The East-West Foundation

Prof. Dr. Iqbal Akhtar

Iqbal S. Akhtar is an American academic and public intellectual known for his work in religious studies, international relations, and philanthropy. He is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Politics & International Relations at Florida International University (FIU). Akhtar has also served as a Program Director for the Templeton Religion Trust and has been actively involved in various non-profit and governmental roles.

Interview with Iqbal from HistoryMiami

Education

Akhtar holds a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Edinburgh, an M.A. in Religious Studies from the University of Denver, an M.A. in Political Science and International Relations from Tulane University, and an A.B. in Political Science and Jewish, Islamic, & Near Eastern Studies from Washington University in St. Louis.

Academic Career

Since 2012, Akhtar has been an Associate Professor at Florida International University, holding a joint appointment in the Departments of Religious Studies and Politics & International Relations. At FIU, he has served as the Founding Director of Western Indian Ocean Studies and the Director of Jain Studies.

His accomplishments at FIU include:

• Establishing the first academic Jain Studies Center in North America with a $3.5 million endowment.
• Founding the first U.S. research center for Western Indian Ocean Studies, securing over $1 million in grants.
• Leading FIU’s Fulbright strategy, contributing to the university’s ranking as the 6th largest producer of Fulbright Scholars in 2022.
• Developing and teaching over ten graduate and undergraduate courses to more than 2,000 students.
• Mentoring and graduating 23 Master’s students.

In 2007, Akhtar was a USNORTHCOM Visiting Professor at the U.S. Air Force Academy, where he taught courses on Geopolitics and Asian Politics.

Philanthropy and Non-Profit Work

From 2021 to 2025, Akhtar served as the Program Director for the Covenantal Pluralism Initiative at the Templeton Religion Trust in The Bahamas. In this role, he managed a $30 million grants portfolio with global partnerships and developed the Templeton Covenantal Pluralism Index to identify global trends in pluralism.

Akhtar is the founder of Miami Interfaith, an organization launched after October 7, 2023, to foster Muslim-Jewish dialogue and interfaith cooperation in South Florida. He is also the Executive Director of The East-West Foundation, a non-profit that applies Eastern ethics to address issues in underserved communities. His work with the foundation includes designing an early childhood curriculum on Miami’s Native and African history, leading the restoration of Florida’s first African American mosque, and developing a community garden in Brownsville.

Additionally, Akhtar has served as the Chairman of the Children’s College Foundation in Slidell, Louisiana, where he supported an early learning center for underserved children and co-authored four DOE-funded children’s books in English, French, and Swahili.

Government and Public Service

Akhtar’s government experience includes working as a Cultural Affairs Intelligence Officer for the U.S. Northern Command, where he provided intelligence analysis on the Muslim world during the Global War on Terrorism. He received the Armed Forces Civilian Service Award for his service during Hurricane Katrina and was recognized as Civilian of the Quarter by NORAD-USNORTHCOM. He held a Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) security clearance.

He also worked for the U.S. Department of State in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs on the Israel-Palestine Desk, where he contributed to the 2001 PLO Compliance and Commitment Act report and briefed the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee during the Second Intifada.

Fellowships

Akhtar has been a U.S. Fulbright Scholar in both Pakistan and Tanzania. In Pakistan, he established a network of scholars to study non-Muslim heritage and advocated for the preservation of Jain heritage. In Tanzania, he conducted research on racial and religious dynamics for the U.S. Embassy and advised on U.S. policy in the Horn of Africa. He also held a National Security Education Fellowship in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, where he researched school curricula and worked on digitizing manuscripts at The National Archives of Pakistan.

Publications

Akhtar has authored and co-authored several books and articles.

Books:

• Covenantal Pluralism. Springer: Dordrecht, 2025.
• The Khoja of Tanzania: Discontinuities of a Postcolonial Religious Identity. Brill: Leiden, 2015.

Selected Articles and Book Chapters:

• Akhtar, Iqbal S. and Bhalloo, Zahir. “Les manuscrits du sud de la vallée de l’Indus en écriturekhojkī sindhi: état des lieux et perspectives.” Asiatische Studien. Berlin, De Gruyter. (2019).
• Akhtar, Iqbal S. “Iqbal Akhtar Exploring Ethno-Religious Identities of Khōjā: Preliminary Notes on a Missing Homeland.” In Global Diasporas in Age of High Imperialism, edited by U. Kirchberger, et al., 177-186. Berlin: Peter Lang GmbH, 2018.
• Akhtar, Iqbal S. “South Asian Muslims in East Africa.” In Routledge Handbook of Africa-Asia Relations, edited by P. Raposo et al., 60-75. Abingdon: Routledge, 2017.
• Akhtar, Iqbal S. “Religious citizenship: the case of globalized Khōjā.” Journal of Indian Ocean Region 10, no. 2 (2014): 219-236.
• Akhtar, Iqbal S. “The Anthropology of Dreams and Dreaming among Muslim Communities.” Anthropology of the Contemporary Middle East and Central Eurasia 2, no. 1 (2014).
• Akhtar, Iqbal S. “Negotiating the Racial Boundaries of Khōjā Caste Membership in Late 19th Century Colonial Zanzibar (1878-1899).” Journal of Africana Religions 2, no. 3 (2014).

Languages

Akhtar is a polyglot with varying levels of proficiency in several languages. He is a native English speaker and has advanced proficiency in Kachchhi and Classical Arabic. He has intermediate proficiency in Spanish, Urdu/Hindi, Gujarati, and Swahili, and elementary proficiency in Sanskrit.