Dr. Andrew Bostom is associate professor of medicine at Brown University Medical School in Providence, R.I. He has written several books about Islam, including Sharia Versus Freedom: The Legacy of Islamic Totalitarianism.

The Jewish Voice & Herald is a Jewish publication serving Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts. It is based in Providence, R.I. Nancy Kirsch is executive editor.

The Rhode Island Catholic is the official weekly newspaper of the Diocese of Providence. Rick Snizek is the editor.

Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco is assistant professor of biology and instructor of theology at Providence College in Providence, R.I. He is also a Catholic priest and Dominican friar. His writings include “Are Teratomas Embryos or Non-Embryos? A Criterion for Oocyte-Assisted Reprogramming” in the winter 2005 issue of The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly.

The Rev. Albino F. Barrera is a Catholic priest and professor of theology and economics at Providence College in Providence, R.I. He is the author of the 2006 book God and the Evil of Scarcity: Moral Foundations of Economic Agency and the 2005 book Economic Compulsion and Christian Ethics.

J. Richard Ratcliffe is a lawyer in Providence, R.I. As a speaker for the Center for First Amendment Rights in Hartford, Conn., he frequently talks with high school, college and professional groups about the First Amendment.

James McCartney, associate professor emeritus of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University in Rhode Island, has studied spirituality among older people.

The Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University in Providence, R.I. is dedicated to research, academic exchanges and scholarship on ethnic studies.