John Esposito

Education:

B.A.: St. Antony College,
M.A.:St. John'sUniversity
Ph.D.:TempleUniversityUniversity Professor as well as Professor of Religion and International Affairs and of Islamic Studies atGeorgetown University, John L. Esposito is Founding Director of the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding: History and International Affairs in the Walsh School of Foreign Service. Previously,he was Loyola Professor of Middle East Studies, Chair of the Department of Religious Studies, and Director of the Center for International Studiesat the College of the Holy Cross.

A consultant to the Department of State as well as corporations, universities, and the media worldwide, Esposito specializes in Islam, political Islam, and the impact of Islamic movements fromNorth Africa to Southeast Asia.  He has served as President of the Middle East Studies Association of North America and the American Council for the Study of Islamic Societies and is Vice Chair of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy.

Esposito is Editor-in-Chief of the 4 volume Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, The Oxford History of Islam, a Book-of-the-Month Club and History Book Club selection, The Oxford Dictionary of Islam andOxford’s The Islamic World: Past and Present. His more than 30 books include: Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam, What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam, The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality?, Turkish Islam and the Secular State (with H. Yavuz); Islam: The Straight Path; Islam and Politics; Islam and Democracy and Makers of Contemporary Islam (with John Voll); Modernizing Islam (with Francois Burgat) Political Islam: Revolution, Radicalism or Reform?, Religion and Global Order (with M. Watson), Islam and Secularism in the Middle East (with Azzam Tamimi); Iran at the Crossroads (with R.K. Ramazani); The Iranian Revolution: Its Global Impact; Islam, Gender, and Social Change and Muslims on the Americanization Path and Daughters of Abraham (with Yvonne Haddad); Women in Muslim Family Law; Voices of Resurgent Islam; Islam in Transition: Muslim Perspectives (with John Donohue); Islam in Asia: Religion, Politics, and Society; and Islam and Development. Esposito’s books and articles have been translated into Arabic, Persian, Urdu, bahasa Indonesia, Turkish, Japanese, Chinese and European languages.

Esposito has been interviewed or quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, ABC Nightline, CBS, NBC, and the BBC and in newspapers, magazines, and the media inEurope,Asia, and theMiddle East.

In the US he is "a controversial figure". One of America's foremost authorities and interpreters of Islam, as theWall Street Journal once described him, Esposito is also considered to be one of the few voices of dissent within American academia. His opponents charge that he is an "apologist for Islam and soft on Muslims" and that he and his colleagues have misinformed the US administration about the true dangers of Islamist groups, contending that they underestimated the so-called Islamic threat.

Taken from:

http://www.islam-democracy.org/esposito_bio.asp
http://onlineislamicstore.com/johnesposito.html
http://explore.georgetown.edu/faculty/index.cfm?Action=View&NetID=jle2
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/645/intrvw.htm