John Savant is a professor emeritus at Dominican University of California and author of an essay, “The Saving Grace of Sport: Why we watch & play” in the Sept. 26, 2003, edition of Commonweal, an independent Catholic magazine.

A July 2007 survey by the Pew Global Attitudes Project finds support for suicide bombing dropping in Muslim countries.

Read 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.

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.

John Rosengren is a Minnesota writer and author of several books about sports and religion. His January 2004 essay in U.S. Catholic magazine, “Let Us Play,” examined the relationship of sports to sacramental faith. Rosengren also had an article in the January 2005 issue on the downside of Catholic schools’ catering to sports.

James A. Mathisen is a sociology professor emeritus at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill. where he taught a course in sport and sociology. He is the author of an essay, “American Sport as Folk Religion: Examining a Test of Its Strength” in From Season to Season: Sports as American Religion (2004). He also co-wrote the book Muscular Christianity: […]

Kirk Wakefield, professor of marketing at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, has expertise in sports ethics and marketing and fan behavior.

Blake Burleson, senior lecturer in religion at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, has expertise in sports ethics and world religions.

Donna Bowman is a professor of religious studies at the Honors College of the University of Central Arkansas and has written on the role of sports and faith.