John L. Esposito

Born in 1940 in the United States, John L. Esposito, who died on 15 July 2026, was one of the foremost scholars of Islam. University Professor (emeritus) at Georgetown University (Washington), he taught religion, international affairs and Islamic studies in the Walsh School of Foreign Service.

A specialist in contemporary Islam, political Islam and Muslim-Christian relations, he was the founding director of the Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU) and of The Bridge Initiative, a research project devoted to protecting pluralism and ending Islamophobia. He served as president of the Middle East Studies Association of North America, the American Academy of Religion and the American Council for the Study of Islamic Societies.

He was editor-in-chief of several Oxford University Press reference works, including The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, The Oxford History of Islam and The Oxford Dictionary of Islam. The author of more than fifty books, translated into many languages, he notably published Islam: The Straight Path (1988), Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam (2002), Who Speaks for Islam? (2008, with Dalia Mogahed) and The Future of Islam (2010).

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