SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Dr. Todd Green, associate professor of religion at Luther College and author of “The Fear of Islam: An Introduction to Islamophobia in the West,” will speak at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 23, in Wofford College’s Leonard Auditorium.

Green’s talk, “What’s Driving Islamophobia in America? Fear, Freedom and the Responsibilities of Democracy,” is free and open to the public.

Green’s research focuses on Islamophobia, secularization and interfaith dialogue. His most recent book, “The Fear of Islam: An Introduction to Islamophobia in the West,” surveys anti-Muslim bigotry and hostility in the United States and Europe. He examines the political and imperial forces driving Islamophobia for much of Western history and analyzes the rise in anti-Muslim prejudice in the post-9/11 era. The book includes a discussion on fighting Islamophobia that draws on interviews Green conducted with prominent public figures, including Tariq Ramadan, professor of contemporary Islamic studies at the University of Oxford; Eboo Patel, a member of President Barack Obama’s inaugural Advisory Council on Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships and a recipient of Wofford’s Sandor Teszler Award for Service to Humankind; Ingrid Mattson, a Muslim religious leader, a professor of Islamic Studies and an interfaith activist; Dalia Mogahed, director of research at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding in Washington, D.C.; and U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.).

At Luther College, Green teaches courses in European and American religious history and in interfaith dialogue. He also leads a study abroad course on Islam in Europe, taking students to the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and Britain. He is the past co-chair of the Religion in Europe Group of the American Academy of Religion. He currently serves as a member of the editorial board for the journal Religions. He also is the editor of Islam, Immigration and Identity, a collection of scholarly essays that sheds light on how the growth and increasing visibility of Muslim minority communities in the West has led both Muslim and non-Muslim populations to reconsider their own cultural, religious and national identities in light of the “Other.”

Green blogs regularly for the Huffington Post and has been interviewed by a variety of media outlets, including CNN, NPR, Al Jazeera, France 24 and Reuters. His views on Islamophobia also have been cited by organizations such as the Council on Foreign Relations, the Center for American Progress and the Southern Poverty Law Center.