Valentina Colombo

Valentina Colombo (born 1964) is an Italian author, translator and professor of history of contemporary Islam at the European University of Rome, and Senior Fellow at the European Foundation for Democracy in Brussels.

Biography
Colombo was born in Cameri. She graduated in Arabic Language and Literature from Cattolica University, Milan, and received a Ph.D. in Islamic Studies from Istituto Universitario Orientale, Naples. She has been a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute, a member of the Board of Guarini Institute for Public Affairs at John Cabot University, Rome, a member of the scientific board of the Center Di-con-per Donne, University of Rome Tor Vergata, of the scientific board of the Institute of High Studies for Women, Rome, and a member of the Committee for Italian Islam, Ministry of Interior. She has taught at the University of Bologna, the Sapienza University of Rome, the Tuscia of Viterbo, the Sacro Cuore of Milan and at the School of Higher Studies at Lucca.

Colombo is the official Italian translator of the Nobel Prize winner Naguib Mahfouz, and other authors of classical and contemporary Arabic literature. In 2004, she edited an anthology of 20th century Arab writers in L'altro Mediterraneo: Antologia di scrittori arabi del Novecento. In 2005, she was the editor of the anthology of short stories Parola di donna, corpo di donna: antologia di scrittrici arabe contemporanee, a collection of 31 contemporary Arab women writers. She edited another anthology of 29 Arab poets in the book Non ho peccato abbastanza: antologia di poetesse arabe contemporanee in 2007. The same year, she edited Basta!: Musulmani contro l'estremismo islamico, an anthology of essays from over 50 writers of Muslim background against Islamic extremism.

In her own writings, Colombo argues that the Muslim Brotherhood is infiltrating European societies in an effort to establish an Islamic state, and that it is connected to terrorist organisations. In 2012, she participated in the international counter-jihad conference in Brussels, billed as the "International Conference for Free Speech & Human Rights". She was also announced as a speaker at a conference of Stop Islamization of Nations (SION) in New York City the same year.

Personal life
Colombo is married to Egyptian-Italian Magdi Allam, and they have a son together.