Professor

Dr. Dheen is a Professor of Comparative Religion at CIS, HBKU. Prior to joining CIS in 2013, he was an Associate Professor and then a Professor at Qatar University. He has earlier worked in academia in Sri Lanka, Egypt and Pakistan. He received his Ph.D. (1988), MA (1982), and BA (1978) from the Department of Theology and Philosophy at Al-Azhar University, Egypt.

Dr. Dheen is an author of several books and has contributed book chapters and published articles in the international journals of repute.

Emad El-Din Shahin is the Dean of the College of Islamic Studies (CIS), HBKU. Before joining CIS, he was a visiting professor of Political Science at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and the editor-in-chief of The Oxford Encyclopedia of 

Dr. Gavin Picken is Professor of Islamic Studies at the College of Islamic Studies, Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU). Prior to joining HBKU, Dr. Picken taught at the School of Oriental and African Studies, the Universities of Edinburgh and Cambridge and the American University of Sharjah.

Dr. Ibrahim M. Zain is currently Professor of Islamic Studies and Comparative Religion at the College of Islamic Studies. He obtained his PhD in Religion from Temple University in 1989 and began his career in the Department of Islamic Studies in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Khartoum. After becoming Head of Department, he reflected upon the prospects of teaching

Dr. Abdulazeem holds a Ph.D (2001) and a Masters (1998) in Islamic Financial Law from Damascus University. He has BA in Arabic Literature, English Literature and Islamic Law, and Higher Diplomas in Islamic Law and Human Sciences. He has worked at universities as well as Islamic banks. His research interests lie in the fields of Islamic Law, Islamic Finance and Islamic Banking. He was recently promoted to the rank of Professor at CIS – HBKU. He has previously taught at International Islamic University, Malaysia.

Dr. Mustafa specializes in dentistry, biochemistry, and international relations. His work experience includes being a lecturer in many universities and he has also worked as the Foreign Minister of Sudan, and the Ambassador of Sudan to the United Nations (UN) and to Switzerland. He was a special envoy of the Arab League to Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine. He is now a Senior Advisor to the Director-General of the UN-DNCD partnership, a member of the Arab Crisis Team (ACT) in Jordan and Oman, and a member of the executive board of the Global Forum for Moderation.

Dr. Ahmet Aysan is a professor at the College of Islamic Studies (CIS) and the Program Coordinator of the PhD and MS programs in Islamic Finance and Economy. He has been the Board Member and Monetary Policy Committee member of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey and served as a consultant at various institutions such as the World Bank, the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey, and Oxford Analytica. Dr.

Dr. Louay Safi is Professor of Political Science and Islamic Thought at CIS and Senior Fellow with the Institute of Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU) and Georgetown University’s Center for

Dr.

Dr Akel Ismail Kahera holds a PhD in Near Eastern Studies, with Honours from Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA. He currently serves as a Professor of Islamic Art, Architecture and Sustainable Urbanism at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), Doha, Qatar. As an educator, Professor Kahera has over three decades of research, teaching and scholarly publications on the subject of Architectural History Theory and Criticism, Islamic Art and Architecture, Non-Western Architecture, Urbanism, The American Mosque, and Design Studio.