Adnan Bin Abdus Salam is an academic and an aspiring software engineer. He previously served as a Social Media Manager of Bangladesh Generation Parliament (BGP) by UNICEF Bangladesh and BDF. He was also one of the Mentors of BGP National Events. He worked as an active member of AIUB Computer Club – R&D and also as a Website volunteer of AIUB IEEE SB. He was also a part of global youth platform AIESEC as a Team Member of outgoing Global Talent of AIESEC in Dhaka South. Currently he is a student of Computer Science and Engineering in American International University – Bangladesh (AIUB).

Gulshanara Begum is a senior lecturer of School of Life Sciences at University of Westminster. Her research interests span from investigating fatigue mechanisms during physical activity to studying the potential effectiveness of ergogenic aids during sports of differing intensities and durations. Increasingly, She is working on public health related projects exploring diet and lifestyle attitudes in populations of interest (for example; South Asian, African/Caribbean and Somali) to explore potential culturally sensitive intervention strategies for health and well-being. Moving forward, She is keen to engage in research projects focused on developing sustainable food resource strategies by investigating nutritional qualities and health potential of food resources widely available but generally unused or under-used in emerging nations.

Abdullah Mahmud Nazib is the 2025–26 Graduate Training Assistant at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford, where he is also a second-year MPhil student writing on the sociology of Qur’anic judicial exegeses (Aḥkām al-Qur’ān) in pre-modern South Asia. He previously studied Islamic Studies at SOAS University of London and Arabic Literature at the University of Dhaka. Nazib has authored several works of academic fiction and poetry in Bengali, and has translated academic works into Bengali as well as classical Arabic poetry, the latter in versified form. He also contributed to the 2020–21 TFI project Dark Age of Bengali Literature: Myth or Reality?

Nazmus Sakib is a PhD researcher in International Relations at Texas Tech University. His data driven research focuses on international alliances, authoritarian regimes, diplomacy, civil-military relations, defense industry, and immigration. His peer reviewed academic articles have appeared in European Politics and Society journal and forthcoming at Politics and Policy Journal. His op-ed pieces have appeared in Newsweek, Forbes, the National Interest, TRTWorld, Middle East Monitor, Open Democracy, Daily Sabah etc.

Dr Mohammed Abdul Aziz completed his LLB(Hons), LLM and PhD in Law from the University of London and was called to the Bar by the Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn. He has worked as a teacher, policy officer and lawyer. He was the founding CEO/Director of the Forum Against Islamophobia & Racism (2000-3), the British Muslim Research Centre (2003-5) and the Aziz Foundation (2015-18). He was appointed by the Government to serve as a Commissioner at the Commission for Racial Equality (2003-7) and the Equal Opportunities Commission (2005-7) and to help set up the Equality and Human Rights Commission (2004-7). He was elected Chair of the European Network Against Racism (2007-10) and Vice-Chair of the Equality and Diversity Forum (2010-14). He was the Director of FaithWise Ltd and a Consultant Senior Advisor to the UK Government on Race, Faith & Integration (2004-11), during which time he navigated through Parliament five pieces of legislation on religious discrimination. Dr Aziz was a Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University (2010-12), Director of the Centre for Policy and Public Education at the Woolf Institute, Cambridge (2012-15), an Associate Member of St Edmund's College, Cambridge (2013-15); and sat on two national Honours Committees at the request of the UK’s Cabinet Office (2005-11). Between 2013-16, he set up and led the Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life in the UK. Currently, he is a Trustee of Muslim Aid (an international humanitarian/development charity) and Demos (a UK think tank), and a Panel Member of REF 2021 (the research assessment framework for UK universities).

Faroque Amin has obtained his PhD on the correlation of social welfare and Islamic politics from the School of Social Science in Western Sydney University, Australia. He has also been trained in religious studies by studying M.A. in Usul-al-Din and Comparative Religion in International Islamic University Malaysia, Arabic Language and Islamic Studies in Al Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and in International Islamic University Chittagong, Bangladesh. His research interests include contemporary Islamic movements, social welfare, Islamic theology, Muslim diasporas and sociology of religion.

Mohammad Hossain is a PhD student in History at Ibn Haldun University in Turkey. He completed his MA in Civilization Studies from the Alliance of Civilizations Institute at the same university. His thesis was entitled “Ecology, epidemics and the colonial state: environmental change and health in eastern Bengal Delta, 1858-1947.” His research areas lie at the intersections of social and natural sciences, and currently encompass environmental history and the history of science in precolonial and colonial India (1600-1900). Apart from the above, he is also a regular commentator and analyst of contemporary South Asian socio-political developments, and his writings have appeared in Anadolu Agency, The Platform UK, and World Bulletin, among others.

Aktay got his Bachelor’s Degree in 1990, Master’s Degree in 1993 and PhD in 1997 from Department of Sociology at Middle East Technical University at Ankara. In 1999 he became an Associate Professor in the field of Applied Sociology and in 2005 a Professor in the field of Sociology of Institutions. He spent 20 years as an academician at Selçuk University (Konya) where he started as a research assistant in 1992. He is now affiliated with and teching in Ankara Yıldırım Bayazıt University, Department of Sociology. Aktay was teaching and doing researches at Utah University and University of Maine at Farmington between 2001-2004.

He has been editing the Tezkire Journal of Social Science Thought and Politics that he founded with a group of his friends in 1991 and the Sivil Toplum Journal founded in 2002. He is also editorial member of the Journals Milel and Nihal and ReOrient: Critical Muslim Studies. Aktay managed a think-thank institute based in Ankara for four years: Institute for Strategic Thinking, where he is still an honorarium president.

Aktay joined AK Party in the 2012 Congress and was elected as member of Higher Committee of Execution. Since January of 2014 he served as deputy chairman of the AK Party in charge of foreign relations, then in charge of Human rights and Official spokesman of the Party. He presented many TV programs in several TV Channels, TV Net, Channel 24 and TRT Arabic. He worked as the Chief Adviser of the President of AK Party between 2017 and 2021.

Aktay has published many books and articles in Turkish, English and Arabic, and his books were translated into Arabic and Kurdish. He is member of Turkish Academy of Science (TÜBA) he still writes regular columns for Yeni Şafak Newspaper and Aljazeera.net.

Ebrahim Rasool is the founder of the World for All Foundation, with a vision to create a just, sustainable and dignified world for all, safe for difference and free of extremisms, having completed a term as South Africa’s Ambassador to the United States of America (2010 to 2015). This appointment was the culmination of a distinguished record of Public Service. Previously he served as a Member of Parliament in South Africa’s National Assembly and Special Advisor to the State President, Kgalema Mothlanthe. In addition to his work in the World for All Foundation, he is an Associate of the Albright Stonebridge Group, the business consultancy founded by Secretary Madeline Albright, founder of OneAfrica.Org that fights Afro-Phobia and advances African growth and cohesion, and the Chairman of Western Province Professional Rugby.

Governance Experience:

However, he is more remembered as the Premier or Governor of the Western Cape Province, a socially fragmented Province, which he worked towards cohering with a vision of making it “A Home for All.” This vision was underpinned with an economic and social strategy (iKapa elihlumayo – the Cape that we grow and share) that was instrumental in, amongst others, attracting foreign investment into the Province worth R14 billion (approximately $1 billion), achieving the highest provincial GDP growth rate of 5,8%, and making significant strides towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) in education, health (especially in combatting HIV and AIDS) and service delivery.

Ebrahim Rasool has built up extensive experience of Government having politically led various Departments like Health, Welfare, Finance and Economic Development in the capacity of Provincial Minister, and excelled not only in the services rendered by these departments, but in the thoughtful approach he brought to the transformation and reform of them from racially exclusive to integrated services, catering for all people.

Awards:

For such contributions to South Africa, Ambassador Rasool has been the recipient of a number of awards: “Social Services Leader of the Year” Award (1995) from the African Investment Group; “Visionary Leadership and Public Good” Award from the World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists in 2008; “Commitment and Leadership in the Fight Against Crime” from Business Against Crime (2009); The 2005 London Financial Times “Foreign Direct Investment (Africa) Personality of the Year” Award; The “Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights” presented to him by the Kaiser Family Foundation in 1998; “Indonesian Diasporean of 2012” Award by the President of Indonesia; as well as the Award for his Lifetime Commitment to Human Rights by Shared Interest in New York, and Inaugural Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Press Club in Washington, DC.

The Anti-Apartheid Struggle:

He has a long history of involvement in the anti-apartheid struggle starting at High School in 1976 and including leadership in the United Democratic Front (UDF) and the African National Congress (ANC). He was Provincial Leader of the ANC and served on its National Executive Committee for 7 years. He has had to make sacrifices like spending time in prison, where in 1987 at Pollsmoor Prison, he met Nelson Mandela for the first time, as well as being placed under restrictions and house arrest by the apartheid government.

Shaping Transition:

His social and political involvement has also been through faith-driven movements. He was a founder of The Call of Islam, an anti apartheid Muslim organisation that revolutionised the way Muslims in South Africa thought about democracy, human rights, gender equality, inclusivity, relationships with people of other faiths, ideologies and cultures, as well as provide new methodologies of struggle. He was also instrumental in leading the Interfaith Movement, founded by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, both in the anti apartheid struggle and through the transition. He convened the National Muslim Conference which defined the future of a Muslim minority in a free and democratic South Africa, as well as two National Interfaith Conferences to help shape the emergent South African Constitution. These commitments were tested when, as a political leader in Cape Town, he had to confront extremist Muslim forces who were terrorising the community and threatened his life. In this he pioneered innovative ways to confront extremism.

The World for All Foundation:

Founder of the World for All Foundation, Ambassador Rasool is active in rethinking the intellectual tools for co-operative relations between faiths, cultures and communities at a global level, and establishing dignity, inclusion and equity for those marginalised and excluded. The World for All is especially active among Muslim Minority communities to try and transfer the lessons from South Africa, and increasingly is acting as a conduit for lessons from the example of Nelson Mandela to the Muslim heartlands in need of freedom, democracy and human rights, through a reinterpretation of Muslim theology.

During the Arab Uprisings Ebrahim Rasool was part of a small team of Muslim intellectuals engaged in discussions with constitution writers from countries like Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and others, and his contribution was regarded as that of a political practitioner who had implemented a seamless relationship between Islam and living democratically, with human rights and in freedom. In 2013 he convened a Muslim Minority Leaders’ Colloquium in Paris, drawing together delegates from 22 countries under the Banner: “Living Where We Don’t Make the Rules” and trying to find formulae for co-existince in shared spaces for Muslim minorities.

The Public Space:

Ebrahim Rasool is regularly requested to speak at Conferences and Conventions, seminars and public meetings. His Governance, Political and Intellectual experience is the basis for keynote addresses, commencement speeches, panel discussions and lectures he is required to deliver. In 2014 alone, he delivered the 20th Annual Hesburgh Lecture at the University of Notre Dame, the Commencement Address at Roosevelt University, Panel Remarks at the Faith In Action Breakfast to open the US-Africa Leaders’ Summit convened by President Obama, the Keynote Address at the British Muslim Council AGM in London, the Strategy Presentation for the African Growth and Opportunities Act Retreat, presenting Africa’s Energy needs at the US-Africa Energy Ministerial Meeting in Addis Ababa, among many others. He is often asked to engage with various groups like The Carter Center.

He also writes regularly, having recently contributed a chapter to a forthcoming book on the Afro-Arab Renaissance titled “the Pharoah Returns – the ‘Politics of Order and the Muslim Yearning for Freedom.” He edited a book, Living Where We Don’t Make the Rules – A Guide for Muslim Minorities, which is currently being published. He has recently started on a book that consolidates some of the speeches he has made over the last 10 years. In the course of his extensive public life, he has been a regular feature in the public media. He has been called upon by media such as CNN, Al Jazeera, BBC, Fox, MSNBC, CGTN and others to comment on a variety of matters. He is a regular feature on the African World, SABC and other electronic and print media.

Academic:

Ebrahim Rasool studied at the University of Cape Town where he received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English Literature and Economic History, and a Higher Diploma in Education. In 2014, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa, by the Roosevelt University in Chicago, USA, and the Doctorate of Public Service, Honoris Causa from Chatham University in Pittsburgh, PA. He is a Senior Fellow at both Georgetown and Rutgers Universities in the USA, and a Council Member-designate at the University of the Western Cape.

Sabur Mollah holds a Chair in Financial Management at Sheffield University Management School. He worked as a Professor of Accounting and Finance at Swansea University and as Professor of Finance at the University of Hull before joining the University of Sheffield. He previously held academic positions at Bournemouth University, Stockholm University, University of Botswana, University of Dhaka, and University of Leeds. Sabur held several administrative roles in the past, including Member of Senate, Head of School and Director of Research.

Lubaaba Al-Azami is an academic, editor and writer. She is a researcher in the Department of English at the University of Liverpool where she also teaches. She previously served as visiting researcher at the University of Oxford. Her work examines early modern English transcultural exchange with the Mughal Empire. She is founding editor of Medieval and Early Modern Orients (MEMOs), a transnational digital research platform on the early interactions between England and the Islamic worlds. She is also founding convener of Network of Sisters in Academia, the first international professional network of Muslim women academics. Lubaaba serves on the Board of Trustees at the Nabeel Foundation, on the Digital Affairs Committee of the Shakespeare Association of America and is Deputy Editor of The Platform. Her book, First Encounters: How England and Mughal India Changed the World, is forthcoming from John Murray Press. She completed her BA in English at King’s College London, an MA in Islamic Studies at SOAS, University of London and an MA in English from The George Washington University, Washington DC.

Wadah Khanfar is the co-founder of the Sharq Forum and the former director general of the Al Jazeera Network. He began his career with the network in 1997, covering some of the world's key political zones, including South Africa, Afghanistan and Iraq. He was appointed the chief of the Baghdad bureau, and later as the network's managing director. In 2006, he became Al Jazeera's director general. During his 8-year tenure at the helm, the network transformed from a single channel into a media network including Al Jazeera Arabic, Al Jazeera English, Al Jazeera Documentary and the Al Jazeera Center for Studies. During this period, the Arab world witnessed historic transformation including Arab Awakening. Khanfar, who resigned from the network in September 2011, has been named as one of Foreign Policy's Top 100 global thinkers of 2011 as well as one of Fast Company's 'Most Creative People in Business' of the year. Khanfar has a diverse academic background with post-graduate studies in Philosophy, African Studies, and International Politics.

Chowdhury Mueen Uddin retired from the post of the Director of ‘Muslim Spiritual Care Provision in the NHS’ (MSCP) in 2011. He also served as the Deputy Director: the Islamic Foundation, Markfield, Leicestershire (1995 – 2005). Chowdhury Mueen Uddin was chair of the Multi Faith Group for Healthcare Chaplaincy (MFGHC) for January 2011 to December 2012 term. He has served as a member of the Multi Faith Joint National Working Party (MFJNWP) since its inception in 1998 and became a member of its successor organisation the MFGHC. He also served on the Ministerial Working Group of the Ministry of Health UK and Food Standard Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food of UK.

Over the years he made significant contribution in the field of community organising working in setting up and running community organisations over 25 years and served on the Board of a number of distinguished charities. These include among others Board member and vice chairman – As Shahada Housing Association, Board member Labo Housing Association and Gateway Housing Association, Chairman – Muslim Aid, at present board member, former Vice Chairman – East London Mosque and London Muslim Centre, former Chairman – Governing Body, the London East Academy (a private secondary school). He served as the Secretary General of the Council of Mosques UK and Eire for 2 terms (1984 – 1988).

Chowdhury Mueen Uddin attended a number of international conferences and seminars some prominent ones among them are Islamic Foreign Ministers conference (1973) in Tripoli, Libya as a part of delegation of observers. The Muslims in Europe Conference (1994), the Jewish- Muslim-Christian conference (1982) in Bendorf, Germany; and the World Micro-Credit Summit (2007) in Halifax, Canada. Mr. Mueen Uddin presented a paper based on MFGHC’s survey on Multi-Faith Spaces: Symptoms & Agents of Religious & Social Change at the International Conference on Multi-Faith Spaces. 21st – 22nd March 2012, University of Manchester, UK.

Over the years Chowdhury Mueen Uddin met and had private meetings with a number of distinguished world leaders including HE Racep Tayyip Erdogan, HE Cevdet Yilmaz, Vice President, HE Anowar Ibrahim Prime Minister of Malaysia, HE Abdullah Benkirane and HE Saad Dine Eltomani , Prime Ministers of Morocco, HE Numan Kurtulmlus current Speaker of Turkish Parliament, HE Abdullah Gul former President of Turkiye, HE Ahmet Davutoglu, Former Prime Minister of Turkiye (both during their time in office). A number of Prime Ministers and other Ministers of Britain and late Queen Elizabeth and current King of the UK King Charles III.

During his visit to the Islamic Foundation on 24th January 2004, HRH the then Prince of Wales and current King Charles commented about Mr. Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin in this way:

“I am here today and it is all Mr. Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin’s fault. Throughout the year where ever we met he kept on telling me, ‘you must visit the Islamic Foundation’. A year ago Mr. Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin welcomed me and HRH Prince Mohammad Al-Faisal at the East London Mosque with these words, ‘ I am tempted to say that Royal Princes are like London buses, you wait for one for ages, suddenly two arrive at once’!”

Raiyan Azmi is Director of Policy Research at the Future Institute. He previously worked in various policy roles in the UK Civil Service, including on EU exit legislation, the early emergency response to Covid-19, and Covid-19 vaccine donations, as well as working on secondment to the European Union's diplomatic service, the European External Action Service. He holds bachelor's degrees in linguistics from University College London and Islamic studies from Cambridge Muslim College, and master's degrees in international relations from the University of Cambridge and EU international relations from the College of Europe in Bruges.

Dr Usaama al-Azami is an Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies at Hamad Bin Khalifa University. He earned his BA in Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Oxford, his ʿālimiyya at the Al-Salam Institute, and his MA and PhD in Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University.

His interests lie in Islamic intellectual history, with a particular focus on diachronic transformations in Islamic political thought. His first book, Islam and the Arab Revolutions (Oxford University Press, 2022), examines the way in which influential Islamic scholars responded to the Arab uprisings of 2011 through 2013. He authored the 2023 British Muslim Civil Society Report exploring the significant contributions made by Britain’s Muslims to the charity sector.

Dr al-Azami's PhD thesis, the chapters of which he is preparing for publication, is entitled "Modern Islamic Political Thought: Islamism in the Arab World from the Late Twentieth to the Early Twenty-first Centuries." In it, he explores how Arab ulama of a mainstream "Islamist" orientation have engaged Western political concepts such as democracy, secularism, and the nation-state, selectively adapting and assimilating aspects of these ideas into their understandings of Islam. Dr al-Azami's broader interests extend to a range of disciplines from the Islamic scholarly tradition from the earliest period of Islam up to the present.