Akbar Salahuddin Ahmed, is a Pakistani-American academic, author, poet, playwright, filmmaker and former diplomat.

[5][6][7] Ahmed was the First Chair of Middle East and Islamic Studies at the US Naval Academy, Annapolis, and a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution.

He completed his MA at Cambridge University and received his PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.

[3][12] He was also awarded the inaugural Purpose Prize in 2006 alongside Judea Pearl[8] and is frequently named in the annual book, The Muslim 500: The World's 500 Most Influential Muslims,[13] and was named a 2015 Global Thought Leader by The World Post and the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute.

[2][5] In 1978, Ahmed graduated with a PhD in Anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

[5][6][7] Ahmed was the First Chair of Middle East and Islamic Studies at the US Naval Academy, Annapolis, and a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Ahmed presented and narrated the six-part BBC TV series Living Islam (1993) and authored the accompanying book of the same name.

Ahmed's research interests focus on Pashtuns and others including tribal groups, Muslim society and development anthropology.

[5] In the aftermath of 9/11, Ahmed initiated a series of studies that were published by the Brookings Institution Press covering issues regarding relations between Islam and the West.

[8] He has also been appointed as a Trustee of the World Faiths Development Dialogue by the Archbishop of Canterbury and has received the 2002 Free Speech Award from the Muslim Public Affairs Council based in Washington DC.

[4] Ahmed has given lectures worldwide in places such as the US Congressional retreat in Greenbrier, West Virginia, the National Defense University in Washington DC, the State Department and the House of Lords in London.