Thomas Scheffler is a Visiting Professor of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) at the Institute of Political Sciences at the Université Saint-Joseph, Beirut. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science at the Free University of Berlin, has been a Senior Researcher at the Center for Modern Oriental Studies, Berlin, the German Orient Institute Beirut and the Free University of Berlin. He has taught at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, and the University of Copenhagen. His books include Religion between Violence and Reconciliation (editor, 2002), Baalbek: Image and Monument, 1898-1998 (co-editor, 1998), German Social Democracy and the Algerian Liberation War (1995, in German), Ethnicity and Violence (editor, 1991, in German).