The Religious Other

Emad Botros is from Egypt. He is a Global Field Staff with Canadian Baptist Ministries, teaching in the area of Old Testament at the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary (ABTS). Emad’s research focuses above all on the intersection of the biblical text and the Qur’an. He has a PhD from McMaster Divinity College, Canada, where his research focuses on the intersection of the Minor Prophets Corpus and the Qur’an, particularly the book of Jonah and the Prophet Yunus.

Richard McCallum is a Senior Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Muslim- Christian Studies (OCMCS) and Lead Faculty for MENA Cultures in the MREL Program at Arab Baptist Theology Seminary (ABTS). He first travelled to North Africa in 1984 while studying for a BSc in Physics at Imperial College, London, and later lived in Tunis from 1992 to 2002 where he taught English and Linguistics at the Université de Tunis, having received an MA in Applied Linguistics. In 2011, Richard completed a PhD in Sociology at the University of Exeter looking at Christian responses to Islam in Britain and taught Sociology of Religion. In 2012, Richard moved to Oxford to work as a freelance researcher for both the Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies at Oxford and for the Cambridge Interfaith Program, particularly looking at the impact of recent interfaith initiatives and the teaching of Islam to Christian students. In November 2013, Richard joined the staff of OCMCS as a research fellow. He has also taught on various aspects of Islam and worked with Muslims at several colleges in the UK. Richard occasionally works as a freelance cross-cultural trainer and delivers intercultural workshops particularly for companies working in the Arab world.

Rose Mary Amenga-Etego is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Head of the Department for the Study of Religions, University of Ghana, Legon. She is also a Research Fellow at the Research Institute for Theology and Religion (RITR), University of South Africa, South Africa. Her research interests include topical issues in African Indigenous Religions, gender issues in religion and African culture, and methodological concerns of indigenous African scholars. Recent publications include: “The Practice of Traditional Medicine and Bioethical Challenges,” in Bioethics in African: Theories and Praxis (2018) and “Crossing Research Boundaries: ‘Our Nankani Daughter’ in Academia,” AASR E- Journal 4, no. 1 (2018). She is also the author of Mending the Broken Pieces: Indigenous Religion and Sustainable Rural Development in Northern Ghana (2011).

Abed Zieneldien is a Lecturer in Pastoral Ministries at the Arabic Baptist Theology Seminary (ABTS). He is a DMin candidate at Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri. Abed has written a few publications.

Karen Shaw lived in the Middle East from 1990–2019 and was Associate Professor of Cross-Cultural Ministry at the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary (ABTS) from 2008 2019. She also shepherded the International Community Church in Beirut, Lebanon. Karen and her husband now live in Sydney, Australia. She is the author of Wealth & Piety: Middle Eastern Perspectives for Expat Workers, as well as numerous articles, book chapters and presentations. She holds a doctorate in Cross-Cultural Ministry from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and a masters from Princeton Theological Seminary. Karen enjoys poetry and nature photography.

HAVILAH DHARAMRAJ, PhD (Durham, UK), is the Academic Dean at the South Asia Institute of Advanced Christian Studies, where she teaches Old Testament. She is one of the editors of, and a contributor to, the South Asia Bible Commentary.

Anton Deik is a Palestinian Christian from Bethlehem. He is a Lecturer in Biblical Studies at Bethlehem Bible College (online) and works as an e-learning consultant for theological colleges in Palestine and Bolivia. Anton is currently a PhD candidate in New Testament Studies at the University of Aberdeen and Trinity College, Bristol, and is also a networking team member of the International Fellowship of Mission as Transformation. Previously, Anton worked as the Director of Online Education at Bethlehem Bible College, and he served with Operation Mobilization on board MV Logos Hope. He also has several years of experience working on computer science research projects with Birzeit University and the Palestinian government. Anton holds an MA (with merit) in Biblical Studies from London School of Theology and a bachelor’s degree in computer systems engineering from Birzeit University.

Ida Glaser is the International Academic Coordinator and Founding Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Muslim Christian Studies, where she oversees a number of international projects. She previously taught in the areas of Qur’an and Bible, and the history of Muslim-Christian dialogue at the University of Edinburgh, and her personal research interests focus on reading the Bible in the context of Islam. She is an associate staff member at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. Ida has taught physics in Islamic contexts and done church-based outreach in multi-racial, inner-city Britain. She has worked among people of other faiths for Crosslinks, the Anglican Mission Agency, and is a past director of Faith to Faith, a Christian consultancy about other faiths. Her doctorate examined Genesis 1–11 in the context of parallel qur’anic material. She has taught Muslim-Christian relations at the post-graduate level in Jamaica, Nigeria, the Philippines and the UK.

Warrick Farah holds a doctorate in Missiology from Fuller Theological Seminary. He serves as a missiologist and theological educator in the Middle East with One Collective (onecollective.org). His research on conversion, theological paradigms of witness, and “insiderness” has been published in journals such as Evangelical Missions Quarterly, International Journal of Frontier Missiology and Global Missiology. He is co-editor of the book Margins of Islam: Ministry in Diverse Muslim Contexts.

Anna Turner is a poet and playwright from the UK, now living in the Middle East. She loves exploring how creativity can help us to reflect the Creator God and draw us closer to him and to one another.

Teresa Sfeir graduated from the Lebanese University with a Masters degree in English Literature in 2018. She worked as an English Language Teaching (ELT) textbook editor at Educational Research Center (Librairie du Liban Publishers) from 2011 to 2016. Since 2016, she has been working at the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary as a Communication and Editing Officer.

Ashoor Yousif is an Assyrian-Iraqi Christian who is fluent in Arabic and Assyrian in addition to his knowledge of Aramaic, Hebrew and Syriac. His teaching portfolio includes multiple universities and seminaries in Canada and the Middle East, including Tyndale University, University of Toronto, and the Arabic Baptist Theological Seminary (ABTS) in Lebanon. His interdisciplinary research focuses on the history of Middle Eastern Christianity, Christian-Muslim relations, and Islamic history, religion and culture during the early Abbasid caliphate (750–950). His doctoral thesis “Allah’s Deputy and Christ’s Apostle: The Early Abbasid Ruler in Syriac and Syro-Arabic Sources” examines the interaction of Muslim rulers and Christian clergies, and the religious and political impact of Islam on the presence and status of Christian communities within the caliphate. He has taught and lectured on various topics including the history of Middle Eastern and North African Christianity, the history of Christian-Muslim relations, Middle Eastern religions and cultures, and Islam.

Daniel (Dan) Brown is an American based in Istanbul, Turkey. He directs the Institute for the Study of Religion in the Middle East (ISRME). The focus of ISRME is on the multi-disciplinary study of religious phenomena including religious texts, ideas and belief systems, and also the rituals, histories and social structures of religious communities. In addition, he is the author of Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought (Cambridge) and A New Introduction to Islam (Wiley-Blackwell). He was awarded a doctorate in Islamic Studies from the University of Chicago and has taught at Mount Holyoke College and Smith College and has been a visiting scholar at the Islamic University in Islamabad, the Institute of Islamic Culture in Lahore, Cairo University and Oxford University. His interests include modern Muslim intellectual history, Hadith studies and Muslim-Christian relations.

Issa Diab is Lebanese. He is Professor of Semitic and Interfaith Studies (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) and Global Translation Adviser at the United Bible Societies. Further, he is a Bible interpreter and translation consultant for the United Bible Societies and regular lecturer throughout Lebanon and the Middle East, having taught at Saint Joseph University, the Near East School of Theology (NEST), Hagazian University, Middle East University and Arab Baptist Theological Seminary among others. He holds a total of four doctorates in the following fields: New Testament Studies, Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations, Islamic Culture and Society, and Old Testament Studies. He is a prolific author of articles and books.

Muhammad Al-Arabi is Egyptian and was raised in a Sunni Muslim family. Beside his daily business work, he is involved in mentoring others in their journey with Christ as well as peace building initiatives.

Susan Azzam is from the Shouf area of Lebanon. She is from a Druze background and became a believer in 2004 when she and her family started attending church where she became engaged in ministry. She is currently leading her own ministry in Allay.

Shirin Bahrami is an Iranian and French citizen. She is a committed counselor with ten years’ experience providing professional counselling services. She is a member of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). She has worked with clients who deal with trauma, abuse, depression, addictions, marital difficulties, anger, anxiety, grief, self-harm and relational conflicts. Working in both France and the UK, she has developed the ability to work with different nationalities and backgrounds. She graduated with a Computer Science and Linguistics degree from Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris III and received her Counselling degree from Nottingham University, UK. She is the owner of Healing 4 Living ministry whose purpose is to bring inner healing for men and women who are abused or marginalized in Muslim societies, and to help them to explore their God-given purpose, which empowers them to work toward positive change in the world around them.

George Bristow is an American who is based in Turkey. He earned his PhD from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Having lived in Istanbul since 1987, he has served since 2009 as coordinator of a theological training network working with churches in Turkey. He is a research fellow with the Institute for the Study of Religion in the Middle East and is the author of Sharing Abraham?: Narrative Worldview, Biblical and Qur’anic Interpretation and Comparative Theology in Turkey and The Promise of God: God’s Unchangeable Purpose through Human History. He is also the author of Sürgün Ve Ötesi: Kutsal Kitaptaki Daniel, Hagay, Zekeriya Ve Malaki Bölümleri Üzerine Yorum, a commentary on Daniel, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.

Senem Ekener was born and raised in the Asia Minor of the Bible. She graduated from Istanbul University with a BA in philosophy. After working in the secular media industry, Senem completed an extension program in media at the University of California, Los Angeles. She became a follower of Christ in 2002 after a strong encounter with the Holy Spirit. She is a member of Pera Resurrection Church, where she serves on the council and is part of the worship and preaching team. Senem has been serving as the country director of the Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM) Turkey office since 2007, also as a speaker and teacher. Senem has produced many television and radio programs and is a regular program producer and host for SAT-7 Turk, a Christian satellite television channel. Her burden is to share the good news of Jesus with the Turkish speaking audiences and defend the uniqueness of Christ through the fields of academics, media, arts, society and the church. Senem also regularly teaches seminars with Hasat (Harvest) Ministries in Turkey.

Amal Gendi was born in Egypt and lives in Canada. He has much experience serving the people of the Middle East and North African region. He holds a doctorate in Ministry from Tyndale University College and Seminary focused on identifying and addressing barriers to discipleship in the Middle East. He also holds a Master of Theological Studies from the same institution. Dr Gendi currently serves as Missionary Theologian and Muslim Ministries Coordinator with Pioneers Canada as well as Dean of Bachelor’s Studies and Ministry Training with Pioneers International. He is the former Executive Director of Arab World Ministries and currently serves as adjunct professor with Heritage Baptist College and Theological Seminary and visiting professor with Tyndale University College and Seminary.

Nabil Habiby is a youth pastor who also works as a Dean of Students at the Nazarene School in Beirut. He is a lecturer in the New Testament at the Arab Nazarene Bible College and an adjunct faculty member and lecturer in the New Testament at Arab Baptist Theological Seminary (ABTS). He is also a part-time doctoral student at the Nazarene Theological College in Manchester, UK, where he is researching the relationship between impurity and demonic spirits and doing a conceptual study on the relationship of the two in the Ancient Near East, the Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism. He is also conducting a narrative-spatial reading of the mentions of “impure spirits” in Mark. He holds a master’s degree from Nazarene Theological College, Manchester.

Hiba al-Haddad and her husband, Rafed, are currently finishing their final year toward a Bachelor of Theology at the Arab Baptist Theology Seminary (ABTS). They have a daughter called Milia and a son called Shadi. Both Rafed, Hiba and their two children fled their hometown in Syria early in the war, leaving their destroyed house behind, and they came to Lebanon four years later. Hiba currently leads Bible studies with refugee women at the Oasis Ministry Center run by the Free Evangelical Church of Beirut. They intend to start a home group ministry when they return to Syria.

Chaden Hani was born and raised in a Druze community in the Lebanese mountain area. She received her BA in Computer Science from Beirut University College before travelling to Europe where she became a follower of Christ in the year 2000. She had a conviction that God wanted her and her family to serve him in the Druze community. Back in Lebanon she and her family joined a local church for ten years during which she obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Theology from The Arabic Baptist Theological Seminary (ABTS) and her Master’s degree in Religion from the Institute of Middle East Studies (IMES) which is based at ABTS. She currently works as a Peacebuilding Initiatives Coordinator at IMES and co-pastors a local church of believers from a Druze background together with her husband.

Alexander (Alex) Massad is in the final stages of a PhD in Intercultural Studies from Fuller Theological Seminary and currently serves as an adjunct professor at California Lutheran University. His research focuses on how religious identities are formed through historically contextualizing theological dialogue between Muslims and Christians. In addition, he is interested in religion and politics, international relations, religious studies and pedagogy. He holds a Master of Theology and Religious Studies from Georgetown University and a Master of Middle Eastern and South Asia Languages and Cultures from the University of Virginia.

Michel and Jainane Mattar are longstanding ministers in Lebanon. They lead a church and an organization that serves displaced Syrians and Iraqis as well as disadvantaged Lebanese people. As part of Triumphant Mercy Ministries Lebanon, they operate a community center, facilitate schools for refugee children and youth, organize day camps, run vocational assistance trainings, assist with medical emergencies, and facilitate spiritual activities such as Bible studies and praise.

Michel and Jainane Mattar are longstanding ministers in Lebanon. They lead a church and an organization that serves displaced Syrians and Iraqis as well as disadvantaged Lebanese people. As part of Triumphant Mercy Ministries Lebanon, they operate a community center, facilitate schools for refugee children and youth, organize day camps, run vocational assistance trainings, assist with medical emergencies, and facilitate spiritual activities such as Bible studies and praise.

Lawrence Oseje is a Langham Scholar and earned his PhD in Interreligious Studies from Africa International University (AIU). He is an ordained minister of the gospel and has served as a pastor for twelve years in one of the largest cities in Kenya. He pioneered a department in Islam for Missions and Ministry in Uganda Christian University (UCU). Currently he is a lecturer and adjunct faculty in Missions and Interreligious Studies at a number of other universities and seminaries across Africa, including Africa International University, Nairobi, Kenya; Africa College of Theology, Kigali, Rwanda; and Regent University in the USA. His travels in many nations of the world training pastors, missionaries and other Christian leaders have given him a richer appreciation of people and their cultural values. Lawrence is married to Dorcas, and together they are blessed with three children, Jael, Emmanuel and Rosebell.

Grant Porter serves as the Program Director for Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia for Cornerstone Trust. Originally from Australia, Grant and his wife, Laura, until recently lived and served in Lebanon focusing on mobilization, evangelism, church planting and ministry partnering. They have three children and three grandkids and live in Michigan, USA. Grant earned his PhD from Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, focused on church-planting practices in the Middle East.

Gamal Zaki is Egyptian and was raised in a Sunni Muslim family. He is very active in training youth across the country in the areas of peace building and Christian-Muslim dialogue.