professor in pastoral counseling at Yeshiva University in New York City. He contributed an article to the Feb. 22, 2008, issue of the journal Faith and International Affairs on the special role African-Americans can have in the building of bridges with Muslims overseas. Contact 212-960-5400.

INTERNET

• Gary Bunt is a senior lecturer in Islamic studies at the University of Wales in Lampeter, Wales. He is the author of Islam in the Digital Age. He writes a blog and maintains a Web site at Virtually Islamic. Contact g.bunt@lamp.ac.uk.
• Dale Eickelman is a professor of anthropology and human relations at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. He and Jon Anderson are the editors of New Media in the Muslim World: The Emerging Public Sphere, which, in part, looks at how new media such as the internet influence politics in Muslim countries. Contact 603-646-2621, Dale.F.Eickelman@dartmouth.edu.
• Orayb Najjar is an associate professor of journalism at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Ill. She argues that the three Middle East news stations – Al Jazeera, Al Arabiyya, Al Manar – organize coverage around the question, “How should the Middle East be organized?” and that, as a result, they disseminate political news differently than other news stations. Contact 815-753-7017, onajjar@niu.edu.
• Naomi Sakr is a reader in communication at the University of Westminster in London, England. She is the author of Arab Media and Political Renewal: Community, Legitimacy and Public Life (2007), which looks at the impact of Arab media on politics. Contact n.sakr01@wmin.ac.uk.
• Daniel Varisco is chair of the anthropology department at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. He is an expert on Islam and Islamic groups on the Internet and can discuss how Muslims use the Internet to promote political ideas and movements. Contact 516-463-5590, Daniel.M.Varisco@hofstra.edu.

AFRICA

• Nadim S. Houry is a researcher specializing in Lebanon and Syria, the Middle East and North Africa for Human Rights Watch. He is based in Beirut. Contact via Urmi Shah, press and information officer in the London office, 44-20-7713-2788, shahu@hrw.org.
• Princeton Lyman is an adjunct senior fellow in Africa policy studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C. He is a former ambassador to South Africa and Nigeria and is an expert on democratization in sub-Sahara Africa. Contact 202-518-3456.
• Haim Malka is a fellow and deputy director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. He is an expert in Islam and politics, especially in the Middle East and North Africa. Contact 202-775-3133.

TURKEY

• Bulent Aliriza is director and senior associate of the Turkey Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. He is an expert in Turkish politics and foreign relations. Contact 202-457-8724.
• Yesim Arat is a professor of political science and international relations at Bogazici University in Istanbul, Turkey. She is the author of Rethinking Islam and Liberal Democracy: Islamist Women in Turkish Politics (2007). Contact 212-359-7578, araty@boun.edu.tr.
• Michael Radu is co-chairman of the Center on Terrorism, Counter-Terrorism and Homeland Security at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia. He has studied terrorist groups around the world and is an expert on terrorism and extremism in Turkey. Contact 215-732-3774.

MIDDLE EAST

• Jon B. Alterman is director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. He is an expert on Middle East politics and was an adviser to the Iraq Study Group. Contact 202-775-3295.
• Mohamad Bazzi is a fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations, where he is working on a project about Hezbollah and the Shiite community in Lebanon. He is the former Middle East bureau head for (New York) Newsday and is based in New York City. Contact 212-434-9736, mbazzi@cfr.org.
• Nathan Brown is a professor of political science and international affairs and director of the Institute for Middle East Studies at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He is an expert on government and politics of the Middle East, democratization and constitutionalism, and the rule of law in the Arab world. Contact 202-994-2123, nbrown@gwu.edu.
• Steven Cook is a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who is knowledgeable about politics in the Arab world, U.S.-Middle East policy, civil-military relations in the Middle East and the Arab-Israeli conflict. He is based in New York City. Contact 212-434-9644, scook@cfr.org.
• Michele Dunne is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C., and editor of its Arab Reform Bulletin. She is an expert on democratization and political reform in the Arab world. Contact 202-939-2264, mdunne@carnegieendowment.org.
• Noah Feldman is an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a law professor at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. He is an expert on Middle East politics and Islamic constitutional law. Contact noah_feldman@harvard.edu.
• Amr Hamzawy is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C. He is an Egyptian political scientist who is an expert on Middle East politics and reform. His research interests include the changing dynamics of political participation in the Arab world and the role of Islamist opposition groups in Arab politics in Egypt and the Gulf countries. Contact 202-939-2290, ahamzawy@CarnegieEndowment.org.
• Nadim S. Houry is a researcher specializing in Lebanon and Syria, the Middle East and North Africa for Human Rights Watch. In February 2008, he participated in the “Roundtable on Reform in the Arab and Islamic World: Endless Stalemate? Lebanon’s Political Crisis and Its Aftermath” at the Council of Foreign Relations. He is based in Beirut. Contact via Urmi Shah, press and information officer in the London office, 44-20-7713-2788, shahu@hrw.org.
• Haim Malka is a fellow and deputy director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. He is an expert in Islam and politics, especially in the Middle East and North Africa. Contact 202-775-3133.
• Suzanne Maloney is a senior fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. She is an expert on Iran and the Gulf States and has written about religion and human rights in the region. Contact 202-797-6105.
• Vali R. Nasr is director of the Roundtable Series on Global Islamic Politics at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he is also an adjunct senior fellow for Middle Eastern Studies. He is an expert on Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, political Islam and democratization in the Muslim world. He is also the author of three books on Islam in the Middle East, including Islamic Leviathan: Islam and the Making of State Power. He is a professor of Middle East and South Asia politics at Tufts University in Boston. Read an October 2004 interview with Nasr conducted by Bill Moyers for the PBS television series Now. Contact 619-339-9192, vali.nasr@tufts.edu.
• Emanuele Ottolenghi is executive director of the Transatlantic Institute in Brussels, Belgium. In December 2007, he participated in the “Roundtable on Reform in the Arab and Islamic World: The European Union and Iran” at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is an expert on Middle Eastern politics, especially the Israel-Arab conflict. Contact ottolenghie@transatlanticinstitute.org.
• Itamar Rabinovich is a visiting fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. He is a former president of Tel Aviv University and an expert on politics in the Arab world. Contact 202-797-6105.
• Amal Saad-Ghorayeb is a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She is an expert on Hezbollah. Contact saad-ghorayeb@carnegie-mec.org.
• Jean-Francois Seznec is a visiting associate professor at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He is an expert on democratization in the Persian Gulf region. Contact 202-687-5548, js243@georgetown.edu.
• Samer Shehata is an assistant professor at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. His expertise is in comparative politics in the Middle East and U.S. foreign policy in the region. Contact 202-687-7001, sss32@georgetown.edu.
• Steven Simon is a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C. He is an expert on Middle East politics and is co-author of The Age of Sacred Terror and The Next Attack: The Failure of the War on Terror and a Strategy for Getting It Right. He is also an expert on the role religion plays in U.S. foreign policy. Contact 202-518-3437, ssimon@cfr.org.
• Shibley Telhami is a senior fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution and an expert on politics in the Persian Gulf and in the Israeli-Palestinian arena. He is also the Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland in College Park. Contact 301-405-6734.
• Tamara Cofman Wittes is a senior foreign policy fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. She is director of the institution’s Middle East Democracy and Development Project. Contact 202-797-6105.

SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIA

• Hassan Abbas is a research fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs in Cambridge, Mass. He is an expert on religious extremism in South and Central Asia and is the author of a book on extremism in Pakistan. Contact 508-308-0576, hassan_abbas@ksg.harvard.edu.
• Azyumardi Azra is a history professor and rector of Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University in Jakarta, Indonesia. He is the author of numerous books, including Indonesia, Islam and Democracy: Dynamics in a Global Context (2006). Contact azyumardiazra@yahoo.com.
• Jacqueline Corcoran is senior resident director of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs – Bangladesh. The organization’s goal is the strengthening of the country’s democratic process and the monitoring of its elections. Contact 880-2-9883998, 9880388, info@ndibd.org.
• Sheila Fruman is resident director of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs’ office in Pakistan, where the organization works to promote democracy in the country’s political process. Contact sfruman@ndi.org.
• Husain Haqqani is a senior fellow at the Center on Islam, Democracy and the Future of the Muslim World and director for the Center for International Relations at Boston University. He is the author of Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military. Contact 617-358-0195, haqqani@bu.edu.
• Robert William Hefner is an anthropology professor and associate director of the Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs at Boston University, where he directs the program on Islam and civil society. His specialty is religion and politics in Southeast Asia and the Muslim world, with a particular focus on Islam, democratization and violence. He directed a project for the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs project titled “Madrasas, Modernity and the Future of Muslim Higher Education.” He previously directed another Pew project, a multicountry, collaborative effort called “Civil Democratic Islam,” on prospects and policies for civic pluralism and democracy in the Muslim world. Contact 617-558-2786, rhefner@bu.edu.
• Jim Oliver is the country director of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs for Sri Lanka, where the organization has conducted election monitoring and roundtable discussions for local legislative representatives. Contact joliver@ndi.org.
• Mridu Rai is an associate professor of history at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. Her work focuses on Muslims in India and on issues of religion and politics in modern Kashmir. Contact 203-432-1354, mridu.rai@yale.edu (on leave for 2007-2008 year).
• Paul Rowland is senior resident director of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs program in Indonesia, where the organization works to monitor elections and support democratic political parties and legislative representatives. Contact paulr@ndi.org.
• Teresita Schaffer is director of the South Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She is an expert in the politics of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, Nepal and Bangladesh, which all have significant Muslim populations. Contact via email on the CSIS Web site.
• Raissa Tatad-Hazell is senior program manager for the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs’ Asia programs. She is an expert on the political situation in Afghanistan, where the organization has maintained an office since 2002. Contact mtatad@ndi.org.

EUROPE

• Zeyno Baran is an associate scholar at the Center on Islam, Democracy and the Future of Muslim World and a senior fellow and director of the Hudson’s Center for Eurasian Policy. She is an expert on Islam and politics in Europe. Contact 202-974-2400.
• Jocelyne Cesari is a visiting associate professor of Islamic studies at Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass. She is the author of When Islam and Democracy Meet: Muslims in Europe and in the United States (2004) and director of Harvard’s Islam in the West Program. Contact jcesari@fas.harvard.edu.
• H.A. Hellyer is an associate fellow at the University of Warwick in Warwick, England, and a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Saban Center for Middle East Policy. He is an expert on Islam in Europe and has written several books on the subject, including Islam in Europe: Multiculturalism and the European “Other” (2007). He can discuss Islam and politics in Great Britain. Contact H.A.Hellyer@warwick.ac.uk.
• Gilles Kepel heads the postgraduate program on the Arab and Muslim worlds at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Paris, France. He is the author of The War for Muslim Minds: Islam and the West (2004) and Jihad: The Trial of Political Islam (2003). He was a supporter of the ban on Muslim clothing in French public schools. Contact gilles.kepel@sciences-po.fr
• Alexander Knysh is a professor of Islamic studies at the University of Michigan. He is a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, where he is writing about Islam and empire in the Northern Caucasus. Contact through May 2008 at 202-691-4054, Alexander.knysh@wilsoncenter.org, and later at 734-615-1963, alknysh@umich.edu.
• Jonathan Laurence is an assistant professor of political science at Boston College in Boston. He specializes in Muslim identity in Europe, especially in Germany and France. He has written widely about the integration of Muslims in France, including on the controversy of Muslim girls wearing hijab to public school. Contact 617-552-8991, jonathan.laurence@bc.edu.
• Peter P. Mandaville is an associate professor of government and politics and directs the Center for Global Studies at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. His current research is on the role of Muslim organizations and leadership in Europe and North America, Contact 703-993-1054, pmandavi@gmu.edu.
• Jonas Otterbeck is an assistant professor of international migration and ethnic relations at Malmö University in Sweden. He is an expert in Islam in Sweden. Contact 040 – 6657386, jonas.otterbeck@mah.se.
• Garbi Schmidt works at the National Danish Institute of Social Research and is an expert in activism among Muslim youth in Europe. Contact 45 33 48 08 96, gs@sfi.dk.
• Olivier Roy is research director at the French National Center for Scientific Research and the author of Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah. Contact 04 73 40 77 14, oroy@compuserve.com.
• Bassam Tibi is a professor of international relations at the University of Göttingen in Göttingen, Germany, and an expert on radical fundamentalism in political Islam throughout Europe and the Middle East. Contact +49 (0)551 / 39-7348, B.Tibi@sowi.uni-goettingen.de.

Background

• The Council on Foreign Relations offers a “backgrounder” on Europe and the integration of Islam that covers history and major issues confronting Muslims and the European countries in which they live.
• Euro-Islam maintains a section of profiles of Islam and Muslims in various European countries, including demographics and political involvement.
• “Islamic Extremism: Common Concern for Muslim and Western Publics” is a 2005 survey of 17,000 Muslims in 17 countries by the Pew Global Attitudes Project. Among its findings is that many Muslims see extremism as a threat to their countries.
• A July 2007 survey by the Pew Global Attitudes Project finds support for suicide bombing dropping in Muslim countries.
• The World Values Survey was conducted by a global network of social scientists who study social, cultural and political change.
• The Gallup Center for Muslim Studies posts data from its Gallup Poll of the Muslim World.

Regional sources

IN THE NORTHEAST

• Bahman Baktiari is an associate professor of political science at the University of Maine in Orono. He is an expert on Iranian politics and religion. Contact 207-581-1871.
• Dale Eickelman is a professor of anthropology and human relations at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. Among his areas of interest is Muslim politics, about which he has written several books. Contact 603-646-2621, dale.f.eickelman@dartmouth.edu.
• F. Gregory Gause III is an associate professor of political science at the University of Vermont in Burlington. He is an expert in Middle East politics and participated in “Roundtable Series on Global Islamic Politics: The Implications of the Changing Balance of Power in the Middle East” at the Council on Foreign Relations in October 2007. Contact 802-656-0571, gregory.gause@uvm.edu.
• Ellen Lust-Okar is an associate professor of political science at Yale University in new Haven, Conn. She researches the formation of political institutions in the Middle East. Contact 203-432-3648, ellen.lust-okar@yale.edu.
• Berna Turam is an assistant professor of sociology and the Middle East at Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass., where she teaches courses in Islamic politics, Islam and democracy, civil society and the state, secularism, nationalism and the Middle East. She is the author of Between Islam and the State: The Politics of Engagement (2006). Contact 413-549-5677, bturam@hampshire.edu.

IN THE EAST

• Mirjam Künkler is an assistant professor in Near Eastern studies at Princeton University in Princeton, N.J. She is also the former deputy director of the Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration and Religion at Columbia University in New York, where her dissertation was on Islam and democracy. She is an expert on Islamic politics in Indonesia and Iran. Contact 609-258-4280, kuenkler@princeton.edu.
• Farhad Kazemi is a professor of politics, Middle Eastern and Islamic studies at New York University in New York City, where he teaches a course in Middle Eastern government and politics. Contact 212-998-8506, farhad.kzemi@nyu.edu.
• David Patel is an assistant professor of government at Cornell University. He applies game theory and ethnography to Islamic institutions to study their effect on national politics and once spent eight months living with an Islamic family in Basra, Iraq. He speaks frequently about the political and religious situation in Iraq. Contact 607-255-6758, dsp58@cornell.edu.
• Diane Singerman is an associate professor at the School of Public Affairs at American University in Washington, D.C. She is an expert on Islam and politics in Egypt. Contact 202-885-2362, dsinger@american.edu.
• John O. Voll is professor of Islamic history and associate director of the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University. He is an expert in Middle Eastern, Islamic and world history, and he has written on Islam in the modern world and Islam and democracy. Contact 202-687-0288, vollj@georgetown.edu.
• Catherine Warrick is an assistant professor of political science at Villanova University in Villanova, Pa. She teaches a course in Middle East politics, and one of her areas of research and expertise is comparative politics in the region. Contact 610-519-7712, catherine.warrick@villanova.edu.

IN THE SOUTHEAST

• Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im is a law professor at Emory University Law School in Atlanta. His research includes human rights in cross-cultural perspectives, constitutionalism in Islamic and African countries, and Islam and politics. Contact 404-727-1198, abduh46@law.emory.edu.
• Michaelle L. Browers is an associate professor in the political science department of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. Her expertise is in Arab and Islamic political thought, political ideologies, feminist theory and democratic theory. Contact 336-758-3535, browerm@wfu.edu.
• David Gilmartin is a history professor at North Carolina State University and director of its Center for South Asia Studies. He can discuss the politics in Pakistan. He is in Raleigh, N.C. Contact 919-513-2243, gilmartin@social.chass.ncsu.edu.
• Timur Kuran is a professor of economics and political science at Duke University’s Islamic Studies Center. He is working on a book about the political legacy of Islam. Contact 919-660-4302, t.kuran@duke.edu.
• Michael Peletz is an anthropology professor at Emory University in Atlanta. He is an expert on Islam and politics in Malaysia, Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia. Contact 404-727-0484, mpeletz@emory.edu.
• Leonardo A. Villalón is an associate professor of political science at the University of Florida in Gainesville and director of its Center for African Studies. He is at work on a project for the Carnegie Corporation of New York titled “Negotiating Democracy in Muslim Contexts: Political Liberalization and Religious Mobilization in the West African Sahel.” He is an expert in Islam and politics and on democratization in Senegal, Mali and Niger. Contact 352-392-2183, villalon@africa.ufl.edu.

IN THE SOUTH

• Najib Ghadbian is an assistant professor of political science and Middle East studies at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. Ghadbian’s research interests include political currents and media in the Arab world, Islamic movements, Syrian politics, and domestic and international politics in the Arabian/Persian Gulf. Contact 479-575-3860, ghadbian@uark.edu.
• Joel Gordon is a history professor at the University of Arkansas. He is an expert on religion and politics in the Arab world. Contact 479-575-4755, joelg@uark.edu.
• Khaled Helmy is a visiting professor in the political science department at Tulane University in New Orleans, where he teaches a course in the comparative politics of the Middle East. Contact 504-862-8312, khelmy@tulane.edu.
• Reem Meshal is an assistant professor of Islamic studies at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. She specializes in religious fundamentalism and nationalism, including within the Muslim world. Contact 225-578-2220, rmeshal@lsu.edu.
• Randall L. Pouwels is a history professor at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway. He co-edited The History of Islam in Africa. Contact 501-450-5625, Randyp@uca.edu.

IN THE MIDWEST

• Scott Atran is an adjunct professor in the psychology department at the University of Michigan and is associated with its Research Center for Group Dynamics. He can discuss jihadi movements and al-Qaeda. Contact 734-936-0458, satran@umich.edu.
• Orit Bashkin is an assistant professor of modern Middle Eastern Studies at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago. She is an expert on the political and religious history of Iraq. Contact 773-834-8346, oritb@uchicago.edu.
• Juan Cole is a history professor at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he teaches a course on Islam in global politics. He is the author of a book on politics and religion in Iran and another on the politics and history of Shiite Islam. Contact 734-763-1599, jrcole@umich.edu.
• Anas Malik is an assistant professor of political science at Xavier University in Cincinnati. He does research on political Islam and development and participated in a panel on why Islam becomes politicized at the 2007 Clifford Symposium “Islam and Politics in a Globalizing World” at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vt. Contact 513-745-3227, malik@xavier.edi.
• Mansoor Moaddel is a research affiliate at the Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan, where his focus has been on political attitudes and conflicts in the Middle East. Contact 734-936-2603.
• Mark Tessler is director of the International Institute and a research professor of political science at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He is an expert on politics in the Middle East and U.S. foreign policy, especially in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Contact 734-615-9149, tessler@umich.edu.

IN THE SOUTHWEST

• Clement Moore Henry is a professor at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He is interested in comparative politics in the Middle East and North Africa. Contact 512-232-7210, chenry@mail.utexas.edu.
• Allen Hertzke is a professor of political science and director of religious studies at the University of Oklahoma in Norma, Okla. He teaches courses on religion in American politics, religion in global politics, American political institutions, and political philosophy. He contributed an article on the response of U.S. black churches to the country’s foreign policy in Sudan. Contact 405-325-6421, ahertzke@ou.edu.
• Fred von der Mehden is a professor emeritus of political science at Rice University in Houston. Islam and the politics of Southeast Asia are among his fields of interest. Contact fvdm@rice.edu.
• M. Hakan Yavuz is an assistant professor in the political science department at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. He has written about Islamic movements in Turkey and Kurdish nationalism in Turkey. Contact 801-585-7986, hakan.yavuz@poli-sci.utah.edu.

IN THE WEST/NORTHWEST

• Joel S. Fetzer is an associate professor of political science at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif. His areas of interest include religion and politics, and he co-authored a paper titled “Muslims and the State in the United States, Britain, France and Germany.” Contact 310-506-6250, joel.fetzer@pepperdine.edu.
• Ira M. Lapidus is a professor emeritus of history at the University of California, Berkeley. He is co-editor of the book Islam, Politics and Social Movements. You can read the transcript of a 2003 interview with Lapidus on the subject of contemporary Islamic societies and politics. Contact 510-642-1971, ilapidus@berkeley.edu.
• Mark LeVine is a professor of history at the University of California, Irvine, where he specializes in the Middle East. He has written widely about Islam and politics, including on the subjects of Islam in the public square and Islam and Middle Eastern politics. Contact via Alan Taing, 949-824-7687, tainga@uci.edu.
• Saba Mahmood is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. Her interests include Islam and religious reform movements and secular modernity in postcolonial societies. She is the author of Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject, based on a grassroots women’s piety movement in Egypt. Her current project is a study of secularism in Egypt and Lebanon. Contact 510-642-3565, smahmood@berkeley.edu.
• Farid Senzai is a fellow and director of research at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, which researches the Muslim community in the United States. He is also an assistant professor of political science at Santa Clara University. Contact 408-551-6097, fsenzai@ispu.org.
• Eliz Sanasarian is a political science professor at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and is an expert on Iranian politics, minorities and women in the Islamic world. Contact 213-740-3624, sanasari@usc.edu.
• Mehran Tamadonfar is an associate professor and chairman of the political science department at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. One of his areas of study is Islam and politics in the Middle East and North Africa. Contact 702-895-5258, mehran.tamadonfar@unlv.edu.