Emory University News Release

Release date: Oct. 21, 2002

Middle East Experts Offer Expertise on Latest Developments

Journalists looking for expert and independent sources of information on politics, religion and military conflict in the Middle East may call on three particularly distinguished scholars of the region who currently serve on the faculty of Emory University. They are:

• Abdullahi An-Na’im, Professor, Emory Law School; Fellow, Law and Religion Program

A scholar, activist and reformer, An-Na’im has been called the "Martin Luther of modern Islam." He is a practicing Muslim who was jailed for his views while working as an attorney and university professor in his native Sudan in the 1980s. He is now director of the law school’s Religion and Human Rights Project, which is bringing together Islamic reformers from other nations to devise human rights strategies – an effort An-Na'im considers critical to the future of peaceful international relations.

An-Na’im questions whether some of the military options the U.S. is considering in Iraq would violate international law. Is the U.S. willing to compromise due process in the name of the "War on Terror?"

For more information, click here, or reach An-Na'im at 404-727-1198 (w), or aannaim@emory.edu.

• Gordon Newby, Professor, Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies; Executive Director, Institute for Comparative and International Studies

Newby is a scholar on the history of the Middle East whose latest book is "A Concise Encyclopedia of Islam" (2002). He hopes his book will "help more people in the English-speaking world understand and appreciate this religion," which is followed by one-fifth of the world’s population.

Newby questions whether policy-makers have determined how an invasion of Iraq would affect the rest of the Middle East, especially U.S. allies within the region. Newby is concerned that the United States has not demonstrated the ability to serve as a nation-builder in a post-war environment––including right now in Afghanistan.

For more information, click here, or reach Newby at 404-727-2717 (w), or gdnewby@emory.edu.

• Dan Reiter, Professor, Department of Political Science

Reiter is the recipient of this year’s prestigious Karl Deutsch Award from the International Studies Association. He also is the co-author of "Democracies at War," published earlier this year.

In his book, Reiter disputes the notion that democratic states find it harder than authoritarian governments to craft foreign policy and wage war. He finds that democracies win 80 percent of the wars in which they engage. Scholars at Yale, Duke and Harvard have praised the book for "going beyond the exploration of the causes of war to examine the political dynamics within war," and for answering the question, "Why do democracies win wars?"

For more information, click here or contact Reiter at 404-727-0111 (w), or dreiter@emory.edu.

(FOR BROADCAST JOURNALISTS ONLY): Emory has an on-campus television studio equipped with a fiber-optic connection, and also an ISDN line. Broadcast interviews with each of these three can be conducted live or on tape from this studio.