Researcher and pollster Dalia Mogahed is an author, advisor and consultant who studies Muslim communities.

Why you should listen

As director of research at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, Dalia Mogahed keeps her finger on the pulse of the Muslim world. She served on Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships in 2009, advising the president on how faith-based organizations can help government solve persistent social problems.

Mogahed is a former director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, where her surveys of Muslim opinion skewered myths and stereotypes while illuminating the varied attitudes of Muslims toward politics, religion, and gender issues. Her 2008 book with John Esposito, Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think, outlines these surprising findings.

What others say

“Foreign policy was off the table. Instead, she advised the administration to travel the country, meet with Muslim-Americans, and use their feedback to shape engagement with the wider Muslim world.” — New Republic, 2014

Dalia Mogahed’s TED talks

More news and ideas from Dalia Mogahed

Live from TEDWomen

It’s about time to reimagine: The talks of Session 5 of TEDWomen 2016

October 28, 2016

“TED is about challenging convention and deepening our understanding of the world around us by considering, even for just a few moments, a radically different way to look at things,” says Dalia Mogahed, host of Session 5 of TEDWomen 2016 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. In the conference’s penultimate […]

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