SUMBUL ALI-KARAMALI grew up in Southern California, answering questions about Islam. She holds a B.A. from Stanford University, a J. D. from the University of California at Davis, and a graduate degree in Islamic Law from the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies. She has served as a teaching assistant in Islamic Law at SOAS and a research associate at the Centre of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law in London. Her highly praised adult book is The Muslim Next Door: The Qur'an, the Media, and that Veil Thing, an academically reliable introduction to what Muslims believe and practice, but one written in the personal, anecdotal, everyday context of growing up Muslim in America.