Author of Constructing Pakistan (Oxford UP), Dr. Masood Ashraf Raja is an Associate Professor of Postcolonial Literature and Theory and the editor of Pakistaniaat: A Journal of Pakistan Studies. Dr. Raja specializes in politics of the Islamic world, issues of Islamic radicalism, and US relations with the Muslim world with a specific focus on Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Middle East. Dr. Raja moved from Pakistan, his native country, to America in 1996 after ten years of military service as an officer in the Pakistan army. Raja hopes to foster a better understanding between the people of his primary culture and the rest of the world through his writings, teaching assignments, and through public intellectual exchanges. He is currently working on his second book, entitled Democratic Criticism: Poetics of Incitement and the Muslim Sacred.