Daveed Gartenstein-Ross is the vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and the author of My Year Inside Radical Islam. He consults for a number of clients who need to be at the forefront of understanding terrorism, including the Manhattan Institute’s Center for Policing Terrorism and law enforcement. Gartenstein-Ross has testified about religious radicalization in prisons before the U.S. Senate, and writes for such publications as Reader’s Digest, Middle East Quarterly, and the Wall Street Journal Europe.

Paul Marshall joined the Hudson Institute from Freedom House as senior fellow in the Center for Religious Freedom in 2006. He has held many professorships, is author and editor of twenty-five books on religion and politics, and his writings have been translated into Russian, German, French, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Albanian, Japanese, Malay, Korean, Arabic, Farsi, and Chinese. He has also published several hundred articles including in the WashingtonPost, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, Commentary, and interviewed on ABC, CBS, CNN, PBS, BBC, Al-Jazeera and many other outlets.

Asra Q. Nomani, a former reporter for the Wall Street Journal for 15 years, is the author of Standing Alone: An American Woman’s Struggle for the Soul of Islam. She is a professor in the practice of journalism at Georgetown University, leading the Pearl Project, a faculty-student investigation into the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. She is also a co-founder of Muslims for Peace, whose mission is creating a unified voice of Muslims for peace and tolerance.

Reza Aslan, an internationally acclaimed writer and scholar of religions, is a fellow at the University of Southern California’s Center on Public Diplomacy, Middle East Analyst for CBS News and assistant professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside. He is author of the bestselling, No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam, and the forthcoming, How to Win a Cosmic War (2008). Aslan is also co-founder and creative director of BoomGen Studios and Editorial Executive of Mecca.com, an on-line community for Muslim youth.

Richard W. Bulliet is a professor of history at Columbia University who specializes in the history of Islamic society and institutions and the history of technology. He is the author and editor of numerous books, including, The Case for Islamo-Christian Civilization, Islam: The View from the Edge and The Columbia History of the Twentieth Century (editor). Bulliet’s scholarship is known for innovative use of historical evidence and for radical questioning of the assumed roles that technology, religion and politics play in human society.

Edina Lekovic is the director of communications for the Muslim Public Affairs Council, a national public policy organization that works to create inroads for Muslim American political and social engagement. Lekovic acts as a spokesperson for the American Muslim community to media outlets, government officials, interfaith leaders, academic institutions, and community groups. Lekovic has appeared in national television media, including CNN, BBC, MSNBC, Fox News Channel and the History Channel. Lekovic has also participated in numerous national and international conferences and interfaith dialogues.