Rabbi Aryeh Cohen is a professor of Rabbinic Literature at American Jewish University. Rabbi Cohen has written about link between the Black Lives Matter movement and the meaning of Passover.

Leah Gunning Francis is associate dean for contextual education and assistant professor of Christian education at Eden Theological Seminary. She is based in St. Louis and was present in Ferguson, Mo., during the unrest in the aftermath of Michael Brown’s death.

Yavilah McCoy is a teacher, writer, diversity consultant and performer. She has linked the Jewish holiday of Purim to the fight for justice for the African-American community and the Black Lives Matter movement. She founded Dimensions Educational Consulting in Newton, Mass.

J.M. Berger is an analyst and author, and he focuses on extremism, extremist activities in the United States, and extremist use of social media. He works with the Brookings Institution and the Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World, publishes the web site Intelwire.com and contributes to Foreign Policy. He recently co-authored ISIS: The State of Terror with Jessica Stern. He can be reached through Ashley […]

Hassan Hassan is a co-author of the New York Times bestseller, ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror. He also writes for The National. His areas of expertise include Syria and Iraq.

Karen Armstrong, a former Catholic nun, is an authority on the Abrahamic religions and author of many books on the subject. Her most recent book is Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence.

Philip Freeman is a professor of Classics at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. His research focuses on Classical Mythology, Ancient Roman Culture, Greece and Rome in film, as well as Latin.

The Rev. Nageeb Michael is a Dominican priest and a scholar at the Digital Center for Eastern Manuscripts. He digitizes historic Assyrian Christian manuscripts, according to a New York Times article, and he fled the city in which he previously worked, Qaraqosh, when the Islamic State gained control of the area. He is a source on art and religion.

Tina Beattie is a professor of Catholic studies at the University of Roehampton in London. She focuses her research on the relationship between the Catholic tradition and contemporary culture with an emphasis on gender, sexuality, and reproductive ethics. She also studies Catholic social teaching and women’s rights, and theology and the visual arts.