Ahmed, Akbar S.: - Akbar Ahmed is one of the world's leading scholars of Islam and a former Pakistani High Commissioner to the UK and Ireland. He is the author of a landmark quartet on Islam and the West-Journey into Islam, Journey into America, The Thistle and the Drone, and Journey into Europe-published by Brookings Institution Press and widely acclaimed for their ethnographic insight. He has taught at American University, Cambridge, Harvard, and Princeton, and his recent work The Flying Man explores Islam's contributions to science and philosophy. Honored with the Star of Pakistan, the Gandhi Peace Award, and the Mensch Award, Ahmed has been praised by the BBC as "the world's leading authority on contemporary Islam."