Prestigious congressionally mandated award to explore civil society and governance reforms in North Africa and Morocco.

U.S. William J. Fullbright Award for International Affairs

Harvard University President Scholarship

Program for promising leaders in government, media, nongovernmental organizations, law, business, finance, and academia to engage in a sustained conversation on international affairs and U.S. foreign policy.  

Term Member of Council on Foreign Relations

U.S. Department of State

Harvard University

Council of Foreign Relations

Awais Reza is a shopkeeper in Lahore’s Anarkali Bazaarthe largest open market in South Asiawhose labyrinthine streets teem with shoppers, rickshaws, and cacophonous music.But Anarkali’s exuberant hubbub cannot conceal the fact that Pakistan is a country at the edge of a precipice. In recent years, the easy sociability that had once made up this vibrant community has been replaced with doubt and fear. Old-timers like Awais, who inherited his shop from his father and hopes one day to pass it on to his son, are being shouldered aside by easy money, discount stores, heroin peddlers, and the tyranny of fundamentalists.Every night before Awais goes to bed, he plugs in his cell phone and hopes. He hopes that the city will not be plunged into a blackout, that the night will remain calm, that the following morning will bring affluent and happy customers to his shop and, most of all, that his three sons will safely return home. Each of the boys, though, has a very different vision of their, and Pakistan’s, future.The Bargain from the Bazaarthe product of eight years of field researchis an intimate window onto ordinary middle-class lives caught in the maelstrom of a nation falling to pieces. It’s an absolutely compelling portrait of a family at riskfrom a violently changing world on the outside and a growing terror from within.

The Bargain from the Bazaar: A Family's Day of Reckoning in Lahore

What is driving political extremism in Pakistan? In early 2011, the prominent Pakistani politician Salmaan Taseer was assassinated by a member of his own security team for insulting Islam by expressing views in support of the rights of women and religious minorities. Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister, was killed by gunfire and explosive devices as she left a campaign event in December 2007; strong evidence links members of extremist organizations to her slaying.These murders underscore the fact that religion, politics, and policy are inextricably linked in Pakistan. In this book, Haroon K. Ullah analyzes the origins, ideologies, bases of support, and electoral successes of the largest and most influential Islamic parties in Pakistan. Based on his extensive field work in Pakistan, he develops a new typology for understanding and comparing the discourses put forth by these parties in order to assess what drives them and what separates the moderate from the extreme. A better understanding of the range of parties is critical for knowing how the US and other Western nations can engage states where Islamic political parties hold both political and moral authority. Pakistan's current democratic transition will hinge on how well Islamic parties contribute to civilian rule, shun violence, and mobilize support for political reform. Ullah's political-party typology may also shed light on the politics of other majority-Muslim democracies, such as Egypt and Tunisia, where Islamist political parties have been thrust onto the world stage.

Vying for Allah's Vote: Understanding Islamic Parties, Political Violence, and Extremism in Pakistan (South Asia in World Affairs series)

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Haroon K. Ullah is a scholar, diplomat, and field researcher specializing in South Asia and the Middle East.  Haroon grew up in a farming community in Washington State and was trained at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he served as a senior Belfer fellow and completed his MPA. 
 
Haroon has a PhD in Political Science and Public Policy from the University of Michigan and was a William J. Fulbright fellow, a Harvard University presidential scholar, a National Security Education Program fellow, and a Woodrow Wilson Public Service fellow. He is also the author of Vying for Allah's Vote (Georgetown University Press, 2013).  

His recent book, The Bargain From the Bazaar: A Family's Day of Reckoning, published in March 2014 by PublicAffairs, has received widespread praise and acclaim, including from the New York Review of Books, the Wall Street Journal, Mother Jones, Seattle Times, NPR and Publisher's Weekly.   Haroon currently serves on Secretary Kerry's Policy Planning Staff at the US State Department, focusing on public diplomacy, strategic policy and countering violent extremism.

Public Policy

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Articles on Belfer Center for Science ande International Affairs

Personal Blog

Personal Website

U.S. State Department Bio

Haroon Ullah at PublicAffairsbooks.com

Haroon Ullah on Wordpress

Being Middle Class in Pakistan

Vying for Allah's Vote: Understanding Islamic Parties, Political Violence, and Extremism in Pakistan

Why Haroon Ullah Is Optmistic About Pakistan's Future

A Day In The Life Of An Average Pakistani

Islam and Politics in Pakistan

Islamists in Government: Do They Moderate Once in Power? 

Instant Issues Luncheon

Interview

A Shopkeeper, a Terrorist, and a Law Student: Haroon Ullah

Vying for Allah's Vote

Interview: Haroon K. Ullah

U.S. State Department diplomat turned author visits the metro

Dr. Haroon Ullah, U.S. diplomat and author of Vying for Allah’s Vote 

Countering Violent Extremism: A Peacebuilding Lens

Book Lust with Nancy Pearl Featuring Haroon Ullah

Member to Member Lunch with Dr. Haroon Ullah: Rising Political Islam, Causes and Consequences for American Foreign Policy

Instant Issues

Haroon Ullah: Political Violence and Extremism in Pakistan

Book talk/Signing

Book Talk

A look at the five myths about countering violent extremism and examining new trends in democratization.

Divine Endorsement? Islamists, Voting Behavior and Political Violence

Exploring the global trends that influence America and its future.

A Journey from Small-Town America to the Middle East and South Asia

Policy Planning Staff

The trajectory of recent Arab uprisings, along with the examples of Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, suggest that the answer to the question of whethe...

Islamists in Government: Do They Moderate Once in Power?

The World Affairs Council of Western Massachusetts joined with Critical Connections to present Haroon K. Ullah, an international scholar, US diplomat, and fi...

Talk by Haroon K. Ullah on May 28th, 2014

Haroon Ullah is author of "Vying For Allah's Vote" & "The Bargain From The Bazaar" and member of Sec. Kerry's Policy Planning Staff. Café DC airs Sundays at ...

Cafe DC - Haroon Ullah - 4.25.14

The Reza family live in Lahore, Pakistan and have three adult sons. The eldest runs his father's shop at the bazaar; the middle son has been radicalized and ...

A Shopkeeper,  a Terrorist, and a Law Student - Haroon Ullah

In this book, Haroon K. Ullah analyzes the origins, ideologies, bases of support, and electoral successes of the largest and most influential Islamic parties...

Author Haroon Ullah discusses his book Vying for Allah's Vote: Understanding Islamic Parties, Political Violence, and Extremism in Pakistan. For more informa...

Vying for Allah's Vote: Part One

Vying for Allah's Vote: Part 2

Vying for Allah's Vote: Part 3

Why do religious parties in Pakistan sometimes support violent extremism while at others act more moderately? How should Western governments deal with these ...

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