Islamic Perspectives on the New Millennium

Contributors

CONTRIBUTORS Azyumardi Azra is Professor of History and also Rector of the State Islamic University (UIN) Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta. He is widely known for his many academic publications on Islam in Southeast Asia and for his media commentaries on contemporary Indonesian affairs. M. B. Hooker is Professor of Law at the Australian National University and was formerly Professor of Comparative Law at the University of Kent, Canterbury. He is widely known for his writings on Islamic law in Southeast Asia. His Indonesian Islam: Social Change through Contemporary Fatawa has recently been published (Allen & Unwin, 2003). Virginia Hooker is Professor of Indonesian and Malay at the Australian National University. Her published work includes studies of Islam and social change in Malaysia and in Indonesia. Gholamali Khoshroo was formerly Deputy Foreign Minister for Research and Education in the Islamic Republic of Iran. He was a member of the delegation of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations before being appointed Ambassador to Australia for the Islamic Republic of Iran. His doctorate is in sociology and he has served as Dean of the Faculty of International Relations, affiliated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Currently he serves as Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs in Tehran. Nur Ahmad Fadhil Lubis is Professor of Islamic Law at the State Institute of Islamic Studies (IAIN), North Sumatra and is currently a Vice-Rector. He is well known for publications on Islamic law and finance. Nurcholish Madjid is Professor of Islamic Studies and Rector of Paramadina Mulya University, Jakarta. An outstanding Indonesian scholar, speaker, public figure, and a prolific writer, he was also a candidate for the Indonesian presidential elections in 2004. Mohamed Aris Othman is Dean of the Faculty of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences, International Islamic University, Kuala Lumpur. His published work includes studies of Malay identity, urbanization, and constitutional development in Malaysia. Samsu Rizal Panggabean is Head of the Centre for Peace and Security Studies and member of the Department of International Relations, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta. He is on the Editorial Board of prominent Islamic journals, and he researches peace initiatives in Indonesia and the Middle East as well as Southeast Asian pluralism and Islamic thought in the twentieth century. Kathryn Robinson is Senior Fellow, Anthropology, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University. She has published widely on gender relations in Southeast Asia and the anthropology of the Islamic peoples of Indonesia, especially in Sulawesi. She is the editor of The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology and consultant for numerous aid projects in Indonesia and editor (with Sharon Bessell) of Women in Indonesia: Gender, Equity and Development (Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2002). Abdullah Saeed is Sultan of Oman Professor of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Melbourne. His recent publications include Islamic Banking and Interest (1999), Muslim Communities in Australia (co-edited, 2001), Islam and Political Legitimacy (co-edited, 2003), Islam in Australia (2003), and Freedom of Religion, Apostasy and Islam (co-authored, 2004). Amin Saikal is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies (Middle East and Central Asia), Australian National University. He is a regular media commentator on crises in Afghanistan and the Middle East and has published many books on Islam and international relations. His most recent books are Islam and the West: Conflict or Cooperation (2003) and Modern Afghanistan: A History of Survival and Struggle (2004). x Contributors Ahmad Shboul is Associate Professor and Co-ordinator of Arab, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, School of Languages and Cultures, University of Sydney. His many writings include A History of Arab Islamic Civilization (Amman, 1992) and Al-Mas’udi and His World: A Muslim Humanist and His Interest in Non-Muslims (London, 1979). Samina Yasmeen is Senior Lecturer in International Politics, Department of Political Science, University of Western Australia, Perth. She was formerly Senior Research Fellow for a UNESCO project at the Ministry of Education, Government of Pakistan, and Research Specialist in Defence for the Legislative Research Service of the Australian Parliament. xi Contributors ...