According to the BBC, "Professor Akbar Ahmed is probably the world’s best-known scholar on contemporary Islam.” He is the former High Commissioner of Pakistan to Great Britain, and has advised Prince Charles and met with President George W. Bush on Islam. He is now Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies and professor of international relations at American University in Washington, DC. Dr. Ahmed is a distinguished anthropologist, writer, and filmmaker. He has been actively involved in interfaith dialogue and the study of global Islam and its impact on contemporary society for many years

.Dr. Ahmed joined the Civil Service of Pakistan, the elite cadre of the Central Superior Services of Pakistan, in 1966. He held important posts in Pakistan and Bangladesh—including Commissioner, Quetta; Political Agent, South Waziristan Agency; Founder-Director General of the National Center for Rural Development, Islamabad. He resigned from service in the summer of 2000. Parallel to his civil service career, Dr. Ahmed was visiting professor at Harvard University, Cambridge University, and the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.

Dr. Ahmed is the author of many books on contemporary Islam, including Discovering Islam: Making Sense of Muslim History and Society, which was the basis of the BBC six-part TV series called “Living Islam”. His Postmodernism and Islam: Predicament and Promise was nominated for the Amalfi Award, and his “Jinnah Quartet,” a four-part project on Pakistan’s founding father, M.A. Jinnah, has won numerous international awards. His Islam Today: A Short Introduction to the Muslim World was rated among the best non-fiction books of the year by the Los Angeles Times. Professor Ahmed’s most recent book is Islam Under Siege: Living Dangerously in a Post-Honor World. The book was the subject of the award-winning “Dialogue” series at the Woodrow Wilson Center. His books have been translated into many languages, including Chinese and Indonesian.

Dr. Ahmed’s books Resistance and Control in Pakistan and Postmodernism and Islam have been revised and republished and were launched at the House of Commons in July by Lords, Members of Parliament, scholars and the media. They were also launched at the Politics and Prose bookstore, Washington, DC, on September 1, 2004. He also wrote the forward to Dr. Tamara Sonn’s recently published book A Brief History of Islam. He is co-editing After Terror with Dr. Brian Forst, which will be published by Polity Press in spring 2005.

Dr. Ahmed has delivered a number of keynote addresses to prestigious organizations. He addressed members of Congress at the bipartisan Congressional retreat in Greenbrier. He has lectured at the National Defense University, Foreign Service Training Institute, and the State Department. He has conducted courses on Islam as Chief Moderator for the Society of Fellows Seminar and the Socrates Society at the Aspen Institute, the Young President’s Organization, and the World Bank. He was the featured speaker in the Summer Speakers Series of the Aspen Institute in 2003. With Dr. Judea Pearl, father of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, Dr. Ahmed has been engaged in public dialogues across the country and abroad. Dr. Ahmed spoke with Dr. Judea Pearl at the House of Lords in London, where they were welcomed by a Jewish, a Muslim, and a Christian Lord. They also spoke at the residence of the US Ambassador in London. They spoke at the launch of the Jewish-Muslim Alliance at the reception hosted by the British Foreign Minister. They also met with UK’s Chief Rabbi and visited a Muslim and a Jewish school as part of the Chief Rabbi’s annual address to the nation recorded by BBC television.

Dr. Ahmed was invited to join the legendary figures in Anthropology’s Hall of Fame as part of the "Anthropological Ancestors" audio-visual interview series at Cambridge University in July 2004. He is the recipient of the Star of Excellence in Pakistan and the Sir Percy Sykes Memorial Medal given by the Royal Society of Asian Affairs in London. He is also the recipient of the 2002 “Free Speech Award” given by the Muslim Public Affairs Council, the 2004 Gandhi Center Fellowship of Peace Award, the Safeer Pakistan Award and the Coudert Institute Award. He was given the 2004 Scholar of the Year Award by the Pakistani-American Congress and nominated by American University for the national level Professor of the Year Award. He was appointed Trustee of the World Faiths Development Dialogue by the Archbishop of Canterbury. In 2003, he was appointed Charter Member of a national-level interfaith initiative based at the National Cathedral by the Bishop of Washington, DC. He was appointed to the World Wisdom Council and as Co-Chair of the “Hope Not Hate” Town Hall meetings in the US organized by the Americans for Informed Democracy in 2004. Dr. Ahmed was a member of the Oxford and Cambridge Club in London and is a member of the Cosmos Club in Washington, DC.

Dr. Ahmed has made frequent media appearances in the United Kingdom and the United States. He has been interviewed on CNN, MSNBC, PBS’s “Think Tank”, NBC Nightly News, NPR and BBC. He has appeared several times on the “Oprah Winfrey Show”. He serves on the advisory board of the Globalist and the editorial board for the Journal of Human Rights. Dr. Ahmed is a regular syndicated columnist for Religion News Service. The Washington Post carried a major story on the Ahmed-Pearl dialogue on August 1, 2004.

Click on links on top right  to learn about upcoming conferences, panels, and other events on Islam and interfaith dialogue featuring Dr. Ahmed.