Dr. Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat is the Director of the Indonesia-MENA Desk at the Centre for Economic and Law Studies (CELIOS) in Jakarta and a Research Affiliate at the Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore. He spent over a decade living and traveling across the Middle East, earning a B.A. in International Affairs from Qatar University. He later completed his M.A. in International Politics and Ph.D. in Politics at the University of Manchester