Dr Raihan Ismail has been successful in her bid for a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Grant.  All CAIS staff offer their congratulations to Raihan on her outstanding achievement. CAIS Director, Prof. Amin Saikal made the announcement by saying, 'Warmest congratulations to Raihan for her DECRA. It is a great achievement on the top of her recent award from the Academy of Humanities in Australia. It is wonderful and gratifying to see her accomplishing so much during so little time since her appointment to an A/lectureship only five years ago. The Centre, College and University should be proud of her.'

Project Description: This project aims to provide a comprehensive examination of the transnational networks of the ultra-orthodox Salafi Sunni Muslim clerics. The project expects to generate new knowledge in the areas of Islamic studies and religion in society by studying transnational religious actors. This project offers new insights on the workings of Salafi clerical networks, and how these clerics attempt to influence and operate in Muslim societies. Since Salafism is blamed for providing the ideological foundations for extremism, the project provides significant benefits to the scholarly community as well as for policy makers, intelligence professionals and the general public in Australia and worldwide.