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Welcome to the Conference Website!

It is my pleasure as Program Chair to welcome you to what turned out to be a most fascinating and timely exploration of one of the world’s great religious traditions. As the Muslim population continues to grow and expand worldwide in the 21st century, it is more important than ever that we understand our Muslim neighbors and their faith. To that end, this BYU-sponsored conference provided an intensive yet accessible introduction to key aspects of Islam and made clear why such information is relevant, even essential, for informed citizenship today. Because our gathering of distinguished scholars addressed a broad, general audience in the same engaging way that TED talks do, plan to be enlightened, even inspired, by what you learn as you view the recorded sessions on this website.

Grant Underwood, Richard L. Evans Chair of Religious Understanding
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Panel Topics

  • Contemporary Islamic Politics
  • Perceptions of Islam in the West
  • Women and Gender in the Islamic World
  • The Role of Sharia in North America
  • Probing Islamic Diversity: Sunni, Shi'i and Beyond
  • Islam and Muslims in the Global West
  • Qur’an, Hadith, and Historical Origins

Featured Speakers

  • Asma Afsaruddin (IU Bloomington)
  • Jonathan Brown (Georgetown University)
  • Natana DeLong-Bas (Boston College)
  • John Esposito (Georgetown University)
  • Dalia Fahmy (Long Island University)
  • Sherine Hafez (UC Riverside)
  • Shadi Hamid (Brookings Institution)
  • Sherman Jackson (University of Southern California)
  • Jamillah Karim (Spelman College)
  • Tarek Masoud (Harvard Kennedy School)
  • Hadia Mubarak (Queens University of Charlotte)
  • Asifa Quraishi-Landes (UW Madison)
  • Tahera Qutbuddin (University of Chicago)
  • Abdulaziz Sachedina (George Mason University)
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