Ed Husain is senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), where he focuses on trends within Arab Islamism, perceptions of the West in the Arab World, and U.S. policy toward the Middle East.

Formerly an activist of Jamat-e-Islami, Hizb ut-Tahrir, and Muslim Brotherhood front organizations in the United Kingdom, Husain has now become a strong critic of extremism and Islamism. He writes and speaks extensively on international threats from radicalization and terrorism. He has lived in Syria and Saudi Arabia, and speaks Arabic.

Husain is the author of The Islamist (Penguin, 2007), which was a finalist for the George Orwell prize for political writing. His next book is The Sufis (Penguin, forthcoming in 2013). He has appeared on CNN, Fox, NPR, BBC, Al-Jazeera, and has been published in the New York Times, Financial Times, Guardian, National Review, and Jewish Chronicle, among other media outlets.

Husain holds an MA from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

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