Dr Ryad's PhD thesis, awarded in 2008 from Leiden University, was on Islamic Reformism and Christianity: A Critical Study of the Works of Muhammad Rashid Rida and His Associates (1898–1935). His research interests include modern Islamic intellectual and religious history, Muslim polemics on Christianity, the history of Christian missions in the modern Muslim world, and transnational Islam in interwar Europe. He is currently leading an ERC research project on the history of "Muslims in interwar Europe" (2014-2019).