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You can understand your faith better when you learn about other religions.

Gaining informed knowledge is a necessary first step. Are you ready? Let’s do it!

If you and I were to sit down and have a meal to talk about Christianity and Islam, I’d tell you the most important lessons I’ve learned:

A lot of Christians and Muslims simply don’t know how to engage one another. The polemical approach taken by well-known advocates of both faiths isn’t working. Calling Islam a religion inspired by Satan, or Christianity a religion of Crusaders, as I’ve heard often, does more to promote hatred than spread truth in the service to others. These approaches and perspectives gain the admiration of believers, but true knowledge of individuals, their communities, and their lives, is lost.

If we only all knew how misinformed we were! The good news is that I’ve spent the last decade traveling the world and engaging with Muslims to help other Christians get informed, and speak with precision when they engage with Islam and Muslims. A little knowledge can be weaponized. But a full view of the complexity of Islamic traditions can help us move forward together, despite great differences.

We must learn to appreciate one another’s traditions. We don’t have to agree.

Join me and move beyond tolerance to engagement and deep education of another tradition.

This isn’t a ploy to make our Christian faith relative. Christians and Muslims are climbing entirely different mountains to God. But learning about Islam is a path to critical thinking and informed decision-making in our politics, personal lives, local communities, and global dialogues.

When we treat others with respect and dignity, and allow others to express their freedom of belief, we see positive change in society and our lives and communities. We are peacemakers and servants to all people.

Some churches and intellectuals have been doing it for centuries. But Evangelicals and Protestants are far behind. Too few seminaries and academic institutions have a Christian educator or program to study Islam in depth. And there is, unfortunately, little interest in it. It’s time we do something.

Let’s band together to make a positive difference in the lives of our students, congregations, seminaries, churches, and non-profit institutions. Ignoring the world’s largest religion as if it didn’t exist is not how we move forward for effective service.

I want to educate you, your team, and your community.

  • Winner of the two-year Fulbright fellowship, America’s flagship international academic exchange program, where he served as a cultural ambassador to Israel while undertaking academic research.

    Specialist in Islamic law and Christians and Jews living under it in the premodern, preindustrial period. My academic work is on the famous legal scholar Ibn Hanbal. I have written on him and the early Hanbali tradition extensively. I am currently working on a translation of an early legal manual on non-Muslims.

  • With a robust academic background spanning eight years in university instruction and curriculum development, coupled with four years of dedicated private coaching for high school students, Dr. Chris is a seasoned educator committed to nurturing essential skills in critical reading, writing, and analytical thinking.

    Specializing in content courses, Dr. Chris covers an array of subjects including English composition, narratology, history, language arts, and more. His teaching methodology is built on a foundation of comprehensive experience, fostering a deep understanding of these subjects among his students.

    Recognized as an exemplary educator, Dr. Chris has served as a model educator at UCLA, contributing significantly to the ESL department. His innovative teaching techniques and commitment to student success have earned him recognition.

    Experience firsthand the transformative power of Dr. Chris's teaching approach that seamlessly integrates theory and practice, nurturing a generation of adept critical thinkers poised for success.

  • Executive Director of the Study of Religions Across Civilizations (SORAC) hosted at Georgetown University. SORAC is a multi-faith program that builds intellectual solidarity and companionship between Jews, Christians, and Muslims in the United States, Europe, and the MENA region.

  • Currently, Dr. Chris is a research fellow at The Haifa Center for Mediterranean History and a researcher at the UCLA Sinai Manuscripts Portal.

    Over his career, he has won over 500l in fellowships and grants. A couple include:

    Mellon Award

    Foreign Language and Area Studies Program (FLAS)

    For more awards and honors, please see his CV.

  • Ph.D., UCLA, 2021

    M.A. Arabic, UCLA, 2018

    B.A. Theological Studies, The King’s University, 2013

    English Language Pedagogy, UCLA

    Arabic Language Pedagogy, UCLA

    Download his full CV/Resume

  • For two years, I led the 2019 and 2020 translation of “The Report on the State of Culture” for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

    Museums exhibitions:

    A Narrative Among Many, October 2021

    Asfar: Treasures of the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies

    I am currently working on the earliest surviving Islamic legal manual to exclusively treat non-Muslim communities. I wrote my 2021 PhD dissertation on this topic.

    Check out a recent publication on Christianity in Morocco: Covenantal pluralism and religious literacy in Morocco

Career Highlights

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