Mehnaz M. Afridi, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Manhattan College

With a doctorate from the University of South Africa and an MA from Syracuse University, both in religious studies, Mehnaz M. Afridi is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Director of the Holocaust, Genocide and Interfaith Education Center at Manhattan College. She teaches and works in; Contemporary Islam, Judaism, world religions, genocide studies, women and religion and Arab and Israeli literature. Her recent book is “In Shoah Through Muslim Eyes” (Academic Studies Press, 2017). “Shoah” is another term for the Holocaust. A native of Pakistan and a Muslim, Afridi has received numerous research grants and awards for her teaching, writing and principled advocacy. She has taught or lectured at universities in Istanbul, Rome, Israel and throughout the United States. She is a member of the ethics and religion committee of the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.

Afridi earned a B.A. from Syracuse University in English & Religion in199 and received her M.A. in Religious Studies in 1992. Post-Holocaust Studies & Islam. Naguib Mahfouz and Modern Islamic Identity examine the shift since the advent of Islam from Islamic models of social life toward post-colonial and modern conceptions of the Islamic Identity. In 2009, she received her Ph.D., in Religious Studies from the University of South Africa, Religious Studies.

Author: “In Shoah through Muslim Eyes”

Afridi discusses her journey with Judaism as a Muslim. Her book is based on the struggle of antisemitism in Muslim communities and her interviews with the survivors. Rejecting polemical myths about the Holocaust and Jews, she offers a new way to foster understanding of two communities through the acceptance and enormity of the Shoah. Her journey is personal and academic, and readers can find nuances of her belief in Islam, principles of justice and the loneliness of such a journey. Chapters discuss the Holocaust and its unprecedented impact, through interviews with survivors, antisemitism and Islamophobia views, and through Islam and memory. Afridi includes Muslim-Arab narratives that enhance the reach of the Holocaust into Muslim lands under the Vichy and Nazi governments.