M. A. Muqtedar Khan (ed.) - Islamic Democratic Discourse: Theory, Debates, and Philosophical Perspectives

Asma Afsaruddin is Associate Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Notre Dame. She taught previously at Harvard University. Her fields of specialization are the religious and political thought of Islam, the Quran and hadith studies, Islamic intellectual history, and gender studies. She is author of Excellence and Precedence: Medieval Islamic Discourse on Legitimate Leadership (E. J. Brill, 2002) and editor or coeditor of two other books. Dr. Afsaruddin is currently serving on the editorial boards of the Encyclopedia of Medieval Islamic Civilization (Routledge) and the Bulletin of the Middle East Studies Association (Cambridge University Press). She previously served as a consultant for the Oxford Dictionary of Islam (2003). Among her current research projects is a specially commissioned monograph on the history of early Muslims and a book manuscript about competing perspectives on jihad and martyrdom in premodern and modern Islamic thought. Her research has won funding from the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, among others, and she was recently named Carnegie Scholar for 2005 by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Osman Bakar , formerly Professor of Philosophy of Science and Vice President (Academic) at the University of Malaya, is currently Malaysia Chair of Islam in Southeast Asia at the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. He was educated at London University (19671971), where he obtained B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees specializing in Mathematics. He earned his doctorate in Islamic philosophy from Temple University in Philadelphia (19811986). In 1992, he was Fulbright Visiting Scholar in the History of Science department, Harvard University. Dr. Bakar has published twelve books and more than 120 articles on various aspects of Islamic thought and civilization, particularly Islamic philosophy and science, Sufism, Southeast Asian Islam, contemporary Islam and inter-religious dialogues. Among his books are Classification of Knowledge in Islam (Islamic Texts Society, 1998), Tawhid and Science (Secretariat for Islamic Philosophy and Science, 1991), Islam and Confucianism (University of Malaya Press, 1997) and Islam and Civilizational Dialogue (University of Malaya Press, 1997).

zlem Denli is Research Fellow in the Department of Philosophy at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Ms. Denli majored in Political Science and Sociology at Bosphorus University in Istanbul, Turkey. She did postgraduate studies at the University of Oslo and received a Cand.Polit title in the Department of Political Science. Ms. Denli completed the competence-building curriculum of the Norwegian Research Councils Ethics Program in political and normative philosophy, while working as Research Fellow at the Norwegian Institute of Human Rights. She researches in the area of political philosophy, ethics and human rights. She has authored several articles in Turkish, English and Norwegian, including Between Laicist State Ideology and Modern Public Religion: The Head Cover Controversy in Contemporary Turkey, in Facilitating Freedom of Religion or Belief: A Deskbook , ed. Cole Durham Jr., Bahia Tahzib-Lie and Tore Lindholm (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2004) and Freedom of Religion in Turkey: Laicist Policies and Islamic Challenges, in Human Rights in Turkey: Policies and Prospects , ed. Zehra F. Kabasakal Arat (University of Pennsylvania Press, forthcoming).

Abdelwahab El-Affendi is Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster, and coordinator of the Centres Democracy and Islam Program. He is author of Turabis Revolution: Islam and Power in Sudan (Grey Seal, 1991), Who Needs an Islamic State? (Grey Seal, 1991), Revolution and Political Reform in Sudan (1995), Rethinking Islam and Modernity (2001) and For a State of Peace: Conflict and the Future of Democracy in Sudan (2002). Dr. El-Affendi was a member of the core team of authors of the Arab Human Development Report (2004) and is a member of the Advisory Board and a contributor to the forthcoming report.

Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban is Professor of Anthropology at Rhode Island College, where she teaches courses in Anthropology and in Islamic, African and Afro-American Studies. At Rhode Island College she has received both the Award for Distinguished Teaching in 1990 and the Award for Distinguished Scholar in 1998. She is author or editor of many books, including Islamic Societies in Practice (University Press of Florida, 1994; 2nd edition 2004) and Islamic Law and Society in the Sudan (Frank Cass, 1987; Arabic translation 2004). She has published the writings of Egyptian liberal humanist intellectual Muhammad Said al-Ashmawy, translated from Arabic to English in the 1998 publication Against Islamic Extremism (University Press of Florida; paperback edition 2001). She is also editor of Ethics and the Profession of Anthropology: Dialogue for a New Era (Pennsylvania University Press, 1990; 2nd edition AltaMira, 2003). With Haitian collaborator Asselin Charles, she published in 2000 (Taylor & Francis; paperback edition 2002) the first major work of anthropology by a scholar of African descent, Antenor Firmins The Equality of the Human Races , originally published in French as De Legalite des Races Humaines in 1885. Her latest works include Race and Identity in the Nile Valley , coedited with Kharyssa Rhodes (Red Sea Press, 2004), Race and Racism: An Introduction (AltaMira, 2005) and Female Well-being: A Century of Change around the World , coedited with Janet Billson (Zed Books, 2005).

M. A. Muqtedar Khan is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Delaware. He is Nonresident Fellow at the Brookings Institution. He earned his Ph.D. in International Relations, Political Philosophy and Islamic Political Thought from Georgetown University in May 2000. Dr. Khan was a founding board member of the Center for the Study of Islam & Democracy and is a fellow of the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding. He has been President, Vice President and General Secretary of the Association of Muslim Social Scientists. He is author of American Muslims: Bridging Faith and Freedom (Amana, 2002) and Jihad for Jerusalem: Identity and Strategy in International Relations (Praeger, 2004). Dr. Khan frequently comments on BBC, CNN, FOX and VOA TV, NPR and other radio and TV networks. His political commentaries appear regularly in newspapers in more than twenty countries. He has also lectured in North America, East Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

Marc Lynch is Associate Professor of Political Science at Williams College. He is author of State Interests and Public Spheres: The International Politics of Jordans Identity (Columbia University Press, 1999). His most recent book, Voices of the New Arab Public , was published by Columbia University Press in 2005. Dr. Lynchs research interests focus on the role of deliberation and public spheres in international relations, with a primary empirical emphasis on the Middle East.

Mahgoub El-Tigani Mahmoud is Associate Professor of Sociology at Tennessee State University and Director of the universitys Office of International Relations and Programs. He was selected in 2002 and 2005 as one of the Whos Who among Americas Teachers. Dr. Mahmoud was cofounder (with Dr. Amin Mekki Medani) of the Sudan Human Rights Organization, Cairo Office. Dr. Mahmoud was its first, and continuing, elected President. He has published, coauthored, and translated in Arabic and English. His works in Arabic include The Administrative System of the May Dictatorship, African Women: Religion and Governance, and A Sudanese Encyclopedia of Criminal Justice . His works in English include Sudan Law and International Human Rights Norms (Edwin Mellen Press, 2002), Sudanese Thinkers (Edwin Mellen Press, 2004) and Human Rights in Africa (Edwin Mellen Press, 2005), among others. Dr. Mahmoud has also translated from English to Arabic Nubia, Corridor to Africa by William Y. Adams; Islamic Law and Society in the Sudan by Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban, published in Cairo in 2004; and Prisoner of the Khalifa by Charles Neufeld in 2005. Dr. Mahmoud is also founder and editor-in-chief of the bilingual Sudanese Human Rights Quarterly , publishing since 1994. Dr. Mahmoud is currently preparing his four-volume work Encyclopedia of Islamic Criminal Justice , in Arabic.