Nasser al-Shaer

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Nasser al-Shaer (1961-) is Minister of Education in the Palestinian National Authority. He is a member of Hamas. He also served as Deputy Prime Minister in the previous cabinet.

[edit] Academic Background & Career

Shaer holds a doctorate in comparative religion from England's University of Manchester, where his dissertation was a comparative study on role of women in Islam and Judaism. He later worked as a research scholar on Religion & Democracy at New York University, focusing on US history (1998). In 2001 he was appointed Dean of Islamic Law (Shari'a) at An-Najah National University, Nablus. He has published several books and papers on gender, globalization, the peace process, preaching and human rights within religious higher education.

In March 2006 he was appointed Education Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority.

[edit] Arrest and Release

Shaer was arrested at his home in Ramallah by Israel Defense Force personnel on August 19, 2006, and was the highest-ranked of about sixty Hamas officials detained by Israel during the 2006 Israel-Gaza conflict. He was released without charges September 27 after a military court ruled that there was insufficient evidence against him to justify his arrest.^[1]^[2]