Lattin

Loaded language

When is it appropriate to use the words “fundamentalist” and “cult?” What are other terms with which I must be careful? By Don Lattin The San Francisco Chronicle* CULT is a word that should be used with care. Some of its dictionary definitions are value neutral, with such meanings as “formal religious veneration,” such as […]

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Hjamil Martínez-Vázquez

Hjamil Martínez-Vázquez is an assistant professor of religion at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. His expertise includes Latino/a religions in the United States and Latin America, Latina feminist theory and Latino/a Muslims

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Jean-Pierre Ruiz

The Rev. Jean-Pierre Ruiz, a Catholic priest who teaches biblical studies and Hispanic theology at St. John’s University in New York, is editor in chief of the Journal of Hispanic/Latino Theology. Hispanic religious issues he can discuss include Bible translations, end-times perspectives, ecumenism, relations with Jews and Muslims, immigration and immigration, and clergy.

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Liaquat Ali Khan

Liaquat Ali Khan is a professor of law at the Washburn University School of Law in Topeka, Kan. A native of Pakistan, he focuses his research on terrorism and conflict in Muslim societies. He has written extensively about Islamic law and in 2008 wrote an article for The American Muslim about Islamic perspectives on the economic meltdown.

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Robert W. Hefner

Robert W. Hefner is an anthropology professor and director of the Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs at Boston University. Since 1991 he has also directed the institute’s program on Islam and society. His many books include (as editor) Shari’a Politics: Islamic Law and Society in the Modern World and (as co-editor) Schooling Islam: The […]

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Clark McCauley Jr.

Clark McCauley Jr. is Rachel C. Hale Professor of Mathematics and the Sciences and co-director of the Solomon Asch Center for Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict at Bryn Mawr College. His research focuses on the psychological foundations of ethnic conflict and genocide. At the April 2011 conference at Fordham, McCauley argued that “ideology and religion are more rationalization […]

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Charles Kurzman

Charles Kurzman is a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and co-director of the Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations. He is the author of The Missing Martyrs: Why There Are So Few Muslim Terrorists, in which he argues that there are far fewer Islamic terrorists […]

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