Shiraz Maher is a former member and Regional Director of the radical Islamist group Hizb ut Tahrir, from which he resigned in 2005 after reading for a postgraduate degree in Islamic politcal thought at Cambridge University. He has subsequently appeared as an expert on political Islam for Channel 4 News, Sky News and the BBC. In October, Mr. Shiraz made a documentary for the BBC's flagship programme Panorama detailing his experiences of radical Islam and explaining its dangerous implications. He has also written extensively about political Islam for the New Statesman, Prospect, Sunday Times and Daily Telegraph. Mr. Maher's book, The Thinking Man's al-Qaeda: Hizb ut Tahrir and the rise of political Islam will be published later this year.