Hamid Dabashi is the Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York. He has written extensively in major publications and peer-reviewed journals on a variety of topics including religion, literature, cinema and philosophy. He founded Dreams of a Nation, a Palestinian Film Project, dedicated to preserving and safeguarding Palestinian cinema. He is also a public speaker, a current affairs essayist (contributing opinion pieces regularly to the Al-Jazeera website), and a staunch anti-war activist. His most recent book is The End of Two Illusions: Islam after the West.