Abdelwahab El-Effendi is reader at the Centre for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster, and co-ordinator of the Centre's Democracy and Islam Programme. He works on a project entitled „Narratives of Insecurity, Democratization and the Justification of Mass Violence“ and focuses on the study of Islamic liberalism, terrorism, European Muslims, and democracy promotion in the Middle East. In 2006 he won the Muslim News Allama Iqbal Award for Creativity in Islamic Thought, and he is a member of the Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia. He is a contributor the UN Arab Human Development Reports, and his recent publications include About Muhammad: The Other Western Perspective on the Prophet of Islam (2010), and The Conquest of Muslim Hearts and Minds: Perspectives on U.S. Reform and Public Diplomacy Strategies (2005).