Sherman A. Jackson (Abdul Hakim Jackson) is a specialist in Islamic law and theology. He is currently Arthur F. Thurnau professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Visiting Professor of Law and Professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Dr. Jackson is a cofounder of the American Learning Institute for Muslims. He is extensively published within academia and is a noted expert of the constitutional jurisprudence of Shihab al-Din al-Qurafi– specifically, concepts of constitution, tyranny and power within Islamic law. He is author of Islamic Law and the State: The Constitutional Jurisprudence of Shihbab al-Din al Qarafi (Brill, 1996), On the Boundaries of Theological Tolerance in Islam: Abu Hamid al-Ghazali’s Faysal al-Tafriqa (Oxford, 2002), Islam and the Problem of Black Suffering (Oxford 2009). Dr. Jackson received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in Islamic Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. Previously, he has taught Arabic and Islamic studies at the University of Texas at Austin, Indiana University, and Wayne State University.