Berkley Center

Rajil Abdelaziz is a Moroccan high school teacher and master’s student at Hassan II University in Casablanca. The title of his forthcoming research will be “Comparative Analysis of Political Practice Through the Stories of the Prophets”; it is focused on the unity of religion and politics. Additionally, he is a founding member of the NGO Afkar, which focuses on building critical thinking and dialogue skills in Moroccan youths and regularly employs interfaith or intercultural dialogue sessions. He is passionate about improving Morocco’s religious education and making it more inclusive, modern, and unbiased. Abdelaziz was a participant in the International Higher Education Interfaith Leadership Forum. He has a bachelor’s degree specializing in the future of religions within the Mediterranean basin region.

Rev. Joas Adiprasetya is the president of Jakarta Theological Seminary, where he teaches systematic theology and theology of religions. His passion is to bridge the academic and the ecclesial and to nurture Christian friendship with people from other faiths. His most recent book is An Imaginative Glimpse: The Trinity and Multiple Religious Participations (2013). He is also an active member of the Communion of Churches in Indonesia's Commission of Theology and the Network of Theologians of the World Communion of Reformed Churches. He was a participant in the International Higher Education Interfaith Leadership Forum. He holds a doctorate in theology from the School of Theology at Boston University.

Melody Fox Ahmed is the director of global programs at the National Cathedral School. She worked at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs from 2006 to 2018, most recently as the associate director for programs. At the center she oversaw the Doyle Engaging Difference Program, the Religion, Ethics, and World Affairs Certificate, and collaboration with the World Faiths Development Dialogue. She was a lead organizer of the President’s Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge, a White House Honor Roll program for which Georgetown was recognized as the national winner in 2015. She is a member of the U.S.-Pakistan Interreligious Consortium of Intersections International and served on the Department of State’s Strategic Dialogue with Civil Society Working Group on Religion Training and Tools. She received her B.A. from Vanderbilt University and her M.A. in global, international, and comparative history from Georgetown University, with a focus on Latin America and the Muslim world.

Abubaker Ahmed Al-Shingieti is the vice president for Islamic programs at the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy. He is also the regional executive director for the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), coordinating IIIT research work in Europe and North America, and president of American Muslims for Constructive Engagement. An expert on Muslim world affairs, Al-Shingieti has been a research associate at the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University. In addition, he served as editor of Islamic Horizons, a monthly magazine of the Islamic Society of North America, and was a founding member of the Society for Islamic Thought and Culture in Khartoum, Sudan. Al-Shingieti was a participant in the International Higher Education Interfaith Leadership Forum.

Dr. Zeenat Ali is a professor of Islamic studies at St. Xavier’s College in Mumbai. She leads a unique peace project in the city; now over three years old, the program includes a cricket match between two teams of Muslim, Hindu, and Christian clerics—strictly not distributed along religious lines—along with counterparts from other religions, played at the Brabourne Stadium. Ali also heads the World Institute of Islamic Studies for Dialogue, Organization of Mediation and Gender Justice. She was a participant in the International Higher Education Interfaith Leadership Forum.

Mohammed Badran is a co-founder of Syrian Volunteers in the Netherlands, an NGO with more than 600 volunteers helping older people with household tasks, caring for disabled children, tending public gardens, and bringing new ideas by and for newcomers. A Damascus native, when the war started in Syria he was studying interior design at Damascus University; he began to receive threats because of his humanitarian work with Syria Trust and UNHCR, eventually forcing him to leave. Badran's journey took him between the Middle East and West Africa, before he finally arrived in the Netherlands in 2013. He resumed his studies in cultural anthropology and development at the Free University in Amsterdam. As he gained a Dutch perspective on Europe’s struggle to support the growing number of Syrians and other nationalities fleeing war, he joined with friends to form Syrian Volunteers in the Netherlands. Badran was a participant in the International Higher Education Interfaith Leadership Forum.

Geoffrey Baines is an associate chaplain at the University of Edinburgh, where he served as the Methodist honorary chaplain for the past 10 years. During this time he has supported staff and students through a form of mentoring that values their uniqueness, providing a safe and non-judgmental space for anyone to explore their talents and hopes. Most recently, his work has included exploring how Theory U proposed by MIT's Presencing Institute can enable the transformation of business, society, and self; working on a course of religion and belief literacy; and developing the “What's University For?” project as a means of exploring a more holistic kind of university life. He was a participant in the International Higher Education Interfaith Leadership Forum.

Radia Bakkouch is the president of Coexister in France, an interfaith movement gathering youth of different faiths who are aged 15 to 35 years old. She is passionate about building bridges between communities, interreligious dialogue and actions, and peace education. Bakkouch previously interned for an NGO focused on Jewish-Muslim relations through education. She was a participant in the International Higher Education Interfaith Leadership Forum. Bakkouch graduated with a degree in international public management from the Paris School of International Affairs in Sciences Po Paris, where she specialized in Middle East studies and armed conflict.