Degrees and Education:
- Ph.D. (2006) from Drew University (Madison, NJ) in Religion & Society. Dissertation: The "One True God" in History and Society: A Meta-Hermeneutical Critique of Rodney Stark's Sociology of Monotheism.
- M.B.,B.S. (1992) from Dow Medical College, Karachi (Pakistan)
Courses Taught:
- REL 100 "Christianity and Religious Diversity"
- REL 334 "Monotheisms: Jewish, Christian, Islamic"
- REL 384 "Exploring Islam"
- REL 362 "Approaching the Qur'an"
- REL 388 "Religion, Violence, and Nonviolence"
- REL 331: "Understanding Religion"
- REL 234 "Symbol, Myth, and Ritual"
Research / Teaching Interests:
- Religion and Social Theory
- Religion and Ecology
- Islamic Theology, Ethics, and Mysticism
- Islam and Modernity
- Principled and Strategic Nonviolence
- Muhammad Iqbal
- Christian-Muslim Relations
Scholarly Activities:
Publications
Entries on "Muhammad Iqbal" and "Javid Iqbal" in Springer's Encyclopedia of Indian Religions. Forthcoming.
Entry on “Nonviolence” in Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought. Princeton, NJ, 2011. Forthcoming
“Disenchantment & the Ecological Crisis: Max Weber, Lynn White Jr., and Muhammad Iqbal” in Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology. 2011. Forthcoming.
"Deciphering Political Language" New Clear Vision, June 22, 2011.
"Read, Don't Burn: Out of Darkness Comes Light" New Clear Vision, April 8, 2011.
"Healthy Boundaries: Searching Hight and Low for Common Ground" New Clear Vision, March 25, 2011.
"Nonviolence: From Mecca to Montgomery" New Clear Vision, February 24, 2011.
Jihad without Violence. Warren, MI: Islamic Organization of North America, 2010.
"Between Suspicion and Trust" Intersections, Fall 2009, pp. 10-15.
"Free Speech Comes with a Price Tag" The Forum, October 12, 2008.
"Ignorance of Islam is Shocking" The Forum, September 23, 2007.
Entries on Sufism, Tawhid, and Ibn Al-'Arabi in The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature (Eds. Bron Taylor and Jeffrey Kaplan), 2005.
"The Origin of Islam as a Social Movement" Islamic Studies Vol. 42, No. 2, Summer 2003. pp. 203-243.
Presentations
September 2011. "My Political Education Since 9/11"
North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND
April 2011. "Islam & Nonviolence"
Muslim Community Association, San Jose, CA
October 2010: "Islam as News"
North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND
October 2010: "Bridging the Christian-Muslim Divide: Interfaith Solidarity for Positive Peace"
Annual Conference, Peace & Justice Studies Association, Winnipeg (Canada)
September 2010: "Islam: Practice, Faith, & Beauty" (Three Presentations)
Trinity Lutheran Church, Moorhead, MN
March 2010: "Diversity, Pluralism, and American Islam"
Fargo Public School, Fargo, ND
January 2010: "Domination Systems"
Unitarian Universalist Church, Fargo, ND
October 2009: "Civilization and the Origin of War"
Concordia College, Moorhead, MN
April 2009: "A Common Word"
University of Minnesota, Crookston, MN
February 2009: "Religion and Organized Violence"
North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND
October 2008: "Obsession and Radical Islam" (Panel)
North Dakota State University
June 2008: "The Place of Qur'an/Scripture in Iqbal's Thought" (Paper)
University of Cambridge, UK
March 2008: "Al-Ghazali's Deliverance from Error" (Workshop)
Muslim Community Association, Santa Clara, CA
January/February 2008: "Islam in Four Dimensions" (Four Presentations)
Bethesda Lutheran Church, Moorhead, MN
December 2007: "Introducing Islam"
Immanuel Lutheran Church in Hendrum, MN
April 2006: "Hermeneutics & the Future of Islam in America"
Yale University, New Haven, CT (Seminar Paper)
May 2004: "Islam and Modernization"
Islamic Information Center, Las Vegas, NV (Workshop)
April 2004: "Religion and Modern Times"
Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY (Seminar)
April 2004: "Gender in Islam"
New York University, New York, NY (Panel)
March 2004: "Prophetic Mysticism"
Islamic Information Center, Las Vegas, NV (Workshop)
September 2003: "Islam and Empire"
Drew University, Madison, NJ
April 2003: "Environmental Justice"
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ (Panel)
April 2003: "The Origin of Islam as a Social Movement"
Yale University, New Haven, CT (Paper)
November 2002: "Islam and Ecology"
Drew University, Madison, NJ
October 2002: "Muslim Stereotypes"
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ (Panel)
October 2002: "Introducing Islam"
Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ
July 2002: "Islam and Nonviolence"
Muslim Center of New York, Flushing, NY (Workshop)
March 2002: "Islam after 9/11"
United Methodist Church, Madison, NJ



