And I wanted to just start by asking you to talk a little bit about your own trajectory of how you moved into this field of religion and security.

Oh, thanks.

Yeah, it's funny because often people think that it sounds so disparate and removed from each other.

But in actuality, it is my work on extremism and terrorism that brought me straight to this door.

It was many years ago, actually, right before the pandemic, I would say.

I had been teaching this for a long time, and every year, every semester, we would be talking about terrorism and extremism and Islamic jihad, Christian fundamentalism, Hindu fundamentalists and extremists, Buddhist nationalists, Israeli nationalism.

I mean, you name it, we would be discussing it in my classes.

How does this play into the role of religion? And what role can religion play in creating and reinforcing these kinds of boundaries between in-groups and out-groups?