David H. Warren is a scholar of contemporary Islam, politics, and media in the Middle East, with a particular focus on the understudied Arab Gulf states and Islamic soft power.
David Warren is a scholar of the Arab World and contemporary Islam, with a particular interest in the Arab Gulf states and religious soft power. He teaches classes on Middle East politics, religion, and Arabic.
His first book, Rivals in the Gulf: Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Abdullah Bin Bayyah, and the Qatar-UAE Contest Over the Arab Spring and the Gulf Crisis (Routledge 2021) investigated the political interventions of two of the most prominent figures among the Muslim scholarly-elite and their relationships with the Qatari and Emirati ruling families.
His current project examines the intersection of religious tolerance promotion and authoritarianism in the Gulf, with a focus on the politics of interfaith dialogue in the UAE. His most recent publication in this regard, Tolerance, Religious Freedom, and Authoritarianism, was authored on behalf of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).