Understanding Islam in Indonesia and Its Relations with Other Religions and other parts of the world.
An Indonesian scholar of Islam, Religions, and Southeast Asian Studies. Raised by a Muslim Bantenese-Betawi parent, Ali was educated in reading the Qur'an and performing Islamic ritual before being sent to traditional and modern Islamic schools in Jakarta and West Java. Ali attended the State Institute for Islamic Studies, specializing in the Tafsir and Hadith in the Department of Ushuluddin. Ali also obtained a Magister Manajement-Certificate d'Aptitude a l'Administration des Entreprises a double degree in international management from the University of Grenoble, Paris and the University of Indonesia, Jakarta. He then obtained an MSc in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at Edinburgh University, Scotland. He went to the University of Hawai`i at Manoa, in the U.S. to pursue a PhD in History in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, World, and Europe. After completion, he became an assistant professor and currently a director of Middle East and Islamic Studies and an associate professor in Religious Studies at the University of California, Riverside. Dr. Ali is a public scholar, speaker, and an author of books and articles on Islam, particularly Islam in Southeast Asia, with a focus on Islam and religions in Indonesia.