Paul M. Barrett

Paul M. Barrett, for eighteen years a reporter and editor at The Wall Street Journal, where this book originated, currently directs the investigative reporting team at BusinessWeek. He is the author of The Good Black: A True Story of Race in America and American Islam: The Struggle for the Soul of a Religion.

Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl is one of the most important intellectuals on Islamic law and Islam in the modern age.   He is Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law where he teaches National Security law, Law and Terrorism, Human Rights law, Islamic law and Immigration law.  Dr. Abou El Fadl holds a B.A. in Political Science from Yale University, a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Islamic law from Princeton University.  Dr. Abou El Fadl is also an Islamic jurist and scholar, having received formal training in Islamic jurisprudence in Egypt and Kuwait. 

Among his many honors and distinctions, Dr. Abou El Fadl was recently named a Carnegie Scholar for 2005.  He was also appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as a commissioner on the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom.  He was previously a member of the Board of Directors of Human Rights Watch and continues to serve as a member of the Advisory Board of Middle East Watch, part of Human Rights Watch.  He regularly works with numerous human rights organizations including the Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights, Amnesty International and others.  He is regularly called as an expert in a wide variety of cases involving human rights, terrorism, political asylum, and international and commercial law.