Dr. Charles Small

-          Director, Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism.

Dr. Charles Asher Small is the Director and Founder of The Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism (YIISA), the first North American university-based center for study of the subject, housed at the Institute for Social and Policy Studies. Dr. Small is also the founding Director of the nonprofit Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy and is a lecturer on the Ethics, Politics and Economics Program; the Political Science Department and with the Institute for Social and Policy Studies at Yale University. Small has taught at the University of London, Ben Gurion University, Tel Aviv University, and Hebrew University. He was the Director/Associate Professor of Urban Studies at Southern Connecticut State University, and has worked as a consultant and policy advisor in North America, Europe, Southern Africa and the Middle East; and lectured internationally. Small specializes in social and cultural theory, globalization and national identity, socio-cultural policy, racism(s) - including Antisemitism.

Dr. Daniel Pipes

-          Director, Middle East Forum.

Dr. Pipes is the director of the Middle East Forum and Taube distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. His bi-weekly column appears regularly in the Jerusalem Post and other newspapers around the globe. His website, DanielPipes.org, is one of the most accessed internet sources of specialized information on the Middle East and Islam. He received his B.A. (1971) and Ph.D. (1978) from Harvard University, both in history, and spent six years studying abroad, including three years in Egypt. Dr. Pipes speaks French, and reads Arabic and German. He has taught at the University of Chicago, Harvard University, the U.S. Naval War College, and Pepperdine University. He served in various capacities in the U.S. government, including two presidentially-appointed positions, vice chairman of the Fulbright Board of Foreign Scholarships and board member of the U.S. Institute of Peace. He was director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute from 1986-93. Dr. Pipes frequently appears on such U.S. programs as ABC World News, Crossfire, Good Morning America, News-Hour with Jim Lehrer, Nightline, O'Reilly Factor, and The Today Show. He has appeared on leading television networks around the globe, including the BBC and Al-Jazeera, and has lectured in twenty-five countries. He has consulted on Middle Eastern topics for prominent financial, manufacturing, and service companies; law firms, bar associations, trade groups; agencies of the U.S. government; and law courts in the United States and Canada. Dr. Pipes has published in such magazines as the Atlantic Monthly, Commentary, Foreign Affairs, Harper's, National Review, New Republic, Time, and The Weekly Standard. More than a hundred American newspapers have carried his articles, including the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post. His writings have been translated into thirty-three languages and have appeared in such newspapers as ABC, Corriere della Sera, The Daily Telegraph, Le Figaro, La Razón, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, The Sydney Morning Herald, and Die Welt. Dr. Pipes has also written twelve books.

Prof. Panda Mbow
            - Professor, Cheikh Anta Diop University in Senegal.

Dr. Penda Mbow is an associate professor of history at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal, where she has published widely on African political and social issues, often focusing on the role of Islam in Africa. She has previously served as Senegal's minister of culture and as cultural advisor to the Senegalese department of ethnography and historical heritage. Dr. Mbow has received numerous academic awards, including a Fulbright grant to study at Michigan State University and a Rockefeller Foundation award for research at the Bellagio Center in Italy. In recognition of her achievements as a scholar, thinker, and political activist, she was named Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur Francaise (Knight of the French Legion of Honor) in 2003 and Commandeur de l'Ordre National du Mérite in 1999. Among her many areas of expertise are African intellectual history and Islamic gender studies. Dr. Mbow spent her fellowship researching the evolution of Islam's relationship with democracy in Senegal, as well as the interplay between women, human rights, and religion in Islamic societies.


Haras Rafiq

-          Director, the Counter Extremism consultaNcy for Training Research & Interventions.

Haras Rafiq is currently the Director of CENTRI, the Counter Extremism consultaNcy for Training Research & Interventions. He is also an accredited Peer Mentor for 'Preventing Violent Extremism' in IDeA (Improvement and Development Agency for Local Government). Rafiq also serves as a member of Various Policy/Advisory Groups and is the Cultural Ambassador for “Projecting British Islam,” and is a Board Member of Mosaic North West, an Initiative to mentor youngsters in North West England set up by Prince Charles. Rafiq is the Co-Founder and Former Executive Director of the Sufi Muslim Council in Britain, and is also a former Proprietor and CEO of Crescent Network including “Crescent Life” magazine and “Crescent Live” IPTV. He is the Co-Founder of Crescent Radio, and a member of Government Task Force following the 7/7 Terrorist attack in London – Preventing Extremism Together.