Magdi Allam

Egyptian-Italian writer and journalist Magdi Allam has been called "the Italian Salman Rushdie" for his criticism of terrorism and pro-Israel views.  According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Hamas has condemned Allam to death.  His new book, "Long Live Israel - From the Ideology of Death to the Civilization of Life: My Story," is a best-seller in Italy.

Reza Aslan

Iranian-American writer and scholar of religions, Aslan is the author of No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam and the upcoming How to Win a Cosmic War: Why We're Losing the War on Terror (to be published by Random House in the Fall of 2008).  He is "one of the top spokespersons for progressive Islam in America" and a strong advocate of Islamic reformation.

Hassan Butt

Hassan Butt was born and raised in England to Kashmiri parents.  In 2000, at age 20, he moved to Pakistan where he joined the Taliban and recruited British volunteers launch terror attacks in the U.K.  In a 2005 interview, he said that he was a radical and hoped to be called a terrorist.  More recently, however, Butt has renounced extremism and violence and called for a new theology, one that pronounces "that the concept of killing in the name of Islam is no more than an anachronism."

Emilio Karim Dabul

Dabul, an editor with the American Congress for Truth, is author of "Deadline," a novel about terrorism.  Dabul wrote in the New York Daily News (September 2007) of his support for Israel, which, "with all its imperfections, remains the beacon of light for the Middle East."

Nonie Darwish

Nonie Darwish was born and raised as a Muslim in Cairo, Egypt, and the Gaza strip. Her father, a senior Egyptian millitary intelligence official, was killed in 1956, when Nonie was eight years old, and became a national hero.

Darwish is a writer, translator, public speaker, and author of "Now They Call Me Infidel: Why I Renounced Jihad for America, Israel, and the War on Terror."

Dr. Mamoun Fandy

Dr. Fandy is a Senior Fellow for Gulf Security at The International Institute For Strategic Studies.  A native of Egypt, Dr. Fandy is a frequent writer for the Christian Science Monitor and contributor to the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and has appeared on CNN, FoxNews, BBC, PBS, al-Arabiya and many other Arabic TV channels.

In a January 7, 2008 op-ed in the Arab London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, Dr. Fandy urged Arab leaders to take dramatic steps to advance peace, saying that "99% of the playing cards, and a solution in the Middle East, are in the Arabs' hands" and that "perhaps the time has come for the Arabs, and the Palestinians in particular, to seriously consider Israel's strategic apprehensions."

Farid Ghadry

Born in Syria and raised in Lebanon, Ghadry is the co-founder and president of the Reform Party of Syria (RPS), a U.S.-based pro-democracy Syrian opposition party.  Ghadry is the author of a blog entries such as "Why I Admire Israel" and "Israel Builds for Nobel Prizes, Arabs Destroy with Suicide Bombers."

Tawfik Hamid, M.D.

Born in Egypt to a secular Muslim family, as a teenager Hamid joined Jammaa Islameia, a terrorist organization led then by Ayman al Zawahiri (today Al Qaeda's number 2).

Dr. Hamid later questioned the hatred and violence of extremist Islam and began to preach in Mosques to promote a message of peace. Dr. Hamid is an advocate of Islamic reformation and the author of The Roots of Jihad and Mr. Tolerance.

See this video of Dr. Hamid (Oct. 2009)

Hirsi Ali is a Somali-born Dutch politician and writer, an active critic of fundamentalist Islam, an advocate for women's rights and a leader in the campaign to reform Islam.

Raymond Ibrahim

A Coptic American expert on Islamic history and doctrine, Ibrahim is the associate director of the Middle East Forum, author of  The Al Qaeda Reader, a guest lecturer at the National Defense Intelligence College, and deputy publisher of the Middle East Quarterly.

Zuhdi Jasser

Dr. Jasser is the Chairman of the Board, founding member, and President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD). He is the son of Muslim-Syrian immigrants and is a native of Wisconsin. As a devout practicing Muslim, Dr. Jasser has always been very active in the study of Islam and its intersections with American culture. He is one of the moderate, anti-Islamist Muslims featured in the controversial PBS film, Islam v Islamists produced by ABG Films, Inc. in 2007.  See also his Internet film, The Third Jihad.

Muhammad Hisham Kabbani

Hisham Kabbani is a prominent American Sufi Muslim who advocates an understanding of Islam as based on peace, tolerance, respect and love. Shaykh Kabbani has been an outspoken critique of extremism as well as the Wahabi doctrine.

Irshad Manji

Manji is an advocate for the liberal reformation of Islam, a Senior Fellow with the European Foundation for Democracy, frequent public speaker, syndicated New York Times columnist, and best-selling author of "The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith."

Salim Mansour

Professor Salim Mansur is a Muslim writer and an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Western Ontario. Professor Mansur is also a Senior Fellow at the Canadian Coalition for Democracies. His articles have appeared in the London Free Press, the Toronto Sun, the National Post, Middle East Forum, the National Review, and other newpapers and journals. He teaches in the fields of comparative politics, developing areas and international relations.

Khaleel Mohammed

Imam Khaleel Mohammed is a professor of Religion at San Diego State University (SDSU), in San Diego, California, and a core faculty member of the university's Center for Islamic and Arabic Studies. Dr. Mohammed has studied in Mexico, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Mauritania, Syria and Yemen, at both traditional Islamic institutions and Western universities. A frequent public speaker and advisor to the anti-terrorism Free Muslims Coalition, he has stated that the Koran says that Israel belongs to the Jews.

Hala Mustafa

Hala Mustafa is an Egyptian "New Liberal," director of the political department at the Center for Political and Strategic Research at Al-Ahram, and chief editor of Al-Dimuqratiya, the only periodical in the Arab world dedicated to the analysis of worldwide democratic developments and Arab liberal thought.  She has been described by the Middle East Forum as "anathema to the forces of radical Islam and traditionalism... "a symbol of what liberalism means for Egypt and the wider Arab world."

Mansour al-Nogaidan

A Bahraini journalist and former Saudi Salafi jihaddist, al-Nogaidan now advocates for Muslim reformation.

Asra Nomani

A native of Bombay, India, and former Wall Street Journal reporter, Ms. Nomani is a writer-activist dedicated to reclaiming women’s rights and principles of tolerance in the Muslim world.  She is a co-founder of Muslims for Peace and the author of "Sanding Alone in Mecca: An American Muslim Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam."

Tashbih Sayyed

Tashbih Sayyed was a Pakistani scholar, journalist, and author.  He was the Editor in Chief of Our Times, Pakistan Today, and In Review, president of the Council for Democracy and Tolerance, and adjunct fellow of Hudson Institute.  A noted spokesman against Islamism, Sayyed wrote about the Islamist threat to the US. He is featured in the documentaries, Relentless: The Struggle for Peace in Israel and Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West.  He died in May 2007.

Thuraya Al-Shihri

In an article in the London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (March 10, 2007), Saudi columnist Thuraya Al-Shihri criticized Muslims for failing to convey the positive messages of Islam and denounced the violence being perpetrated by some Muslims. She wondered why the Muhammad cartoons affair had been so broadly publicized in the Arab world, and had led Muslims to commit violent acts instead of making attempts to explain the values of their faith – while positive developments, such as a Belgian newspaper's publication and distribution of the Koran, do not evoke a strong reaction among the Muslims.

Walid Shoebat

A Palestinian born in Bethlehem who was a member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, Shoebat participated in acts of terror and violence against Israel, and was imprisoned for incitement and violence.  After moving to the U.S., Walid studied Tanach (Jewish Bible) and the history of Israel and the Jewish people.  He became an outspoken advocate for Israel and for peace.

Wafa Sultan

A secular Syrian-American, Sultan rose to fame after her February, 2006 appearance on Al Jazeera in which she

referred to the current conflict between the West and militant Muslims as "a clash between civilization and backwardness, between the civilized and the primitive, between barbarity and rationality."

Bassam Tibi

Born in Damascus, Bassam Tibi is a professor of international relations at the University of Goettingen in Germany.  He is a Muslim, but a staunch critic of Islamism and an advocate of reforming Islam.

Shaykh Hamza Yusuf

Founder of Zaytuna Institute, Yusuf is an American-born scholar of Islam.  He told National Public Radio that Muslims have to drive anti-Semitism from their mosques and living rooms, and wrote in Tikkun Magazine, that denying the Holocaust undermines Islam.

Najem Wali

Wali was born in Basra in 1956 and fled Saddam Hussein's regime in 1980. Today he lives in Hamburg, Germany. He is the author of the novel "Joseph's Picture." In 2007, he traveled to Israel, and uncovered some uncomfortable truths about the Arab leaders.  He reported on his experience an essay, "A journey into the heart of the enemy," an expanded version of which will be published as a book in 2009.