Advisory Board
Dr. Imtiyaz Yusuf
Dr. Imtiyaz Yusuf is also the former Director of the Center for Buddhist-Muslim Understanding in the College of Religious Studies at Mahidol University in Thailand. He specializes in Religion with a focus on Islam in Thailand and Southeast Asia and also Muslim-Buddhist dialogue. Dr. Yusuf‘s most recent publications are: “Building Muslim-Buddhist Understanding: The Parallels of Taqwa/Allah Consciousness in the Qur’an and Satipatthana/Mindfulness in Anapanasati Sutta in Overcoming Orientalism Essays in Honor of John L. Esposito edited by Tamara Sonn (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021) pp. 173-190; “Islamic Theology of Religious Pluralism: Building Islam-Buddhism Understanding” in Pluralism in Islamic Contexts – Ethics, Politics and Modern Challenges edited by Mohammed Hashas, (Springer Nature Switzerland AG, 2021) pp. 201-219 and Essential Writings Ismail Al Faruqi (Kuala Lumpur: Center for Islam in the Contemporary World at Shenandoah University, USA and Islamic Book Trust, Malaysia, 2021); A Muslim’s Reflections on Saddharamapundariksutra—The Lotus Sutra in Buddhist-Christian Studies 40 (2020) pp. 79 –104 (Web of Science (WOS) and Scopus Indexed.
Professor Abdur Raheem Kidwai
Professor Abdur Raheem Kidwai is a professor of English, with two Ph. D.s in English, including one from the University of Leicester, UK, has a special interest in the following areas of study: Literary Orientalism/English Translations of the Quran/Urdu-English-Urdu Translation/Inter-Faith Dialogue! Islam in the West. Professor Kidwai has 40 books to his credit including Orientalism in Lord Byron’s Turkish Tales,The Crescent and the Cross: Image of the Orient in English Literature, Stranger than Fiction: Image of Islam/Muslims in English Fiction,Behind the Veil: Representation of Muslim Woman in Indian Writings in English 1950-2000 and many more.
Dr. Rashid Ayyub Islahi
Dr Rashid Ayyub Islahi completed his traditional degree in the Islamic Sciences from the Islamic seminary of Madrasatul Islah, India. He graduated from the Islamic University of Madinah and studied Arabic literature at the Umm al-Qura University of Makkah. He later undertook Philosophy of Religion and Biblical studies at the University of London. He obtained his PhD from the University of Glasgow in the Philology of Hadith.Over the last 37 years in London, Dr Rashid has been working in academia, education, and religious and spiritual care for the NHS. He has taught a wide range of courses for adults, with a particular focus on Usul al-Tafseer, Hadith and Aqeedath.
Dr. Muzaffar Iqbal
Dr. Muzaffar Iqbal is the founder-president of the Center for Islamic Sciences, a semi-annual journal of Islamic perspectives on science and civilization, and General Editor of the seven-volume Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qur’an, the first English-language reference work on the Qur’an based on fourteen centuries of Muslim reflection and scholarship. The first volume was published in January 2013. Dr. Iqbal received his Ph.D. in chemistry (University of Saskatchewan, Canada, 1983), and then left the field of experimental science to devote himself to studying Islam fully. Born in Lahore, Pakistan, he has lived in Canada and United States since 1979. He has held academic and research positions at the University of Saskatchewan (1979-1984), the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1984-85), and McGill University (1986).
Dr. Mustapha Sheilkh
Dr. Mustapha Sheilkh has a degree in Islamic Law and Theology (Fath al-Islami, Syria and EIHS, Wales), an MSt in the Study of Religions (St Cross College, Oxford), a DPhil in Theology (St Cross College, Oxford), having previously taken a degree in Project Management at UCLHe has been a member of Arabic, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Leeds since 2009, and have held visiting positions at Bangor University and Aston Business School.His work is distinguished in the field for its critical engagement with Muslim tradition that is attentive to the play between power and knowledge building; and for a scholarly approach grounded in both academic and traditional-madrasa training.
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Dr. Recep Şentürk
Dr. Recep Şentürk is the Dean of the College of Islamic Studies at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU). He was the former Founding President of Ibn Haldun University in Istanbul (2017–2021). Dr. Şentürk holds a PhD from Columbia University’s Department of Sociology, and specializes in Civilization Studies, Sociology, and Islamic Studies with a focus on social networks, human rights, and modernization in the Muslim world. He served as a researcher at the Center for Islamic Studies (İSAM) in Istanbul, and as Founding Director of the Alliance of Civilizations Institute. He is Head of the International Ibn Khaldun Society, and has a seat on the editorial boards of multiple academic journals. Among his books are, in English: Narrative Social Structure: Hadith Transmission Network 610-1505; and in Turkish: Open Civilization: Towards a Multi- Civilizational Society and World; Ibn Khaldun: Contemporary Readings; Malcolm X: Struggle for Human Rights; and Social Memory: Hadith Transmission Network 610-1505. Dr. Şentürk’s work has been translated to Arabic, Japanese, and Spanish.
Shaykh Abu Bilal Sanel Haskic
Shaykh Abu Bilal Sanel Haskic graduated from Madinah Islamic University (K.S.A) with a BA Hons in Shari’ah and specialises on the field of Fiqh and Aqeedah. MA in Education from MIHE, Newman University, UK. He has a general Ijaza (accreditation) in some of the major Hadith- and Fiqhbooks (by S. Hamid al-Buchary, Al-Madinah). While studying he has attended a number of regular
duroos and seminars by notable scholars (mainly from AL-Madinah) at the Prophets’ Masjid as well as privately. He has done different translations of Islamic texts (Arabic-German-English). Shaykh is involved in number of activates in UK and abroad
Dr. Shahrul Hussain
Dr. Shahrul Hussain is a graduate of a traditional private Islamic seminary. In 1997, after graduating from the Seminary, he won a full scholarship to study at the University of Al-Azhar, and in 2001 graduated from the Faculty of Islamic Jurisprudence and Law with a BA Hons. He also has earned a B.A. in Islamic and Cultural Studies with Arabic (Fadil), Darul Uloom Islamic College, Birmingham, UK. and another B.A. in Islamic Studies, Rabitah Madaris al-Islamiyyah. In 2009, he completed his Ph.D. at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. presently he is the Director and Head of Research at The Ibn Rushd Centre of Excellence for Islamic Research and also Visiting lecturer at Birmingham City University, School of Law.
Md. Mahmudul Hasan
Md. Mahmudul Hasan is with the Department of English Language and Literature, International Islamic University Malaysia. He studied and taught at the universities of Dhaka and Portsmouth, and had a postdoctoral research stint at the University of Heidelberg. Among the journals where his articles have appeared are. Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies (Routledge),The Muslim World (Wiley-Blackwell), The Journal of Commonwealth Literature (SAGE), Paedagogica Historica (Routledge), Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies (Georgia Southern University) South Asia Research (SAGE), Journal of Postcolonial Writing (Routledge), Hawwa: Journal of Women of the Middle East and the Islamic World (Brill) and Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs (Routledge). Dr. Hasan edits Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature, a Q1 journal in Literature and Literary Theory.
Shahnawaz Haque
Shahnawaz Haque qualified as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist. He has a private practice as an Islamic therapist working with individuals and couples in psychotherapy and counseling informed both by his psychotherapy training and by Islamic concepts. He earned his BA and MA from the University Cambridge. He is also an honorary imaam giving Friday sermons in various mosques in and around London. He is a very enthusiastic tennis player.
Dr Khairudin Aljunied
Dr Khairudin Aljunied received his BA and MA in History from the National University of Singapore in 2003 and completed his doctorate at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London in 2008. Dr. Khairudin has studied and conducted research in countries such as Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Dr Khairudin has held a number of visiting positions. He was an Honorary Research Associate at La Trobe University, Australia in 2012. In 2013, he was a Fulbright Professor at Columbia University. More recently, Dr Khairudin was a Visiting Professor at the University of Brunei (2015). He was appointed as Full Professor and the Malaysia Chair of Islam in Southeast Asia at Georgetown University (2017-2018) and maintains a position as Senior Fellow.A recognized specialist in the field of intellectual history, his research focuses on the connections between Southeast Asia and Global Islam. He is the author and editor of thirteen books and more than thirty internationally refereed articles. Recent publications include: Resistance and Protest in Colonial Malaya (Northern Illinois University Press, 2016), Muslim Cosmopolitanism: Southeast Asian Islam in Comparative Perspective (Edinburgh University Press, 2017), Hamka and Islam: Cosmopolitan Reform in the Malay World (Cornell University Press, 2018),Islam in Malaysia: An Entwined History (Oxford University Press, 2019) and Shapers of Islam in Southeast Asia (New York: Oxford University Press, 2022).
Mohammed Tasnime Akunjee
Mohammed Tasnime Akunjee holds a specialization in criminal law and human rights law, focusing on terrorism and related legal fields. He has been involved in notable cases, including the 2019 defamation case against Tommy Robinson, the Almondbury Community School bullying incident, and the citizenship deprivation case between the British government and Shamima Begum. In addition to his legal career, Akunjee is a political commentator and has contributed significantly to discussions on social justice and human rights. In January 2024, . Akunjee is passionate about advocating for marginalized communities and addressing complex legal and social issues on national and international platforms.