Maria Chin Abdullah
Dr. Abdullah is the Executive Director of the Women’s Development Collective (WDC), a non-governmental organization in Malaysia focused on research, education, and training. Established in the early 1980’s, WDC’s programs focus on gender analysis, worker health and safety, awareness and understanding of Malaysian laws, and leadership and grassroots organizing.
Contact her through wlp [at] learningpartnership [dot] org
Vivienne Sm. Angeles
Dr. Angeles is Assistant Professor of Religion at LaSalle University, Pennsylvania. She is also a board member of American Council for the Study of Islamic Societies. Her research pertains to the relationship between Philippine Muslims and the government, Philippine Muslim women and their participation in Muslim movement, and the cultural side of Philippine Islam.
Email her at angeles [at] lasalle [dot] edu and view her current research project via http://www.pluralism.org/affiliates/angeles/index.php.
Mucha-Shim Q. Arquiza
Ms. Arquiza is the Secretary General of the Asian Muslim Action Network (AMAN), an Asia-wide network of Muslims working for human rights, peace and social justice through inter-cultural and inter-faith dialogue. She is also the Executive Director and senior researcher for an all-women, mostly-Moroland (an indigenous community in the Philipines) research collective. The aim of the organization (HAGS, Inc.) is to work towards indigenous women�s empowerment.
Contact her at: mucha-shim [at] eudoramail [dot] com
Maria Luisa Bartolomei
Dr. Bartolomei is Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Sociology of Law, Lund University, in Sweden. Her research interests are general human rights in the third world and Latin America, human rights as they are connected to legal cultures and globalization, and indigenous children’s rights in Latin America. She is currently developing two new internet courses: “Human Rights and Legal Development” in collaboration with several universities in South Africa, India and Argentina; and “Human Rights in Europe” together with the University of Lithuania.
Contact her at: Maria_Luisa [dot] Bartolomei [at] soc [dot] lu [dot] se
Osman Bakar
Dr. Bakar is the Malaysia Chair of Islam in Southeast Asia at The Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Georgetown University, Washington D.C. His research interests include Southeast Asian Islam, particularly Malaysian-Indonesian Islam, globalization, and contemporary Islamic thought.
Email him at obb [at] georgetown [dot] edu
Irene Bloom
Dr Bloom is Anne Whitney Olin Professor and Chair, Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures, Barnard College. Her research interests include human rights and Asia, philosophy of human rights, and religion and human rights.
For more information, visit http://www.columbia.edu/cu/humanrights/faculty.htm
Asghar Ali Engineer
Dr. Engineer is the Director of the Institute of Islamic Studies in Bombay, India. He represents a more open approach to the subject of the application of Shari’a in Muslim countries and has called for a re-consideration of the classical view that ijtihad is closed. Dr. Engineer’s research emphasizes the contextual nature of both Qur’anic teachings as well as the various hadiths which were compiled around 100 years after Muhammad’s death.
For more information, visit, http://www.dawoodi-bohras.com/aboutus/asghar.htm
Riffat Hassan
Dr. Hassan is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Louisville, Kentucky. She is the founder of The International Network for the Rights of Female Victims of Violence in Pakistan (INRFVVP), a non-profit organization with a worldwide membership and reputation for playing a noteworthy role in highlighting the issue of violence against girls and women, particularly with reference to “crimes of honor.”
Visit her website at http://www.inrfvvp.org
Send an email to inrfvvpe [at] athena [dot] louisville [dot] edu to contact her.
Jeff Haynes
Dr. Haynes is Professor of Politics and co-developer of the International Relations Program at London Guildhall University. His areas of specialization are politics of developing countries and international relations. He has examined the continuing importance of religion as an important factor in politics using examples drawn from a range of religious groups around the world, including Europe, Africa, Asia, and the United States.
Contact him at jeff [dot] haynes [at] londonmet [dot] ac [dot] uk
Chandra Muzaffar
Dr. Muzaffar is a professor at the Centre for Civilisational Dialogue at the Universiti Malaya in Kuala Lumpur. He is the President of the Malaysian based international NGO, International Movement for a Just World (JUST), which seeks to raise public consciousness on the moral and intellectual basis of global justice. Dr. Muzaffar�s research interests include religion and human rights, Malaysian politics, and Malaysian politics.
Visit the JUST website for more information at http://www.just-international.org.
Xiao Qiang
Xiao Qiang is the Executive Director of Human Rights in China (HRIC). He is a full-time human rights activist and acted as deputy director of the Washington-based Independent Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars (IFCSS) before he assumed his current position at HRIC in April, 1991. He has spoken on behalf of the Chinese human rights movement at each meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights since 1993 and testified in front of the European Parliament and the United States Congress on numerous occasions. Xiao is a founding member and North American representative of the Asia-Pacific Human Rights NGO Facilitating Team
Find out more at http://www.hrchina.org
Email him at Hric2 [at] igc [dot] org
Yoginder Sikand
Dr. Yoginder Sikand is currently a post-doctoral research scholar at the International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World, Leiden, The Netherlands. His research project is ‘Islamic Perspectives on Inter-Faith Relations in Contemporary India’. He also edits a web-magazine, Qalandar, that is devoted to a discussion of issues related to Islam and Inter-Faith Relations in South Asia (www.islaminterfaith.org). He has taught Islamic history at the Henry Martyn Institute of Islamic Studies, Hyderabad, India, and has also worked with voluntary agencies in the areas of education and communal harmony. His extensive list of publications includes 4 books, over 30 journal articles and chapters in edited volumes, and over 250 articles in numerous South Asian periodicals and newspapers.
Email Dr. Sikand at ysikand [at] yahoo [dot] com
Download Dr. Sikand’s CV
Visit the Qalandar website at www.islaminterfaith.org