Dr. Abbas Barzegar, Ph.D. is National Research and Advocacy Director at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization. Dr. Barzegar posseses years of applied research experience with recognized expertise in American Muslim history, transnational Muslim civil society and intra-faith relations. He is a former professor at Georgia State University and graduated from Emory University in 2010 in the field of Religious Studies.

Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool is a former Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School for Foreign Service. He worked in the Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, advancing an alternative paradigm to the inertia of Orthodoxies in the face of Extremisms. He is the founder of the World for All Foundation that endeavors to create a world of coexistence and that is safe for difference.

Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr is a world renown scholar on Islam and is currently a University Professor at GW. He has published over fifty books and hundreds of articles in numerous languages and translations. He graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology with an undergraduate degree in Physics and Mathematics. He went on to Harvard University where he studied Geology and Geophysics, and then completed a PhD in the History of Science and Philosophy.

Zaid Shakir is a prominent American Muslim scholar and a professor emeritus and board observer of Zaytuna College. He has taught courses in Arabic, Islamic spirituality, contemporary Muslim thought, Islamic history and politics, and Shafi’i fiqh at the College. He speaks and writes on a wide range of topics, and he travels frequently across the United States to support institution-building projects in the Muslim community.

Shaykh Dr Hisham, a noted scholar and academic of politics & religion internationally, has studied the Islamic intellectual tradition with classically trained scholars in the UK, the Arab world, the Gambia, southeast Asia, and elsewhere.

Shaykh Muhammad bin Yahya al-Ninowy is the Founder and Director of Madina Institute, an Islamic seminary in Atlanta, Georgia, with campuses in South Africa, the United Kingdom, Norway, Sudan, and Malaysia. Dr. Al-Ninowy is considered to be a Muhaddith; a scholar of Hadith sciences. He has authored books in Usul, Creed, Hadith, and Sufi sciences. Al-Ninowy traces his lineage back to the Prophet Muhammad. He has been a pioneer working on grass root levels to bring back unconditional compassion and love as the central themes of religion and has been the forerunner promoting non-violence among all people and religions worldwide. Al-Ninowy also holds a bachelor’s degree in microbiology from the University of Illinois, and a doctor of medicine degree.

Ustadha Zaynab Ansari serves as an adjunct instructor at Boston Islamic Seminary and a full-time instructor at Tayseer Seminary, where she teaches classes on Islamic law, Qur’an & Hadith studies, Prophetic biography, American Muslim history, and women in Islam. She also serves on the boards of the Tayseer Foundation and the Muslim Community of Knoxville.