ABDUL HALIK AZEEZ
Abdul Halik Azeez is a researcher in Critical Discourse Analysis from Colom bo Sri Lanka currently completing his postgraduate education at the University of Granada, Spain. His career has spanned the fields of media, economics, business management and development. His previous work in Sri Lanka has included re search and reportage on Islamophobia and ethnic violence in the country. He is also an avid photographer and has exhibited his work internationally. E-mail: halika zeez@correo.ugr.es
ALEKSANDRA LEWICKI
Aleksandra Lewicki is a political sociologist with a PhD from the University of Bristol. In 2016, she was awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Freie Universität Berlin, where she is based at the Berlin Graduate School of Muslim Cultures and Societies. Her research investigates cultural, economic and political asymmetries in post-migration societies, specifically focusing on the institutional reproduction of discrimination as well as on equality policies. She is further interested in the ways in which cultural racism, such as Islamophobia, is manifested in public institutions. Her work has appeared in highly ranked international academic journals including Ethnic and Racial Studies and Citizenship Studies. Lewicki is the author of the mono graphs Souveränität im Wandel (2005, Lit Verlag), and Social Justice through Citizen ship? The Politics of Muslim Integration in Germany and Great Britain (2014, Palgrave Macmillan); the editor of several volumes and journal editions; and a member of the editorial teams of the academic journals Ethnicities (London) and Forschungsjournal Soziale Bewegungen (Berlin). E-mail: Aleksandra.Lewicki@fu-berlin.de
ALEXANDROS SAKELLARIOU
Alexandros Sakellariou is currently teaching sociology at the Hellenic Open University and is a postdoctoral researcher at Panteion University of Athens. He earned his PhD in Sociology from the Department of Sociology of Panteion Univer sity. Since 2011 he has worked as a researcher at Panteion University on EU projects on young people’s sociopolitical engagement (MYPLACE 2011-15), young people’s well-being (MYWEB 2014-16), and the evaluation of innovative social policies (IN NOSI 2015-17). His scientific interests include, among others, politics and religion, religious communities in Greek society, religious freedom, religion and globalisation, youth activism and civic participation, and right-wing extremism. He is a member of the Network Against the Rar-right of the Athens Friedrich Ebert Foundation. Since 2015 he is a co-author of the national report on Islam in Greece in the Yearbook of Muslims in Europe (Brill) and the author of the Greek report on Islamophobia for the European Islamophobia Report (EIR) project. His recent publications include “Anti-Islamic public discourse in contemporary Greek society: The re-production of religious panic”, (Palgrave, 2015); “Singing for Race and Nation: Fascism and Rac ism in Greek Youth Music” (with A. Koronaiou and E. Lagos) (Lexington Books, 2015); “Golden Dawn, Austerity and Young People: The Rise of Fascist Extremism among Young People in Contemporary Greek Society” (with A. Koronaiou, E. La gos, I. Chiotaki-Poulou & S.Kymionis) (Willey-Blackwell, 2015). Email: sociology. panteion@gmail.com
AMINA EASAT-DAAS
Amina Easat-Daas earned her PhD from Aston University, Birmingham, UK. Her doctoral research focused on the nature of Muslim women’s political participa tion in France and Belgium, with specific emphasis on the motivations, opportuni ties and barriers to their political careers. Amina is currently based at the University of Leeds and is working on a project in the department of sociology and social policy funded by the European Commission. The project aims to counter Islamophobia across Europe through the development of best practice. Amina’s research interests include the study of ‘European Islam’, and also the study of the gendered nature of Islamophobia. She has given interviews related to her research on the BBC and has presented her work in the European Parliament. Some of Amina’s forthcoming research publications include Easat-Daas, A. 2017, “Gender and Islamophobia in Belgium”, in Awan, I. and Zempi, I. (eds) Key Readings in Islamophobia. Oxford: Oxford University Press. E-mail: a.easat-daas@leeds.ac.uk
ANITA STASULANE
Anita Stasulane (1962), Professor of History of Religions, Director of the In stitute of Humanities and Social Sciences at Daugavpils University (DU), gradu ated from the University of Latvia (1985) and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Italy (1998). She has worked mainly on the new religious movements and youth culture; currently she is conducting research on religious fundamental ism and Islamophobia. She has expertise in qualitative research methods, includ ing ethnographic research, and experience in working on international collaborative projects, including three EU Framework projects where she was appointed at the head of the DU team; namely Project No. 029013 of the VI Framework Programme “Society and Lifestyles: Towards Enhancing Social Harmonisation through Knowl edge of Subcultural Communities” (2006-2008); Project No. 266831 of the VII Framework Programme “Memory, Youth, Political Legacy and Civic Engagement” (2011-2015); and Project No. 613368 of the VII Framework Programme “Mea suring Youth Well-Being” (2014-2016). Anita Stasulane has extensive management experience, and since 2006, is the editor of Kultūras Studijas (Cultural Studies) issued by Daugavpils University.
ANJA ZALTA
Anja Zalta studied Sociology, Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology. She is an assistant professor of Sociology of Religion at the Sociology Department, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, and author of numerous articles on religious traditions and identities, Islam in Slovenia and in the Balkans, interreligious and intercultural dialogue, and the role of monotheistic religions (Judaism Christianity, Islam) in European cultural and religious history. Between 2004 and 2006, she lived periodically in Konya, Turkey, where she conducted research on secularism in Turk ish society. In 2013, she received a Turkish research grant for the study of religious (Christian) minorities in Istanbul and in the Tur Abdin region in the southeast of Turkey. Her current research is focused on the question of (religious) minorities and human rights, as well as the rights of women in monotheistic religions. E-mail: Anja. Zalta@ff.uni-lj.si
ARZU MERALI
Arzu Merali is the head of research at the Islamic Human Rights Commission (www.ihrc.org.uk) based in London, UK. She has graduated from Cambridge Uni versity and has a BA (Hons) in English Literature, an MA (Hons) in English Litera ture (Cantab) and an MA (Hons) in International Relations (Kent). She is the author of various, articles, papers and books on racism, Islamophobia and human rights. Her latest book is co-authored with Saied R. Ameli (2015) ‘Environment of Hate: T he New Normal for Muslims in the UK.’ E-mail: arzu@ihrc.org
BESNIK SINANI
Besnik Sinani is a PhD fellow at Free University of Berlin, Germany. His project explores modern constructions of Islamic religious orthodoxy, as well as religion, society, and politics in contemporary Saudi Arabia. He holds an MA in Near East Studies from New York University, where he wrote his thesis on the transformation and transportation of religious ideas by focusing on Albanian imams educated in Saudi Arabia. He is contributing author of Applying Sharia in the West: Facts, Fears, and the Future of Islamic Rules on Family in the West (2013) published by Leiden University Press. Since 2009, he has written for various publications in Albania, Macedonia and Kosovo on religion and secularism, religious extremism, and Islam ophobia. E-mail: bs1387@nyu.edu
BIRUTE SABATAUSKAITE
Birutė Sabatauskaitė is director of the Lithuanian Centre for Human Rights (LCHR), a lawyer and advocacy expert, and a human rights activist in the fields of equal opportunities, anti-racism, gender equality and LGBT rights. In 2010-2016, he wrote a series of shadow reports on racism and discrimination for the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) and was a board member of the ENAR. He has submitted shadow reports to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Dis crimination and written non-governmental submissions for the Universal Periodic Review in 2011 and 2016. E-mail: birute@lchr.lt
BOJAN PEROVIC
Bojan Perovic is a PhD researcher at the University of Hamburg, Faculty of Law. He received his BA in Law from the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Law and obtained his Masters degree in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights from the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Political Sciences. Prior to joining the University of Hamburg he spent two years as a research assistant at the Institute of Social Sciences, Center for Legal Researches in Belgrade. Perovic gained an extensive non-formal education and practice in fields closely related to human rights and hu manitarian law through participation in numerous prestigious non-degree schools and voluntary work in various human rights and humanitarian non-governmental organisations (Royal Holloway University of London, Lund University, Regional Academy on the United Nations, University of Groningen, International School for Holocaust, Duke University, etc.). His latest academic conferences (2016) were at Lund University, University College London, Columbia University/NIOD Institute for War, and at the Holocaust and Genocide Studies in Amsterdam; his latest articles were published by Peter Lang, Taylor & Francis, and Neofelis Verlag Berlin. His ac ademic interests and research areas extend to international public law, especially hu man rights and international humanitarian law as well fields such as discrimination, nationalism, and transitional justice. E-mail: perovicbojan1986@gmail.com
CARMEN AGULERIA-CARNERERO
Carmen Aguilera-Carnerero is a lecturer of Linguistics at the University of Granada, Spain. Her postgraduate education includes research stays in Giessen (Ger many) and Stanford (U.S.). She is currently teaching at the Universities of Granada and Murcia, and is the co-editor of the academic journal GRETA. Her research in cludes syntax, corpus linguistics and the syntax-semantics interface. During recent years, Aguilera-Carnerero is focused on the linguistics of social media and critical digital discourse analysis. E-mail: carmacar@ugr.es Both authors have been working on the discursive realisation of hate speech online and the spread of cyber Islamophobia since 2013. This collaboration has crystallised in eight presentations at international conferences, and the publication of articles, book chapters and reports such as ‘Islamonausea, not Islamophobia’: The many faces of cy ber hate speech’, Journal of Arab and Muslim Media Research, 2016; ‘Shamrock Meets Sharia: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Muslims in Ireland on Twitter from 2009 to 2014’, Irish Journal of Applied Social Sciences (forthcoming); ‘The Cyberdiscourse of Inclusion and Marginalization: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Muslims in Ireland on Twitter 2010-2014’, Palgrave MacMillan (forthcoming) and ‘The construction of na tional identity through online discourse in post-January 2015 Sri Lanka’ (forthcoming).
CLAUDIA GIACALONE
Claudia Giacalone is an Italian refugee caseworker with experience in visa and immigration procedures, consultancy service and a specific focus on migrants’ rights. Having graduated from the University of Palermo (Italy) in Political Science and In ternational Relations, she attended the Master’s Programme in Refugee Studies and Community Development at the University of East London (UK). From 2013 to 2015, she worked as an immigration advisor and cultural mediator in two Emergen cy Reception Centres for asylum seekers in Sicily and since 2016, she is a volunteer caseworker at the British Red Cross in London. In January 2016, she volunteered for a month in the refugee camp of Calais providing advice on asylum and immigration matters. In November 2016, she delivered the workshop “Current Migration Issues of Southern Europe” in Lamezia (Italy). Claudia Giacalone is a native Italian speaker. She is fluent in English and French and offers practical and emotional support to refugees and asylum seekers in all three languages. E-mail: claudiagiacal@gmail.com
DINO MUJADZEVIC
Dr. Dino Mujadžević is a visiting researcher at Lancaster University (Centre for Corpus Approaches to Social Science) and a Humboldt postdoctoral researcher (Chair of History of the Ottoman Empire and Turkey at Ruhr University Bochum). In 2000, he graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb, Croatia with de grees in History and Turkology. He was employed at the Lexicographic Institute in Zagreb (2002-2007) and the Croatian Institute for History (2008-13) as a research assistant. He obtained his PhD from Zagreb University in 2010. His research focus es on history of the Ottoman Balkans, Socialist Yugoslavia, contemporary Islam in Croatia, and pro-Turkish activism in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Mujadžević has pub lished articles in Yearbook of Muslims in Europe, Journal of Muslims in Europe, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Südosteuropa and Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas. He is author of the monograph Bakarić (2011) and the edited volume Annotated Legal Documents on Islam in Europe: Croatia (ed., Brill 2015). His monograph Turk ish Foreign Policy and Pro-Turkish Activism in Bosnia. Actors, Discourses and Textual Corpora (2002-2014) will be published in 2017 (Otto Harrassowitz). E-mail: Dino. Mujadzevic@rub.de
EGLE URBONAITE TILINDIENE
Eglė Urbonaitė Tilindienė works for the Office of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson (OEOO) and holds a LL.M. in International Law. Her special focus is ethnicity, freedom of religion, hate speech and equal rights campaigning. From 2011 to 2015, Eglė worked as a lawyer at the NGO Lithuanian Centre for Human Rights. During this time, she wrote shadow reports on racism and discrimination for the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) with a focus on Islamophobia, the labour market, hate crime and Afrophobia. In addition, she wrote a report on political hate speech during the last European Parliament elections (2014) and con tributed to the European Islamophobia Report 2015. Currently Eglė is working in the f ield of equal opportunities integration and mainstreaming at the OEOO. E-mail: egle.tilindiene@lygybe.lt
EVA KALNY
Eva Kalny is a cultural anthropologist and sociologist working at the Institute of Didactics of Democracy at the Leibniz University of Hannover, Germany. She earned her PhD at the University of Vienna, Austria, and was awarded her habilita tion at the University of Hannover. Her research interests comprise different aspects of human rights including anti-Muslim racism and women’s rights, gender studies and social movement theories. In addition to her academic work she is a long-stand ing human rights activist and experienced in refugee work. Her publications in clude “Against superciliousness. Revisiting the debate 60 years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights” in Critique of Anthropology 29(9): 371-394, 2009; and “Anti-Muslim racism in comparison: potentials for countering Islamophobia in the classroom” in Islamophobia Studies Journal 3(2): 71-84, 2009. Email: eva.kalny@idd.uni-hannover.de
FARID HAFEZ
Farid Hafez is currently Fulbright–Botstiber Visiting Professor of Austrian-Amer ican Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a lecturer and researcher at the Department of Sociology and Political Science at the University of Salzburg. Hafez earned his PhD in Political Science from the University of Vienna and has been teaching at numerous universities across the world. He has been a visiting scholar at Columbia University. Hafez is the founding editor of the German-English Islamophobia Studies Yearbook (www.jahrbuch-islamophobie.de). He was awarded the Bruno Kreisky Award for the political book of 2009 for his German anthology Islamophobia in Austria, which he co-edited with Prof. John Bunzl. He has published more than 10 books and 40 articles. His articles have appeared in high-ranking journals such as Patterns of Prejudice, Austrian Journal of Political Science, Discourse and Society, German Politics and Society, Islamophobia Studies Journal, Journal of Black Studies, and many others. E-mail: farid.hafez@sbg.ac.at
HAYRI A. EMIN
Hayri A. Emin is a PhD student in International Relations at the Faculty of Eco nomic and Administrative Sciences at “Trakya University” in Edirne, Turkey. He graduated with a Masters in International Political Relations and Security Studies from the Faculty of Philosophy at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, Bulgaria. His scientific interests include, among others, international relations, Balkan poli tics, security issues, Islamophobia, freedom of religion and belief, hate crime, civil society, and minority issues.
HIKMET KARCIC
Hikmet Karčić is a researcher at the Institute for Islamic Tradition of Bosniaks. Since 2014, he is a PhD candidate at the International University of Sarajevo; his thesis is entitled “Detention Camps as a Tool for Ethno-religious Cleansing of Non Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina 1992-1995”. He graduated from the Law Faculty in Sarajevo in 2010. In 2012, he successfully defended his MA thesis entitled “The Importance and Role of Appeals in Front of the Human Rights Chamber in the Search for Missing Persons in B&H 1996-2003” at the same faculty. In the past, he worked at the Missing Persons Institute of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Center for Advanced Studies and was the project coordinator for “Mapping of Detention Camps in Bosnia and Herzegovina 1992-1995” at the Association TPOS. He is the author of “An Appeal for Truth” (Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, 2013) and editor of “Remembering the Bosnian Genocide: Justice, Memory and Denial” (Institute for Islamic Tradition of Bosniaks, 2016). He also compiled and translated Muslim World: Population and Religiosity (“Muslimanski svijet: populacija i religioznost”, Centar za napredne studije, 2013) and Balkan Wars 1912-1913: Death and Forced Exile of Ottoman Muslims (Balkanski ratovi 1912-1913: Smrt i prisilno prognonstvo osmanskih muslimana, Institut za istraživanje zločina protiv čovječnosti i međunarodnog prava, 2012). He is the author of several research articles related to war crimes and memorialization, and has produced two documentaries related to the former.
INEKE VAN DER VALK
Dr Ineke van der Valk (Political Sciences, University of Amsterdam) specialises in the study of racism, Islamophobia, extremism, (de)radicalisation, ethnic relations and diversity in multicultural societies, and the history of immigrants in the Neth erlands. She has published numerous articles and books on these issues. She holds degrees in Educational Studies and Ethnic Studies and a PhD in Discourse Studies from the University of Amsterdam. She obtained her doctorate on the interface be tween social sciences and discourse analysis with a comparative study of the percep tion of ethnic issues in the political discourse of the Netherlands and France, paying special attention to the extreme right. She participated in a joint research project of the University of Vienna and the University of Amsterdam on racism in Euro pean countries. She was a community worker and human rights activist in the 70s and 80s and worked as a policy advisor for institutions, municipalities and NGOs. Van der Valk currently works on Islamophobia and manages the project Monitor Islamophobia in the Netherlands at the University of Amsterdam. Her book ‘Is lamofobie en discriminatie’ (Amsterdam University Press, 2012) was translated into English, French, German and Italian. Her last publications include Monitor Moslim Discriminatie, derde rapportage , University of Amsterdam 2017; Dutch Islamophobia (LIT-Verlag 2015); and ‘Racism, a Complex Human Rights Issue’, in B. Weston & A. Grear (eds.) Human Rights in the World Community: Issues and Action, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016
JAMES CARR
Dr James Carr lectures in the Department of Sociology in the University of Limerick. In 2010, he was awarded a three-year scholarship for his doctoral studies from the Irish Research Council to engage in research into racism directed towards Muslim communities in Ireland at the University of Limerick. He is a well-known speaker on the topics of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism in Ireland. Building on previous scholarly and policy oriented publications, in 2016, James published his book Experiences of Islamophobia: Living with Racism in the Neoliberal Era (London and New York: Routledge) which focused on anti-Muslim racism in Ireland set to the international context. James has also recently undertaken and published research with the Immigrant Council of Ireland, supported by the Open Society Founda tions, entitled ‘Islamophobia in Dublin: Experiences and how to respond’. He is a co-editor on the recently published collection of essays Public and Political Discourses of Migration, London: Rowman and Littlefield; and a contributor to the Yearbook of Muslims in Europe for Ireland for 2015 and 2016. E-mail: james.carr@ul.ie
KARIN CREUTZ
Karin Creutz is a researcher at the Centre for Research on Ethnic Relations and Nationalism at the University of Helsinki, and a doctoral candidate in sociology. She has published various articles and reports on the topic of migration and integration, Islamophobia, extremism, media and nationalism. Creutz is a board member of Mi nority Rights Group Finland MRG, and a deputy board member of the Society for the Study of Ethnic Relations and International Migration (ETMU). She was award ed the Westermarck Award for her MA thesis on media coverage of Islam. Creutz teaches and supervises at the University of Helsinki and in various open universities; she is an active participant in public debates with more than 200 interviews for national media, and international television interviews for, among others, CNN, Al Jazeera, and TRT World. E-mail: karin.creutz@helsinki.fi
KAROLIS ZIBAS
Karolis Žibas is a researcher at the Lithuanian Social Research Centre (Institute for Ethnic Studies) and at Vytautas Magnus University (Centre for Demographic Re search). He is founder of the independent think tank Diversity Development Group, a sociologist, researcher and NGO activist in areas of human rights and migration, equal opportunities and migrant integration, and in the fight against human trafficking and other forms of exploitation. He holds a PhD in Sociology. E-mail: karolis@ces.lt
KONRAD PEDZIWIATR
Konrad Pędziwiatr, PhD, is Assistant Professor at the Department for Euro pean Studies, Cracow University of Economics. He is the author of the monographs T he New Muslim Elites in European Cities (VDM Verlag, 2010), From Islam of Immi grants to Islam of Citizens: Muslims in the Countries of Western Europe (Nomos 2005, 2007), and Polish Migration Policy: In Search of a New Model (co-authored, UW 2015), as well as numerous other scientific publications on migrations and social movements in Europe and the Middle East, and on Islam and Muslims in Europe. Pędziwiatr is coordinator of the project ‘Islamism and Pluralism – The Islamist Move ments in Egypt and Tunisia after the Arab Spring’ financed by the Polish National Science Centre.
LINDA HYOKKI
Linda Hyökki is a PhD candidate at the Alliance of Civilizations Institute at the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Waqf Univeristy in Istanbul. She graduated from the Mas ters Programme “Language, Culture and Translation” from the University of Mainz, Germany. Linda Hyökki has worked as a freelance translator and is a certified teacher of German as a foreign language. Her postgraduate studies and research interests are focused on Muslims in European contexts, multiculturalism and plurality, identity formation, qualitative research methods and Islamophobia, particularly in Finland. Besides her native language, Finnish, Linda Hyökki speaks English, German, Swed ish and Turkish, and reads French. E-mail: lindahyokki@gmail.com
MITRE GEORGIEV
Mitre Georgiev is a human rights advocate, lawyer and researcher born in Bitola, Macedonia. He holds a Bachelor of Law (LL.B) from the Iustinianus Primus Law Faculty, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, Macedonia, and an Advanced Master (MA) of European Studies from the University of Zagreb, Croatia. He has worked for several civil society organisations in Macedonia, Croatia and abroad. His research interests include, among others, discrimination, human rights, migration, asylum, extradition, EU law and citizenship. E-mail: mitre.georgiev@googlemail.com
MONIKA ZAVIS
Monika Zaviš, doc. PaedDr. ThDr. PhD is a researcher and associate professor at the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Žilina. She earned her habilitation (Dozentur) in Theology with the specialization in Psychology of Religion at Comenius University in Bratislava, and her PhD in Theology with a specialization in Religious Studies. She has pub lished three monographs (2012, 2013, 2013), one university textbook (2008) and more than fifty scientific articles. She has participated in numerous international conferences, projects and works as an expert reviewer of articles in international scientific journals. Her research is based on interdisciplinarity, focused on contem porary bioethics (interruption and assisted reproduction technologies) in world reli gions, especially in Islam, and educational questions in the context of migrations and interrreligious dialogue between Islam and Christianity. She cooperates academically with numerous religious officials of registered and non-registered churches and religious communities in Slovakia. E-mail: 0liliom0@gmail.com
NAJATE ZOUGGARI
Najate Zouggari is a sociologist at the University of Lausanne, Institute of So cial Sciences. Her current research interests are sociology of work and culture, gender studies, race studies and critical theory. She earned an MA in Philosophy (Paris I, Sorbonne), Political Sciences (Paris VII, Jussieu) and Aesthetics & Comparative Lit erature (Paris VII, Denis-Diderot). In 2016, she was the recipient of a Doc.Mobility Scholarship by the Swiss National Fund and has been a visiting scholar at New York University (Media, Culture and Communication). She is currently a visting scholar at the Department of European Ethnology, Humboldt University of Berlin. Her most recent publications deal with ethnography and qualitative methods, craft prac tices, materialities and photography. Previously, she worked as a journalist in London and Paris, focusing on the issues of racism, sexism and Islamophobia in Europe. E-mail: najate.zouggari@unil.ch
RENAT BEKKIN
Renat Bekkin holds a PhD in Economics. He received his doctoral degree in Economics from the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sci ences. His thesis analyses the Islamic economic model and financial institutions and their place in the world economy. Bekkin is the author of twelve monographs and more than sixty articles published in Russian and foreign peer-reviewed journals (including the monographs Insurance in Islamic Law: Theory and Practice (three edi tions: 2001, 2012, 2015); Islamic Economic Model Nowadays (three editions: 2008, 2009, 2010); Muslim Petersburg (2016). He was the founder and chief of the Islamic Studies Department at Kazan Federal University (2010-2015). In 2015, he founded and became editor-in-chief of the academic journal, the Kazan Islamic Review. In 2015, Bekkin was awarded the title “Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences” by the Russian Academy of Sciences. Now Professor Bekkin is a PhD candidate at Södertörn University (Sweden). His thesis investigates the Christian-Muslim rela tionships in Russia with a particular focus on the interaction between Christian and Muslim religious organisations. Email: bekkin@mail.ru
SELMA MUHIC DIZDAREVIC
Selma Muhic Dizdarevic is an assistant professor at Charles University, Faculty of Humanities, where she currently chairs the Department of Civil Soci ety Studies in Prague, Czech Republic. She was a Fulbright visiting scholar at UC Berkeley School of Social Welfare in California, United States. Her main research interests are non-profit organisations, immigration and integration policies, femi nism, social exclusion and intersectionality. She holds a degree in public policy and political philosophy.
YASSER LOUTAI
Yasser Louati is a French human rights activist who specialises on Islamophobia and national security policies. Until June 2016, he was the spokesperson for the Collective Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF) and head of its international relations desk. Before joining the CCIF, he was a grass-roots activist within the French Muslim community working on better political representation and active citizenry. He is now launching Justice & Libertés Pour Tous (Justice and Liberties For All) an NGO focusing on Islamophobia and violations of civil liberties. He is a reg ular contributor to various international news outlets including Al Jazeera, France 24 and CNN, on questions of French politics, French Muslims, Islamophobia and human rights violations. His writings are published by Al Jazeera, Alternet, Middle East Eye, Liberation and the University of Berkeley’s Islamophobia Studies Journal among others. Before his commitment to working on Islamophobia, he was an avi ation consultant in the Middle East and Africa. He was educated at the University of Paris in English and Literature.
ZSOLT SEREGHY
Zsolt Sereghy is a doctoral candidate at the Institute for Political Science, Vien na University, Austria. His current research focuses on the nexus between Europe’s Muslim communities, migration, and political and media securitisation. He holds a Magister degree in Oriental Studies from Vienna University and a M.Litt. degree in Middle Eastern and Central Asian Security Studies from the University of St Andrews, Scotland. His research interests include the securitisation of Islam and Muslim migrant communities in Europe, as well as Middle East politics in general and Lebanese politics, educational policies and pop culture in particular. Sereghy has published a number of articles, most recently ‘Vienna Must Not Become Istan bul – The Securitization of Islam and Muslims in Austria’ (in Suleiman, Yasir (ed.), Muslims in the UK and Europe, Centre for Islamic Studies of the University of Cam bridge, May 2014). Currently, he is a researcher at a Beirut-based Human Rights NGO. E-mail: zsolt.sereghy@gmail.com