Read a Nov. 2, 2012 PBS article about one church leaders’ fight against the IRS’ prohibition of religious endorsement of political candidates.

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.

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.

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.

Read a Nov. 10, 2008 article about the ongoing debate on whether or not religious leaders should endorse candidates in elections. The site includes links to both the pro and con side of the debate.

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.

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.

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.

Read an Oct. 7, 2012, article about religious leaders’ political endorsements of candidates on the basis of religious freedom and freedom of speech.