Hafsa Arain

Hafsa Arain is a Muslim interfaith activist, creative nonfiction writer, and Ph.D. student at Boston University. her research is focused on activism, religion, and youth culture in urban Pakistan, focusing primarily on women’s activist movements. Looking both at shifting legal and cultural norms relating to marriage and women’s access to public space, her research addresses how emerging forms of feminist activism in Pakistan reflect its postcolonial class stratification and concentrates on changing gender norms and ideals.

Prior to beginning a PhD at Boston University, Hafsa worked in student services and chaplaincy at Claremont School of Theology in California, where she also received her MA in Islamic Studies and Religious Leadership in 2014. Her master’s thesis focused on the growing presence of multinational corporations in Karachi, Pakistan, and how they have affected young women’s job possibilities, attitudes towards dating, marriage, and religion, and educational aspirations in Pakistan’s largest city. Hafsa also holds a BA in English literature and religious studies from DePaul University in Chicago.

Miriam Aniel

Miriam Aniel was born in Los Angeles, CA and raised in Charlotte, NC. She currently lives in Richmond, Virginia. A 2015 graduate of Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary, Miriam lived in New York City for four years before moving to Rishon LeTzion, Israel to serve under-resourced communities. Her appreciation of diverse spaces and places, her commitment to empathy, and her love of design have given her a unique voice and lived experience.

Seyyedeh Dr. Nahid Angha

Seyyedeh Dr. Nahid Angha is co-founder and co-director of the International Association of Sufism (IAS). She is executive editor of the quarterly journal Sufism: An Inquiry and founder of the International Sufi Women Organization. Dr. Angha is the IAS representative to the United Nations (NGO/DPI) and the first Muslim woman inducted to the Marin Women’s Hall of Fame. She is daughter of Moulana Shah Maghsoud, the twentieth-century Persian Sufi of the Uwaiysi School of Sufism, and the first woman appointed to teach in her father’s school. She was also the first woman to sit at the center circle with Muslim leaders from around the world to lead meditation at the international Sufism Symposium. Dr. Angha is widely published as a scholar, teacher, poet, and translator. Throughout this activity she has been an active leader in interfaith activities in local, national, and global arenas.

Paul Andrews

Paul Andrews was on the founding staff of the United Religions Initiative. He managed operations for URI’s first three Global Summit Conferences and helped organize URI’s 72 Hours project – 300 simultaneous local initiatives in 68 countries during the Millennium Weekend, December 30th, 1999 through January 1st, 2000.

During that time he also was the Executive Producer of Improbable Pairs, two short documentaries about pairs of people who made peace in the face of extraordinary odds. These two films, now up on You Tube (“Improbable Pairs”), have been used to trigger deep conversations about reconciliation in a wide variety of settings: in prisons – between the widows of Nepali police officers and the widows of Maoist fighters in Nepal – and by the United Nations at gatherings for child soldiers.

Paul was also the founding director of Slavyanka Russian Chorus. Founded during the latter part of the Cold War, the Chorus has been active in numerous American-Russian cross-cultural initiatives and has toured Russia and Eastern Europe five times as goodwill ambassadors.

Megan Anderson

Megan Anderson is TIO's webmaster and associate editor. She has a B.A. in mathematics and theology from the College of Saint Benedict/St. John's University where she completed an honors thesis titled “Interfaith Youth Core: Theology and Religious Commitment in One of America’s Most Prominent Youth Interfaith Organizations,” and an M.A. in Religion, Society, and Social Change from Claremont School of theology.

She is interested in the intersection of religion, social factors, justice, and the environment and how these impact efforts to promote sustainable behavior and the creation of an ecological civilization.

In addition to her work at TIO, Megan is the communications manger for The Institute for Ecological Civilization (EcoCiv) and the executive assistant at CHERP, an organization focused on carbon mitigation, environmental justice, community health, and regenerative local economies, through the deployment of solar panels to low- and middle-income households for little to no cost using a nonprofit model.

Ariella Amit

Ariella Amit is a Jewish high school senior from Los Angeles. She is the president of the Interfaith Youth Council of Los Angeles County and co-founded the Interfaith Club at her high school. She is involved in her school’s golf team, Gay Straight Alliance, and homeroom leader program, which helps incoming 6th graders adjust to middle school social and academic life. Her interests include political science, American history, social justice, and ethics. She also has a deep interest for learning languages and is currently taking Hebrew and Spanish literature courses. Ariella has a passion for Tikkun Olam, that is, repairing the world, in Hebrew, and has volunteered with her interfaith council at the Union Rescue Mission to help homeless individuals and families in Skid Row.

Sahar Alsahlani

Sahar Alsahlani is an interfaith peace activist with a background in television and radio broadcast media and entertainment. Amplifying the voices, and sharing the stories of, individuals and communities who champion for justice inspired by their moral or religious convictions is her passion. This Iraqi-American Muslim has always been active in pursuing the studies and correlations of communications as it relates to engagement in faith-based advocacy, inter-religious dialogue, peace-building, and the theory and practice of nonviolence.

Along with serving on the board of the North American Interfaith Network, Sahar is a member of the Executive Council of Religions for Peace, USA; the Board of the Council on American-Islamic Relations-NY; and has contributed to the faith-based outreach of the revived Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. Sahar is a Fellow at GreenFaith, and serves on the Steering Committee for the Interfaith Moral Action on Climate Change, both interfaith organizations dedicated to climate justice. Sahar has also served as a former Co-Chair of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, USA.Sahar is currently part of an international multifaith community, the Community of Living Traditions, which is geared towards the study of, practice and principles of peace building and nonviolence.

Sam Allen

Sam Allen (they/them pronouns) is a former seminary student who was been called by the Sacred when they were five years old. At that tender age, they remember praying on their knees to God. Sam's works have also been published by their local newspaper's weekly and Sam performs autobiographical pieces in their community. They live with their cat in their beloved hometown of Stockton, California. You can access Sam's portfolio at theprose.com under the author name Samal230.

Salma Albezreh

Salma Albezreh is a 16 year old sophomore who practices the Islamic faith and attends Butler High School In Vandalia, Ohio. She is a writer of spoken word poetry and loves history class and soccer. Salma is a board member of the Interfaith Forum of Greater Dayton and a board member of the Dayton International Peace Museum. She is also very active in her Muslim community, acting as a youth leader at Dayton Mercy Society. In addition, Salma is an original member of Faith In Us, an interfaith youth group focused on promoting tolerance through art. 

Stephen Albert

Stephen Albert is a New Thought minister with an Interfaith Credential. He is a founding member of the Poway Interfaith team and its 2006 & 2012 president. Dr. Steve teaches Comparative Religion classes at the University of Phoenix and is the author of 14 books including: The Interfaith Manual, The Interfaith Workbook and REBOOT To Peace. He holds degrees from Penn State University, Drexel University, University of Colorado and a doctorate in Religious Studies from Emerson Institute. He and his wife Abigale planned and hosted the North American Interfaith Network’s 2017 Connect in San Diego.

Steve is a stroke and open-heart surgery survivor. During his recovery in early 2012, he created the concept of and the PowerPoint presentation for ‘New Thought Day,’ which has now become the first yearly holiday to bring together all New Thought organizations in the world.

Abdul Rahim Al-Uji

Abdul Rahim Al-Uji is a writer, actor, and storyteller. He recently became famous after participating in the political satire program “Al-Chinn” on the Lebanese channel “Al-Jadid.” 

Usaama al-Azami

Usaama al-Azami read his BA in Arabic and Islamic Studies at Oxford University, and his MA and PhD in Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. He came to Islamic studies after a gap year studying Arabic and Islamic studies convinced him to turn down an offer to study medicine at Imperial College London. During his undergraduate career, he also pursued Islamic studies in seminarial contexts alongside his academic studies, covering much of what would be studied in the advanced years of an Indian madrasa curriculum. He has travelled extensively throughout the Middle East, living for five years in the region. He is also an enthusiastic teacher who is very eager to support the formation of research scholars.

Born and raised in the U.K., he began seriously studying Islam in 2002. He has studied with Muslim scholars and theologians in seminary contexts in the Middle East and Europe. His teachers have included Shaykh Mohammad Akram Nadwi, Professor Yahya Michot, Professor Tariq Ramadan, and Shaykh Muhammad Yaqoubi. He was a founding member of the Oxford University Muslim-Jewish dialogue group, MuJewz, and is a regular participant in Princeton’s Muslim-Christian dialogue. He maintains an occasional blog on The Huffington Post focusing on topics relating to religion.

Marites Guingona Africa

In 1998, Marites Guingona Africa was inspired by the United Religions Initiative vision of a better world where people of diverse cultures and beliefs could come together to a common ground to engage in various forms of dialogue in the spirit of mutual respect, understanding and cooperation. In 2000, she and her interfaith friends established the Peacemakers’ Circle Foundation, Inc. in Metro Manila and engaged in the endeavor of building respectful relationships among peoples of diverse cultures and beliefs through various forms of dialogue. They were one of the many founding URI cooperation circles during its Charter signing in June 2000. In 2003, our Peacemakers’ Circle CC began to reach out to grassroots communities in Metro Manila where Muslims and Christians lived together as neighbors. Today, their peace and relationship-building work has deepened and expanded to include training Muslim, Christian and indigenous leaders from the conflict-affected communities in the war-torn southern Philippine region of Mindanao.

Andrew Aghapour

Andrew Aghapour is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Religious Studies at UNC Chapel Hill, where he is finishing a dissertation about religion and the brain. He will begin work this summer as the Science and Religion Consulting Scholar for the Smithsonian. With Michael Schulson, Andrew co-founded and co-produces the Cubit, an initiative of Religion Dispatches that examines the intersections of science, religion, technology, and ethics. Andrew can be contacted at andrewaghapour@gmail.com.

Nimai Agarwal

Nimai Agarwal is from Maryland and has been practicing Vaishnavism, a monotheistic tradition within Hinduism, since his childhood.

Chandru Acharya

Chandru Acharya, was raised in India and now lives with his wife Smita and their two teenagers in Canton. He is president of Imetris Corporation, an IT consulting and services company based in Saline, Michigan. Chandru is also a yoga instructor and soccer coach. He teaches Hindu history, heritage and culture at Canton’s Hindu Temple Balgokumal and is regularly invited to speak about Hinduism in nearby schools and colleges. An interfaith activist, he participates in a local Interfaith Community Outreach Group and is a board member of the Interfaith Leadership Council of Detroit and the South Asian American Voices for Impact.

Liliana Aceves

Liliana Aceves was born in Caracas, Venezuela. Her father was Mexican, and she inherited the love for Mexico from him. She is the oldest of 7. She moved to México when she was ten years old, after living for five years in Birmingham, Michigan, and has not left Mexico ever since. She recieved a degree in tourism from the Autonoma University of Guadalajara and later became a licensed tour guide for Mexico. Her years in tourism have given her the opportunity to share her love and passion for her country, showing people from all over the world the wonderful diversity and culture her country offers.

Liliana is married to Luis Barragan, and they have started a company that is dedicated  to the practice and diffusion of the Holistic Thinking, based on the premise that the human being is an inseparable whole: Body-Mind-Spirit. Her travels continue throughout Mexico, but include not only a beautiful country, but also a deeper understanding of ancient wisdom and how we can use it to better ourselves and the world we live in. She recently published Facing the Mirror (2004), a book about her spiritual journey, how our free will is sacred, and we each have the responsibility to guide our own destiny.

Mohammed Abu-Nimer

Mohammed Abu-Nimer is a Senior Advisor to KAICIID and a professor at the School of International Service at American University. ​At the International Peace and Conflict Resolution program he served as Director of the Peacebuilding and Development Institute (1999-2013). He has conducted interreligious conflict resolution training and interfaith dialogue workshops in conflict areas around the world, including Palestine, Israel, Egypt, Chad, Niger, Iraq (Kurdistan),  Philippines (Mindanao), and Sri Lanka. He also founded Salam Institute for Peace and Justice, an organization that focuses on capacity building, civic education, and intrafaith and interfaith dialogue. In addition to his numerous articles and books, Dr. Abu-Nimer is the co-founder and co-editor of the Journal of Peacebuilding and Development.  

Mustafa Abdel-Halim

Mustafa Abdel-Halim is a London-based broadcast journalist and lecturer at the University of Westminster.

Jim Wiggins

Jim Wiggins, Ph.D., joined Syracuse University’s Department of Religion after completing his graduate work in 1963. He served on virtually all departmental committees, including director of graduate studies in religion (1975-80), and was elected by his colleagues as chair of the Department for five four-year terms (1980-2000). His academic field is Western religion and culture, with interests in the history of Christianity and Christian thought, religious/cultural diversity, death and dying, interpretive theory, mysticism, and narrative and religion. His book Religion as Story appeared in 1975; he is co-author of Foundations of Christianity (1972), Christianity: A Cultural Approach (1987), and In Praise of Religious Diversity (1996). From 1983 until 1992 he served as executive director of the American Academy of Religion. From 2002 until 2010 he was executive director of InterFaith Works of Central New York, a multi-purpose agency with a staff of two dozen. Jim is a trustee of North American Interfaith Network.