The Islamic Center of Mississippi is located in Starkville and serves a diverse groups of residents.

Karim was an assistant professor in the department of philosophy and religious studies at Spelman College in Atlanta. She was reared in an African-American Muslim community. Her expertise is on race, gender and Islam; younger Muslims in the U.S.; and connections and tensions among African-American Muslims and immigrant Muslims in the U.S.

Mark Goodacre is a theology professor at the Duke University in Durham, N.C., where he maintains a web directory of internet resources on the New Testament called the New Testament Gateway.

Joyce Antler is a professor of American Jewish history and culture at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass. She has written about images of Jewish women on television and in popular culture.

Theresa M. Sanders is an associate professor of theology at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and author of Celluloid Saints: Images of Sanctity in Film (Mercer University Press, 2002).

Christopher Jordan is an assistant professor of film, industry production, distribution, exhibition, and cultural studies at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota. He is the author of Movies and the Reagan Presidency: Success and Ethics (Praeger, 2003).

Tona Hangen is a professor in the Department of History and Political Science at Worcester State University in Mass. She is the author of Redeeming the Dial: Radio Religion and Popular Culture in America (University of North Carolina Press, 2002). She is an expert on the roots of religious broadcasting.

The Rev. Robert Spitzer is president of the Michigan-based Spitzer Center, which provides resources for businesses and educational institutions of the Catholic faith.

Lisle Dalton is an assistant professor of religious studies at Hartwick College in Oneonta, N.Y. He has written about religion and The Simpsons.