Supna Zaidi

Supna Zaidi is assistant director of Islamist Watch at the Middle East Forum. She is also editor-in-chief of Muslim World Today, which was the first American Muslim newspaper to fight against Islamism's encroachment in America. Ms. Zaidi received a B.A. in political theory and a B.A. in history of the Near East and Religion from the University of California, San Diego (1999) and a J.D. from New York Law School (2003). After graduation from law school, Ms. Zaidi practiced family, deportation and asylum immigration law in New York and New Jersey for three years before transitioning into policy and national security issues.

Ms. Zaidi is the daughter of Tashbih Sayyed, a renowned reformer in the Muslim world, close friend and supporter of the late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Muslim World Today as well as the Council for Democracy and Tolerance. Sayyed was also a liberal journalist and general manager of Pakistan Television in Pakistan in the 70s. Ms. Zaidi's family was forced to leave Pakistan after the Islamification policies of Zia ul-Haq.

While living in California, Ms. Zaidi and her family experienced marginalization and death threats from Islamists for publicly expressing pro-Israeli, pro-secular views and for being critical of the anti-democratic politics in Pakistan.

Ms. Zaidi considers herself a very middle-of-the-road American Muslim. She is liberal in terms of abortion, gay rights, etc., but believes that moderates and liberals have got the "war on terror" completely wrong as they have allowed themselves to be swayed by Islamist manipulation of notions of multiculturalism and cultural relativism, while further pushing their agenda in Muslim and American communities.

Ms. Zaidi has been published in the American Spectator, the Middle East Quarterly, Pajamas Media, and Frontpage Magazine and has a weekly column in Muslim World Today.