Ayatollah Morteza al-Shirazi has written hundreds of articles and delivered hundreds of lectures at various institutes and universities in Iran, Kuwait, Syria, Saudi Arabia, London and the United States and wrote more than ten books. The most famous of which is titled Shura al-Fuqahaa (Council of Religious Authority); its first volume in 500 pages stirred a great fiqhi and ideological uproar in Iran and received a wide attention. It was taught at many shi'a theological seminaries.

Ayatollah al-Shirazi is famous for his cultural ideologies and open-minded intellectual style inspired by the school of his father, the late Imam al-Shirazi, who stressed the importance of consultation, freedom, equity and brotherhood. His students, whom he prepared and educated in the fields of fiqh, usool (basics of the creed) and the philosophy are present around world. He objected to all norms of political and ideological violence towards others, stressing that non-violence and peace are fundamentals of Islam.

Clovis Maksoud, former ambassador and permanent observer of the League of Arab States at the United Nations and its chief representative in the United States for more than 10 years, is director of AU's Center for the Global South. Founded in 1991, the center examines issues affecting the developing countries of the world, characterized as the Global South. The center has hosted forums at the UN conferences in Beijing , Copenhagen , Cairo , and Istanbul . A lawyer, journalist, and diplomat, Maksoud served as the League of Arab States ambassador to India and Southeast Asia from 1961 to 1966. Maksoud was also the League of Arab States special envoy to the United States in 1974.

As a journalist, Maksoud was senior editor of the daily Al-Ahram in Cairo , Egypt , and editor in chief of Al-Nahar, an Arabic-language weekly published in Beirut , Lebanon . He is the author of several books on the Middle East and developing countries. He teaches classes on the Middle East, Global South issues, international organizations, and preventive diplomacy at both the School of International Service and AU's Washington College of Law. Maksoud is fluent in French and Arabic.  

Dr. Louis J. Cantori has his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in political science. He studied Islamic philosophy for one year in the Faculty of Theology, al-Azhar University .

He is the author or editor of four books, including Local Politics and Development in the Middle East. He is the author of over forty articles , including "Modernization and Development " in The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World and "Civil Society, Liberalism and the Corporatist Alternative in the Middle East ," Middle East Studies Association Bulletin (1997) . He is presently co-editing for publication, Muslim Thought in the 20th Century.

He has been president of the American Council for the Study of Islamic Societies. He has held distinguished professorships at the US Military Academy, West Point , the US Air Force Academy and the US Marine Corps University.

He is Distinguished  Visiting Lecturer at the US Department of State . He is Adjunct Professor, US Marine Command and Staff College and the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Georgetown University and Professor of Political Science, University of Maryland , Baltimore County

Graduated from UW-Madison in May, 1990 Masters in Community Counseling from Winona State University in 1983.

Bachelors degree in Secondary Social Studies Education from St. Mary's College, Winona , Minnesota in 1981.

Sayyid Mustafa al-Qazwini was born in Iraq , he graduated from the religious seminary in Qum, Iran , came to the United States in 1994 and he is the founder of the Islamic Educational Center of Orange County, California and currently serving as the Imam. I have also published several books and articles in Arabic and English.