Akbar Ahmed

Akbar Ahmed is the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies, American University in Washington DC, the First Distinguished Chair of Middle East and Islamic Studies at the US Naval Academy, Annapolis, and a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Intitution. He has taught at Princeton, Harvard, and Cambridge Universities and is considered "the world's leading authority on contemporary Islam" by the BBC. He is the author of over a dozen award-winning books, including Discovering Islam, which was the basis of the BBC six-part TV series called "Living Islam". His plays, Noor and The Trial of Dara Shikoh have been staged and published. His most recent book Journey into America: The Challenge of Islam, is an unprecedented study based in fieldwork of Muslims in America.