Yunus Dumbe
I am Yunus Dumbe, a doctoral student of the Religions Department, University of Ghana, Legon. The title of my dissertation is "Transnational Contacts and Muslim Religous Orientation in Ghana". Between 2004 and 2008, I was a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Ghana, Legon and the Accra City Campus. I joined the Centre for Contemporary Islam at the University of Cape Town as an affiliate research fellow from March 2008 to February 2009, and undertook a research project on the Salafiyya movement in Africa, specifically in Cape Town, South Africa and Accra, Ghana.
Since February 2009, I have returned to Ghana and have produced the first paper on the Salafiyya debacle in Cape Town, and am working on a paper from my doctoral thesis on the "Islamic Resurgence in Ghana, the sectarian perspective". I hope to complete the comparative studies on the Salafiyya movement in Africa towards the end of the year. While in Ghana, I am exploring other areas for future research and hope to organise data in that regard.

Mohamed Mraja
I am a Kenyan from the ancient and famous coastal town of Mombasa. I lecture at the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Moi University in Eldoret (Kenya). I am a graduate of the Albert-Ludwigs University, Freiburg (Germany), where I undertook my doctorate studies in 2003-2007. The book, Islamic Impacts on Marriage and Divorce among the Digo of Southern Kenya, published by Ergon in Germany is the outcome of his dissertation. I am currently a postdoc fellow in UCT under the NRF project researching on the role of contemporary Muslim scholars in Tanzania. For further information or future correspondence, please feel free to email me.

Onur Atalay
I'm a Turkish citizen currently working towards my Phd thesis at University of Cape Town. I submitted my MA degree in 2005 in International Relations at Galatasaray University, on Euroscepticism and Eurasianism in Turkey. The original title of my thesis was "La Coalition de la Pomme Rouge" and it was recently published in Turkish as well. I have received my B.Sc degree from Bosphorus (Bogazici) University (formerly known as Robert College ), the first American University in Turkey , from the Political Science and International Relations Department in 2001. I translated six books fromn English to Turkish (mostly on history and inter-faith dialogue). During my senior year in the college and during my Master's degree, my coursework and research was mostly focused on democratization in the Third World countries, political religions, perception of EU in Turkey, Islamist Movements during the Modern Era and Kemalism.

Ahmad Shams Madyan
I am Indonesian. I took my BA at the university of al-Azhar Cairo-Egypt, majoring Qur'anic Studies. my master was in CRCS (Center for Religious and Cross Cultural Studies) Gajah Mada University Indonesia, and I am now a Ph.D. student at ICRS (Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies) Yogyakarta-Indonesia. I am an Affiliated Researcher at UCT and my research interest is to look at the negoitation of power, agency and resistance in the context of Islamic responses to HIV and AIDS and people living with it in Indonesia

Lentswe Molefi
I am your everyday, ordinary religious studies student, deeply engaged in fundamental issues of religion. I don't know any better life! Broadly speaking, my research interest concerns the nature of God, and much narrower and my thesis is on miracles with a particular focus.

Liazzat Bonate
I am a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Cape Town, working on transnational Islamic NGOs and Muslim publics in Mozambique. I have been an Assistant Professor at the Centre for African Studies, Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo, Mozambique. I earned my first BA and MA degrees at Kazakh State University in Almaty, USSR, followed by an MA in Islamic Societies and Cultures from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, UK and another MA in African history and anthropology from Northwestern University in the USA. I completed PhD degree in African History at the University of Cape Town in 2007.

Brannon Ingram
I am currently a research affiliate at the Centre for Contemporary Islam, and am conducting research in South Africa for my Ph.D. degree in Islamic studies from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Broadly speaking, my research interests include South Asian Sufism, South Asian Islam in transnational and transregional contexts, debates/polemics over the normative status of Sufism, as well as media and Muslim publics. My dissertation work examines debates over Sufism and Sufi practices in South Africa since the 1960's, particularly among Muslims affiliated with the Deoband school."

Shanaaz Hendricks
I was born in Johannesburg, grew up in Cape Town. I graduated with a B.A. (Islamic Studies) from the International Peace University South Africa (IPSA) in 2007. I am pursuing my Honours Degree in the Relgious Studies Department under the supervision of Professor Abdulkader Tayob. My topic is an overview of the Mosques in Mitchell's Plain, specifically on the first two mosques established in the area. The focus is on the social and political pressures and factors that has affected the people of Mitchell's Plain, as well as the role of the Mosque in these instances. The thesis will suggest that the Mosque took on many characteristics and that although it had to overcome many obstacles it was a place of protection and provision for many of the Muslims in this area.

Jihad Omar
Graduated from Indiana University at South Bend in 2006 with a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communications, majoring in Journalism with a minor in Political Science. Worked at a community-based religious radio station in Cape Town in the news department and as a producer of current-affairs shows. Currently pursuing a Master's in the Department of Religious Studies at UCT examining the convergence of religion and media, particularly focused on the emergence of Muslim radio stations in Tanzania and its impact on public identity.

Muhammad Khalid Sayed
I am South African citizen brought up in Cape Town. After matriculating in 2002 from Islamia College Cape Town, I pursued and completed a Diploma in Islamic Studies and Arabic at the Islamic College of Southern Africa (ICOSA), Cape Town in 2003. I graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Religious Studies at the University of Cape Town in 2007. I am currently pursuing a Master's degree in Religious Studies. My main area of research, which I am currently developing, is the history of Madrasas in South Africa from the mid 1980s into the post-apartheid period. I am currently in Damascus, Syria undertaking studies in Arabic at the Damascus University and Shariah at the Howzaat (Islamic Seminaries) in al-Sayyidah Zaynab.