Saif El-Din 'Abdel Fattah teaches Islamic political theory and political thought at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science at the University of Cairo. At the same university he is the executive head of the Program for Civilization Studies and Dialogue of Cultures (http://www.hewaronline.net/).

Geneive Abdo, most recently the religion writer at the Chicago Tribune, is a regular contributor to The Economist and the International Herald Tribune. She is currently Liaison of the Alliance of Civilizations at the United Nations. She has published Mecca and Main Street: Muslim Life in America After 9/11 and No God but God: Egypt and the Triumph of Islam (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000).

Tewfik Aclimandos, Egyptian, has been historian and research associate at the Chair of Contemporary History of the Arab world at the College de France since 2009. He was researcher at the Centre français d’Etudes et de Documentation Economiques, Juridiques et Sociales (CEDEJ, Cairo) from 1984 to 2009. Specialist in post-war Egyptian political life (1945-2011), he has published numerous articles on the army, the Muslim Brotherhood and Mubarak’s foreign policy.

Prof. Khalid al-Jabr (Qalqilya, Occupied Territories, 1964, married with four children), after obtaining a BA at the University of Nablus, a MA and a PhD in Arabic Language and Literature at the Jordanian University, is now Associate Professor at the Petra University (Amman). He is the author of several monographs on modern Arabic literature (chiefly Mahmûd Darwîsh and contemporary poetry) and of critical editions of classical texts (ar-Râzî, at-Tijânî, Ibn al-Khatîb etc.). His researches deal also with semantics of texts and he is currently writing an essay entitled Towards a contemporary understanding of the Kur’ân: essay on Sûrat al-a’là. He is the author of three collections of poems.

Mohammed Abed al Jabri was born in Figuig (Morocco) and is one of the most famous Arab philosophers. After studying in Damascus and Rabat, he specialised in Arab-Islamic thought. Amongst his most famous publications we may list Critique de la Raison Arabe, 4 volumes (1982-1990). Presentations of this work have been published in French (Introduction à la Critique de la Raison Arabe, La Découverte, Paris, 1995) and in English (Arab-Islamic Philosophy. A Contemporary Critique, Texas University, 1999). He died in Casablanca on 3 May 2010.

Scott Alexander is Associate Professor of Islam and Director, Catholic-Muslim Studies at Catholic Theological Union, Chicago. Trained at Harvard University, he held M.A., M.Phil. and Ph.D. at Columbia University. His teaching and research interests include medieval Muslim sectarianism, the mystical traditions of Muslim spirituality, Quranic studies, and the history and future of Muslim-Christian relations and interreligious dialogue. His current book project is entitled The Race to Goodness: an End to Triumphalism in Christianity and Islam.
 

Luigi Alici Luigi Alici was born in Grottazzolina (AP) on 14 March 1950. Married with two children, he is Professor of Theoretical Philosophy at LUMSA, Rome. Amongst his various activities, he works with the Centro di Studi Agostiniani of Perugia in the organisation of international study seminars, directs the series Le ragioni del bene published by San Paolo, and is the editor of the quarterly review Dialoghi (Rome). Since 31 May 2005 he has been president of Azione Cattolica Italiana.

Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi was born in Iran and is Director of Studies at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (the Sorbonne). He is the author of a large number of books and articles, in particular La religion discrète : croyances et pratiques spirituelles dans l’islam shi’ite (Vrin, 2006) and Le Guide divin dansle shi’isme originel (Verdier, 2007). He is the editor and co-author of Dictionnaire du Coran (Robert Laffont, 2007; Dizionario del Corano, Mondadori, 2007). He is also the scientific co-editor of the Islamica series published by Mondadori.

Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im was born in the Sudan, is the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Law at the Emory Law School (USA). A scholar of international standing on Islam and human rights from an inter-cultural perspective, he holds courses on international law, comparative constitutional law and human rights, and religion and human rights. His research interests include secularity, constitutionalism and citizenship in Islamic societies, and constitutionalism in African countries.

Carl A. Anderson is Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus. He graduated in philosophy and law and is a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life and the Commission on Civil Rights of the United States of America.