Dr. Mehnaz Afridi is committed to interfaith work, contemporary Islam, and Holocaust education. Born in Karachi, Pakistan, raised in Europe and the Middle East, she brings with her a multicultural perspective. She is the director of Manhattan College Holocaust, Genocide, and Interfaith Education Center, whose goal is to “help eradicate human suffering, prejudice, and racism through education, and an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Manhattan College, where she teaches Islam and the Holocaust. Her research primarily focuses on Islam and contemporary literature, and the intersections of Judaism and Islam. Her recent work has been on the Holocaust and the role of Muslims, antisemitism, and Islamophobia. Mehnaz has taught at Antioch University, National University, American Intercontinental University, and Loyola Marymount University.
She received her Ph.D. in Islam and Religious Studies from the University of South Africa and master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Syracuse University. Afridi’s studies of the struggle with anti-Semitism within Muslim communities and her interviews with survivors of the Holocaust informed her first book, “Shoah through Muslim Eyes”. She is a member of the ethics and religion committee of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., where she produces a podcast on “Voices of Anti-Semitism.”