Dr. Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im

Dr. Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na‘im is Charles Howard Candler Professor of Law and Director of the Center for International and Comparative Law, Emory University School of Law in Atlanta, Georgia. He is also Associated Professor in Emory College of Arts and Sciences; Senior Fellow, Center for the Study of Law and Religion, Emory University; and Fellow of the Center for Ethics of Emory University. His previous positions include Associate Professor at the University of Khartoum, Sudan, until 1985; Visiting Professor of Law at UCLA, 1985-87; Fellow, Woodrow Wilson International Center, Washington, DC, 1987-88; Ariel F. Sallows Professor of Human Rights at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, 1988-91; Olof Palme Visiting Professor at Uppsala University, Sweden, 1991-92; Scholar-in-Residence, the Ford Foundation office, Cairo, Egypt, 1992-93. Before joining the Faculty of Emory Law School in 1995, he served as Executive Director of Human Rights Watch/Africa 1993-95.A prolific author, Dr. An-Na‘im’s books include What is an American Muslim? Embracing Faith and Citizenship (Oxford University Press, 2014); Muslims and Global Justice (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011); Islam and the Secular State (Harvard University Press 2008); African Constitutionalism and the Role of Islam (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006); and Toward an Islamic Reformation: Civil liberties, Human Rights and International Law (Syracuse University Press, 1990). He has edited numerous volumes, and has also published some sixty articles and book chapters on human rights, constitutional tutionalism, Islamic law, and politics.

Dr. An-Na‘im directed four major projects, funded by the Ford Foundation and implemented out of Emory Law School: (1) women’s access to, and control over, land in seven African countries, (2) a global study of the theory and practice of Islamic Family Law, (3) a fellowship program in Islam and Human Rights, (4) research, writing and advocacy of his book, Islam and the Secular State (2008) (Translations of the whole manuscript in Arabic, Bengali, Indonesian, Farsi, Russian, Swahili, Turkish and Urdu can be downloaded free of charge.