Abdullah Saeed is the Sultan of Oman Professor of Arab and Islamic Studies, and the Director of the Centre for the Study of Contemporary Islam at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He has written widely on Islam and contemporary Muslim issues and is the author and editor of a number of books, including Interpreting the Qur'an (2006), Approaches to the Qur'an in Contemporary Indonesia (editor, 2005), Freedom of Religion, Apostasy and Islam (co-author 2004), Islam and Political Legitimacy (co-editor 2004), Islam in Australia (2003) and Islamic Banking and Interest (1996).