Mahmood, Iftekhar
MAHMOOD, Iftekhar
PERSONAL: Born in Karachi, Pakistan; naturalized U.S. citizen; son of Abdul (in business) and Salma (a homemaker) Hai; married Linda Lau-Mahmood (a teacher), July 7, 2001; children: Timothy. Education: University of Karachi, B.S.; West Virginia University, M.S.; University of Missouri—Kansas City, Ph.D., 1993.
ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, University Press of America, 15200 NBN Way, P.O. Box 191, Building B, Blue Ridge Summit, PA 17214-0191.
CAREER: U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Rockville, MD, senior clinical pharmacologist and pharmacokinetics reviewer, 1993—.
MEMBER: American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, Rho Chi.
AWARDS, HONORS: U.S. Food and Drug Administration, On the Spot Award, 1996, commendable service award, 1997, group recognition award, 1999; Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, team excellence award, 1998, special recognition award, 1999, special citation of the center director, 2000; named honorary citizen of Morgantown, WV.
WRITINGS:
Islam beyond Terrorists and Terrorism: Biographies of the Most Influential Muslims in History, University Press of America (Lanham, MD), 2002.
Contributor to books, including Prospectus for Industrial Pharmacokinetics, edited by Peter Bonate, American Association of Pharmaceutical Sciences Press (Arlington, VA), 2003; and Anticancer Drug Development, edited by Daniel R. Budman, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (Philadelphia, PA), 2003. Contributor to scientific journals, including Journal of Pharmaceutical Science, Drug Metabolism and Drug Interactions, and American Journal of Therapeutics.
WORK IN PROGRESS: A Concise History of the Rise and Fall of the Islamic Empires; scientific research in clinical pharmacology.
SIDELIGHTS: Iftekhar Mahmood told CA: "As a scientist I mainly write to publish my scientific works in peer reviewed scientific journals. Since my school days I was interested in literature, history, and politics, but got very little opportunity to write on these topics, mainly due to my primary interest in science. The current events such as the rise of fundamentalist Islam, the plight of the Islamic world, the inability of the West to understand Islam, and the causes for the rise of fundamentalist Islam motivated me to write and present my views. I am not particularly influenced by any writer; rather, political and historical events persuade me to write. The objectives behind writing books, especially about Islam and the politics of Islam, are to make the Islamic world realize that it is time for a change and to understand many good aspects of western culture. For the West it is also time to understand Islam in its true spirit and the course modern-day Muslims want to take. I hope that my writings, along with those of many other liberal and open-minded writers, will create an atmosphere of better understanding between the West and the Islamic world. This understanding will create a peaceful world with mutual respect and trust."