(Iran, 1978) got his first lesson on the tombak, the traditional Persian vase drum at age six. At age nine he had excelled his teacher and at age ten won the annual tombak competition in his country. From the age of 20 he is regarded the best tombak player in the world. He developed more than 30 new beating techniques. Mohammad Reza Mortazavi recorded several CDs and gave concerts and media performances across Europe. He lives in Germany where he won the 2003 Newcomer-Weltmusikpreis RUTH. He gives solo concerts, but also works together with musicians and theatre makers. So in 2011 hcollaborated in ballet productions by choreographer Jochen Ulrich (†2012) at the Linzer Landestheater. In November 2012 his most recent CD Geradeaus was released, at the label flowfish.music, founded by Mortazawi himself.

(The Hague, NL 1987) is a talented tv host, chairman and columnist. His parents emigrated to the Netherlands from Pakistan. At the age of 18 Umar Mirza began as a columnist and editor of the multicultural platform Wijblijvenhier.nl and developed his outlook on the Netherlands in contributions on various weblogs, opinion sites, in magazines and collections of essays. In addition he regularly sits on panels, chairs meetings and leads debates. Since 2009 he is a guest lecturer at Fontys Hogeschool voor Journalistiek in Tilburg and since 2011 has hosted tv programmes for NTR (Mijn moskee is top). Umar did the minor People and Society at Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam and in 2012 completed his Master's at the Technische Universiteit Delft. He was elected one of the twelve Best Graduates of the Netherlands. He is working on a new television programme. www.umarmirza.nl.

(Pakistan, 1964) made his debut in 2008 with A Case of Exploding Mangoes, which won awards instantly (the Commonwealth Book Prize for best debut, among others). A dark satire about the plane Crash killing general Zia, Pakistan's former president. An NCO who wants to take revenge after his father's death, tells the story. Hanif himself was a pilot in the airforce before woking as a journalist. He worked for Newsline, The Washington Post and India Today. In 1996 he became head of the Urdu-department of the BBC Worldservice in London. In 2008 he returned to Pakistan to work there as a journalist. His second novel Our Lady of Alice Bhatti (2011), is largely set in a Christian hospital in Karachi, the place where small daily dramas take place. Hanif: 'It is not the life CNN, FOX and Al Jazeera report on… For me that life is as exciting as the things happening on a worldwide scale.'

(Iraq, 1971) fled his country in 1998 after completing architecture studies, was given asylum in the Netherlands and settled there legally in 2007. Since then he has published poetry, novels and collections of his columns. He received the 2000 El Hizjra literature award and the 2011 Literature Prize of the European Union. In 2013 he published Liever niet, antwoordt de liefde (Maybe Not, Was Love's Reply), an anthology of refreshing love poetry. His novel Hoe ik talent voor het leven kreeg (Two Blankets, Three Sheets) tells of his experiences as an asylum seeker in the Netherlands. Al Galidi published the short story collection Duizend-en-een-nachtmerries (A Thousand and One Nightmares) in 2017 and a poem collection Neem de titel serieus (Take the title seriously) in 2018.

(US, 1980) is an American Muslim with Pakistani forebears. He writes plays, essays, sketches and works as a solicitor, blogger and journalist. He acquired fame with the first comprehensive play about American Muslims after 9/11, the exceptionally funny tragicomedy The Domestic Crusaders, which premiered in 2005 and was published as a book in 2010. His essays appear in The Guardian and The Huffington Post, among others. Wajahat Ali was proclaimed influential 'Muslim American Artist’ and in 2008 and 2010 was invited to the annual White House Ramadan dinner. He is seen as ‘Muslim leader of the future’ owing to his journalistic work and took part in the ‘Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow’ conference in Qatar. He also researches Islamophobia in the US and was the first author of Fear Inc, the Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America, published by the Center for American Progress.