Bruce Lawrence earned his PhD. from Yale University in the study of History of Religions: Islam and Hinduism, and has researched topics such as Institutional Islam and is an expert of Indo-Persian Sufism in all periods as well as the comparative study of religious movements. He currently serves as a Nancy and Jeffrey Marcus Humanities Professor of Religion at Duke University and has published numerous books such as Shahrastani on the Indian Religions, and The Rose and the Rock: Mystical and Rational Elements in the Intellectual History of South Asian Islam. He is also known for his recent Shattering the Myth: Islam Beyond Violence. Lawrence is currently engaged in a 2 year Carnegie project on minority citizenship. His focus has been on Christian minorities of Egypt and Indonesia and Muslim minorities of Ethiopia and the Philippines.