Sarwar Alam received his doctorate in Public Policy from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, in 2006. He previously obtained baccalaureate and post baccalaureate degrees in Political Science from the University of Chittagong, Bangladesh. He also obtained an MA in Human Resource Development from Pittsburg State University, Kansas. Before moving to the United States, he served in the Civil Service of Bangladesh. He worked in the Ministries of Primary and Mass education, Women’s & Children’s Affairs, and Textiles & Jute. He also worked as a magistrate in some rural districts of Bangladesh. He has been a postdoctoral fellow in the department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia since 2007.

Malika Bahovadinova holds a degree in International Relations from the Russian Tajik Slavonic University and an MA in Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution from the University of Notre Dame. A founder and director of the Republican Center for Human Rights and Civic Society in Dushanbe, she has taught at the Russian Tajik Slavonic University and worked as an institution-building advisor for the American Bar Association in Tajikistan. Currently she works for American Councils for International Education as the Community Connections Program Managing Specialist. Her interests include the impact of development on communities, anthropology of development, human rights, poverty and Central Asia.

I am Berocwiny Diana, currently a student at Uganda Martyrs University-Nkozi, pursuing a degree in Ethics and Development studies. I am a girl of substance with potentiality and belief in hope over fear and grace over misfortune guided by humility right in the heart. My pride comes from the fact that I can 'achieve' a lot today that many think of 'doing' tomorrow and make the 'little' that people take for granted 'big'. And all that shapes me is my ultimate appreciation for Education and Life at most.

I joined ATD Fourth World International Movement Volunteer Corps in 1987. I first encountered families living in chronic poverty in the United Kingdom then spent 2 years in Republic of the Philippines (South-East Asia) working at grass-root level in slums, with the more specific charge of creating a pre-school within Manila North Cemetery, in order to teach English to the children of the families who used to squat there. Back in France, at the ATD Fourth World headquarters, I was asked to be in charge of the “International Permanent Forum on Extreme Poverty in the World”, a worldwide network of independent correspondents working at the grass roots level, engaged in counteracting poverty and exclusion. I left ATD Fourth World Movement for a little over a decade and worked in the Planning Department of the famous Lourdes Shrine, in Southern France, visited by over 6 millions pilgrims every year from the world over, part of whom come from other than Christian creed. I got to meet Muslims, a Jewish Rabbi, Buddhist Monks, and Shinto adepts. After spending a year with an association caring for the elderly mentally-handicapped people (one of whom, Elizabeth, lived with me, in my home), I was appointed Chaplain to a local hospital in rural Brittany, by the Local Roman Catholic Authorities.

Originally, I come from West Timor in Indonesia. Currently I am a research associate at the Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship and a PhD student in the Department of Sociology, University of Bristol, United Kingdom. My research is focused on the representation of Islam and Muslims in the British Christian media from the perspective of the political theory of recognition. Broadly my research interest includes the politics of recognition, religion on the Internet, Islam in the media, interfaith dialogue and ethnic relations. I am also a co-editor of the Journal of NTT Studies. Before coming to Bristol for higher studies in 2006, I spent 6 years working with community groups on various community development projects in Botswana, Southern Africa. Through this involvement, I initiated the establishment of a children's centre in Metsimotlhabe, Botswana, called the Lesang Bana Care Centre and became its first Programme Director. The centre has attracted a number of international organizations such as the US Embassy in Botswana, UNICEF Botswana, Siyabhabha Trust, Caritas International, Marang Child Care Project and Lions Club International.

A native Texan, Betsy graduated from Trinity University in San Antonio with a degree in Sociology/ Psychology. She earned an MBA, emphasis in European Studies, from Boston University and has studied at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington DC, in the Masters of Theological Studies program. Her career spans several fields, including United Way and public broadcasting in Florida, Texas, Northern Virginia and Washington DC, at both the local and national levels. She was the Associate Director for Development at Washington National Cathedral, Vice President of Development for the YMCA in Idaho, Vice President of Community Engagement for Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston and served as co-director for the Amazing Faiths Project with Dr. Jill Carroll of the Boniuk Center for Religious Tolerance at Rice University. Betsy now serves as Senior Vice President of Development for KLRU- Public Broadcasting in Austin, Texas. She has a son studying for his MBA at Virginia Tech and a daughter studying for a Masters in International Disaster Psychology at Denver University.

I graduated in philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy (Belgrade University, Serbia) and studied one-year in gender studies at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade. Currently I am writing an MA thesis in religious studies at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Studies (Sarajevo University, Bosnia and Herzegovina) on gender equality and social justice in the Serbian Orthodox Church. I am engaged on several research projects, including: “Ethos of religious peacebuilding” (University of Bielefeld, Germany and Centre for Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Studies, Sarajevo) and “Analysis of influences of religious identities and religious heritage on gender identity and gender roles construction among student population in Bosnia and Herzegovina.” My main interests include gender identities, social justice in connection to religion, religious identities, national and ethnic identities.

Karen V. Guth is a doctoral candidate in Religious Studies at the University of Virginia and a graduate fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture. She specializes in Christian Ethics, with particular interests in the role of religion in public life. Her dissertation lays the groundwork for a feminist public theology through a feminist engagement with three of the most important figures in the dominant tradition of Protestant Social Ethics—Reinhold Niebuhr, Martin Luther King, Jr., and John Howard Yoder. She holds an M.T.S. in Religion and Society from Harvard Divinity School, a M.Th. in Religion and Literature from the University of Glasgow, and a B.A. in religion from Furman University.

Tal Kligman is a group facilitator and a Project Office Director. She specializes in the fields of dialogue, multi-cultural communication, participatory democracy, coalition building and conflict management. She runs workshops and training in East and West Jerusalem for professionals and residents from diverse sociological and cultural backgrounds. She is currently working in the Jerusalem Inter-Cultural Center, Merchavim—The Institute for Advancement and Shared Citizenship and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Tal has a second degree in Special Education and Education Policy and Management from the Hebrew University, and a group facilitator diploma from the Zippori Center in Jerusalem.

He is a Ph.D researcher in Sociology Department, University of Birmingham. He was a journalist in West Timor, Indonesia. He works with other humanitarian workers in Eastern part of Indonesia to find other alternatives to solve communal conflict related to religious and ethnic identities.

Jonathan (Jon) Loar holds a B.A. in Religion from Emory University and an M.A. in Religious Studies from the University of Virginia. He is currently a Ph.D. student in the Graduate Division of Religion at Emory University. His primary course of study is modern Hinduism with an additional concentration in religion, conflict, and peacebuilding. He has traveled to India for undergraduate studies with the Tibetan exile community in Dharamsala and for graduate studies in Hindi language. Future dissertation research will explore the religious syncretism of Shirdi Sai Baba (d.1918), how he is worshiped in distinct Hindu and Muslim contexts, and how Hindus and Muslims perceive the other community in the context of devotion to Sai Baba.

Sajida Madni is a professional organizer with Birmingham Citizens, working on systemic issues of social justice for the benefit of organizations, families and their communities. Previously Sajida worked as a teacher at Sheldon Community School becoming head of English within three years whilst also coaching the official Girls’ Rugby and Football Teams. She captained Aston Villa Ladies’ Team until 2002.

Linda works as an Acquisition & Assistance Specialist at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) West Bank & Gaza Mission. She backstops procurement actions for the water resources and infrastructure office as well as the Education Development office. Linda has a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Birzeit University. Before joining the USAID she worked in the private sector with USAID contracts for four years. Linda is a Palestinian, living in Jerusalem.

Seamus has been and activist with the Fourth World Movement in the United Kingdom for 23 years, supporting families and people living in exclusion and/or great poverty. He has been active in various activities, meetings, and events organized by the FWM. Recently, he took part in a FWM "social training", part of which involved meeting with social work students, and visiting various structures and institutions, to exchange views about how and why children are put into care. On a regular basis, he helps at a Refugee Resource Centre. He lives in London, has 3 children and one grandchild.

Maria Parera used to work as a social activist in Indonesia. She worked with several national and local non-government organizations in diverse projects related to conflicts and poverty issues in eastern Indonesia. In the last two years she is living in Birmingham, UK, with her husband, a PhD student in University of Birmingham. She is still pursuing her interest in social activism by doing voluntary work for community library and peace institute in Indonesia.

David participated in the 2008 International Summer School on Religion and Public Life, which he found both rewarding and challenging and is looking forward to being involved in this year’s school. He is delighted to be living in such a culturally diverse city as Birmingham and is joining others working with young people. This includes ‘the feast’, a new charity set up to help build friendships between Christian and Muslim young people. A believer in Jesus, he is keen to remain a learner and live out his faith honestly and peacefully.

Mustafa Qossoqsi is an educational and clinical psychologist, head of the Arab Psychological Association in Israel, and Palestinian citizen of Israel. He runs a public psychological service in the area of Nazareth and is engaged in private practice. After receiving his Italian Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at “La Sapienza” in Rome, he worked as a psychologist and psychotherapist with immigrant families at the Psychological Service for Foreign Families at “La Sapienza.” He has collaborated as a consultant with UNICEF to train mental health professionals in crisis therapeutic intervention for children and as a lecturer at the Beir-Zeit University in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Mustafa is variously involved in promoting mental health activity among the Palestinian community in Israel aiming at meeting the general and specific psychological needs due to a complex political reality. He is involved as promoter, coordinator and member in different bi-national and international think tanks that brings together child mental health professionals from Israel, Palestine and other countries to formulate and accomplish joint projects to enhance the well being of children and families, to develop strategies for strengthening community resiliency, and to restore hope in this post-traumatized region. Furthermore, he cultivates literature activity being interested in the intersection between psychology and literature, especially in poetry. Mustafa is pursuing his PhD degree in psychology at the Bar Ilan University in Israel, his research explores the post-traumatic effects on Palestinian and Israeli toddlers exposed to political violence.

Tania Reytan-Marinsheshka was born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. She lived and studied in Russia, Germany, USA and Israel. She holds an MA in International Relations from the MGIMO University, Moscow, and a PhD in Political Philosophy from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and has specialized in International Law, Philosophy of Law, Social Anthropology and Human Rights. In the 1980’s and 1990’s she was a human rights activist. From 1993 through 2001 she created and directed a joint UNHCR/BHC program and a network on “Refugees’ and Migrants’ Legal Protection”. In 1998-2000 Tania created and is still involved with an inter-religious and intercultural network ‘Association on Refugees and Migrants-BG’. Since 2000, she performs anthropological and scholarly research and publishes in the field of migration, urban studies, communication, civil participation, social justice and coexistence. In 2001-2002, she was a scholar-in-residence at HBI, Brandeis University, MA, USA. From 2003 until 2007 she taught Human Rights & International Relations at Sofia University and January-July 2008, she was a visiting professor at Utica College, NY, USA. Since 2003 she has been a member of the European Bet Debora movement and is the organizer of June 25-28, 2009 Fifth Bet Debora Conference of European Women Rabbis, Jewish Community Politicians, Activists and Scholars on “Migration, Communication & Home: Jewish Tradition, Change & Gender in a Global Context”, held in Sofia, Bulgaria. Currently she works in the Institute for Philosophical Research, BAS. Tania has two daughters and a grandson and lives in Sofia with her widowed mother.

Pritpal Kaur Riat is a Sikh from Leeds, UK. A graduate in BA History from Kings College, University of London, she is currently completing her PhD in Sikh Studies at the University of Birmingham. Pritpal has had extensive experience in interfaith work for the past 5 years through volunteering at Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha (a multi-faceted Faith Based Organization working in UK, Kenya and India). Grass roots interfaith work that Pritpal is involved in includes Faith Guiding and the Faith Encounter Programme in Birmingham. She also supports social justice events run by Birmingham Citizens, the Environment Agency, and Jubilee Debt Campaign. Pritpal was part of a Sikh delegation that visited Israel and Palestine in 2005. She has also represented the Sikh youth at various international interfaith events, including the inter-religious youth meeting hosted by the 'Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue' at Assisi, Italy in 2007; and the European Interfaith Youth Network religious encounter hosted by 'Religions for Peace', at Rovereto, Italy in 2008.

Mauricio Silva is a Catholic missionary from Chile. Over the past 8 years, Mauricio has worked in different inner city areas in the city of Birmingham. He brings his knowledge and experience as a secondary school teacher and as a basic ecclesial community worker into his involvements. His ministry in Birmingham has been related to providing support for asylum seekers and refugees as well as promoting understanding and dialogue among people of different faiths and traditions. Mauricio is currently a member of the leadership team of the organization he works for, Columbian Lay Mission, an intercultural group of men and women from 11 countries with the purpose of living a simple way of life and journeying with the poor and marginalized wherever they are sent.

David Ngendo Tshimba is currently a student of the Institute of Ethics and Development Studies at Uganda Martyrs University. He is a very ambitious young man and ready to snatch golden opportunities, though sometimes limited. He really never got satisfied by many things around him, especially socio-political phenomena that surround his living area—the Great Lakes region of Africa. Enjoying some intellectual prerogatives, David has specialized himself in asking paramount questions about the very existence of humanity because he strongly believes that ‘crucial questions are much more important than naive answers.’ His passion is to make good use of human potentiality in order to overcome difficulties that defeated our fore grandparents and never postpone on tomorrow things that can be done today. Keen to remain a learner, David recently co-founded a Student Research and Debate Foundation at Uganda Martyrs University and has successfully posted online, at several opportunities, various conference papers (Education Without Borders 2009, Dubai; Bridgeport University Conference 2009, USA; First World Young Earth Scientists Congress 2009, China; etc.) David also believes that ethical issues are not genetic, and thus he always appreciates other people’s differences to change his surrounding world into a better haven. An engaged Christian, David’s interests and challenges are fair public policy-making along with the peacebuilding and conflict-resolution mechanisms that are to specifically be applied in the Great Lakes region of Africa, for a peaceful coexistence and socio-economic well-being in this region of the world is not and never shall be an easy task.

Warmington is an organizer with Birmingham Citizens and active in the Black-led Churches in Birmingham.

I am an Anglican priest, currently serving as Dean of Birmingham Cathedral. I worked in the Middle East and Central Asia for many years, and in Liverpool (UK) where I chaired the Merseyside Council of Faiths and worked closely with the local government. I am keen to explore the positive relation between people of faith and the public life of their communities, and to think hard about the role of the Christian community within that relation. My wife, Sheila, and I are parents of four young adults, and grandparents of two delightful little girls.

My name is Nayden Yotov. I am an Orthodox Bulgarian believer. Currently I am a PhD student of semiotics in the New Bulgarian University, specializing in visual and cognitive studies. I have a MA degree in Philosophy, language and communication and BA in Marketing and Advertising. My university educational background also includes Faculty of Theology, English Language Philosophy at Sofia University and National College of Ancient Languages and Cultures. My mission is to travel around the world and make bridges between differences in cultures and to explore and understand the very nature of humanity. In my homeland I organize regular meetings and performances, where people are sharing their intellectual and artistic potential in all known forms. My Interests include music, religion, cultural dialogue, mythology, poetry, philosophy, semiotics, cinema, psychology, ethics, art theory, dancing, theatre, and rhetoric.

The Art of Mohammed Ali has been taken across the globe and described as challenging the oft-heard term 'clash of civilizations.' With his unique urban-spiritual art, Mohammed has successfully managed to connect people of different communities through his art, with the themes of his artwork exploring the issues that face contemporary, multicultural societies. Mohammed has been involved with graffiti-art from a young age after being inspired by the New York Graffiti-art movement, and began spray-painting in his early teenage years. He then continued to study Art & Design at university, and after graduating, he worked in the computer games industry as a designer. It was after his new-found passion and rediscovery of Islam, that he began to fuse his graffiti-art with the grace and eloquence of sacred and Islamic script and patterns. He describes his work as, 'taking the best of both worlds.' Mohammed Ali's art is appreciated by people of all faith and cultures and he has exhibited his canvas-art as well as created his unique, public spiritual murals in the streets of major cities, such as New York, Chicago, Toronto, Melbourne and Dubai. He has delivered lectures and seminars at universities, ranging from Cambridge University to the University of Melbourne, Australia. International media ranging from CNN to Aljazeera, have reported his work as a 'bridge of understanding' between faith communities and he has become a regular media figure, speaking about how his art transcends cultural and religious barriers. Mohammed has recently been awarded a South Bank Show Award, an awards show recognizing the best in British Art.

Aviva Bock is a teaching associate in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a licensed therapist in private practice in Newton Massachusetts. In recent years, Aviva’s interests have expanded as research on the brain has come to understand how our emotions and beliefs can become locked in the body /mind to the detriment of our everyday lives. Aviva now includes various techniques in her practice that can enable the brain to take in new information free from these limiting beliefs and past experiences. In January 2009, Aviva taught a course at a Rabbinical Retreat for Rabbis entitled “Being a Rabbi with the Brain in Mind.” Aviva was born in England and grew up in London in the postwar years in the midst of a large extended observant Jewish family. As a young girl, she was a member of a Zionist youth movement and was an active Jewish student leader at London University. She intended to live in Israel when she finished college, but events led her to settle in the United States and to marry and raise her family in Newton, Massachusetts. Aviva continues to identify herself, and to live her life, as an observant Jew. During the first intifada, she was the American president of OZ ve Shalom/Netivot Shalom, the Israeli religious peace movement.

David Burrell, C.S.C., Theodore Hesburgh Professor emeritus in Philosophy and Theology at the University of Notre Dame, where he taught from 1964 to 2007, is currently serving the Congregation of Holy Cross in the District of East Africa, assisting at Uganda Martyrs University. He has been working since 1982 in comparative issues in philosophical theology in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, as evidenced in Knowing the Unknowable God: Ibn-Sina, Maimonides, Aquinas (Notre Dame, 1986) and Freedom and Creation in Three Traditions (Notre Dame, 1993), Friendship and Ways to Truth (Notre Dame, 2000), and two translations of al-Ghazali: Al-Ghazali on the Ninety-Nine Beautiful Names of God (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society,1993) and Al-Ghazali on Faith in Divine Unity and Trust in Divine Providence [Book 35 of his Ihya Ulum ad-Din] (Louisville: Fons Vitae, 2001). With Elena Malits he co-authored Original Peace (New York: Paulist, 1998), and translated Roger Arnaldez: Three Messengers for One God (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1998) – with Mary Louise Gude, C.S.C. and Gerald Schlabach. Blackwell published a collected set of essays in 2005: Faith and Freedom, and Brazos Press (Grand Rapids MI) published a philosophical commentary on the book of Job—Deconstructing Theodicy—in 2008, as Sorin Books (Notre Dame IN) will issue an appreciation of the life and work of John Zahm, C.S.C., from his writings, in 2009. Earlier published writings include Analogy and Philosophical Language (New Haven CT: Yale University Press, 1973), Exercises in Religious Understanding (Notre Dame IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1975), Aquinas: God and Action (Notre Dame IN: University of Notre Dame Press / London: Routlege and Kegan Paul, 1979), and an edition (with Bernard McGinn): God and Creation (Notre Dame IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1990). Burrell is the recipient of an honorary doctorate in theology from Lund University (Sweden), the Aquinas medal from the American Catholic Philosophical Association (in 2008), and the John Courtney Murray award from the Catholic Theological Society of America (2009).

Ehrlich teaches political sociology at the Academic College of Tel Aviv Jaffa. He holds a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics, where he also taught. His other teaching posts include Middlesex University in London, York University in Toronto, Tel Aviv University in Israel, and the University of Nicosia in Cyprus. His current research focuses on comparative protracted conflicts in partitioned states.

Ferrari is Professor at the Law Faculty of the Universita degli Studi di Milano and president of the International Consortium for Law and Religious Studies. He is one of the experts on the legal status of Islam in Europe. He is a frequent contributor to journals, workshops and conferences dealing with these and other legal issues, spanning the civil and canon law traditions. His many publications include: Islam and European Legal Systems (edited with A. Bradney, Aldershot, 2000), Musulmani in Italia (Bologna, 1996), Law and Religion in post-Communist Europe (Leuven, 2003).

Zahava Fischer was born in 1949 in Israel. She holds a B.A in Law and Philosophy. Since 2000 she has been an elected member of the Har-Nof Neighborhood Council. She is an active member in the Jewish Orthodox feminist organization "Kolech" in which she served on the Board of Directors for two years. In 1995 she published a book of poetry and she is currently an active contributor to Israeli newspapers writing about literary and women's subjects. She is married to Shlomo and is the mother to five children and grandmother to three.

Holmwood is Professor of Sociology at the University of Birmingham. His main research interests are the relation between social theory and explanation and social stratification and inequality. His current research addresses the challenge of global social inquiry and the role of pragmatism in the construction of public sociology. He is currently working on issues of public sociology in post-secular society.

Rev Dr Toby Howarth is a parish priest in the Diocese of Birmingham and the Bishop's Advisor for Interfaith Relations in Birmingham. He has studied and worked in the USA, India and the Netherlands, and has made a special study of Shi’ite Muslim preaching.

Jhutti-Johal is a Lecturer in Sikh Studies in the Department of Theology and Religion at the University of Birmingham. She has research interests in the Sikh Diaspora, the anthropology of religion, gender issues in the Asian communities as well as in Sikh theology and its application in a multicultural society. She is currently working on issues of race, religion, culture, and ethnicity in the Family Justice System and is looking at the position of Sikh women in religious texts and their position in today’s society.

Professor Ayhan Kaya studied international relations at the Marmara University in Istanbul and earned his PhD in ethnic relations in 1998 at the Warwick University, UK. Between 1992-98 he was research assistant, Marmara University, Department of Political Science and International Relations. His lecture posts included: Full-time Lecturer, Marmara University, Department of Political Science and International Relations (teaching Political Theory and Sociology); Part-time lecturer, Yeditepe University, Department of Social Anthropology (teaching Modernity in Turkey, and Colonialism and Nationalism) for 1998-2001. Between 2000-03 he conducted a two-year project on Circassian Diasporic Identity in Turkey sponsored by the Population Council MEAwards, Cairo. He was Chairperson, Department of International Relations, Istanbul Bilgi University in 2002-04. He conducted a research on Euro-Turks in 2004-07which was critically acclaimed and earned him various academic prices. He has also recently conducted another research on the internally displaced people in Turkey. He is Director of the European Institute at the Istanbul Bilgi University and full-time lecturer. His latest book, Islam, Migration and Integration: The Age of Securitization recently came out from Palgrave MacMillan Press (London).

Montgomery has conducted long-term anthropological field research in the Kyrgyz Republic, Uzbekistan and Albania, and his work focuses on the transmission of religious and cultural knowledge, expressions of everyday religious life, and social aspects of religious change in Central Asia and the Balkans. He is a Visiting Assistant Professor in Anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh; has held Postdoctoral Fellowships in Religion, Conflict and Peacebuilding at Emory University and the University of Notre Dame; worked as a Legislative Assistant for the U.S. House of Representatives; and served as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer.

Schapiro has been a practicing attorney in Boston, Massachusetts, for many years and presently serves as the corporate attorney for the ISSRPL. He has recently taken the position of the General Counsel for the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust located in Washington, DC. This entity invests pension monies from labor unions and public employee pension plans in housing projects across the United States. The program has multiple objectives including securing a fair return for the invested monies of the labor plans, creating jobs for union workers and participating in the construction and/or rehabilitation of affordable housing for low and moderate income tenants as well as middle class working families. Since 2007 he has worked with the ISSRPL in developing the facilitation components of the school.

Seligman is Professor of Religion at Boston University and Research Associate at the Institute for Culture, Religion and World Affairs there. He has lived and taught at universities in the United States, in Israel and in Hungary where he was a Fulbright Fellow from 1990-1992. He lived close to twenty years in Israel where he was a member of Kibbutz Kerem Shalom in the early 1970s. His books include The Idea of Civil Society (Free Press, 1992), Inner-worldly Individualism (Transaction Press, 1994), The Problem of Trust (Princeton University Press, 1997), Modernity’s Wager: Authority, the Self and Transcendence (Princeton University Press, 2000) with Mark Lichbach Market and Community (Penn State University Press, 2000), Modest Claims: Dialogues and Essays on Tolerance and Tradition (Notre Dame University Press, 2004) and with Robert Weller, Michael Puett and Bennett Simon, Ritual and its Consequences: An Essay on the Limits of Sincerity (Oxford University Press, 2008). His work has been translated into over a dozen languages. He lives in Newton, Massachusetts with his wife and two daughters.

Dr. Reza Shah-Kazemi writes on a range of topics from metaphysics and doctrine to contemplation and prayer. He is presently a Research Associate at the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London, where, amongst other projects, he has been working on a new, annotated translation of Nahj al-Balagha, the discourses of Imam ‘Ali. Dr. Shah-Kazemi is also the founding editor of the Islamic World Report. His degrees include International Relations and Politics at Sussex and Exeter Universities, and a PhD in Comparative Religion from the University of Kent in 1994. He later acted as a consultant to the Institute for Policy Research in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia. Shah-Kazemi has authored and translated several works, including Paths of Transcendence: Shankara, Ibn Arabi and Meister Eckhart on Transcendent Spiritual Realization (World Wisdom Books, 2006), Doctrines of Shi‘i Islam (I. B. Tauris in association with The Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2001), Avicenna: Prince of Physicians (Hood Hood, 1997) and Crisis in Chechnya (Islamic World Report, 1995). Reza Shah-Kazemi has edited several books, including Algeria: Revolution Revisited (Islamic World Report, 1997). He has also published numerous articles and reviews in academic journals.

Syeda is a former General Practitioner who counsels on women’s issues and family matters at the Birmingham Central Mosque.

Wasserfall is the newly appointed Director of Evaluation and Liaison to Schools of The Center for the Advancement of Hebrew Teaching and Learning Inc. She is leaving her position as a Senior Research Associate with Education Matters Inc. She is an anthropologist with a PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who has wide experience in three different continents. For many years her work focused on gender and ethnic studies in Israel, and in the Jewish world. She taught gender studies and qualitative methodology classes at the Hebrew University, Duke University, Chapel Hill (NC), University of Colorado, Boulder and Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest. She has been a Fulbright fellow as well as a beneficiary of Ford Foundation grants. She has widely published in the area of gender and is the editor of Women and Water: Menstruation in Jewish Life and Law (UPNE, 1999). With her move to Boston, Wasserfall shifted her interest to Jewish education. She was the Special Coordinator at JCDS (Boston Jewish Community Day School) in which capacity she directed the AISNE accreditation process. She also co-authored (with Susan Sevitz) a study on Jewish pluralism in a local Day School. She has wide experience in qualitative evaluation and is the yearly evaluator of the ISSRPL. At Education Matters, Wasserfall co-led the Special Education Initiative and contributed to the Peerless Initiative and other projects. In her newly appointed position she will focus on internal evaluation and be part of the senior leadership at the Center for the Advancement of Hebrew teaching and Learning, Inc. She is also a committed yoga practitioner and teacher, having completed teacher training in the Iyengar tradition.

Salma Yaqoob is the leader, and former vice-chair, of Respect — The Unity Coalition (its name is an acronym standing for Respect, Equality, Socialism, Peace, Environmentalism, Community, and Trade Unionism) and a Birmingham City Councilor. She is also the head of the Birmingham Stop the War Coalition and a spokesperson for Birmingham Central Mosque. It has been suggested that she played a crucial role in inviting Muslims into an anti-war movement previously dominated by Marxists. She has argued against the idea—put forward by what she calls religious fundamentalists and sectarian right-wingers—that Muslims and non-Muslims cannot work together, as well as against what she claims are calls for Muslims to "keep their heads down" from within the Muslim community. In the 2005 general election, she stood as the Respect candidate for the Birmingham Sparkbrook and Small Heath constituency, with the backing of the Muslim Association of Britain. She finished in second place, ahead of the Liberal Democrat and Conservative candidates, and with 27.5% of the total vote.