Lauve Steenhuisen is a visiting assistant professor in the department of theology at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. She focuses on how theologies are used by states and governing bodies. She teaches a course called “The State and the Veil” that looks at how the Quran is used by governments in issues that surround the […]

Ian Linden is a senior adviser at the Tony Blair Faith Foundation and an associate professor in the study of religion at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. He has served as director of the Catholic Institute for International Relations and is a member of the Christian-Muslim Forum of the […]

Andrew Copson is chief executive of Humanists UK, an organization that supports the nonreligious community and advocates for human rights. Based in London, he speaks regularly about freedom of religion or belief.

Bob Churchill is director of communications at the International Humanist and Ethical Union, the sole global umbrella organisation embracing Humanist, atheist, rationalist, secularist, skeptic, laique, ethical cultural, freethought and similar organisations worldwide. Based in London.

Linda Woodhead is a professor of philosophy and religion at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom. She researches sources of meaning in people’s lives and how the rise of the nonreligious will affect church-state relations and society in general.

Erin Wilson is director of the Centre for Religion, Conflict and the Public Domain at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. The center explores the contentious role of religion in the public sphere in contemporary Western and global society and engages in research that is particularly focused on the intersection of religion with Western […]

Dr. Peter Petkoff is a law lecturer at the Brunel Law School, West London. He is also a director of the Religion, Law and International Relations Programme at Regent’s Park College, Oxford, a managing editor of the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, and a legal consultant on media freedom and freedom of expression for […]

Merete Bilde is policy advisor at the European External Action Service (EEAS), the European Union’s foreign and security policy service. She works at the intersection of religion and politics.

Sue Breeze leads the Middle East and Asia team in the United Kingdom’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office. She previously worked on freedom of religion or belief, anti-Semitism and post-Holocaust issues.