Talal Asad is a professor of anthropology at the City University of New York Graduate Center. His expertise includes religion and secularism as part of modern Muslim societies, especially in the religious revival in the Middle East, and secular and modern influences on Shariah law.

Thomas W. Simons Jr. directs the Program on Eurasia in Transition at Harvard University’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies and is a fellow at the center. His expertise is in modern and contemporary Islam, South and Southwest Asia, and East-West relations.

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.

Kevin A. Reinhart is an associate professor of Islamic religious studies at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. His expertise is on Islamic legal thought, primarily in the pre-modern period.

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, […]