Abbas Barzegar, Ph.D. is the Director of Research and Advocacy at the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Visiting Researcher at Georgetown University’s Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, and a term-member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He has published widely across print and broadcast media outlets, and is the is the co-author of Islamism: Contested Perspectives on Political Islam (Stanford, 2009). His work has been supported by The European Union, The British Council, The US Institute of Peace (USIP), and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), among others.