John C. Danforth, an Episcopal priest and a former U.S. senator, has served as special envoy to Sudan under President Bush and also as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 2004-2005.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., commemorates those who died in the Holocaust and strives to confront bigotry and genocide throughout the world today.

Joel S. Fetzer is a professor of political science at Seaver College at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif. He co-wrote Muslims and the State in Britain, France, and Germany (Cambridge University Press, 2004).

Zayn Kassam is professor of religious studies at Pomona College in California. She is an expert on Islamic society.

James E. Lindsay is an associate professor in the department of history at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. His area of expertise is Medieval Islamic history.

Mark R. Woodward is an associate professor of religious studies at Arizona State University in Tempe. One of his areas of research interest is Islam.

Daniel C. Peterson is a professor of Arabic and currently serves as editor-in-chief and director of the Middle Eastern Texts Initiative at the College of Humanities at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

Alam Payind is director of the Middle East Studies Center at Ohio State University in Columbus.

Fred M. Donner is a professor of near Eastern history at the University of Chicago. He wrote Seeing the Origins of Islam in Historical Perspective.