I have always wondered about the roots of modern day Islamophobia? When did it start? How did it develop? How was it formed? In this interview, Deanna Womack takes us into her new book “Re-inventing Islam: Gender and the Protestant Roots of American Islamophobia” where she examines the connection between the history of missions and contemporary Islamophobia. Along the way, she provides a more nuanced understanding of missionaries, their lives, goals and aspirations. Many of them would eventually became champions of interfaith dialogue and build bridges between the civilizations.
The Rev. Dr. Deanna Ferree Womack is Associate Professor of History of Religions and Interfaith Studies at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology. She teaches courses on Christian-Muslim relations, interreligious dialogue, and Middle Eastern Christianity. From 2022 to 2025 she directed Candler’s Master of Arts in Religion and Leadership program, and she served from 2015 to 2020 as director of the Leadership and Multifaith Program (LAMP), established with the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts at Georgia Tech. Womack came to Candler from Princeton Theological Seminary, where she earned her MDiv, ThM and PhD. She is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Dr. Younus Y. Mirza is a Visiting Researcher at Georgetown University and Director of the Barzinji Institute for Global Virtual Learning at Shenandoah University which seeks to improve America’s relationship with Muslim-majority countries. He is currently writing a book about the Islamic Mary. To learn more about his scholarship, teaching and speaking, please visit his website http://dryounusmirza.com
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