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 331: "Understanding Religion"
- REL 234 "Symbol, Myth, and Ritual"
- REL 384 "Exploring Islam"
Research / Teaching Interests:
- Religion and Social Theory
- Islamic Theology, Ethics, and Mysticism
- Islam and Modernity
- Principled and Strategic Nonviolence
- Muhammad Iqbal
- Christian-Muslim Relations
Scholarly Activities:
Publications
"Between Suspicion and Trust" in Intersections, Fall 2009, forthcoming.
Book Review: "The Flame of Sinai: Hope and Vision in Iqbal" The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, Vol. 21, No. 2, Spring 2004.
Book Review: "Fundamentalist and Modernist Debates in Islam: A Reader" in The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences. 2004.
Book Review: "Islam and Jihad: Prejudice versus Reality" in Islamic Studies Vol. 42, No. 4, Winter 2003. pp. 715-718.
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" in Islamic Studies Vol. 42, No. 2, Summer 2003. pp. 203-243.
"The Other as Mirror: Scriptural Reasoning and the Hermeneutics of Ibn Al-‘Arabi" in The Journal of Scriptural Reasoning Vol. 3, No. 2. August 2003.
"Denying the Undeniable: Pharaoh and the Signs of God" in The Journal of Scriptural Reasoning Vol. 2, No. 2. September 2002.
Presentations
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"
University of Cambridge (Paper)
January/February 2008: "Islam in Four Dimensions"
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
