Dr. Louay M. Safi has a PhD in Political Science and is currently Visiting Professor at George Washington University, USA, as well as President of the Association of Muslim Social Scientists. He serves on the board of several leading Muslim organizations and is former Director of Research at the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), as well as former Editor of the American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences (AJISS). (2003). Louay M. Safi is a Syrian-American, a scholar of Islam and the Middle East, and an advocate of Arab and Muslim American rights. He published on such issues as social and political development, modernization, democracy, human rights, and Islam and Modernity. He is the author of 11 books and numerous papers, and speaker on questions of leadership, democracy, Islam, and the Middle East. He is also a spokesperson for the Syrian National Coalition, a league of Syrian opposition groups fighting Syrian President Assad, which was formed in November 2012 in Doha, Qatar. Louay Safi is also chairman of the Syrian American Council and testified in front of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission on Syria. He is currently a professor at The Qatar Faculty for Islamic Studies in Doha. Safi was born in Damascus where he received his early education. He moved to the United States in the early eighties where he received his B.Sc. in civil engineering, and later a M.A. and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. He has written books on social and political development, modernization, democracy, human rights, and Islam and the Middle East. Safi has served as a President of the Association of Muslim Social Scientists (1999–2003). He has also taught at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, the International Islamic University in Malaysia and George Washington University in Washington, DC. Safi served as executive director of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), Leadership Development Center (ILDC) (2004–2008), later he served as Director of Communications and Leadership for year 2009. He serves on the board of Muslim organizations, including the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID), and the Association of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS). He is a fellow with the Institute of Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU) and serves on the steering committee of the Muslim-Christian Initiative on the Nuclear Weapons Danger (MCI). He has appeared on radio and TV programs, including BBC, C-SPAN, CNN, Monte Carlo, Fox News, PBS, Wish TV, Middle East TV (MBC), Al-Jazeera TV, Voice of America, Malaysian television, and others.