John L. Esposito

John Louis Esposito (b. Brooklyn, New York City, 1940 - ) is an American of Italian ancestry. University Professor at Georgetown University, he is specialized in International Affairs and Islamic Studies. Esposito is also founding director of Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal center for Muslim-Christian understanding at Georgetown University, and the editor-in-chief of the four-volume The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, The Oxford History of Islam, and The Oxford Dictionary of Islam. He earned a Ph.D. degree from Temple University. Dr. Esposito spent a decade in a Catholic monastery, and received a masters in theology at St. John's University. Esposito also studied at Harvard, and Oxford University. He was the chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the College of the Holy Cross, a Jesuit college in Massachusetts.

Professor Esposito has served as consultant to the US Department of State and has been member of the World Economic Forum’s Council of 100 Leaders.

A focus on "Islamic fundamentalism" as a global threat has reinforced the tendency to equate violence with Islam, to fail to distinguish between illegitimate use of religion by individuals and the faith and practice of the majority of the world's Muslims who, like adherents of other religious traditions, wish to live in peace. To equate Islam and Islamic fundamentalism uncritically with extremism is to judge Islam only by those who wreak havoc--a standard not applied to Judaism and Christianity. Political Islam: Beyond the Green Menace.

Books

Professor Esposito is the author of over 35 books; some of them are:

• Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think, coauthored with Dalia Mogahed.
• Islam and Politics
• What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam
• The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality?
• Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam
• The Islamic World: Past and Present (editor, 3 volume set)
• Muslims on the Americanization Path and Daughters of Abraham (with Yvonne Haddad)
• Women in Muslim Family Law
• Voices of Resurgent Islam
• Islam in Transition
• Muslim Perspectives (with John Donohue)
• Islam in Asia: Religion, Politics, and Society
• Islam and Development

Awards

• Pakistan’s Quaid-i-Azzam Award for Outstanding Contributions in Islamic Studies.
• In 2003, The School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University Award for Outstanding Teaching.
• In 2005, the Martin E. Marty Award for the Public Understanding of Religion.

See also

• Arab American
• Arab

External links

• John L. Esposito.
• John L. Esposito. Georgetown University.
• John L. Esposito's Homepage.
• Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.

Further reading

• Islamic Movements? Self Criticism and Reconsideration... myIWC Forums.