Isobel Coleman is senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations and director of its women and foreign policy program. Her areas of expertise include economic and political development in the Middle East, regional gender issues, educational reform and microfinance. In 2006, she coauthored Strategic Foreign Assistance: Civil Society in International Security. Her work has […]

Sheikh Hamza Yusuf is a cleric and scholar of Quran who received classical training in the Muslim world and is founding the first Muslim seminary in the United States, Zaytuna Institute, in Hayward, Calif. He was born and educated in the United States and converted to Islam as a youth. He is notable for his scholarly […]

John Kelsay is distinguished research professor at Florida State University in Tallahassee.  He specializes in comparative religious ethics, religion and war, and peace and has written extensively about Islam and war. His publications include Arguing the Just War in Islam. He can speak to Islamic law and warfare.

The Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy in Washington, D.C., aims to further Islamic discourse on a modern Islamic democracy. Contact its president, Radwan Masmoudi.

The Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., aims to foster understanding between Islamic and Western societies and to support learning about Islam in the West. Fields of particular interest include the compatibility of Islam and modern life and pluralism, women in Islam, the Islamic community in the United […]

United Muslims of America is a nonpartisan public affairs organization that works to promote the participation of Muslims in American public life, including economics, education and politics. The nonprofit organization is based in Sunnyvale, Calif., and is supported by membership fees.

A poll conducted by Hamilton College in 2002 found that American Muslims were largely young – only 38 percent were older than 45, compared with 52 percent of all American adults – and highly educated – 70 percent over the age of 25 had a college education, compared with 26 percent of all Americans. Three-fourths are married, […]

A July 2007 report by the Pew Forum found that Muslims are very much like white evangelical Christians and African-American Protestants in terms of how important they say religion is to their lives. And an equal number – 47 percent – of Muslims and Protestants said they define themselves first by their religion and second by their […]

A Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted in March 2006 found that 58 percent of Americans said Islam is “prone to violent extremism” and that 27 percent admitted to feeling prejudice against Muslims and Arabs.