Speakers Information

Zerqa Abid

Zerqa Abid is a mother, a social/political activist, an interfaith youth mentor, a blogger, a TV producer/director, a media consultant, a campaign maker and CEO of her business, ZAPS Technocrats Inc. In the past, Abid has worked at the American news giant, NBC News as News Editor and at ARY Digital Network of Pakistan as the General Manager of The City Channel. Abid is founder and President of Ohio Muslims, a non-profit organization in Columbus, Ohio. Zerqa Abid is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of North Carolina State University. She majored in Mass Communication, TV production, and minored in Journalism. Sr. Zerqa also represented NCSU in the U.S. Senate and the U.S. Congress in a conference organized by National Organization of Woman, NOW.


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Muhammed Nur Abdullah

Muhammed Nur Abdullah is the past-Chairman of the Fiqh Council of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). He has been a member of the Fiqh Council of North America since 1982. Sheikh Nur has also been past-President of ISNA from 2001-2005.

Johari Abdul-Malik

Imam Johari Abdul-Malik was the first Muslim Chaplain installed at Howard University, a founding member of the “Muslim Men Against Domestic Violence” [MMADV] and is world-renowned fundraiser. A native of Brooklyn, his mother kept the family busy with community service and his life experiences have been remarkably diverse. Growing up as an Episcopal Choir Boy who visited the Pentacostal Church, playing trumpet for Black Oasis and opening for major acts including Tito Puente, and engaging in a spiritual journey from Christianity, Taoism, Asian Spirituality, sufism and other world religions.
In College he became a community organizer, musician-cultural warrior, practitioner of Transcendental Meditation. In graduate school, after accepting Islam, he served as the President of Ubiquity (Co-Ed Social Service Fellowship), and President of the Muslim Student Association. Imam Johari and along with Rev. GraylanHagler started the “Ramadan Feed-the-Needy” Interfaith Program in Washington, DC feeding over 100 hundred homeless women of all faiths nightly during the fasting period of Ramadan.


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Abdullah Adhami was born in Washington D.C. from the noble lineage of the family of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). He began his studies of shari'ah at the tender age of 8 years old. He has earned scholarly licenses from many eminent scholars from Damascus, Egypt and Morocco and is also a certified narrator of hadith. Sheikh Adhami also holds a degree in architecture from the Pratt Institute in New York City and has several years of international corporate experience in the area of organizational development and executive training. Sheikh Adhami has been serving the spiritual needs of the North American Muslim community for over 20 years. He is also the founder and chairman of Sakeenah, a nonprofit educational foundation in New York City.

Firas Ahmad

Lubna Ahmad

Munjed A. Ahmad

Munjed Ahmad received his law degree at the Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law in Washington D.C. Mr. Ahmad is also the national Vice President of American Muslims for Palestine and one of the organizations co-founders. He is also in the private pratice of law.






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Shabbir Ahmad

Parvez Ahmed

Parvez Ahmed is Associate Professor of Finance at the Coggin College of Business, University of North Florida (UNF). Prior to joining UNF he taught at Penn State University - Harrisburg and University of North Carolina at Charlotte where he also served as the founding Faculty Advisor for the Student Managed Investment Fund. At PSU he was also the Associate Director of the Giant Food Center for Economic Development. He has led student study abroad programs to London, Paris and is currently working on developing programs to take American students to the Middle East.

His research work has appeared in several major finance journals such as the Journal of Portfolio Management, Financial Management, Journal of Banking and Finance, and Financial Review. He recently published a book titled, Mutual Funds – Fifty Years of Research Findings.

Dr. Ahmed also teaches a special 10-week course titled, "Islam-the faith, the people and their politics," at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in UNF. Dr. Ahmed served as an at-large board member for the American Civil Liberties Union in Florida. He was also Chairman of the Council on American Islamic Relations. Currently he serves as a board member for OneJax, formerly the National Conference on Community and Justice.

Dr. Ahmed successfully won the nomination to the Jacksonville Human Rights Commission in April 2010 and was named as person of the year for 2010 by Folio Weekly.


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Abu Bakar Ahmed

Abu Bakar Ahmed received his MPH and PhD in Environmental Health from the University of Minnesota in 1984 and 1987, respectively. Since 1988, he has been employed as a radiation safety professional with a federally-funded research laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. His community activities include: founding president (1991-94) and executive secretary (1995-current) of the North American Bangladeshi Islamic Community (NABIC); vice-president (1991-93) of the Muslim Community of Knoxville (MCK); secretary (1998-current) of the Islamic Education Foundation of Knoxville (IEFK).

Rabiah Ahmed

Abdalla Idris Ali

Abdalla Idris Ali is a well-known American Muslim public speaker, successful fund-raiser and served as ISNA's President from 1992-1997. Additionally, Sheikh Abdalla co-organized the Canadian Islamic Banking Conferences for 1996 and 1997. He also serves as a member on the Board of Trustees for the Islamic Teaching Center (ITC) and North American Islamic Trust (NAIT). Additionally, he is also on the Board of Advisors of the American Muslim Council (AMC) and past-Board member of the Council of Islamic Schools in North America. As an ISNA School principal, he developed and implemented Islamic and Arabic Studies curricula for elementary and junior high students. He has written various articles in Islamic Horizons and is a member of the ATP Editorial Board. His expertise is in the area of Islamic education in North America.

Aisha H.L. al-Adawiya

Aisha al-Adawiya is the founder of Women in Islam, Inc., an organization of Muslim women which focuses on human rights and social justice. Ms. al-Adawiya organizes and participates in conferences, symposia and other forums on Islam, Gender Equity, Conflict Resolution, Cross-Cultural Understanding, and Peace Building. She also represents Muslim women’s Non-Governmental Organizations at United Nations forums. Ms. Al-Adawiya coordinates Islamic input for the Preservation of the Black Religious Heritage Documentation Project of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. She also serves as a consultant to numerous interfaith organizations and documentary projects on the Muslim American experience. Additionally, she serves on the boards of numerous organizations related to the interests of the global Islamic community. Ms. al-Adawiya is a guest host and producer of Tahrir, WBAI Pacifica Radio in New York City.

Ms. al-Adawiya is also current president of KARAMAH: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights. KARAMAH is a charitable, educational organization that focuses on the domestic and global issues of human rights for Muslim women, and is dedicated to promoting dignity for all human beings through education and legal outreach.

Amal Ali

Amal Ali earned a Masters Degree in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago where she conducted her graduate studies on the strategies employed by Muslim-American youth as they attempt to reconcile the conceptual differences in their hyphenated identity. A long-time youth activist herself, Ms. Ali has worked in youth development in many different capacities for more than ten years and is also a co-founder of the Inner-city Muslim Action Network (IMAN) in Chicago.

Ahmad Al-Akhras

Ahmad Al-Akhras, Ph.D., P.E., P.T.O.E is the past-president of the Ohio chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations(CAIR-Ohio) and vice-chair of the national CAIR Board. He is also the president of the Islamic Foundation of Central Ohio, the oldest Muslim organization in central Ohio.

Salam Al-Marayati

Salam Al-Marayati is currently the Executive Director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC). For the past 16 years, he has had the opportunity to speak to congregations at community-sponsored events, temples, synagogues, churches, high schools, and college campuses. Mr. Al-Marayati has written extensively on Islam, human rights, democracy, Middle East politics, the Balkan Crisis, and the Transcaucus conflict. He has also been deeply involved in interfaith activities by serving as co-chair of the Interfaith Coalition to Heal Los Angeles, which formed as a result of the Los Angeles uprising in the summer of 1992. Mr. Al-Marayti also works as an advisor to several political, civic and academic institutions seeking to understand the role of Islam and Muslims in America.

Abubaker Ahmed Al Shingieti

Abubaker Ahmed Al Shingieti is currently the Vice President for Islamic Programs at the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy (ICRD). He is also the Regional Director for the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) covering Europe and North America.

Shahed Amanullah

Shahed Amanullah is a longtime Muslim American community leader who has been active in articulating the voice of American Muslims. As editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com, an online newsmagazine covering issues related to Islam in the West, Shahed writes and speaks regularly about the challenges and opportunities facing Islam in America. His work and writings have been featured in Newsweek, San Jose Mercury News, New York Times, Washington Post, BBC News, National Public Radio, BeliefNet, Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, San Francisco Chronicle, and the Voice of America. His television appearances include "Nightline with Ted Koppel", CNN Headline News, the "Today Show", "America's Most Wanted", and "Hannity & Colmes".

Shahed is the founder of Halalfire Media (http://www.halalfire.com/), a network of Islamic-themed websites with over 5 million visitors annually. Along with altmuslim.com, signature properties include zabihah.com, the world’s largest database of Halal restaurants and markets, salatomatic.com, an extensive list of reviewed mosques and schools in Muslim-minority countries, and halalapalooza.com, a comprehensive guide to Islamic e-commerce.

Shabana Anees

Shabana Anees M.A., CRC was born, raised and educated in the United States. Educationally, she obtained her undergraduate education from the University of Pittsburgh majoring in the Behavioral Neurosciences. This became the foundation for furthering studies in Rehabilitation Counseling. She obtained her Masters of Arts in Education and Human Development from The George Washington University with a focus in the area of diversity and outreach for rehabilitation /disability services within multicultural communities.

She is also a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor. She has been selected to present information for both regional as well as national conferences in the areas of disability and rehabilitation in regard to cultural awareness. Also, she was one of fifteen individuals chosen nationwide to receive a full scholarship and participate in the Summer Research Program (2006) funded by the National Institute on Disability Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) sponsored by Southern University, Baton Rouge, LA.

Mazen Asbahi

Mazen Asbahi is the principal of Asbahi Law Group, Ltd., a boutique transactional law firm providing quality and affordable legal services to businesses, physicians and other healthcare providers and nonprofits. A significant portion of Mr. Asbahi’s practice is dedicated to serving religious, charitable, educational and other nonprofit organizations in the Muslim, Arab-American, South Asian and other diverse communities.

Mr. Asbahi received his early legal training at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, one of the nation's premiere law firms. He is an honors graduate of both the University of Michigan and the Northwestern University School of Law.

Mr. Asbahi serves as general counsel to a number of prominent institutions and businesses. He is a fellow of Leadership Greater Chicago and currently serves as a director of its Fellows Association. He has served as the president of the Muslim Bar Association of Chicago (MBA) and on the auxiliary board of the Chicago Legal Clinic. More recently, Mr. Asbahi served as the national coordinator of Muslim American and Arab American outreach for the Obama presidential campaign. He currently serves on the boards of the MBA, ADC-Chicago and as a member representative to the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago.

Bilal Ansari

Bilal Ansari who is a native of New Haven, Connecticut currently holds an Islamic Chaplaincy Graduate Certificate at the prestigious Hartford Seminary. For the past ten years, he has served as a Correctional Chaplain for the State of Connecticut at multiple level institutions youth, male and female facilities and last year became consultant for Islamic Society of North America's Leadership Development Center as Chaplaincy Coordinator. From 1990 to 1994, he served as Muslim chaplain and Community Organizer for several California Bay Area masajids and college campuses. He has served as an adjunct professor at Ohlone Community College for African American studies from 1992 to 1994. Mr. Ansari then joined Americorps National Civilian Community Corps as National Ambassador in Community Relations serving in America's most blighted communities.

Edmund Arroyo

Edmund Arroyo is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Licensed School Social Worker. He is a graduate of University of Illinois at Chicago Jane Adams School of Social Work and Knox College in Galesburg, IL. He is the founder of The Heartspeak Institute, where the goal is to provide counseling and education to individuals, couples, and families in an environment that respects their individual and cultural dynamics. He has been conducting yearly parenting seminars, teacher institute trainings, and motivational speaking since 2001.


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Shahid Athar MD, FACP received his medical degree from University of Karachi and completed a fellowship in Endocrinology at Indiana University School of Medicine; where he is also a Clinical Associate Professor. An endocrinologist by profession, he is also a fellow at the American College of Physicians and American College of Endocrinology. Additionally, he is a past-president of Islamic Society of Greater Indianapolis (ISGI) and Interfaith Alliance of Indiana (IAI). He is also an author of seven books (including Islamic Perspective in Medicine and Health Concerns for Believers) and over 120 published articles on medical and Islamic topics. He has spoken to many churches, civic organizations and colleges on various topics including Islam, interfaith issues, spirituality and medical ethics here and abroad. His other affiliations include past-president and medical ethics chair of the Islamic Medical Association of North America (IMA).

Nihad Awad

Nihad Awad is the Executive Director and co-founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest non-profit Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States.

Salman Azam

Azhar Azeez

Azhar Azeez was born in 1971 in HYDERABAD, INDIA and has been living in US since 1995. He has bachelors in Finance from Osmania University and a Master’s degree in business administration (MBA) and currently is pursuing his PhD in Islamic studie s. For last 14 years he worked for major US corporations such as General Electric, American General Life and Capital One. He is a member of ISNA Executive Council (Central Zone Representative) since 2003 and is also the founder and current President of Islamic Association of Carrollton, Texas one of the large mosques in the suburbs of Dallas, TX. He was also a founding member & past President of Council on American Islamic Relations –Dallas/ Fort Worth Chapter. He is a regular speaker and a fundraiser for various local, regional and national Islamic organizations. He has made several media appearances and was interviewed by many local and national T.V. stations and newspapers such as affiliates of CBS, ABC, FOX, KDTN, NBC, PBS KERA, CNN, Associated Press, USA today, Dallas Morning news etc. He speaks regularly on local & national radio programs and has written for various newspapers and magazines. He is the founder & moderator of the weekly global e-mail newsletter which goes out to over 15,000 subscribers every week on issues related to Islam & Muslims. He is married and has two kids and currently resides in Dallas, TX.


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Leroy D. Baca

Leroy D. Baca is Sheriff of Los Angeles County, in the largest Sheriff’s Department in the United States, providing law enforcement to over 4 million people.  Baca was first elected Sheriff of Los Angeles County in December 1998, and served in the Sheriff’s Department since 1965.  He previously served in the US Marine Corps Reserves.
Baca’s development of leadership qualities throughout the Sheriff’s Department have resulted in strong solutions to problems such as drug addiction, domestic violence, homelessness, and more.  He also manages 12 nonprofit Youth Athletic League Centers serving at-risk youth in afterschool programs involving academics, sports, and cultural arts.
Baca is well-known for initiating a successful Muslim outreach program to better address current issues facing the Muslim community such as hate crimes and discrimination.  In 2007, a Muslim Community Affairs unit was established to complement the efforts of the Muslim American Homeland Security Congress and train staff about Islam and Muslims.  The unit has since grown to include a training program for the Muslim community on issues such as hate crimes, domestic violence, gangs and identity theft.
Baca earned his Doctorate of Public Administration Degree from the University of Southern California.  He is a life member of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, USC Chapter.  



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Jamal Badawi

Dr. Jamal Badawi is "Professor Emeritus" at St. Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, where he served as Professor of both Management and Religious Studies. During its May, 2008 Convocation, Saint Mary’s University granted him an Honorary Doctorate of Civil law in recognition of his promotion of “ a better understanding of Islam” and contribution “ to civil society around the world” He completed his undergraduate studies in Cairo, Egypt and his Masters and Ph.D. degrees at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.

Dr. Badawi is the author of several works on Islam, including books, chapters in books and articles. Some of his works are available also on the internet including Gender Equity in Islam available on www.google.com/ and a 352-segment television series on Islam, now available [in audio format] at http://www.islamonline.net/ under “Reading Islam”, sub-link “Islam in 176Hours”.

Other interviews and articles on topics such as "Apostasy", "Muslim/Non-Muslim Relations" and Muslim Contribution to Civilization are also available at the Islamonline site.

In addition to his participation in lectures, seminars and interfaith dialogues in North America, Dr. Badawi has been frequently invited as guest speaker on Islam in nearly 38 other countries.

He is a member of the Islamic Juridical [Fiqh] Council of North America, The European Council of Fatwa and Research and the International Union of Muslim Scholars. He has been serving as a volunteer Imam of the local Muslim community in the Halifax Regional Municipality since 1970.

Dr. Badawi is father of 5 children and grandfather of 17 [so far!]

Email: jamalbadawi@hotmail.com.

Ihsan Bagby

Ihsan Bagby is currently Associate Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Kentucky. He obtained his PhD in Near Eastern Studies from the University of Michigan and his research for the decade has focused on Muslim life in America. In 2001, Dr. Bagby published the results of the first comprehensive study of mosques in America, entitled 'The Mosque in America: A National Portrait'.

Dr. Bagby is also a former director of ISNA's Islamic Teaching Center from 1985 to 1991. Dr. Bagby has also been a board member for various organizations, including: Muslim Alliance of North America (MANA), Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), ISNA's Leadership Development Center, Hartford Seminary's Hartford Institute for the Study of Religion and the Fiqh Council of North America.

Isra Bhatty was born in Leeds, England and raised in northern Chicagoland. She graduated from The University of Chicago in 2006 with majors in Economics and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. She has a Master’s degree in Evidence Based Social Intervention from the University of Oxford, where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar. She is currently finishing her law degree at Yale Law School. Outside of school, Isra has pursued a range of interests. She serves as a multi-lingual translator for detainees at Guantánamo Bay and has worked closely with the Inner-city Muslim Action Network (IMAN). Her research interests are in disability rights, criminal justice policy, and social interventions for “at-risk” minority youth.


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Omer Bajwa

Omer Bajwa is the "Coordinator of Muslim Life" in the Chaplain's Office at Yale University. He earned his Graduate Certificate in Islamic Chaplaincy from Hartford Seminary, and he has been engaged in religious service, social activism, and educational outreach for the past nine years. He holds two masters degrees from Cornell University, in Communication & Islamic Studies, and a BA in English Literature from SUNY Binghamton. His research interests include Islam in the United States, multi-faith activities, Islam and the global media, and transnational religious and intellectual networks.

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Saleem Bajwa is a long-time community leader from Western Massachusetts. Dr. Bajwa has served the community over the years in his capacity as former Executive Director of the Islamic Council of New England, as a trustee of the Islamic Society of Western Massachusetts and a past president and Chairman of the Board of Regents of the Islamic Medical Association of North America. He is also a member of ISNA's Founders Coordinating Committee. Dr. Bajwa received his graduate education from King Edward Medical College in Pakistan.

Bryn Barnard

Bryn Barnard is an artist and author of science-histories. His new book “The Genius of Islam,” published by Knopf, is about the deep historical connections between Islam and the West. Though not a Muslim, he spent five years living in Malaysia and Indonesia. He has also traveled extensively in India, Egypt, Morocco, and Turkey. “The Genius of Islam” be gan as a series of slide lectures he created after 9/11 to educate the public about Islamic civilization. Barnard has given “Genius of Islam” presentations at World Affairs Councils, schools, universities, libraries and mosques across North America. The Arabic language edition of the book will be published in 2011 by Dar al Ilm Lilmalayin.

Bryn Barnard has been an illustrator of over 25 years. He has been a professor of art at the University of Delaware; University of the Arts, Philadelphia; and University of Pittsburgh’s Semester at Sea. He has been an Institute of Current World Affairs fellow, a Fulbright fellow to University Sains Malaysia and a consulting associate of the Universities Field Staff International. His solo exhibition “Outbreak: Plagues that Changed History” has been shown at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington DC.

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Abdul Basit

Abdul Basit is a Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Northwestern University in Chicago. He has served as the Chair of the ISNA Islamic Perspectives on Counseling Conferences. He was appointed by the US Secretary of Department of Health and Human Services as the Chair for the National Advisory Council on Mental Health. He is the author of numerous papers and is a prolific speaker at ISNA conferences.

Hatem Bazian

Hatem Bazian is the current president of the American Muslims for Palestine. Dr. Bazian received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in near eastern studies and ethnic studies and a master's degree in international relations from San Francisco State University. Currently, Dr. Bazian is a senior lecturer in the Near Eastern Studies and Ethnic Studies Departments at UC-Berkeley. In addition, Dr. Bazian is an adjunct professor at: UC-Berkeley Law School at Boalt Hall, religious studies at Saint Mary's College of California and UC-Davis. Dr. Bazian co-hosted "Islam Today", a weekly radio magazine show covering Islam and its diverse people around the world. Since 9/11, he has appeared on many TV and radio interviews and was also a translation consultant for the San Francisco Chronicle on a number of stories relating to Islam, Muslims and global politics.

Najah Bazzy

Najah Bazzy is a Transcultural Nurse Clinical Specialist and a Diversity Specialist with 25 years specializing in the area of transcultural health care. She has an extensive background in critical care nursing with special expertise in Arab and Muslim health care, beliefs, and practices. She is CEO of Diversity Specialists and Transcultural Health Care Solutions. Mrs. Bazzy is also the Executive Director and founder of Zaman International, a Humanitarian Non Profit Organization which provides crucial services to many in the Metropolitan Detroit through its programs such as Bayt Al-Zahra Crisis Assistance and Refugee Resettlement , B.O.O.S.T. – Educational and Vocational Training for women, Mobile Food Pantry and Plots for Tots – Infant Burial Assistance and Sips of Hope – an International Well project to bring safe drinking water to at risk populations. She is also one of the co - founders and senior advisor for the Young Muslim Association of the Islamic Center of America, focusing on the development of youth leaders and mentors. Najah Bazzy is well known locally and internationally for her lectures on many topics related to Islam, including interfaith dialogue, gender equity and equality, human rights, and medical ethics


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Rafik Beekun

Dr. Rafik Beekun is Professor of Management and Strategy, former chair of the Managerial Sciences Department at the University of Nevada, and Senior Fulbright Scholar. He obtained his M.B.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Texas, and his B.A. and M.A. from Columbia University, New York. He specializes in strategic management, business ethics, leadership, and the link between spirituality and management. He has published in many academic journals including the Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management, Journal of Business Ethics, etc. and has authored several books including Islamic Business Ethics, Leadership: An Islamic Perspective (Dr. Jamal Badawi), and Strategic Planning and Implementation for Islamic Organizations. Previously Dr. Beekun served as President for the Association of Muslim Social Scientists (2003-2007). He has served on the Majlis-as-Shura of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) He has also served as zonal and regional representative of the Muslim Students’ Association of the USA and Canada, and as a member of ISNA Executive Committee and Majlis Shura. He has also served on the Board of Advisors of the North American Islamic Trust. He has given training workshops and lectures to upper management executives and Islamic organizations in fourteen countries.

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Ghalib Begg

Ghalib Begg is an American Muslim businessman who spends most of his time and as a community activist at both the local and national level. Born in Hyderabad, Mr. Begg studied at Aligarh Muslim University in India and immigrated to the USA in 1970. He later graduated with an MBA from the University of Detroit in Michigan.

Khalil Bendib

Khalil Bendib is an award-winning editorial cartoonist. Born under colonial rule in French-occupied Algeria during its war for independence, Mr. Bendib is the only widely read political cartoonist in North America who brings an Arab, Muslim and progressive perspective to our editorial cartoon landscape. His prominent cartoons are featured in over 1,700 small and mid-size newspapers across the country; including many Arab, Muslim, African-American and ethnic publications (and can also be viewed at http://www.bendib.com/). His books of cartoons include It Became Necessary to Destroy the Planet in Order to Save It (PlanNine, 2003,) Mieux Vaut Empire qu'en Pleurer (E-dite, Paris 2005) and Mission Accomplished (Interlink, 2007.) His cartoons have been featured in USA Today, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle and numerous other mainstream newspapers around the country.

Ekram and Mohammed Rida Beshir are the founders of several prominent Islamic schools in Ottawa, Canada. Both are the recipients of the Director's Citation Award of the 2000 Ottawa-Carleton District School Board for their contribution as the best educators from among 7000 local educators. Dr. and Mr. Beshir have been very active with the Canadian Muslim community in Ottawa in the areas of study circles, children and youth camps, women's programs, and marriage counseling. Together, the husband-wife team co-authored two prominent parenting books in North America: Meeting the Challenge of Parenting in the West, an Islamic Perspective and Muslim Teens, Today's Worry, Tomorrow's Hope: A Practical Islamic Parenting Guide along with many other parenting books. Currently, both are teaching the same two courses at the Islamic American University. Both are members of the editorial board of The American Muslim Magazine; as well as regular contributors to its family section. They have also written numerous articles for Islamic Horizons and The Message. For the last five years, Dr. and Mr. Beshir have been delivering parenting workshops to various Muslim communities in North America, Europe and South Africa and are regular speakers at ISNA, ICNA, MAS, and MAYA Conventions on family issues and other parenting subjects.

Mahdi Bray, Executive Director, MAS Freedom (MASF), the civic and human rights advocacy entity of the Muslim American Society (MAS).

Asssad Nimer Busool

Dr. Assad Nimer Busool was born in Reina, Nazareth, Palestine. Currently resides in Greater Chicago area.
Received his Bachelor and Masters degrees in Classic Arabic Literature and Islamic History and Civilization from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
Received a Masters degree in Library Science, and Ph.D., in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, California.
He has taught Arabic and Islam at the University of California, Berkeley, and San Diego State University, San Diego, California and at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, East-West University, College of Lake County, and College of Lake Forest in Chicago Area.
Currently he is a Professor and Chairman of the Department of Arabic Studies at the American Islamic College, Chicago, Illinois.
Dr. Busool is a prolific writer and has published books, articles and short stories in English, Arabic and Hebrew. He published 36 books in variety of Islamic subjects so far. The most recent of his publications is English translation of “The Wise Qur’an”.

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Congressman André Carson is a 33-year-old native of Indianapolis, Indiana. Raised and mentored by his grandmother, Congresswoman Julia Carson, he served as a member of the Indianapolis City-County Council before winning a Special Election on March 11, 2008 to become the Congressman for the 7th District of Indiana.

André was taught to value education. He is a graduate of Tech High School, where his passion for law enforcement first took hold. André went on to obtain a Bachelors degree in Criminal Justice Management from Concordia University-Wisconsin and a Masters in Business Management from Indiana Wesleyan University.

André's law enforcement background consists of nearly a full decade of public service. He has served as a Local Board Officer/Investigator for the Indiana State Excise Police for nine years, throughout Indiana. As our nation's growing concern for Homeland Security developed, André was detailed to the Indiana Department of Homeland Security's Intelligence Fusion Center. There he worked in an anti-terrorism unit to provide Indianapolis and all of Indiana with the security measures necessary for our physical safety.

André believes that community involvement contributes greatly to the cultural advantage that makes Indianapolis a world-class city. He has spent much of his time working with organizations that share this commitment. As a member of the IndyParks Kennedy/King Park Advisory Board, André has been able to demonstrate his dedication to providing safe, clean and quality parks for our community. His commitment to Indianapolis neighborhoods has led André to also serve as a board member for the Citizens Neighborhood Coalition. The Citizens Neighborhood Coalition is an umbrella organization representing all neighborhood organizations within its boundaries of 10th Street on the south, 30th Street on the north, Pennsylvania Street on the west, and the Monon Trail on the east.

He and his wife Mariama, a professional educator in the Pike Township Schools, are the proud parents of their one year-old daughter, Salimah. They have lived in the Fall Creek Place neighborhood for five years.

Saffet Abid Catovic

Saffet Abid Catovic is an American Muslim of Bosnian-Anglo descent. He has an MBA and worked for a major New York based U.S. Corporation as Budget Director until 1992, when he left his career to help the people of his ancestral Bosnia and Herzegovina to be free and survive the genocidal campaign wrought against them. In this regard, he served in several senior level capacities in the Bosnian government. After completing his tenure of service to the people of Bosnia in 2001, he continued to work to alleviate the suffering of people victimized by war, poverty and natural disasters by working an international humanitarian organization. Currently, he is a management consultant in the area of commercial real estate management and investment as well as working as an adjunct teacher of Religious Studies in Noor-Ul-Iman School.

Saffet has completed significant course work towards his MA/PhD in the area of Religion and Society and is currently a fellow at GreenFaith, the premier inter-faith coalition for religious-environmental leadership.

He also serves on the board of directors for several institutions including: Islamic Society of Essex County (ISEC) (Newark-NJ's largest Mosque); Boy Scout Troop #114 (New Jersey's First Official Muslim Boy Scout Troop).He is also a contributing scholar to the MAPS (Muslims in the American Public Square) project of The Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

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Chaplain (COL) David Colwell was born in Bedford Massachusetts in February 1956. He grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts where he graduated from high school. In 1978, Chaplain Colwell graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst with a BA in Political Science. In 1984, he graduated from Boston University School of Theology with a Masters of Divinity degree. In 2002, he graduated from Catholic University of America in Washington, DC with a Masters in World Politics. Chaplain Colwell entered active duty in 1984. Chaplain Colwell’s awards include: the Meritorious Service Medal with three oak leaf clusters; Army Commendation Medal with three oak leaf clusters; Army Achievement Medal; National Defense Service Ribbon; Army Service Ribbon; Overseas Service Ribbon with two oak leaf clusters.

Salwa Ansari Datoo

Co-Founder and President, Soulful Moon. Soulful Moon is a stationery company focused on the South Asian and Muslim market. After a seven-year career in banking, Salwa chose to leave Wall Street to transition to non-profit work and now social entrepreneurship. She spent over a year working with a non-profit focused on micro-development in Africa, India and South America. She gained invaluable operational experience at US headquarters as well as life-altering field experience in Africa. Upon her return, she knew she wanted to stay in the socially-conscious space but saw how the recession was destabilizing the non-pro fit sector. She decided that a business that gave back to charities while sustaining itself financially was the ideal solution. After diligent research along with a little bit of luck, Soulful Moon was born in mid 2010. Soulful Moon produces cards and stationery that meet the needs of Muslim with the mission to deliver a high quality, premium product that also gives back to charity. Every Soulful Moon transaction donates a portion of the profits to charity. It is a business idea that is sustainable and not donor based, but that also gives back. As Soulful Moon grows, it furthers its mission by donating a portion of the profits from every transaction to charity. Salwa holds a B.A and M.A in political science from UC Berkeley.

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Debbie De Palma

Debbie De Palma is a community organizer who works to promote interfaith and inter-cultural communication and collaboration. She is active in advocating for the rights of people with disabilities to be fully included in their communities.







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Susan Douglass has an M.A. in Arab Studies from Georgetown University, a B.A. in History from the University of Rochester, and is currently in the doctoral program at George Mason University. During 2006, she was Senior Researcher for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations. She served as an Affiliated Scholar with the Council on Islamic Education for over a decade, reviewing over a dozen commercial textbooks in development, reviewing state standards, and developing instructional resources.

Major publications include World Eras: Rise and Spread of Islam, 622-1500 (Thompson/Gale, 2002), teaching resources for the Council on Islamic Education and the National Center for History in the Schools, a children’s book Ramadan (Carolrhoda Books, 2002), Teaching About Religion in National and State Social Studies Standards (Freedom Forum First Amendment Center and Council on Islamic Education, 2000), and many articles and book chapters. She contributed to online teaching resources such as the IslamProject.org, the Smithsonian Freer Gallery teaching guide Arts of Islam, and the online curriculum World History for Us All, and designed The Indian Ocean in World History online resource. For the past three years she has conducted the educational outreach program at the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim Christian Understanding.

Qari Sheikh Abdelkarim Edghouch was born in Morocco, moved to the US in 2000. He memorized the entire Quran at the age of nine, after that he studied the Seven recitations. He participated in many Quranic Contests, locally in Morocco, and internationally, in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, and others,and was ranked first place in most of them. He was ranked first place among 20,000 contestants at the Hassan II Award (former King of Morocco). He is a graduate of Quranic Institute In Rabat, Morocco. He used to be the official reciter for the local Moroccan TV channels before he moved to the States. He has an Ijaza with an authentic chain from him to our beloved Prophet Muhammad (Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him). He is now located in Dallas, Texas where he works as the Director of a Quranic Institute. He was the official reciter at Reviving the Islamic Spirit in Toronto, Canada (2007). In Ramadan he travels around the USA to lead people in Taraweeh Prayer.

Hesham ElGamiel is a native Egyptian and immigrated to the US at the age of 15. He attended both high school and college in Southern California and as an undergraduate student, Hesham was accepted into the FBI Honors Internship Program. He later went on to graduate with honors in the field of applied criminal justice. After several jobs and a career change, Hesham joined the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) in 2000 and Agent ElGamiel regularly speaks to groups and community forums about working for the FBI. Since joining the FBI, he has received several awards for Outstanding Service and Leadership.

Maha ElGenaidi is the Founder and President of Islamic Networks Group (ING). She is a commissioner on Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante's "Commission for One California", Commissioner on Santa Clara County Human Relations Commission, and Advisor to California's Commission on Police Officers Standards & Training (POST) for hate crimes and cultural diversity training, and former Co-chair and Vice-chair of the Bay Area Hate Crimes Investigators Association (BAHCIA). She is the recipient of numerous civil rights awards which include the 1999 Civil Rights Leadership Award from the California Association of Human Relations Organizations, the 2000 Human Relations Award from the Santa Clara County Human Relations office, and the 2002 "Citizen of the Year" Award from the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. Ms. ElGenaidi has spoken to hundreds of schools, churches, police departments, corporations and other public institutions, has appeared on numerous television and radio programs, and is author of seven training handbooks on outreach for American Muslims, as well as eight training modules for public institutions on "developing cultural competency with the American Muslim community". Ms. ElGenaidi is currently ING's CEO.

Ahmed ElHattab

Ahmed ElHattab is the Assistant Secretary General of ISNA, and Executive Director of the ISNA Development Foundation. He has been an active participant in Islamic Philanthropy for the past 30 years in the United States. Since 1984 he has been in charge of ISNA's fundraising. He has attended and actively participated in numerous conventions, conferences and seminars, both domestically and internationally. He represents, supports and fosters partnerships between the Islamic Society of North America and its supporters.




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Keith Ellison has represented the Fifth Congressional District of Minnesota in the U.S. House of Representatives since taking office on January 4, 2007. The Fifth Congressional District is the most vibrant and ethnically diverse district in Minnesota with a rich history and traditions. The Fifth District includes the City of Minneapolis and the surrounding suburbs. Representative Ellison's philosophy is one of "generosity and inclusiveness." His roots as a community activist and his message of inclusivity through democratic participation resonates throughout the Fifth District. His priorities in Congress are: promoting peace, prosperity for working families, and promoting civil and human rights.

Mohamed Elsanousi

Dr. Mohamed Elsanousi is the Director of Community Outreach for the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). His responsibilities include fostering interfaith relations, strengthening ISNA’s relationships with the Muslim community in North America, and supervising ISNA’s joint projects with interfaith organizations and federal government institutions.

He serves as a national liaison and representative for ISNA at numerous national and international inter-religious conventions and conferences, and has contributed articles in various books and journals. Dr. Elsanousi is Vice-President of the Interfaith Broadcasting Commission (IBC) and serves on the board of directors and advisors for other interfaith organizations, including the Religion Communicators Council (RCC) and the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT).

Dr. Elsanousi holds a Bachelor’s degree in Shariah and Law from the International Islamic University in Islamabad, Pakistan; a Master of Laws from Indiana University; a graduate diploma in philanthropic studies from the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy; and a Ph.D. in Law and Society from the Indiana University School of Law.


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Bayram Eryilmaz

Bayram Eryilmaz was born in Kahramanmaras, Turkey in 1984. He graduated from Istanbul Technical University with a bachelor’s degree in Management Engineering in 2008. He volunteered for many different youth organizations during university years before he moved to the U.S. for educational purposes. He moved to U.S. in 2009 to get his master degree and he is a master student in MBA at Goldey-Beacom College, who doesn’t have scholarship from government and pays his own expenses. He is a volunteer board member of the Muslim Student Association at the University of Delaware. He has also been a volunteer in varieties of local organizations in Delaware.

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Maryam Eskandari

Maryam Eskandari is Architect and Artist, and is a graduate of the Aga Khan Program in Islamic Architecture at Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her focus is on Modern and Contemporary “Islamic” Architecture in the West. Her research work has been on the development of western firms working on campus projects in the Muslim World and her most controversial project regarding “Gender in Architecture” particularly in Islam. While previously, she was the Director of the American Institute of Architects Associates in Arizona. Maryam has received many prestigious awards from the architecture community. Among them was in 2010, where she was the recipient of the prestigious Aga Khan Award in Islamic Architecture, a grant to travel and continue working on her research of gender issues in architecture, in particular Muslim Women Spaces in Contemporary American Mosques. In 2007 the American Institute of Architects awarded her with the Associate of the year award for commendable architecture, design, and involvement with in the design community and in 2005 the Imagination Cube Competition sponsored by the American Institute of Architects. Trained under some of the most highly acclaimed scholars and architects, Maryam has the ability to blur Design, Architecture, Theory and Current Affairs to create a new expression for architectural design and exploring different ways to modify and push the boundaries of architecture. Her current exhibition on tour: “Sacred Space? (Re) Constructing the Place of Gender in the Space of Religion” executes the architectural vocabulary that is being pronounced.

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Dr. John Esposito is University Professor, Professor of Religion and International Affairs, Professor of Islamic Studies and Founding Director of the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. Esposito specializes in Islam, political Islam from North Africa to Southeast Asia, and Religion and International Affairs. He is editor-in-chief of the four-volume The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, The Oxford History of Islam, The Oxford Dictionary of Islam and The Islamic World: Past and Present. His more than thirty books include Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam, The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality?, Islam and Politics, Political Islam: Radicalism, Revolution or Reform?, Islam and Democracy (with J. Voll). Many of his books have been translated into Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Bahasa Indonesia, Urdu, European languages, Japanese and Chinese. A former president of the Middle East Studies Association of North America and the American Council for the Study of Islamic Societies, he is currently a member of the World Economic Forum's Council of 100 Leaders, the High Level Group of the U.N. Alliance of Civilizations and President of the Executive Scientific Committee for La Maison de la Mediterranee's 2005-2010 project, "The Mediterranean, Europe and Islam: Actors in Dialogue." Esposito is a recipient of the American Academy of Religion's 2005 Martin E. Marty Award for the Public Understanding of Religion and of Pakistan's Quaid-i-Azam Award for Outstanding Contributions in Islamic Studies. He has served as a consultant to the U.S. Department of State and to governments, corporations, universities, and mainstream media. In 2003, he received the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University Award for Outstanding Teaching.

Dr. Esposito is widely interviewed in the global media, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, NPR, BBC, and other media outlets around the world.

Dr. Muneer Fareed served as the Secretary General of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) [2006-2008]. Prior to ISNA Secretary General position, Dr. Fareed was an associate professor of Islamic studies in the Department of Near Eastern and Asian Studies at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. His fields of interest include Qur'anic studies, Islamic legal reform, and Islam in the modern world. To his credit, he has several journal articles, a monograph entitled 'Legal Reform in the Muslim World' and translations of classics of the Islamic world; including the Síra Nabawiyya of Ibn Kathir, The Muqaddima of Ibn Saláh, and 'l-Itqán fi 'Ulúm 'l-Qur'an of Suyúti. He received a diploma in Arabic Language and Literature from King Abdul Aziz University in Mecca and an Ijáza in Classical Islamic Studies from Darul-Uloom in Deoband, India and a doctorate in Islamic Studies from the University of Michigan--Ann Arbor. Since the 1980s he has served the American Muslim community in various capacities, including imam and scholar-in-residence for the Muslim community in metropolitan Detroit.

Dr. C. George Fitzgerald directs the Spiritual Care Service at Stanford University Medical Center. In addition to a staff of 5 chaplains and an administrative associate, the department has 250 volunteers from a variety of religious traditions—Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh—and is considered a model of interfaith spiritual care. Dr. Fitzgerald previously served as director of Chaplaincy Care at Princeton Medical Center (1966-78) and California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco (1978-88). His undergraduate degree is from U.C.L.A. and he did graduate work at Princeton and San Francisco seminaries. He was certified as an ACPE supervisor in 1971, has taught in two seminaries, and has published several articles in pastoral care and counseling journals, in addition to publishing a booklet on Congregational CPE. He currently chairs the ACPE Task Force on Islam. He is married with three children.

Chaplain Gary Friedman is a widely recognized authority on prison and jail chaplaincy. Since 1995, he has headed the Jewish Prisoner Services International pastoral care agency and has served for the past decade as the communications director of the American Correctional Chaplains Association. He has been a member for several years of the American Correctional Association’s Religion and Faith-Based Services Committee and its Policies and Resolutions Advisory Committee. On his home turf, Chaplain Friedman chairs the Religious Services Advisory Committee community oversight board to the Washington State Department of Corrections. In 2005, he was selected as the corrections industry’s national ‘Chaplain of the Year’. In February of this year, he briefed the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights about religious discrimination in our nation’s prisons and jails, where he pointedly condemned the escalating discrimination against Muslims.

Kathleen Fitzpatrick

Kathleen M. Fitzpatrick is Deputy A ssistant Secretary of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor at the U.S. Department of State.  Her portfolio includes the Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs, the Office of Near East Asian Affairs, and the Office of International Religious Freedom.

Fitzpatrick is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Minister Counselor.  She recently served for two and a half years as the Director of the Office of Southern European Affairs, managing U.S. relations with Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus.

Fitzpatrick has previously served as the Counselor for Political Affairs in Spain, Director of the Office of Nordic and Baltic Affairs, and Deputy Director of the Office of Regional and Security and Arms Transfers. She has also held assignments at the US Mission to NATO in Brussels, at the US Embassy in Moscow, and in the Office of UN Political Affairs, the Executive Secretariat.

Fitzpatrick holds an MA in Political Science from Georgetown University and a MS in National Security Studies from the United States National War College.  She has received a number of Superior and Meritorious Honor Awards from the Department of State, and has studied Spanish, Russian, Dutch, French, and some Arabic.



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Kathleen E. Foley

Kathleen E. Foley is a Fellow at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding and a PhD Candidate in Cornell University’s Department of City and Regional Planning, studying land use planning and conflict management in public processes. Her dissertation research, funded by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Study in the Fine Arts and the Barakat Foundation, focuses on the development of Islamic Centers in America’s suburbs. She is particularly interested in the civic engagement of immigrants via participation in public review processes, as well as the influence of public negotiation and compromise on the evolution of a distinctly American form of mosque architecture. She received her BA in Communications from Ithaca College, with minor studies in the History of Islamic Architecture and Urbanism. She holds an MA in Historic Preservation Planning from Cornell University.

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LaDale George is a senior counsel in the Chicago office of Foley & Lardner LLP, where he is a member of the firm's Business Law Department and Health Care Finance and Restructuring Team. Mr. George has over ten years of experience advising a variety of individual, corporate and governmental clients on business transactions. He focuses his transaction practice in for-profit and not-for-profit corporate formations and restructuring, private equity investments, tax-exempt financing, mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures. Mr. George’s previous positions include: Assistant Attorney General of the Office of the Virginia Attorney General, representing the Department of Mental Health; staff attorney with the Tidewater Legal Aid Society in Norfolk, Virginia; and legal liaison with the Ghana Information Centre in Accra, Ghana, West Africa. Mr. George is a graduate of Northwestern University School of Law (J.D., 1990) and the University of Kansas (B.A., biochemistry, 1987). He serves as legal counsel to the African-American Health Care Council, and he is a former president of the Muslim Bar Association of Chicago and former co-chair of the National Bar Association, Health Law Section. He is admitted to practice in Illinois, Missouri and Virginia.

Jess Ghannam is Chief of Medical Psychology, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and faculty in the Global Health Sciences Program at the University of California, San Francisco. He has been working in Palestine for over 15 years teaching, conducting research on post-traumatic stress disorder, and developing community health centers throughout Gaza and the West Bank. Dr. Ghannam writes and presents frequently on the Middle East.

Manzoor Ghori is the co-founder of the Indian Muslim Relief & Charities (IMRC) and has served as Chairperson since its inception. IMRC provides financial resources for distribution and implementation of diverse projects to help Indian Muslims achieve greater prosperity, self-sufficiency and security in India. He is also the co-founder of Ameen Housing Co-operative, Inc., the Muslim Community Association of Santa Clara and the Islamic Society of East Bay. He has served on the local advisory boards of the CAIR-Northern California and the Islamic Network Group (ING). He has received a Masters in Management & Supervision and Bachelors of Sciences in Medical Technology, Chemistry, and Zoology.

Sheikh Ali Gomaa is the current Grand Mufti of Egypt and one of the world’s most recognizable Muslim scholars. He has traveled the world, lectured to thousands, and composed over thirty works spanning Islamic legal methodology (usul al-fiqh) and contemporary issues. This website is dedicated to presenting his works and thought unadulterated for an English speaking audience. In this regard, the material presented, while not his entire work, are accurate translations that are indicative of his overall intellectual and public discourse. This website will be updated from time to time and it is our hopes that you become frequent visitors.

Tahra Goraya is the National Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Washington, D.C. Through her diverse experience in non-profit management, Goraya has distinguished herself as a passionate and dedicated administrator and a visionary for creative community coalition building.

Before joining CAIR in the fall of 2007, Goraya served as executive director of Day One in Pasadena, Calif., for nearly seven years. Day One is a grassroots nonprofit organization that works to prevent harm to youth and families from alcohol, tobacco and other drugs through education and public policy advocacy.

Under her steadfast vision and leadership, Day One became regionally and nationally recognized for its comprehensive approaches to improving the quality of life for its constituents.

Goraya is active in a number of social justice, civil right advocacy and women's health issues, and has provided consultative services for state and local governments, faith and community-based organizations, school systems, corporations, and other public and private sector entities.

Goraya served as the first female president of the board of CAIR's Greater Los Angeles area chapter. She was also was selected as the 2005-2006 Fellow with the Women's Policy Institute of the California Women's Foundation, 2005 Women in Business Non-Profit Executive Director of the Year Honoree and 2006 Woman of Excellence by the YWCA.

She was the mayor's appointee for the Northwest Commission, and Taskforce on Nuisance Liquor Stores in Pasadena. She is the Coalition Advisor to the national Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America based in Washington, D.C., board member for the California Prevention Collaborative, and an advisor for Pasadena Forward

Imam Mohamed Hagmagid is a Sudanese-born American who came to the United States in 1987. He attained his religious education in various Islamic disciplines as a Resident Scholar at Al-Medina Institute. Currently serving as the Executive Director of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS), Imam Magid helped establish exemplary religious services for Muslim communities across the nation to emulate. He has much experience serving the nation-wide Muslim community as ISNA's East Zone representative and as ISNA Vice President prior to his election in September 2010 as ISNA President. Imam Magid has a long history of commitment to public service through organizations, such as The Peaceful Families Project, Annual Twinning of Mosques and Synagogues, Fairfax Faith Communities in Action, Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington Assembly and the Buxton Interfaith Initiative.

Imam Magid strives to create and foster dialogue and increase understanding about Islam. Part of his work with the Buxton Interfaith Initiative included forging a partnership with Rabbi Robert Nosanchuk, then leader of the Northern Virginia Hebrew Congregation in Reston. Both men were recognized by the Washingtonian as "2009's Washingtonians of the Year" for building bridges between their faith communities. Imam Magid continues to provide good counsel for the Muslim community through his regular contributions to ISNA's magazine, Islamic Horizons, as well as a speaker and leader of discussions on imminent issues facing the Muslim American community. He is also well known for his family counseling expertise. Imam Magid lives in Virginia with his wife and five young daughters.

Zareena Grewal

Zareena Grewal is the Director of the Center for the Study of American Muslims at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding. She is also an Assistant Professor in the departments of American Studies and Religious Studies and the Program in Ethnicity, Race and Migration at Yale University. Before coming to Yale, she was a visiting lecturer at Vassar College in the department of anthropology. Dr. Grewal is the author of numerous articles and chapters on the intersections of race and religion in American Muslim communities and her book Destination Tradition: American Islam and the Crisis of Authority (forthcoming, New York University Press) explores the global religious networks that connect U.S. mosques to the intellectual centers of the Middle East. Dr.Grewal was awarded the Fulbright Fellowship in Egypt (2002-3) and received the Fulbright's prestigious Islamic Civilization Grant. She is also a documentary filmmaker, a regular contributor to the Huffington Post, and she was featured in the 2010 biographical collection Who's Who in America. Dr. Grewal received her doctorate from the interdisciplinary Program inAnthropology and History at the University of Michigan.


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Hamada Hamid

Dr. Hamada Hamid is the Co-Director of the Veteran Administration (VA) Epilepsy Center of Excellence in West Haven, CT. He has established a Neurobehavioral clinic, where he provides clinical care for veterans who suffer from emotional distress and/or behavioral problems associated with neurological conditions. His research explores psychiatric co-morbidity of neurologic disease. He is currently the primary investigator of a study examining the neurologic substrates of depression in people with epilepsy. He earned his M.D. from Michigan State University and M.P.H. from New York University. He is on the Board of Directors of the Journal of Muslim Mental Health.

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Asma Hanif

Sister Asma Hanif is a mother, community health activist, a professor, student and entrepreneur. In 2005 she was elected as the first female Chairperson of the Coordinating Council Muslim Organizations, (CCMO) of DC/MD/VA.

She is presently operating a wholistic health center, mentoring Coppin State University nurse-practitioner students, providing, and organizing volunteer health services in public schools, providing health services to the homeless, to women in shelters, to those in group homes, and to those in foster care, as well as organizing community based outreach programs which include, adolescent health services/AIDS prevention program, performing physicals to the mentally and physically challenged - allowing them to be able to participate in the Special Olympics and providing free blood pressure screenings in community centers for the elderly. She has provided first aid stations at community health events; cancer and vaginal health awareness seminars with free breast exams at women’s conferences; sat on a panel at the Center For Disease Control Pandemic Flu Consultations; was the invited guest speaker at the Association of Muslim Health Professionals; appeared on CNN & C-SPAN, as well as participated in Disaster Relief, and Domestic Violence Training Programs. She is a member of The Faith Communities in Action Interfaith Emergency Planning Committee, a participant in the Interfaith Bridge Builders Conference as well as the Pandemic Flu Possible Impact on Faith Communities NOVA and spoke at the ‘One Nation’ rally at the Lincoln Memorial.


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Fletcher Harper

Fletcher Harper, an Episcopal priest, is Executive Director of GreenFaith, an interfaith environmental coalition based in New Jersey. An award-winning spiritual writer and nationally-recognized preacher on the environment, he has developed a range of innovative programs to make GreenFaith a leader in the fast-growing religious-environmental movement. A graduate of Princeton University and Union Theological Seminary, Harper served as a parish priest for ten years and in leadership positions in the Episcopal Church prior to joining GreenFaith. He was named 2006 Environmental Leader of the Year in New Jersey by Gov. Jon Corzine and NJ Dept. of Environmental Protection Commissioner Lisa Jackson, received a prestigious Transformational Fellowship from Trinity Episcopal Church, Wall Street in 2008, and accepted GreenFaith’s Many Faith’s, one Earth Award from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in 2009.

Founded in 1992, GreenFaith is a leading interfaith coalition for the environment. GreenFaith inspires, educates and mobilizes people of diverse religious backgrounds as environmental leaders. Through religious-environmental education programs, by greening the operation of religious institutions and the homes of their members, and through legislative advocacy and values-based environmental activism, GreenFaith helps religious institutions and people of all faiths put their belief into action for the earth.


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Abida Haque

Dr. Haque is Professor of Pathology at Cornell-Weil Medical School, New York, NY, and attending pathologist at the Methodist Hospital, Houston, Texas. She has dedicated her professional life to education of medical students and residents while practicing pathology. She has more than 100 publications, co-edited many books on pulmonary pathology, and presented close to 100 papers and abstracts nationally and internationally. She has served on ISNA Bylaws and Election committee, and as the president of IMANA she sits on the ISNA Majlis-Shura for the duration of her term 2010-2011.

Dr. Haque is current president of IMANA, and has served on IMANA executive committee and other committees for several years. IMANA is a charitable, non-profit, and educational organization of Muslim American physicians and allied health professional, established in 1967. IMANA has worked since its inception to promote the understanding and appreciation of Islamic medicine, and encouraged collegial professional interaction among a very large multiethnic group of health professionals. IMANA is committed to promote medical education, research, and better global health delivery.


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Jannaan Hashim is a native of Washington D.C. and was born to an Iraqi father and Caucasian-American mother. Her involvement in Muslim youth activities stems from her teenage years in the early 1980s into her adulthood in Chicago. Janaan served as a high school journalism teacher at Universal School in suburban Chicago and she also used her experience as a student leader in college; where she was elected president of her student body. Janaan is a partner at Amal Law Group, the nation's first law firm founded by six American Muslim women; where she practices criminal defense and civil rights law. She is also an adjunct professor at McCormick Theological Seminary where she teaches a master's level course entitled 'Religious Pluralism and the Ministry'. Janaan is also the Tuesday night host of WCEV's Radio Islam program, a spokesperson for the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago (CIOGC) and serves as CIOGC media relations co-chair.

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Ali Hassan is the Chief Financial Officer of the Zaytuna Institute. He is a graduate of Southeastern University in Karachi, Pakistan, with a bachelor’s degree in marketing in 1998, and Santa Clara University, with an MBA, with honors, in 2003. His previous business experience includes acting as cross currency manager for Vital Capital Markets Limited, portfolio manager with Taurus Securities (an affiliate of HSBC) where he managed assets in excess of $20 million for both foreign and domestic institutions, and as a portfolio manager at Silicon Valley Securities (an affiliate of Raymond James).

As CFO of the Zaytuna Institute, Mr. Hassan has focused his time and energy on building its financial infrastructure, raising funds and enhancing the Institute’s management and programming. He is currently working closely with the Institute’s Board of Directors, staff and counsel to develop Zaytuna’s seminary program, endowment and planned giving programs

Nasir Hassan M.D., FACP, FCCP is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Howard University College of Medicine in Washington D.C. and the president of the Islamic Medical Association of North America (IMA). He is licensed to practice medicine in Maryland and Washington D.C. and was the Chief of Medical Services at the United States Soldiers' and Airmen's Home in Washington D.C.

Some of his positions at Howard University included: Program Director in Internal Medicine from 2000-2003; Program Director, Transitional Year Program from 2000-2002; and Clerkship Director in Internal Medicine from 1990-2003. In 2003, he was inducted as a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. He also served as Chairman, Network on Cultural Diversity in Medicine, American College of Chest Physicians from 2004-2006; and he arranged the framework for Continuing Medical Education for the Federation of Islamic Medical Associations from 2003-2006. Dr. Hassan served on many other local and national committees and was one of 12 physicians who were recognized by the American College of Chest Physicians in 2000 for his work in caring for patients near the end of their lives.

Dr. Hassan hosted a radio program (AMIN Radio - WWTL) weekly talk show host "Ask Your Doctor" in 2001 and was executive director for the Islamic Society of the Washington Area (1982-85 and 1992-94. He was a member of the Board of Directors with the Muslim Community Center in Maryland where is now on the MCC Board of Trustees.

Faizan Haq is a professor of Islamic Cultural History and US and the Muslim World at State University of New York, Buffalo. He also lectures at Buffalo State College on Intercultural Communications and is the Project Support Specialist for Center for Development of Human Services. Currently he is a fellow of Association of Diplomatic Studies and Training and American Institute of International Studies. He is the current Vice-President of American Muslim Social Scientists and Pakistani American Association of Western New York, as well as General Secretary of Pakistani American Congress. He is also a founding member of Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy. Mr. Haq has been working relentlessly for humanitarian causes for peace with organizations like Interfaith Peace Network. He also serves on the board of governors for the Network of Religious Communities of Western New York.

Maher Hathout

Maher Hathout is a leading spokesperson for the American Muslim community, is a retired physician best known for his tireless commitment to public service. He is an international figure who is highly regarded as a positive voice of Islam offering a unique and valuable perspective on national and international issues involving Muslims. Among the numerous offices he holds, Dr. Hathout is MPAC's Senior Advisor. He is also a Charter Member of the Pacific Council on International Policy, the western partner of the Council on Foreign Relations, and sits on the Board of Directors of the Interfaith Alliance. Dr. Hathout has been invited to Capitol Hill and the State Department several times to address a variety of topics such as "Islam and U.S. Policy," "Islamic Democracy," "Emerging Trends in Islamic Movements," and "the Future of the Middle East." He has traveled to Australia, Egypt, Kuwait, Malaysia, Pakistan, and South Africa to lecture on Islam and Muslims. Dr. Hathout has written extensively on Islam, human rights, democracy, Middle East politics, and Bosnia. His articles and interviews have appeared in such prominent newspapers as The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Christian Science Monitor. He appears frequently on national television and radio talk shows.


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Omar Hazim

Imam Omar Hazim is the Imam of the Islamic Center of Topeka. He is the Islamic advisor to the Kansas Dept. of Corrections, and has served in this position since 1990.

Hazim accepted Islam in 1962 under the leadership of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. He served as a minister for Elijah Muhammad’s son Minister Nathaniel Muhammad. Afterward he served directly for Elijah Muhammad as a minister. He has been a student of Imam W. Deen Mohammed since 1975.

Imam Hazim is a builder by trade, and has helped to establish many mosques and Islamic Centers in the Kansas City, and Topeka area over the past 47 years. He is also one of the founders of the Islamic Center of Topeka.

He is a member of The Midland Islamic Council. He is a member of the Islamic Society of North America and a member of the American Society of Muslims.

He was the first Muslim to give the invocation to the Kansas House of Representatives and Senate on March 9, 1995.

Hazim served on the board of directors for Interfaith of Topeka Inc. for seven years. He has also been associated with Interfaith for more than 20 years.

Imam Hazim is also the author of the book “Islam in The Heartland of America”


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Uruzurum Heer was born in Canada and she is a business consultant with over 8 years experience working with Dun & Bradstreet Canada in their Risk Management department.

She is also serving her 2nd term as Chairperson of the Council of American Muslim Professionals (CAMP) International; a 20,000 North American Muslim professionals organization since 1994. She recently started a charitable organization called CAMP CARES for Communities; serving the new immigrant community.

She is involved in various community services, including women's issues, youth activities and interfaith dialogue in her area.

Virginia Gray Henry, a native Kentuckian, studied world religion and art history at Sarah Lawrence and then taught filmmaking in New York. In1968, she and her husband sailed to Morocco and drove across North Africa to take up scholarships at Al Azhar University in Cairo. Their daughter Haajar was born in Libya on the way and their son Mustafa later in Cairo. After a decade of studying Tajweed, Fiqh and Hadith, they moved to Cambridge, England and founded the Islamic Texts Society in 1979 in order to publish English translations of Islamic classical texts and other works which would help Islam be properly understood. There she completed an M.A. in Education, became a research fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge, and began doctoral work at Oxford now being completed at Canterbury's Faculty of Divinity. In 1990, she returned to Louisville so that her parents could die at home and took up a post in academic development at Bellarmine University where Thomas Merton's works are archived. Honoring Merton, she ran the Year of Tibet for Kentucky, visited Tibet and produced the first scholarly work and video on Islam in Tibet. In 1994, the Dalai Lama came to Louisville and Gray also set up a gathering at his request in 2007 where the Dalai Lama met with Muslim scholars and dignitaries in San Francisco. Fons Vitae is now arranging a follow up meeting to be held at the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville. After her parents' death, Gray worked in Bosnian refugee camps and went on to publish books for their young people. In 1997, she opened up Fons Vitae in order to continue publishing and began creating interfaith events and annual interfaith festivals for her region. She continues lecturing in universities, churches, even to the novices at the Gethsemani Monastery and most recently in March joined Shaykh Hamza Yusef at a congress in Mauritania where she also had the great honor of meeting his beloved teacher in the far reaches of the desert.

Ibrahim Hooper is National Communications Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest American Muslim civil rights and advocacy group. He has a background in broadcast journalism and has offered an American Muslim perspective to hundreds of national and international media outlets during his 13 years as CAIR's spokesman.

Shareda Hossein

Shareda Hosein is a graduate of Hartford Seminary, Hartford, Connecticut with a Master’s Degree in Islamic Studies &Christian/Muslim Relations and a certificate in Islamic Chaplaincy (equivalent to a Masters in Divinity). She is a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves and has been mobilized four years for Operation Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom serving as a Cultural Advisor and a Personnel Officer. She served as the Muslim Chaplain at Tufts University prior to her mobilization in 2008.

She stays current with the chaplaincy by being involved in an Interfaith group in the Boston area, working with her former students and spearheading a program to support American Muslim Veterans and their families. Currently, she is researching the possibility of chaplaincy in industry as a way to support the sustainable living movement within the context of birthing flourishing communities.


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Daniel Hummel

Daniel Hummel is currently a doctoral student at Florida Atlantic University in Public Administration. His research interests are sustainable public budgeting and finance, democracy and conflict and religious liberty. He has presented on these topics at various conferences including the Public Administration Theory Network conferences and the Western Social Science Association conferences. His current projects include papers on national symbols and peace, democratic taxation, the origins of bureaucracy and mosque-building in the United States. He is also very active in interfaith work at his campus. He received an interfaith scholarship from the Interfaith Committee of Florida Atlantic University this academic year and was instrumental in establishing the first ever interfaith students group at the university. He has been married for more than five years to his wife, Dini Purnama, and lived in Indonesia for three years. He embraced Islam in 2002 after studying religion and feeling a deep affinity for Islam and its beliefs and practices.


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John Humphries

John Humphries has served as NRCAT’s Director for Program Coordination since 2007. He has more than ten years’ experience as a community organizer and trainer, serving as the director/lead organizer for organizations in rural Appalachia and in Connecticut. A member of the Hartford Friends Meeting, he traveled to Iraq in June 2002 with a Quaker delegation, and he has helped organize a statewide interfaith network acting to oppose torture and the war in Iraq. As an organizer, he has coordinated successful state-level legislative campaigns. He lives in Hartford, CT, with his wife and two teenage sons.

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Altaf Husain is a native of Cleveland, Ohio, and his research interests include the integration of immigrant and refugee families, and especially Muslim adolescents, in the United States. Dr. Husain is a former two-term national president of the Muslim Students Association (MSA National), a current executive committee member of the Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA), a faculty member of COMPASS - the state of the art management training program of MSA National, chair of the Leadership Development Committee of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the Peaceful Families Project - dedicated to the prevention of domestic violence. Dr. Husain lives in Northern Virginia with his wife Mona, and their two sons 'Omar and Ahmed.

Kareem Irfan is the past Chairman of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago. Prior to that, he has been active with many Council projects, Co-Chairing its Bosnian Refugee Relocation Project and Chairing its Media Relations Committee. He has collaborated with the Islamic Society of North America on varied projects including Program Development, Presentations, and Media Relations for ISNA's Annual Conventions, and was a founding member of the ISNA Wills and Living Trusts Initiative. Mr. Irfan currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Islamic Center of Naperville and remains committed to pro bono work for professional, religious and non-profit institutions. Mr. Irfan has a MS in Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois and a JD from DePaul University. Following several years in private practice as an Intellectual Property lawyer with two prominent Chicago law firms, he has been with Schneider Electric for 10 years and is currently responsible for legalities of business initiatives in Information Technology and e-Commerce for the company.

Yusuf Islam

Born Steven Demetre Georgiou, the son of a Greek Cypriot father and Swedish mother, Yusuf Islam grew up in the heart of London’s theatre district. From 1968-1979, he performed as Cat Stevens and was one of the biggest solo artists of his generation, penning such classics as Matthew & Son, Moonshadow, Wild World and Father & Son and selling over 50 million LPs.

Following a bout of tuberculosis early on in his career, he undertook an ongoing search for peace and spiritual truth. After almost drowning in the Pacific Ocean at Malibu he received a translation of the Qur'an from his elder brother, David. His quest for answers was fulfilled and he embraced Islam in 1977. He changed his name to Yusuf Islam and walked away from the music business to start a new life and raise a family.

His pioneering work in education and tireless support for humanitarian causes has received international recognition, including being honoured with the 'Man for Peace' award in 2004 by a committee of Nobel peace laureates; and more recently in January 2007, the Mediterranean Prize for Peace. Small Kindness, the U.N affiliated NGO which Yusuf Islam founded in 2000, is a well respected charity actively operating in some of the poorest parts of the world.

Yusuf’s latest album, Roadsinger, was released earlier this year to widespread critical acclaim. A stage musical based on his repertoire of songs, Moonshadow, is in pre-production and set to open in London’s West End in early 2010.

Suzy Ismail

Suzy Ismail is currently a Visiting Profess or in the Communication Department at DeVry University. She received her Bachelor's in English, Communication and Middle Eastern Studies, her Master's in Communication and Information Studies, and attended the School of Communication at Rutgers University as a doctoral student in Organizational Communication. She is the author of "When Muslim Marriage Fails," "The BFF Sisters" and several other pending works. Her newest book "9 to 5: Muslims in the Western Workplace" is due out next month insha'Allah and her most current project is "Voices of the Egyptian Revolution." She resides in New Jersey with her amazing husband of thirteen years and her three inspirational children.


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Zeba Iqbal

Zeba Iqbal is the Executive Director of CAMP (Council for the Advancement of Muslim Professionals), America's oldest and largest network of Muslim professionals, and was the conference manager of CAMP's 2008, 2009 and 2011 Leadership conferences. CAMP encourages Muslim Professionals to lead by creating platforms for relevant dialog. Zeba is also an AMCLI fellow and was a strategic advisor to Muslim Americans Answer the Call (Summer 2009); the 10-day Muslim Voices: Arts and Ideas Festival in June 2009; and IMAN@the Apollo in January 2010. She was a key promoter of the sold-out 20-show NYC staging of Wajahat Ali's play, The Domestic Crusaders in September 2009. She has published several pieces on dating, love and marriage on Goatmilk, and Altmuslimah ("When I Think About Marrying" and "The Dating Dialogues") and has done several interviews on these subjects. She currently works for Princeton University managing their off-campus real estate development portfolio.


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Sherman A. (Abd al-Hakim) Jackson

Dr. Sherman Jackson is professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Department of Near Eastern Studies at the University of Michigan. His areas of specialization are Islamic law and theology. He earned his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania between 1982 to 1990. He has broad teaching experience, having taught at Wayne State University, Indiana University, University of Texas at Austin, American University in Cairo, Egypt, and Middlebury College. He has also received numerous fellowships and awards and has served as interim president of the Shari'ah Scholars Association of North America and as a member of the Board of Trustees for the North American Islamic Trust, as well as Chairman, Board of Trustees of the Islamic Teaching Center, a subsidiary of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). He is the author of Islamic Law and the State: The Constitutional Jurisprudence of Shihab al-Din al-Qarafi and On the Boundaries of Theological Tolerance in Islam: Abu Hamid al-Ghazali's Faysal al-Tafriqa, as well as numerous articles on Islamic law, theology and, more recently, Islam in America. He speaks classical Arabic, Egyptian, Levantine, and Saudi Arabian dialects, and has a reading knowledge of French, German, and Persian.

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Sheikh Mohamed Jebril graduated from Al-Azhar University in Egypt in Shariah law and has lead Ramadan taraweeh prayers in Masjid Amr Bin Al-Aas in Cairo since 1988. He is among the most prominent reciters of the Holy Quran in the Muslim World today.

Sheikh Jebril has served as an instructor of the Qur'an at the University of Jordan and has prepared religious programs for Jordanian Television. He has traveled the world to lead worshippers in mosques and delivered lectures at Islamic centers in Quranic Studies. He has recorded the Holy Qur'an for radio and television broadcasts for Egyptian Television and many Arab television networks.

Ameena Jandali is a founding member of Islamic Networks Group (ING). She has delivered hundreds of presentations in schools, colleges, universities, churches, and other venues on Islam and related subjects. Ameena is also the editor of ING's training handbooks on outreach for American Muslims; as well as an author and editor of training modules for public institutions on developing cultural competency with the American Muslim community. She currently team-teaches a class on Islam at San Francisco City College. She received her M.A. in Near Eastern Studies from University of California-Berkeley and B.A. in History from the University of Illinois.

Rizwan O. Jaka Mr. Jaka's community involvement includes: Board Member of ADAMS(June 2008- May 2009); Past President of ADAMS(2002-2008); Past Vice President of ADAMS(2000-2002); Chair of the Board of the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington, Cub/Boy Scout Chartered Organizational Representative(2004-Current); Member of Goose Creek District(Loudoun County) Boy Scouts of America Committee(2006-current); Board Member, Islamic Society of North America(ISNA)(2008-Current); ISNA National Convention 2009(Washington DC) Steering Committee Chair(2009); Chair of DC Area Eid Committee(1997-Current); CCMO DC Election Committee Chair(2003-2007); ISNA National Convention 2002(Washington DC) Steering Committee Chair(2002); ISNA Youth Strategic Planning Committee(2004); ISNA East Zone Conference Steering Committee Chair(2006 and 2007); ISNA Election Committee(2005-2008); Ashburn Soccer Club Coach(2003-2005); Dulles little League Baseball Manager/Coach(2004-2008); University of Texas Student Government Representative(1992); Citizens Affairs Committee Co-Chair, University of Texas Student Government(1993); Board Member, of University of Texas Texas Student Publications(1995); Editorial Columnist, University of Texas Daily Texan(50,000 circulation -1994/1995). Mr. Jaka graduated with Bachelors of Science in Computer Science from University of Texas at Austin in 1995, and presently works as a Manager of Technology Sales Consulting in the Technology Industry.

Sarah Jawaid

Sarah Jawaid is an urban planner and artist residing in Washington, DC. She works as a Policy Associate at the National Housing Conference, advocating for affordable housing issues. In addition, she helps to organize events with DC Green Muslims, a group of
eco-conscious Muslims working to understand the connections between the environment, faith and holistic living. Sarah also paints and exhibits her artwork in galleries around the DC area. Sarah is originally from Southern California where she received a B.S. from the University of Southern California in Public Policy and an MA in Urban Planning from the University of California, Irvine.


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Jamillah Karim is an Assistant Professor of Religion at Spellman College. She obtained her Ph.D. in Islamic Studies at Duke University and specializes in Islam in America, women and Islam, African American Islam, and Islam and culture. She continues to research, write, and lecture on her dissertation topic, "Negotiating Race and Class in the American Ummah: African American and South Asian Women in Chicago and Atlanta." Dr. Karim was raised in an Atlanta Muslim community in association with Imam W.D. Mohammed.

Mohammad Karim

Mohammad Karim is Vice President for Research of the Old Dominion University. He is North American Editor of Optics and Laser Technology, an Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions of Education, a Member of the Editorial Board of Microwave and Optical Technology Letters and of World Journal of Modeling and Simulation. He has served as guest editor of 16 technical journal issues. Karim is author of 15 text books and over 325 research papers. He is an elected fellow of the Optical Society of America, the Institute of Physics, the Society of Photo-Instrumentation Engineers, the Institution of Engineering & Technology, and Bangladesh Academy of Sciences.

Akel Kahera



Dr. Akel Kahera received his Ph.D. from Princeton University; M.Arch in
Architecture from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and B.Arch from Pratt Institute. After serving on the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin and Texas Tech University, he joined Prairie View A&M University, School of Architecture as Professor of Architecture and Community Development. Dr. Kahera currently serves as the University Director of the Texas Institute for the Preservation of History and Culture and has served as the Interim Director of the Master of Community Development Degree Program. His research, publication and teaching include non-Western architecture, Hermeneutics and design theory, the history and theory of Islamic art/architecture and urbanism. Dr. Kahera is the author of Deconstructing
the American Mosque: Space Gender and Aesthetics University of Texas Press (2002) and has co-edited Design Criteria for Mosques and Islamic Centers Art, Architecture & Worship, Architectural Press, Oxford, UK (2009), a third book Reading the Islamic City is forthcoming. He is also the author of over three dozen peer reviewed papers and book chapters and currently serves at the editor of The Journal of History and Culture (a peer reviewed academic journal) and has produced two PBS educational programs Juneteenth and Forever Free on the history of African Americans in Texas. Dr. Kahera has over two decades as a professional practitioner performing a vital role as architect/designer and project manager primarily in the international arena, which led to the design and construction of a several major projects in Saudi Arabia and Egypt; he has also designed several mosques in the United States. Dr. Kahera is committed to the empowerment of women and under-represented minorities. Dr. Kahera is married to Professor Sulafa Abou Samra and is the proud father of six daughters and one grand daughter.


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Yusuf Ziya Kavakci was born in 1938 in Hendek, Sakarya, Turkey. His rise to scholarship began early; by the age of 10, he memorized the entire Quran and became a certified Qari, or reciter. He proceeded to pass the rigorous National Exams in Turkey for Waiz, or preacher, by age15, and also for Mufti, a scholar authorized to derive legal rulings in Islamic Jurisprudence, by age 18. While still a student, he also worked as Muezzin and Imam in various Istanbul mosques.

Dr. Kavakci obtained a bachelors degree in Islamic Studies from the Institute of Higher Islamic Studies, and a Law degree from the College of Law, Istanbul University. A board certified attorney in Turkey, he has also practiced law in Libya, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.

In 1967, he received his PhD in Islamic History and Culture from Istanbul University, Faculty of Letters. Thereafter, he worked as Assistant and Associate Professor at the Institute of Islamic Research, Istanbul University.

In 1974, he moved to Erzurum to help establish the first college of Islamic Studies in modern Turkey: the College of Theology, which is now part of Ataturk University, Erzurum. As senior faculty, he chaired several Islamic Sciences Departments, and in 1980 was given full professorship in Islamic Law – one of the first such positions in Turkey since the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Dr. Kavakci has held numerous other positions in Turkey and has served as Guest professor at University of Cambridge, UK (1973-1974), as well as Temple University in Pennsylvania (1978-1979).

Dr. Kavakci and his family moved to the United States in April 1988 in order to obtain an education for his three daughters who were denied entry to their university building in Turkey due to their hijab. Residing in Dallas, Texas, he serves as Scholar-in-Residence for the Islamic Association of North Texas (IANT), the largest mosque in north Texas. He continues to teach a host of programs there, which are also available to others at no cost in video or audio format at http://www.iant.com/. Some of his current course subjects include Fiqh (Nur al-Idah, Majalla and others), Aqida (grammatical analysis and translation of al-Fiqh al-Akbar by Abu Hanifa, Aqida of al-Tahawi, Aqa’id of Umar Nasafi), Hadith (Nawawi’s Forty Hadith, Ramuz al-Ahadith by Gumushhaneli Ziyaeddin Efendi), and Grammatical Analysis of the Quran, in which the Arabic text is analyzed word by word in its entirety, and is presently in the twenty-sixth of thirty chapters (juz,siparah).

Dr .Kavakci is also founder and instructor of two unique Islamic Institutions in Dallas. The first, IANT Quranic Academy, or IQA (http://www.quranicacademy.org/), is an elementary through high school program intended to produce American Scholars of Islam. There, he instructs students chosen for the Alim Program. He is also Founding Dean and instructor at Suffa Islamic Seminary (http://www.suffa.org/), which offers college level instruction in Islamic Education.

Due to his vast education and experience in both traditional Ottoman Methodology of Islamic Sciences as well as modern academia, Dr. Kavakci is called upon to speak in numerous local, national, and international conferences on Islam, and is heavily involved in interfaith relations. He is a Shura member of ISNA (Islamic Society of North America), a member of the Fiqh Council of North America, and is on the list of speakers called on behalf of the US State Department program.

MJ Khan is a living example of the American Dream. Earning two Bachelor of Science Degrees in Physics, Mathematics and Engineering from the Universities of Sind and Karachi, Pakistan; he went on to earn two Masters Degrees, a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois, and a Masters of Business Administration from Rice University.

Councilman Khan was elected to Houston City Council, District F in December 2003. He currently serves on several local boards as well as seven City of Houston committees including the International Liaison and Protocol Committee and the Flooding and Drainage Committee – both of which he chairs.

Known for his leadership in the community, Council Member Khan has been honored by the City of Houston and other prestigious organizations.

In April of 2007, USCIS - U.S. Department of State honored Council Member Khan with the Outstanding American by Choice Award in Washington, D.C. Secretary Condoleezza Rice, Department of State (DOS), gave the keynote address to the recipients. In 2008, Council member Khan received the Asian American Leadership Award from Asia Society Texas Center and the Leadership Award for
Outstanding Community Service from the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).

Muqtedar Khan

Dr. Muqtedar Khan is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Delaware. He earned his Ph.D. in International Relations, Political Philosophy, and Islamic Political Thought, from Georgetown University in May 2000. He founded the Islamic Studies Program at the University of Delaware and was its first Director from 2007-2010. Dr. Khan is a Fellow with the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding. He was a Senior Nonresident Fellow with the Brookings Institution [2003-2008] and a Fellow of the Alwaleed Center at Georgetown University [2006-2007]. He has been the President, Vice President and General Secretary of the Association of Muslim Social Scientists. He is the author of American Muslims: Bridging Faith and Freedom (Amana, 2002), Jihad for Jerusalem: Identity and Strategy in International Relations (Praeger, 2004), Islamic Democratic Discourse (Lexington Books, 2006)and Debating Moderate Islam: The Geopolitics of Islam and the West (University of Utah Press, 2007). Dr. Khan frequently comments on BBC, CNN International, FOX and VOA TV, Bridges TV, NPR and other radio and TV networks. His articles on Islam and American Muslims can be read at www.ijtihad.org and his commentaries on global politics can be read at www.Glocaleye.org.



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Nouman A. Khan



Nouman is the founder and CEO of Bayyinah, as well as the lead instructor for a number of Bayyinah courses including the ‘Fundamentals of Classical Arabic’ and ‘Divine Speech’. His first exposure to Arabic study was in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia where he completed his elementary education. He continued Arabic grammar study in Pakistan, where he received a scholarship for ranking among the top 10 scores in the national Arabic studies board examinations in 1993. But his serious training in Arabic began in the United States in 1999 under Dr. Abdus-Samie, founder and formal principal of Quran College, Faisalabad, Pakistan who happened to be touring the US for intensive lectures in Tafsir and Arabic studies. Under Dr. Abdus-Samie, Nouman developed a keen methodical understanding of Arabic grammar. He further benefited from Dr. Abdus-Samie by internalizing his unique teaching methods and later translating his work into English for the benefit of his own students. Nouman served as professor of Arabic at Nassau Community College until ’06 and has taught Modern Standard and Classical Arabic at various venues for nearly 7 years with over 10,000 students nationwide. Currently he has dedicated himself to a seven-year-long project, of conducting a linguistic & literary focus Qur’anic Tafseer series in English. Recordings of sessions conducted so far can be downloaded at www.bayyinah.com/dream.



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Saniyasnain Khan

Saniyasnain Khan, son of the noted Islamic scholar, Maulana Wahiduddin Khan was born in India in 1959. He is an Indian author who writes books for children on subjects related to Islam. Some of his books have been translated into French, German, Turkish, Danish, Dutch, Polish, Swedish, Norwegian, Uzbek, Arabic, Malay, Bengali and Urdu.

He has also created board games for children on Islamic themes. He has written over 100 children's books.

A trustee of the Centre for Peace and Spirituality International -- a non-profit, non-political organization working towards peace and spirituality -- he has contributed many articles on Islam and spirituality to English newspapers.

He does a weekly TV program, Islam for Kids on ETV Urdu and is a co-host of Kahaniyan Quran Se (Stories from the Quran) which is being telecast on Zee Salaam. Recently he was recognized by the Limca Book of Records.
Some of his books include Tell Me About Hajj, Tell Me about the Prophet Muhammad, Goodnight Stories from the Quran and My First Quran Storybook.


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Suhail A. Khan

Suhail A. Khan is the Senior Fellow for Christian-Muslim Understanding at the Institute for Global Engagement.
He is a Washington, DC based attorney and has previously held many government positions.

Khan served as Policy Director and Press Secretary for U.S. Congressman Tom Campbell (R-CA) where he worked closely on a variety of legislative initiatives, including religious freedom.

More recently, Khan served as a senior political appointee with the Bush administration. He served in the White House Office of Public Liaison assisting in the President's outreach to various faith communities.

Khan also served as Assistant to the Secretary for Policy under U.S. Secretary Mary Peters at the U.S. Department of Transportation.

While at the Department of Transportation, Khan was awarded the Secretary's Team Award in 2005 and the Gold Medal for Outstanding Achievement in 2007.

Khan serves on the boards of the American Conservative Union, the Islamic Free Market Institute, the Muslim Public Service Network, the Indian American Republican Council, and on the Buxton Initiative Advisory Council.

He has spoken venues such as the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), the Council for National Policy (CNP), the Harbour League,and the National Press Club. He has written opinion pieces for various publications including the Washington Post/Newsweek Forum on Faith.


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Yasmine Khan is the Interfaith Coordinator at Islamic Networks Group in San Jose. She joined ING as an intern in June 2006, focusing on research and development of content and design for ING's educational seminars and cultural competency presentations. As Interfaith Coordinator at ING, Yasmine has organized the annual interfaith Ramadan iftar, as well as ING's Spring 2007 Series of Interfaith Dialogue events in San Mateo County in collaboration with the Peninsula Temple Beth El, New Vision United Methodist Church, and Yaseen Foundation. Yasmine is a graduate of the University of California at Davis, where she studied Human Development and Social & Ethnic Relations. She currently resides in Walnut Creek.

Wahiduddin Khan


Maulana Wahiduddin Khan is an Islamic spiritual scholar who is well versed in both classical Islamic learning and modern science. The mission of his life from a very early stage has been the establishment of world-wide peace. To this end he has devoted much time and effort to the development of a complete ideology of peace and non-violence based on the teachings of the Quran. In the course of his research, the Maulana came to the conclusion that the need of the hour was to present Islamic teachings in the style and language of the present day. Keeping this ideal consistently before him, he has written over 200 books on Islam. His most recent publication is The Prophet of Peace (Penguin Books). He wrote a commentary on Quran which is available in English, Arabic and Urdu.
To cater to inquisitive minds and the needs of the spiritually inclined, the Maulana has established at New Delhi, India in 2001The Center for Peace and Spirituality. He and his team, ambassadors of peace, are actively involved in interfaith and peace efforts globally.

The Maulana has received among others the Demiurgus Peace International Award, Ambassador of Peace Award, Padam Bhushan and the Rajeev Gandhi National Sadbhavna Award. He has also been named “Islam’s Spiritual Ambassador to the world” by the book, 500 Most Influential Muslims of 2009 of Georgetown University.


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Farhana Khera is the President and Executive Director of the National Association of Muslim Lawyers (NAML). She also serves as the President and Executive Director of NAML’s sister charitable entity, Muslim Advocates.

Prior to joining NAML, Ms. Khera served as Counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, where she worked for six years directly for Senator Russell D. Feingold (D-WI). Ms. Khera focused substantially on the USA PATRIOT Act, racial and religious profiling, and other civil liberties issues raised by the government’s anti-terrorism policies since September 11th.

Prior to her service with the Senate Judiciary Committee, Ms. Khera was an associate with two major Washington, D.C. law firms. Ms. Khera received her B.A. with honors in political science and economics from Wellesley College. At Wellesley, she served as president of the student body and co-founded the first Muslim student’s organization, al-Muslimat (“The Muslim Women”). Ms. Khera received her J.D. from Cornell Law School, where she was a finalist in the law school’s annual Cuccia Cup Moot Court Competition and was an editor with the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy.

Michael Kinnamon


The Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon is the ninth General Secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, the umbrella organization for Protestant and Orthodox Christian denominations in the United States. Prior to his unanimous election in 2007, he was chair of the Council's Justice and Advocacy Commission. He has also served as General Secretary of the Consultation on Church Union, (now Churches Uniting in Christ) and executive secretary of the World Council of Churches’ Commission on Faith and Order.

Kinnamon has served as an educator at a number of theological institutions, including Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Lexington Theological Seminary, Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, and United Theological College and South Asian Theological Institute in Bangalore, India.

Kinnamon earned a Ph.D. degree from the University of Chicago Divinity School in 1980, in religion and literature. He studied at Tel Aviv University from 1969 to 1970 and received his Bachelor’s degree from Brown University in 1971.

Kinnamon has written extensively on the ecumenical movement and has been a frequent speaker both within his Disciples of Christ (Christian Church) denomination and elsewhere. He is an outspoken national leader in interfaith relations and social justice.


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Mumina Kowalski


Mumina Kowalski was the Assistant Director of the Islamic Chaplaincy Program, under Dr. Ingrid Mattson at Hartford Seminary from 2008-2010. She completed one unit of Clinical Pastoral Education at WellSpan Health, York Hospital, in 2007. From 1999-2006 she worked as the first female Muslim prison chaplain in the state of Pennsylvania.
Mumina believes that Muslim chaplains are essential leaders in American society because they are trained to educate the public about Islam as they serve as compassionate counselors and advocates for equal religious accommodation in open societies.



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Alex Kronemer

Alex Kronemer, a Master’s graduate from Harvard University in theological studies, is a frequent writer and lecturer on religious diversity. He has published essays in numerous newspapers and journals and has been a CNN commentator on several occasions. Mr. Kronemer has also served a one-year appointment at the Bureau of Human Rights in the U.S. State Department focusing on U.S. foreign policy and Islam. Currently, Alex is the co-founder of UPF and the co-producer of UPF’s documentary films including Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet, Inside Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think, Prince Among Slaves, Allah Made Me Funny, and more.



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In 2005, Khalid Latif was appointed as the first Muslim chaplain at NYU where he began to initiate his vision for a pluralistic future on and off campus for American Muslims. Imam Latif was also appointed as the first Muslim chaplain at Princeton University in 2006. Spending a year commuting between these two excellent institutions, he finally decided to commit full-time to New York University’s Islamic Center where his position was officially institutionalized in the spring of 2007. Under his leadership, the Islamic Center at NYU became the first ever fully established Muslim student center at an institution of higher education in the United States. Imam Latif’s exceptional dedication and ability to cross interfaith and cultural lines on a daily basis brought him recognition throughout the city, so much so that in 2007 Mayor Michael Bloomberg nominated Imam Latif to become the youngest chaplain in history of the New York City Police Department at the age of 24.

Ingrid Mattson

Dr. Ingrid Mattson is a member of the Executive Council of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). She previously served as ISNA President from 2006 to 2010 and as Vice-President from 2001 to 2006. Dr. Mattson is currently Professor of Islamic Studies and Director of the Macdonald Center for Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut.
She earned her Ph.D. in Islamic Studies from the University of Chicago in 1999 with a focus on Islamic law and society and a B.A. in Philosophy and Fine Arts from the University of Waterloo. Dr. Mattson is the author of a popular introduction to the Qur'an entitled, "The Story of the Qur'an: its history and place in Muslim Life. A number of her articles for public and academic audiences can be found online.


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Hamid Mavani is Assistant Professor of Religion, Islamic Studies at the School of Religion, Claremont Graduate University. He has been active at the academic and community level in promoting interfaith dialogue, inter- and intra-Muslim dialogue, religious pluralism, civil society, democratic governance, reform in the Islamic legal tradition, gender and religion, and environmental ethics. His primary fields of interest include Islamic legal reform, Muslims in America, Twelver Shi’ism, Qur’anic studies and Contemporary developments in the Muslim world.

Nura Maznavi

Nura Maznavi is a full-time staff attorney with Muslim Advocates leading its Program to End Religious & Racial Profiling. Prior to joining Muslim Advocates, Ms. Maznavi was an associate with the law firm Rosen, Bien & Galvan in San Francisco, focusing on civil rights litigation, primarily prisoner rights class actions on behalf of California state inmates. While at the firm, she represented a Muslim woman in an employment discrimination suit and presented the case to a panel of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission. Ms. Maznavi also worked as a staff attorney for the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and was a Fulbright Scholar in Sri Lanka, where she worked with local and international non-governmental organizations on issues effecting Sri Lankan migrant workers.
Ms. Maznavi received her BA in Politics from Pomona College in 2000 and her JD, with honors, in 2003 from The George Washington University School of Law, where she received the Lawrence E. Seibel Memorial Award in labor and employment law. She has also studied Arabic at the American University in Cairo and completed an international human rights law program at the University of Oxford.
Ms. Maznavi was a member of an advisory committee to the San Francisco Human Rights Commission from 2009-2010. She also served on the board of the Bay Area Association of Muslim Lawyers and was a representative to the Minority Bar Coalition of the San Francisco Bay Area. She was a member of the planning committee for the 2007 National Association of Muslim Lawyers (NAML) conference.


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Ismail Abadan Mehr

Dr. Ismail Mehr is a Board Certified Anesthesiologist, Chairman of Department of Anesthesiology, and Medical Director of Operating Room Services, St. James Mercy Health System. He is a life member of Islamic Medical Association of North America (IMAMAN), Chairman of IMANA Relief Committee, Member of IMANA Executive Council, and General Secretary if IMANA. Dr. Mehr has served on many Medical Relief missions of IMANA, including Indonesia Tsunami-March 2005, Pakistan earthquake- October 2005, Gaza War – January 2009, Haiti earthquake – January 2010, Sudan Save Smile Surgical Mission – March 2010, Pakistan floods – August 2010, Sudan Save Smile Surgical Mission – March 2011. He is also a member of Board of Directors YMCA, Hornell NY.


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Amir Mertaban

Amir is a graduate from Cal Poly Pomona with a Bachelor’s Degree in International Business and Marketing and a Minor in Digital Media. Amir has been involved in the Muslim community since he was 14 and grew up with organizations like MAS, Cal Poly Pomona MSA, MSA West, 877-WHY-ISLAM and other local Masajid. He currently holds the position of Dawah Committee Chair for 877-WHY-ISLAM Southern California where he enjoys his passion of Dawah. Amir works at the largest county fair in the nation, the Los Angeles County Fair, where he is the Advance & Group Sales Manager. Amir also hosts “The Boiling Point,” a radio show on OneLegacyRadio.com aimed at tackling taboo subjects within the Muslim community.


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Haroon Moghul

Haroon Moghul is a fellow at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding. He is also Executive Director of The Maydan Institute, a consultancy devoted to increasing access to Islam and Muslims for corporate, media and non-profit sectors. He has served as Director of Public Relations for the Islamic Center at NYU (2007-09) and has been selected one of 500 global Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow. His writings have appeared in a variety of media, including Huffington Post, Religion Dispatches, Islamica (where he served as contributing editor) and Tikkun; he has worked as an analyst for the Tabah Foundation of Abu Dhabi. Through the Islamic Center at NYU's new media services, his sermons reach over 30,000 listeners per month in approximately 125 countries. Haroon has spoken across the United States and internationally on Islamic history and culture, contemporary politics in the Muslim world, and radicalism and religious identity. Haroon holds an M.A. from Columbia University in Middle East, South Asian and African Studies. He is completing his Ph.D. from Columbia University and focusing on Islamic political thought in colonial India through the political philosophy of Allama Iqbal’.


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Nadiah Mohajir

Nadiah Mohajir is the co-founder and director of programs for the HEART Women & Girls Project, a young nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering women and girls in interfaith and community settings to build self-esteem and leadership through health and wellness. She earned her master’s degree in public health in 2009 from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has worked in healthcare for over 10 years in a variety of settings, including but not limited to research, academics, policy, and community health. Most recently, she was a consultant for the Office on Women’s Health (OWH) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, working on a variety of different projects focusing on HIV/AIDS awareness, American Indian/Alaska Native Health, and improving the health of Chicago.


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Abdul-Rasheed Muhammad

Chaplain (LTC) Abdul-Rasheed Muhammad was affirmed into the U.S. Army as the first Islamic Chaplain in the U.S. Armed Forces at the Pentagon, Washington, D.C. on 3 December 1993. His initial assignment was with the 28thCombat Support Hospital at Ft. Bragg, NC. He served with the 2nd Battalion 9th Infantry Regiment at Camp Casey, Korea, and the 593rd Corps Support Group, Ft. Lewis, WA, and hospital chaplain at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, DC. He was then assigned as the Brigade chaplain 4th Brigade, 1st Calvary Division, Ft. Hood, TX. He was assigned as the DISCOM Chaplain for 1st Infantry Division, in Kitzingen, Germany, Family Life Chaplain, USAG-Heidelberg, and IMCOM-Europe. From 2008 to 2010 he served at the USA Chaplain Center and School as instructor in the Chaplain Captain Career Course, C4 Course Developer, and Task Analyst. He currently serves as the Command Chaplain for the USAPHC and Behavioral Health Program Manager in the DHPW Portfolio Chaplain (LTC) Muhammad has been married the past 32 years to the Saleemah Rasheedah Abdullah. They have five sons, and two daughters.


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Abdul Malik Mujahid is the Chairman of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago (CIOGC) and founder of Sound Vision, an Islamic multimedia company. An award winning author, as the national coordinator of Bosnia Task Force USA, he successfully lead efforts to declare rape as a war crime. He is also a board member of the Parliament of the World Religions.

Naif Al-Mutawa

Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa is a Kuwaiti clinical psychologist and creator of THE 99, the first group of comic superheroes born of an Islamic archetype. THE 99 has received positive attention from the world’s media. Recently, Forbes named THE 99 as one of the top 20 trends sweeping the globe and most recently, President Barack Obama praised Dr. Naif and THE 99 as perhaps the most innovative of the thousands of new entrepreneurs viewed by his Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship.

Al-Mutawa has a PhD in Clinical Psychology from Long Island University where he also earned a Masters Degree in Clinical Psychology. He holds a Masters in Organizational Psychology from Teacher’s College, Columbia University and an MBA, also from Columbia University. He earned his undergraduate degree from Tufts University, where he triple majored in clinical psychology, English literature and history.

Dr. Al-Mutawa has extensive clinical experience working with former prisoners of war in Kuwait and the Survivors of Political Torture unit of Bellevue Hospital in New York. He has seen first hand the cancer that intolerance can bring to any society. His direct contact with the horrors of people tortured because of their religious and political beliefs, led to his writing a timeless children’s tale that won a UNESCO prize for literature in the service of tolerance.

He received the Eliot-Pearson Award for Excellence in Children's Media from Tufts University, the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations “ Marketplace of Ideas” Award, The Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneurship Award presented at the 2009 World Economic Forum and has been named as one of WEF's Young Global Leaders for 2011.

Dr. Al-Mutawa is the Clinical Director of The Soor Center for Psychological Counseling and Assessment, Kuwait’s leading professional source of a broad range of psychological services.

He is married to Rola Banaja and the father of five sons. He travels extensively and has homes in Kuwait City and New York.


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Dr. Aneesah Nadir has taught in the social work program at Arizona State University and for the counseling program at the University in Phoenix. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Work at ASU-West. Dr. Nadir is a graduate of Arizona State University, School of Social Work where she obtained her Masters and PhD. Dr. Nadir's over-arching research interest is related to cultural diversity, religion and spirituality. Her primary focus is on Muslim life in America and her most recent research study is on the life experiences of young Muslim women in America. Dr. Nadir had developed an elective course for social workers and others in the human services called the 'Muslim Reality: Living in America' which helps students learn about the traditions, beliefs, practices and experiences of this community as well as other minority religious communities. She is the co-author of a chapter on Islam in Spirituality and Religious Traditions in Social Work Practice (edited by Van Hook, Hugen and Aguilar, 2001); and the author of a chapter titled, 'Promoting Positive Marital Outcomes among Muslims in America' in Islam in America: Images and Challenges by Phylis Lan Lin; and a chapter titled "An American Muslim Reflects upon the 9/11 Commission Report" in First Impressions: American Muslim Perspectives on the 9/11 Commission Report. Dr. Nadir is a founder and current president of the Islamic Social Services Association in the United States. She is currently working on developing a Certificate Program in Social Work and Spirituality for practitioners, students and religious community leaders at Arizona State University.

Rami Nashashibi is the Executive Director and one of the original founding members of the Inner-city Muslim Action Network (IMAN). He completed his B.A. in English Literature and International Studies at DePaul University, has an M.A. in Social Sciences and is currently a PhD candidate in sociology at the University of Chicago. Previously, he has been an adjunct professor at Columbia College Chicago, Robert Morris College, and Daley Community College and most recently at St Xavier University. He is also a recipient of the Davis Putter Student Activist Grant and lectures frequently on a range of topics relating to Islam, Muslims and community activism.

Imam Niwowy attended Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt; under the faculty of usool-ud-deen, where he studied under many Azhar scholars. He has been the Imam at Al-Madina Masjid in Atlanta, Georgia since 2001.

Rashed Nizam


President North American Bangladeshi Islamic Community (NABIC), Chairman, Shura Council, Islamic center of Central Missouri (ICCM), Member
Steering committee, interfaith peace and education collaborative, Columbia, Missouri, Teaching an 8 weeks long course on Islam, Osher Lifelong learning Institute at Univ. of Missouri, Columbia Board Certified Ophthalmologist
Diplomat, American Board of Ophthalmology Fellow, American Academy of Ophthalmology Fellow, Bangladesh College of Physicians and Surgeons Chief of Surgery Emeritus, Moberly Regional medical center Director Mid-Missouri Eye center, Moberly, Missouri Member, ISNA Founders Coordination committee (IFCC).



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Esam Omeish serves as the US East Zone representative of National MSA, eventually becoming the President of National MSA for two years in the early 1990’s. Dr. Omeish served in the national Board (Majlis Al-Shura) of ISNA as a representative of MSA for two years.

He has been involved in national affairs of MAS since its inception and has held different regional and local leadership capacities. Dr. Omeish was elected as the president of MAS by the newly elected board of trustees of MAS national for the term of 2004-2008.

Chaplain Col Brett Oxman is Command Chaplain of United States Strategic Command, Offutt Air Force Base, NE. He is the principal advisor to the Commander, Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff of United States Strategic Command on religious, moral, and ethical issues related to the policies, plans and actions undertaken or overseen by the Command. Additionally, he supervises religious support in subordinate units and provides for the free exercise of religion for all personnel assigned to United States Strategic Command. Chaplain Oxman is an orthodox rabbi. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant Chaplain Candidate in the United States Air Force Reserve in February 1982, and entered active duty as a Chaplain on 11 May 1986.

Eboo Patel is the Founder and Executive Director of the Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based international nonprofit building the interfaith youth movement. He is the author of Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation and a panelist for the Washington Post/Newsweek Magazine "On Faith" blog. Eboo holds a doctorate in the sociology of religion from Oxford University, where he studied on a Rhodes scholarship. He is an Ashoka Fellow, was named by Islamica Magazine as one of ten Muslim visionaries shaping Islam in America and has been profiled by numerous media outlets, including PBS.

Mark J. Pelavin

Mr. Pelavin has played a leadership role on the RAC's entire agenda, although he is particularly recognized for his expertise on issues concerning the separation of church and state. He is an expert in confronting the religious right, and his observations and writings have been carried in newspapers across the nation (including the New York Times, The Washington Post, and USA Today). He is also a frequent guest on radio and television programs.

Mr. Pelavin, an attorney, is also the Director of the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism. The commission is the social justice policy-making body of the Reform Movement, relating ethical and spiritual principles of Judaism to the problems of today's world.



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Cedric Prakash

Fr. Cedric Prakash, a human rights and peace activist, is the founder Director of PRASHANT (A Centre for Human Rights, Justice and Peace) in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, North-West India. He is at the forefront on issues, on behalf of the poor, the marginalized, the minorities and other vulnerable sections of society, in Gujarat and in other parts of India.

He is a Catholic Priest and a Member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) of the Gujarat Province.

In the wake of the Gujarat Carnage, in June 2002, he testified before the USCIRF in Washington, on the reality of the Muslims of Gujarat.

He is also been actively involved in responding to attacks on Christians in India be it in Gujarat, Orissa or Karnataka. Currently, he is the Convener of the Gujarat United Christian Forum for Human Rights.

He is also a visiting faculty in some Colleges, Universities and Seminaries. The Marquette University in Wisconsin, USA honored him as the Wade Chair Scholar for the academic year 2009 – 2010.

The Kabir Puraskar by the President of India in 1995 - for promotion of Communal Peace and Harmony
The Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Award by the Indian Muslim Council (USA) in June 2003 - for humanitarian work.
Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour) by the President of the French Republic in July 2006 – for life time commitment to the defense and the promotion of Human Rights in India
The Minority Rights Award from the National Minority Commission, Government of India in December 2006
The Human Dignity Award from the Diocese of Ahmedabad in February 2010.
and in May this year TANENBAUM - The well-known US-based Center for Inter religious Understanding, named him as one of the World's TOP TEN Peacemakers in Action.


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Yasir Qadhi

Yasir Qadhi is a lecturer and Islamic orator who has authored several books about Isla m. He is a popular speaker in many Muslim circles in the United States, Canada, England and Australia. He is one of the few people who has combined a traditional seminary training with Western education.
He was born in Houston, Texas, went to high school in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and worked for Dow Chemical on a short stint.

He then decided to pursue an education in Islamic studies, and left for the Islamic University of Madinah in Saudi Arabia. There, he completed a second Bachelors degree, specializing in Hadith studies, and then went on to complete M.A. in Technology. Presently, he is completing his Ph.D. in Islamic studies at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

Apart from his studies, he is an active Instructor in the Al-Maghrib Institute and the Al-Kauthar Institute. He appears on a number of Islamic satellite channels (Islam Channel in England, Al-Huda Channel in Saudi Arabia and Al-Fajr Channels in Egypt), where he teaches theology, Seerah, Tajweed, and other topics. He gives regular Friday sermons and lectures.


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Yasmeen Qadri is one of the founders and the former principal of the Muslim Academy of Central Florida (established in 1991), the first full-time Islamic school in Central Florida. In 2002 she was appointed as the Education Coordinator for the Department of Education at Valencia Community College located in Orlando, Florida. She is also a tenured professor and the diversity representative at the college. Dr. Qadri has also worked as an adjunct professor at the University of Central Florida’s College of Education since 1991. Her passion for Islamic Schools has enabled her to continue to serve in the capacity of a consultant through EdConsultations. As a strong advocate of Islamic Schools, Dr. Qadri travels around the United States utilizing her expertise in a variety of education related areas to help build and strengthen the Islamic schools.

Hassan Qazwini


Imam Hassan Qazwini is the Religious Leader of the largest Mosque in North America, the Islamic Center of America, located in Dearborn, Michigan. Since 1997, Hassan Qazwini has served as the scholar, conducting Friday Prayer every week at the Islamic Center of America. He delivers the first sermon in Arabic and the second in English, as a growing number of the younger English speaking generation is participating in religious events frequently. On Sunday mornings, he performs an English presentation during the Sunday service, usually aimed at addressing a sundry of current issues that affect the local Muslim community as well as the global community at large.
Realizing that the greatest energy and potential rested in the youth and the younger generations, Qazwini founded the Young Muslim Association (YMA) in 1998. This organization, affiliated with the Islamic Center of America, is aimed at educating the Muslim American youth, fostering leadership amongst them, and creating an environment in which they can actively promote Islam and effectively channel their efforts. In about five years since its establishment, the YMA has grown to be one of the largest Muslim youth organizations in North America.


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Habeeb Quadri is the principal of the MCC Full Time School in Morton Grove, Illinois. He has a B.A. degree in Teaching of History and a Masters in School Administration. In addition to his teaching and administrative experience in public and private schools, Habeeb has delivered dozens of lectures throughout North America and abroad on Islam, society, and social problems confronting Muslim youth and the community-at-large for the last fifteen years. Additionally, Habeeb maintains an active interest in education consulting. He has started his own educational consulting company called High Quality Educational Consulting in which he has partnered with IQRA International Educational Foundation as a consultant. Mr. Quadri has conducted workshops for weekend and full-time Islamic schools, public schools and universities around the world, delivering insightful presentations on such topics as classroom management, motivational techniques for students and faculty, curriculum development, Muslim sensitivity training and overall educational administrative. He has currently co-authored a book entitled the War Within Our Heart: The Struggles of the Muslim Youth. He also has two other book projects in the works regarding parental advice on dealing with Muslim youth and a story book for children.

Khurshid Qureshi has been involved in Islamic work since he was a college student at Oklahoma State University. In the early days of the Muslim Students Association (MSA), he coordinated the establishment of MSA chapters in Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, Kansas and Arkansas. He volunteered his time as a Sunday school teacher in the then newly-acquired MSA headquarters in Gary, Indiana in 1970. He founded the first regularly scheduled Islamic Youth Camp in the United States (Al Hilal Youth Camp recently observed its 27th anniversary). He has also worked with different Islamic organizations in Michigan to improve the conditions of inner-city youth to guide them to better career opportunities. He served as a member of board of Directors of Islamic Association of Greater Detroit and worked as a volunteer principal of its Islamic Sunday School for 15 years. His other Islamic work included seminars for the youth, Muslim unity symposiums and political action committees. In the 1980s, he advised the Government of Pakistan on improving Science & Technology education and to develop a strong industrial base. He is also the current president of Muslim Scientists and Engineers.

Mr. Qureshi has worked for 20 years with multinational corporations such as General Motors, Ingersoll-Rand and Hughes Corporation. At present he is the president and CEO of zeeWAVES Corporation a hi tech company which he founded in 2003. He served as Chairman of Society of Automotive Engineers Rocky Mountain Area and President of Colorado Engineering Society (an umbrella organization of 25 engineering societies with a membership of 50,000). He has been highly recognized by his business and peers and awarded with entrepreneur of the year and emerging venture awards.

He is a graduate of Oklahoma State University and completed his post graduate work at Stuart School of Business, Illinois Institute of Technology and Anderson School of Business at UCLA.

Naheed Qureshi is a Project Coordinator with the City of Los Angeles, Department of Neighborhood Empowerment. Prior to her current position, Ms. Qureshi served as a National Field Organizer with the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington, DC, focusing on the USA PATRIOT Act and other post-September 11th civil rights and civil liberties issues. Ms. Qureshi previously held positions with the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Homeland Security. At the Justice Department, Ms. Qureshi also focused on obtaining discrimination complaints, organizing national civil rights forums, and outreach to the Muslim, Arab and South Asian American communities. She has also served as an attorney advisor for Immigration Judge Ellen K. Thomas. Ms. Qureshi received her B.A. From the University of Wisconsin at Madison and her J.D.from the Georgetown University Law Center.

Ahmed Rehab


Ahmed Rehab is an American Muslim activist and writer with a focus on contemporary social issues including civil rights, media relations, and Islam-West relations.
Rehab is a regular contributor to the Chicago Tribune, the Huffington Post, and CNN.com, his Op-Eds have been published in numerous newspapers around the country, and he has been interviewed numerous times by the Chicago Sun-Times, the Daily Herald, the Washington Post, the Orlando Sentinel, the Economist, the Boston Globe, Crain’s Business Magazine, the Chicago Tribune, Germany’s Die Zeit, and many more.
Rehab is also a frequent guest on TV and cable news networks including ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX News, MSNBC, BBC, as well as on radio stations. His commentaries can be heard on Chicago Public Radio.
Rehab is active on the national speaking circuit, he has spoken at organizations and University campuses in Chicago and around the United States, as well as in Europe, Australia, Egypt, and Kenya.
Prior to joining CAIR in August of 2004, Rehab was a software engineer at Arthur Andersen LLP – a global consulting firm; a consultant for Chicago’s Niagara Foundation – a cutting-edge interfaith organization that promotes global fellowship; and a US Soccer Federation Official. He is the founder of Ibex Computers, and Amrex Media.
Ahmed Rehab holds a Masters degree in Software Engineering from DePaul University and a Bachelors in Psychology from the University of Illinois.
Rehab is the Vice-Chairman of RefugeeOne (RefugeeOne.org). He serves as a board member of the Illinois Coalition of Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR), the Chicago Human Relations Advisory Committee, and the Egyptian American Society. He also served as a member of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs’ (CCGA) Muslim task force, and the Chicago 2016 Arab Leadership Council.
Rehab is an alumnus of the FBI Citizen’s Academy, an Eisenhower fellow of the American Assembly, and a 2009 Recipient of the Lincolnland Legend award.
Ahmed Rehab is currently the Executive Director of CAIR-Chicago, a Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization which under Rehab’s tenure has developed from a start-up into one of the most notable not-for-profit civil rights offices of its kind anywhere in the United States.



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Nelson B. Rivers


Rev. Nelson B. Rivers, III is the Vice President for Stakeholder Relations at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), as well as Pastor of Charity Missionary Baptist Church in North Charleston, SC. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of Wilberforce University. For 34 years, Rev. Rivers has worked at every level of the NAACP. In 2000, he was a leading organizer of the largest civil rights demonstration in the history of South Carolina when over 50,000 marched on the capitol to demand the removal of the Confederate Battle Flag.

Rev. Rivers has appeared on various radio and television programs including NPR, CNN, 60 Minutes, and BET Tonight with Ed Gordon among others. He has received numerous awards for his civil rights and community work, including Order of the Palmetto, the State of South Carolina's highest award. He is included in both the Wilberforce University Association Hall of Fame and the South Carolina Black Hall of Fame.

Rev. Rivers received his bachelor's degree from Wilberforce University in Ohio and is a 1985 graduate of Leadership South Carolina. He is currently pursuing his Master of Divinity at the Erskine Theological Seminary in Due West, SC.


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John Rosenberg

Dr. John Rosenberg is a retired physician of 34 years from Kaiser Hospital where he was an ER Physician. His achievements as an ER physician include being Medical Staff President, directing and developing Kaiser Hospital’s disaster preparedness program for 25 years.
He began studies at The Espiscopal Academy, moving onto Princeton University, completing Hahnermann Medical College and finishing up at Pacific Presbyterian Hospital in San Francisco.
Upon his career with Kaiser, a colleague became a good friend - Manzoor Ghori. Together John and Manzoor developed and planned IMRC’s first India Health Initiative. Dr. Rosenberg has led IMRC’s India Health Initiative program 2 years in a row.
Dr. Rosenberg is involved in other health Initiatives serving remote underserved populations in India, Nepal and the Philippines. His initial trip was in 1971, and has returned 5 times working in Nepal and Tibet.
He is originally from Philadelphia and married for 37 years. He has 3 children and is a proud grandfather of three.


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Hannah Rosenthal

Hannah Rosenthal was sworn in as Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism at the U.S. State Department on November 23, 2009. Sparked by the work and experience of her father, a rabbi and Holocaust survivor, and her own experience studying to become a rabbi, she has led a life marked by activism and a passion for social justice.

Before joining the State Department, Ms. Rosenthal was Executive Director of the Chicago Foundation for Women, where she led one of the largest women's funds in the world. Prior to that, she was Executive Director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs for five years, where she worked on domestic and international policy for the organized Jewish community in North America.

Ms. Rosenthal served as Midwest regional director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services during the Clinton Administration. She was involved in community organizing, and the antiwar and civil rights movements in the 1960s.

Ms. Rosenthal attended graduate school for rabbinical studies at Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem and Los Angeles, and holds a bachelor’s degree in religion from the University of Wisconsin.


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Walter Ruby

Walter Ruby has served as Muslim Jewish Relations Officer at The Foundation for Ethnic Understanding since March 2008. A strong advocate of Muslim-Jewish communication and reconciliation, he organized The Foundation-sponsored First National summit of imams and rabbis in November 2007 in New York. As a career reporter, Ruby covered President Anwar Sadat's historic trip to Jerusalem and the breakup of the Soviet Union. He has served as New York and United Nations correspondent for the Jerusalem Post, and Moscow correspondent for The Jerusalem Post and The Forward. Today, Ruby writes for many newspapers including the New York Jewish Week, and the New York Daily News.



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Agha Saeed is a lecturer in the Communications and Political Science departments at University of California-Berkeley and California State University at Hayward. He is also the National Chairman of the American Muslim Alliance (AMA), a civic education and leadership training organization. Dr. Saeed is also the current coordinator of the California Civil Rights Alliance (CCRA), a coalition of 23 statewide organizations of various political, social and religious backgrounds. The CCRA was instrumental in the introduction of this year's California statewide resolution calling for the amending of the USA PATRIOT act. He is also the current chair of the national coalition of Muslim organizations known as the American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections (AMT). For his forthcoming book, Pakistan in its Own Mirror: Elite Autobiographies and National Consciousness, Dr. Saeed interviewed more than 40 authors, thinkers and leaders in Pakistan; including the current president, General Pervez Musharraf..

Dr. Shabbir Safdar is a professor of hematology and oncology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouei. A practicing oncologist, Dr. Safdar is also the national Vice-chair of the American Muslim Alliance (AMA). He has also played a leading role in the formation of national organizations such as: American Muslim Political Coordination Council (AMPCC) and the American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections (AMT).

Dr. Louay Safi is a recognized authority on Islam and the Middle East, and a strong advocate of human rights. He published extensively on such issues as socio-political development, modernization, democracy, human rights, and Islamic resurgence.

Safi served as Executive Director of ISNA Leadership Development Center (ILDC) (2004–2008), later he served as Director of Communications and Leadership in the year 2009. He is a fellow of the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding and serves on the steering committee of the Muslim-Christian Initiative on the Nuclear Weapons Danger.

Author of eleven books, including: Leading with Compassion (Outskirts Press 2009), The Qur’anic Narrative (Praeger 2008), Tensions and Transitions in the Muslim World, (University Press of America, 2003), Peace and the Limits of War (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 2001), The Challenge of Modernity (University Press of America, 1994), and Truth and Reform (The Open Press, 1998).

Founding director of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID) (1999-2007), he also Served as the Executive Director (1995-97) and Director of Research (1999-2003) of the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), Editor of the Journal of Islamic Social Sciences (1999-2003), and President of the Association of Muslim Social Scientists (1999-2003).

Taught at Wayne State University (Michigan), and served as visiting professor at George Washington (2001-2002) and as associate professor of Political Science at the International Islamic University of Malaysia (1994-99).

Participated in numerous national and international forums and conferences, and contributed articles to various academic journals, including the American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, Islamic Studies, Intellectual Discourse, Middle East Affairs Journal, and Journal of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies.

Appeared on numerous radio and TV programs, including CNN, BBC, Monte Carlo, Fox News, PBS, Middle East TV (MBC), Al-Jazeera TV, Voice of America, Malaysian Television, Syrian TV, and others.

Michael Saahir

Michael Saahir – a student of Imam W. Deen Mohammed – has been the Imam (Islamic Minister) of the Nur-Allah Islamic Center and Director for the Clara Muhammad Weekend School since 1992. He serves on many interfaith boards.

He writes a monthly column for The Indianapolis Recorder titled Al-Islam in America addressing issues for Muslims and Americans about Islam. Michael also writes for Muslim Journal, a national Islamic newspaper. In addition to having his writings published in numerous periodicals he has written an insightful book titled The Honorable Elijah Muhammad: The Man Behind the Men.

Twice Imam Saahir has completed the Islamic Hajj (pilgrimage) in Mecca. He has made numerous visits to Rome, Italy supporting interfaith efforts between Muslims and Focolare Catholics. In 2008 Michael traveled to Amman, Jordan with the International Interfaith Initiative, building a Habit for Humanity home called House of Abraham, in collaboration with Jews and Christians. In December of 2009 Michael was part of an Islamic delegation to The Philippines and Thailand as part of the Indiana Center for Cultural Exchange.

Michael attended Indianapolis Public Schools #41, #44 (his favorite) and Northwest High School. He graduated from Martin University Summa Cum Laude earning a BA Degree in Humane Exchange. He is the husband of Carolyn (30 years) and the father of Aline (Kita), Mikal, Hamid, and Muhammed. He’s a 32-year veteran of the Indianapolis Fire Department.


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Magda Saleh, MPh has been an administrator in Islamic schools since 1992. Since 2004, she has been the Principal of the American Youth Academy (AYA) in Tampa, FL. Mrs. Saleh is the mother of four adult sons and has two grandchildren. She grew up in the United States in communities with very small Muslim populations. It was through her parents’ strong value systems that Islam was instilled in her and in her sisters. Her parents – Dr. Ahmed & Mrs. Iman Elkadi – were pioneers in Islamic Education, and she strives to continue on the path they forged..

Ayaz Samadani

Ayaz Samadani has been a family practitioner since 1971; his office is located at 148 Warren Street in Beaver Dam, and 306 E Edgewater Street, Cambria, Wisconsin.
He has received board certification in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene from the School of Tropical Medicine in Liverpool, UK, in 1967, and certification in Child Health from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons in London, UK, in 1968. Dr. Samadani has served in a number of leadership roles. He is the immediate past Chair of the Governor’s appointed Public Health Council, Department of Health and Family Services, Wisconsin. He is the Past President and Board member of the Wisconsin Medical Society, and served as the Chair of the CME committee for the Medical Research and Education Foundation. He served as President of the Wisconsin Medical Society Foundation and Chair of Finance Committee of the Beaver Dam Scholarship Foundation.


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Sarah Sayeed

Sarah Sayeed is currently a board member of Women In Islam, Inc., founded in the early 1990s by Sr. Aisha Al-Adawiya and the oldest Muslim women’s human rights education organization in New York City. Women In Islam, Inc. holds ongoing programs to educate community members and the wider public about Muslim women. In her capacity as board member, Sarah helped author the practical guide and booklet “Women Friendly Mosques and Community Centers: Reclaiming Our Tradition.” Sarah earned a degree in Sociology and Near East Studies from Princeton University and an MA and PhD in Communication from the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania). She is the author of numerous articles relating to women, Islam and public health.



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Zulfiqar Ali Shah

Dr. Zulfiqar Ali Shah is the Executive Director of the Fiqh Council of North America and Director Religious Affairs of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee. He received his Ph. D. (Theology and Religious Studies) from the University of Wales, U. K., obtained his M.A. (Hons), (Islamic Studies: Usuluddin with specialization in Comparative Religions) from the International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan and B. A. (Hons), (Islamic Studies: Usuluddin) from the same university. He is Hafiz of al-Qur’an. He has taught at the International Islamic University Islamabad, University of Wales, University of Northeast Florida and St. Thomas University. He is the former president of the Sharia’ Scholars Association of North America (SSANA) and Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA).

He has authored many scholarly articles and several books on a variety of subjects. His books include the “Astronomical Calculations and Ramadan: A Fiqhi Discourse” and “A Study of Anthropomorphism and Transcendence in the Bible and Qur’an: Scripture & God in the Judeo-Christian & Islamic Tradition”. His areas of interests are Comparative Religions, Tafseer, Islamic Theology, Islamic Philosophy, Comparative Fiqh, Islamic History and Islamic Civilization.



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Muzammil Siddiqi received his BA in Islamic and Arabic Studies from the Islamic University of Medina, Saudi Arabia and later went on to complete a degree in Comparative Religion at Harvard University. Currently, Dr. Siddiqui works as an Educator and Religious Director of the Islamic Society of Orange County where he has served since 1981. Dr. Siddiqi also serves as a member of the ISNA Majlis Ash-Shura and the Fiqh Council of North America. He has served as chairman of the Religious Affairs Committee and has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the National American Islamic Trust (NAIT). As a member of the Executive Board of Majlis al-Shura of Southern California, Dr. Siddiqi has organized and participated in several national and international Islamic conferences on Sirah, Fiqh and Da'wah. Because of his devotion to the preservation of Islam in America, he has organized numerous training programs for Muslim adults and youth. He also lectures on Islam and interfaith dialogue in North America and abroad. Dr. Siddiqi has authored books on Hajj & Umra, Ramadan and has published many academic papers and articles in encyclopedias and journals, as well as his weekly column in Pakistan Link. Since 1982, he has provided Qur'an commentary in a weekly radio program. Dr. Siddiqi served as the President of ISNA from 1996 - 2000.

Rushdi Siddiqui is Global Director of the Islamic Index Group at Dow Jones Indexes. Rushdi joined Dow Jones Indexes in 1997 to oversee an initiative to develop and market Shari’ah-compliant indexes for Islamic-focused investors. In the years since, Rushdi has led Dow Jones Indexes’s efforts to introduce the entire Dow Jones Islamic Market (DJIM) index family, which now includes equity indexes for countries, regions, sectors and social-ethical themes (DJIM Sustainability Index), as well as a fixed-income index (DJ Citi Sukuk Index). While supporting and growing Dow Jones Indexes’s presence in Islamic markets, Rushdi has received a number of awards and has been named to various Islamic-based advisory councils. He has also done well over 200 media interviews including television interviews for CNN fn, BBC, CNBC Arabia and CNBC Pakistan.

Rev. Dr. Snorton is the Executive Director of the national Association for Clinical Pastoral Education, Inc., an accrediting and certifying agency for programs of Clinical Pastoral Education. She is the former Executive Director of the Emory Center for Pastoral Services in Atlanta, Georgia and the Director of Pastoral Services at Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta. She has been a certified ACPE Supervisor since 1989 and anadjunct instructor in Pastoral Care at Candler School of Theology at Emory University since 1991. She is an ordained minister in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church and was a former pastor in Kentucky. Prior to moving to Atlanta, she was a Psychiatric Staff Chaplain at Central State Hospital-Louisville, on the adjunct faculty of the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Kentucky, and on the faculties of the Patient Counseling Program at the Medical College of Virginia and the School of Theology at Virginia Union University in Richmond.

Mariam Sobh

Mariam Sobh is a broadcast journalist with more than 10 years in radio broadcasting. She received her Bachelors degree in Speech Communication and her Masters degree in Journalism from the University of Illinois.

Mariam has worked in both public and commercial formats covering everything from state budget issues to national press conferences with high profile politicians. She has also worked as a news, weather and traffic anchor for a variety of radio stations in Illinois.

Mariam is founder and editor in chief or Hijabtrendz.com the original fashion, beauty and entertainment blog for Muslim women. Her website has garnered international attention and has become the leading entertainment site for Muslim women around the world.

Mariam is also involved in the mainstream entertainment industry and is the first hijabi to be represented by three talent agencies in Chicago. She is often called to do voice over work, acting and consulting for films that include Muslim characters. She is currently studying improv comedy at The Second City in Chicago.


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Zahra Suratwala

As President/CEO of Zahra Ink, Incorporated, I write and do marketing on a consulting basis for a variety of small businesses. I have found a way to combine my love of writing with my desire to pursue projects that can truly affect change; the result is a small business which I take very seriously and find intensely fulfilling. I obtained my Masters of Arts degree in English Literature from Loyola University Chicago in 2003. I have lived in Bangkok, Thailand and Cairo, Egypt and have negotiated my identity as a Muslim American woman living both in the US and abroad. When I am not writing, I can be found causing a ruckus with my husband, son and daughter. If home is where the heart is, my home is firmly placed in their hands.
I currently live in one of the most soulful urban landscapes in America: Chicago, IL. However, my restless feet have taken me across the globe on more than one occasion. I have traveled the world in an effort to find myself and have only recently begun to understand that while traveling is indeed a wonderful activity, finding myself can be done much closer to home, by simply picking up a pen. Thus I write in anticipation of what I will discover in my words.


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Hassan Syed

Hassan Syed is a Toronto-based student working towards his MBA degree (part-time) and pursuing a career in the financial services industry. He is a BiPolarian who after years of being restless is finally discovering peace and direction in his life. For this change, he credits an extremely strong support group that includes his psychiatrist, family and friends. On occasion, he puts his capitalistic pursuits on the back burner and attempts to feed the altruistic, Canadian side in him by being involved with great organizations such as SMILE (who attempt to create a support network for Muslim children with disabilities, and their families).


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Sayyid M. Syeed resumed responsibilities as National Director of ISNA’s Office of Interfaith and Community Alliances, in Washington, DC, from March 2006. A naturalized American citizen, Dr. Syeed obtained his Ph.D. in Sociolinguistics from the Indiana University at Bloomington, Indiana, in 1984. As President of the Muslim Students Association of USA & Canada (1980-1983), he pioneered its transformation into the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). During 1984-1988, he was Secretary General of the International Islamic Federation of Student Organizations (IIFSO) in which capacity he traveled widely through the former Soviet Union, and Europe, Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and South America. Dr. Syeed has been General Secretary of the Association of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS), a national professional organization founded 31 years ago. Dr. Syeed, one of the founders of the quarterly American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences (AJISS), served as its Editor-in-Chief (1984-1994).

Tayyibah Taylor


Tayyibah Taylor is the founding editor-in-chief and publisher of Azizah Magazine, a vehicle for the voice of Muslim American women and winner of a 2010 Folio Eddie Award. Tayyibah Taylor has been named as one of the 500 Most Influential Muslims in the World by The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies. She has presented lectures on Islam and Muslim women at national and international conferences and sits on the steering Committee of WISE, an organization that convenes global Muslim women leaders and fosters their participation in Islamic law and contemporary debates. Born on the island of Trinidad, she grew up in Toronto, Canada and studied biology and philosophy at the University of Toronto. She lived in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for several years and attended classes at King Abdul-Aziz University for Arabic and Islamic Studies. She has visited over 30 countries spanning six continents, sometimes in the capacity as a public diplomacy envoy.


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Michael Reid Trice


Dr. Michael Reid Trice is the Associate Executive of the office for Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Relations in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Trice currently serves as ELCA staff for the White House Task Force on Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation, is a leader on the Interfaith Commission of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, stands on the executive board for Church World Service, and is nominated to serve on the Board of Trustees for the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions. He likewise facilitates and teaches courses of study in Geneva, Switzerland on global trends in Christian and Interreligious relations.

Michael earned a M.T.S. magna cum laude from Duke Divinity School and a Th.M. summa cum laude from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. In 2005, Michael completed his dissertation with High Honors at Loyola University in Chicago, in an ecumenical studies program with the Evangelische Fakultät at Ludwig-Maximillian-University in Munich, Germany. Michael has also studied at the Institute for Theology and Peace in Hamburg, Germany. His dissertation, titled Encountering Cruelty: A Fracture of the Human Heart, won the 2006 distinguished best original dissertation award for Loyola Jesuit University.


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Daniel Tutt

Daniel is the Director of 20,000 Dialogues, a project that helps Americans better understand Muslims by participating in film-based dialogue events about Muslims nationwide. He frequently speaks at interfaith and educational conferences and delivers workshops on topics related to interfaith dialogue, social media, ethics, and peace. He has a Master of Arts from American University in Ethics, Peace, and Global Affairs, an innovative interdisciplinary program combining philosophy, peace studies and human rights. His writing and research is diverse and multidisciplinary, often combining continental philosophy, social psychology, and political theory. Daniel has published academic papers and essays in journals of psychology and philosophy, as well as journals of international relations.

Before working with UPF and 20,000 Dialogues, Daniel served a year of public service with the Points of Light Foundation under the faith-based initiative that helps to solve poverty issues by working with faith-based nonprofit organizations. He started interfaith work as the Co-Director of a dynamic start-up nonprofit initiative called the 9/11 Unity Walk. This annual grassroots interfaith peace walk in Washington, DC and New York has brought together thousands of people and major national and international faith leaders to promote pluralism and condemn violence in the name of religion.


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Asma T. Uddin

Asma Uddin, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, altmuslimah.com Legal Fellow with the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU) and an international law attorney with The Bec ket Fund for Religious Liberty, a non-profit, non-partisan, public interest law firm based in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining The Becket Fund, she practiced commercial litigation at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius in Philadelphia and corporate real estate at Greenberg Traurig in Miami. Her editing experience includes, Dr. Umar F. Abd-Allah's A Muslim in Victorian America, published in 2007 by Oxford University Press. As Associate Editor and legal columnist for Islamica Magazine, Asma focused her writings on how American Muslims can rethink their social position within the American legal framework. Asma's writing has appeared in Muslim Girl Magazine, altmuslim, beliefnet, and in the Guardian's Comment is Free. She is also an expert panelist for the Washington Post/Newsweek blog, On Faith, and a contributor to Huffington Post Religion, CNN.com, and Common Ground News.


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Iqbal Unus is the Headquarters Director of the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), Director of Child Development Foundation (CDF), and Director of IIFTIHAR-USA. He is the former Dean of Students/Registrar at the School of Islamic and Social Sciences (SISS) in Leesburg, Virginia. His volunteer involvement in Islamic work began in North America as the President of the Muslim Students Association of Atlanta, Georgia in 1970. Later, he served successively as Regional Representative, Vice President, and President (in 1975) of the Muslim Students Association of the United States and Canada (MSA).

Imam Siraj Wahhaj is the current Imam of Masjid Al-Taqwa in Brooklyn, New York. He received his training from Ummul Quran University in Mecca and has become a world-renowned speaker on Islam. Imam Wahhaj has been on the ISNA Majlis Ash-Shura since 1987 and has also previously served as ISNA Vice-President. He has been a member of ISNA's Planning Committee and served as a member of the Board of Advisors for North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) from 1989 to 1993. He is also a member of the Board of Advisors for the American Muslim Council (AMC). Imam Siraj has appeared on several national television talk shows and interviews; especially about his anti-drug campaigns in his native Bedford-Stuyvesant. He received high praises from the media and NYPD for initiating his anti-drug patrols in Brooklyn in 1988. Among other achievements, Imam Wahhaj was the first person to give an Islamic invocation to the United States Congress in 1991.

Khurrum Wahid


Khurrum Wahid brings a wealth of experience and expertise to Wahid, Vizcaino & Maher LLP. A named Partner, Khurrum has a practice spanning the nation and handles a wide array of criminal and civil matters.
Khurrum has represented scores of individuals detained by the government since September 11, 2001. In the days and months immediately following 9/11, Khurrum worked in conjunction with civil rights organizations to represent hundreds of people detained on material witness warrants and immigration holds. He also has defended individuals charged with allegedly committing or conspiring to commit acts of terrorism, including three medical students falsely accused of terrorism in Florida on the anniversary of the tragic events of 9/11 and many individuals charged with conspiring to commit acts of domestic terrorism. In all of these cases, Khurrum has sought to vindicate the constitutional rights of his clients.
A devoted advocate for human and civil rights, Khurrum has fought tirelessly to protect civil liberties from unwarranted government encroachment and to educate the public about the importance of safeguarding our constitutional protections, especially in times that try our nation's conscience. Khurrum has been a leader in educating the public about the details of the domestic and foreign policy that infringes on the rights of the individual. He has commented on policies that have damaged America's ability to combat terrorism under the guise of national security. He has appeared as a guest commentator on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, National Public Radio, and various other television and radio shows across the nation.
Khurrum received his B.A. from the University of Toronto and his J.D. from Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, California. Khurrum is admitted to practice law in Florida, New York, and various Federal Courts. He is also a member of professional organizations such as the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and the National Association of Muslim Lawyers.
Khurrum is a former legal advisor for the Board of Directors for the Council on American-Islamic Relations and is a founding member of the Center for Voter Advocacy, a non-profit organization designed to educate and increase political engagement of minorities in America


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Rick Warren is often called "America's most influential spiritual leader." He founded Saddleback Church in Orange County, California, which is now one of the largest and best-known churches in the world. He also founded the Purpose Driven Movement, a network of tens of thousands of churches from all denominations in 160 countries. He has trained over 350,000 pastors worldwide. Calling him a "spiritual entrepreneur," Forbes magazine said, "If Warren's ministry was a business it would be compared with Dell, Google, or Starbucks in impact." Rick and Kay Warren give away 90 percent of the profits from their books to charitable causes, including their global P.E.A.C.E. plan and Acts of Mercy, which services those infected with and affected by AIDS. Warren gave the invocation at President Barack Obama’s inauguration in January 2009.

Shaykh Suhaib Webb is a contemporary American Muslim activist and speaker. After converting to Islam, Webb left his career as a DJ and studied at the University of Central Oklahoma, where he graduated with a Bachelors degree in Education. He also studied privately under a Senegalese Shaykh, learning enough Islam and Arabic to become a community leader in Oklahoma City, where he was hired as Imam at the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City. He simultaneously started teaching at Mercy School, an Islamic K-12 school in Oklahoma City. In 2004, he departed with his wife and children to Cairo, where he currently studies at Al-Azhar University in the College of Shari`ah. Additionally, he is in charge of the English translation Department at Dar al-Ifta al-Masriyah and is currently training as a Mufti. Webb strongly advocates for an articulation of American Islam that is authentic, and has leaders that are acutely aware of the issues facing Muslim Americans.

Barbara Whitesides

When Barbara Whitesides was born in Hollywood, California, she didn’t sit right up and announce, “I’m going to be a late bloomer.” But now, almost 70 years later, here she is.
Dr. Whitesides’ interest in Arabic was sparked by tales about her famous grandfather, the Egyptologist James Henry Breasted, who wrote a classic history of Egypt and helped translate the seals on King Tut's tomb when it was first discovered.
Dr. Whitesides didn’t start learning Arabic until she was almost 50 years old. She wrote her first and only book in her sixties: the user-friendly “Sugar comes from Arabic: a beginner’s guide to Arabic letters and words” (Interlink Books, 2009) for English speakers of all reading ages.
A graduate of Harvard who earned her Ph.D. from Rutgers University, Dr. Whitesides’ professional work has been teaching and editing. She taught in the English department at Wellesley College and later was the news editor of Harvard Magazine. Her skills as a book reviewer and editor have been appreciated by her chemist husband George, one of Harvard’s 23 University Professors. This past spring he won the King Faisal International Prize in Science. Dr. Whitesides and her husband have two sons and live in Newton, Massachusetts.


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Asad M. Ba-Yunus is an attorney in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida who practices general civil litigation and medical malpractice defense. Mr. Ba-Yunus is also the President of the Florida Muslim Bar Association. Asad is the son of Dr. Ilyas Ba-Yunus, ISNA's first president and current Majlis-as-Shura member. Asad has been involved in MYNA, MSA and ISNA activities from childhood, and served as MSA National's Vice President US from 1999-2000.

Michael Wolfe

Michael Wolfe is an author, co-founder of Unity Productions Foundation and co-Executive Producer for UPF Films. His first books on Islam were The Hadj, a first-person travel account, and One Thousand Roads to Mecca, an anthology of 10 centuries of travelers’ writing.

In 1997, Wolfe hosted a televised account of the Hajj from Mecca for Nightline. The program was nominated for Peabody, Emmy, and National Press Club Awards. In 2002, Wolfe co-created and co-produced the documentary Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet which aired on PBS and on National Geographical International.

With UPF, Wolfe has produced numerous documentaries including: Cities of Light: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain, A Prince Among Slaves: The True Story of An African Prince Enslaved in the American South, Allah Made Me Funny: The Movie, Talking through Walls: How the Struggle to Build a Mosque United a Community, On a Wing and a Prayer: An American Muslim Learns to Fly and Inside Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think. Michael is all the co-director of UPF’s Hollywood engagement program, called MOST – Muslims on Screen and Television, which works with writers and producers to develop true-to-life characters and storylines of Muslims on television and in films.


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Mohammed Yousuf


Mohammed stopped walking at the age of about two years; the polio that attached his body left most of it paralyzed but for his spirit. He went to school for the first time at the age of 12; and since never looked back. The accessibility and inclusion challenges he faced left in him a deep desire to fight against the same issues that once challenged his very existence.

He received his bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Osmania University, India in 1988, a master’s degree in Computer Engineering from the Wayne State University, USA in 1992, CAPS certification from Housing University in 2006, Universal Design, Fair Housing & ADA/ABA Guidelines from Harvard University in 2007, and Assistive Technology Applications from California State University in 2008.
In 2001, he started EquallyAble Foundation. Ten years later, the foundation has done some remarkable work to make a difference in the lives of people with disabilities, not only in India where he was born, but across the United States and other countries.
He has presented in various international conferences and conventions, and spoken at a number of gatherings on the issues of disability inclusion and awareness and technological innovations for people with disabilities. He works as a transportation researcher in intelligent transportation systems and accessible transportation, and lives in Fairfax, Virginia.


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Hamza Yusuf was born in Washington and raised in Northern California. In 1977, he became Muslim and subsequently traveled to the Muslim world and studied for ten years in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, as well as North and West Africa. He received teaching licenses in various Islamic subjects from several well-known scholars in various countries and is a prominent American Muslim scholar.

Khalique Zahir

Dr Khalique Zahir is a plastic surgeon in clinical practice in northern Virginia. He is the past president of IMANA, member or the IMANA Relief team. Dr Zahir is the secretary of the National Capital Society of Plastic Surgeons. Dr Zahir competed his training in plastic surgery at Vanderbilt University and is an active member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Dr Zahir is actively involved in "IMANA/FIMA SaveSmile - a cleft lip & palate mission to improve the lives of children across the world.


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Safaa Zarzour


Safaa Zarzour is an educator, a long time ISNA volunteer, a civic leader, and an Attorney.

Mr. Zarzour holds a Juris Doctor degree from DePaul University School of Law, a Masters in Education from the University of Illinois in Chicago, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from Arkansas State University. He is a member of the Bar in the State of Illinois, and the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Mr. Zarzour is a passionate educator. He is currently an adjunct professor at Loyola Law School teaching courses in Education and Islamic Law. For over a decade, he served as a teacher and then principal at Universal School, one of the largest PreK-12 independent Islamic schools in the United States with enrollment of over 650 students. During his tenure at Universal, the school tripled its enrollment and became known among Islamic schools in North America for pioneering educational and social service programs as well as outstanding student academic achievement. Mr. Zarzour continues to serve as the vice chairman of the Board of Directors of the Universal School.

In addition, Mr. Zarzour is a recognized national educational leader. He is the chairman of the Council of Islamic Schools of North America, CISNA, which claims membership of 50 Islamic schools and educational organizations. CISNA’s goal is to provide services to the over 300 Islamic schools in North America. Also, Mr. Zarzour serves as the Program Chair of the ISNA Education Forum since its inception in December 1999. The Forum provides networking and professional development opportunities to over 500 Islamic school educators annually.

Working with the broader community in the area of education, Mr. Zarzour is also a member of the Board of Advisors of St. Xavier University School of Education and member of the Board of Directors of the Governor State University Foundation.

Mr. Zarzour is known to many local Muslim communities in the United States and around the world including Belgium, South Africa, and the Middle East, through his workshops, lectures, and presentations on legal, educational, and community issues. In 2008, Mr. Zarzour was a presenter at the Brussels Forum, an annual gathering of political, civic, and academic leaders on both sides of the Atlantic brought together by the German Marshal Fund to discuss issues of development, security, education, and future relations between Europe and the United States.

Mr. Zarzour is active in interfaith circles. He is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Bernadine Center at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago where he serves along with distinguished faith leaders from the Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities. He has participated for several years in the Mid-Atlantic Muslim-Catholic Dialogue. In 2005, Mr. Zarzour participated in a “Religion and the Press” symposium sponsored by the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University alongside Archbishop of Chicago Cardinal Francis George, Michael Kotzin, Executive Vice President of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago and professor and scholar of religion Edith Blumhofer, to discuss the responsibility of the media to report the facts accurately, regarding religion and religious communities, and the ramifications of erroneous coverage and stereotyping.

Mr. Zarzour is a well known civic leader in Chicago’s southwest suburb of Bridgeview. He has served in various capacities in his town, including as an administrative coordinator, Zoning Commissioner, and an elected trustee of the Bridgeview Public Library. Currently he is serving his second term as an elected Commissioner of the Bridgeview Park District. In 2006, he was named to the transition team of Illinois State Treasurer, Alexi Giannoulias, who is currently running to fill President Obama’s vacated seat in the United States Senate.

Mr. Zarzour’s civic and educational work has been featured in many media including 60 Minutes, PBS Front Line, Chicago Tribune, Time Magazine and many others. Mr. Zarzour has received several honors and awards for his public service. Most recently, Chicago’s Mayor Richard Daley handed him the Chicago Commission on Human Relations’ 2009 Outstanding Service Award.

Over the last 15 years, Mr. Zarzour helped establish and has served on the boards of a variety of local community and advocacy organizations including being the chairman of the Council on American Islamic Relations in Chicago.

As an attorney, Mr. Zarzour is a principal of the law firm of Zarzour, Khalil & Tabbara, LLC. He focuses his law practice in the areas of local government, education and nonprofit law. Prior to his founding of the law firm, Mr. Zarzour worked for several years as an associate attorney at the law firm of Odelson & Sterk, Ltd., Evergreen, Illinois.

Mr. Zarzour lives with his wife Rhonda and their children in Bridgeview, Illinois.


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Dr. James J. Zogby is founder and president of the Arab American Institute (AAI), a Washington, D.C.-based organization which serves as the political and policy research arm of the Arab American community. Since 1985, Dr. Zogby and AAI have led Arab American efforts to secure political empowerment in the U.S. Through voter registration, education and mobilization, AAI has moved Arab Americans into the political mainstream.

For the past three decades, Dr. Zogby has been involved in a full range of Arab American issues. A co-founder and chairman of the Palestine Human Rights Campaign in the late 1970s, he later co-founded and served as the Executive Director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. In 1982, he co-founded Save Lebanon, Inc., a private non-profit, humanitarian and non-sectarian relief organization which funds health care for Palestinian and Lebanese victims of war, and other social welfare projects in Lebanon. In 1985, Zogby founded AAI.

In 1993, following the signing of the Israeli-Palestinian peace accord in Washington, he was asked by Vice President Al Gore to lead Builders for Peace, a private sector committee to promote U.S. business investment in the West Bank and Gaza. In his capacity as co-president of Builders, Zogby frequently traveled to the Middle East with delegations led by Vice President Gore and late Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown. In 1994, with former U.S. Congressman Mel Levine, his colleague as co-president of Builders, Zogby led a U.S. delegation to the signing of the Israeli-Palestinian agreement in Cairo. Zogby also chaired a forum on the Palestinian economy at the Casablanca Economic Summit in 1994. After 1994, through Builders, Zogby worked with a number of US agencies to promote and support Palestinian economic development, including AID, OPIC, USTDA, and the Departments of State and Commerce.

Dr. Zogby has also been personally active in U.S. politics for many years; in 1984 and 1988 he served as Deputy Campaign manager and Senior Advisor to the Jesse Jackson Presidential campaign. Most recently, in 1995 DNC Chairman Don Fowler appointed Zogby as co-convener of the National Democratic Ethnic Coordinating Committee (NDECC), an umbrella organization of Democratic Party leaders of European and Mediterranean descent. In 1999 and 2001 he was reelected to that post. Also in 2001, he was appointed to the Executive Committee of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and in 2006 was also named Co-Chair of the DNC’s Resolutions Committee.

A lecturer and scholar on Middle East issues, U.S.-Arab relations, and the history of the Arab American community, Dr. Zogby appears frequently on television and radio. He has appeared as a regular guest on all the major network news programs. After hosting the popular “A Capital View” on the Arab Network of America for several years, he now hosts “Viewpoint with James Zogby” on Abu Dhabi Television, LinkTV, Dish Network, and DirecTV [broadcast schedule].

Since 1992, Dr. Zogby has also written a weekly column on U.S. politics for the major newspapers of the Arab world. The column, Washington Watch, is currently published in 14 Arab countries. He has authored a number of books including two recent publications, “What Ethnic Americans Really Think” and “What Arabs Think: Values, Beliefs and Concerns.”

Dr. Zogby has testified before U.S. House and Senate committees, has been guest speaker on a number of occasions in the Secretary’s Open Forum at the U.S. Department of State, and has addressed the United Nations and other international forums. He is the recipient of the Distinguished Public Service Award from the U.S. Department of State “in recognition of outstanding contributions to national and international affairs.”

Dr. Zogby is also active professionally beyond his involvement with the Arab American community. He currently serves on the national advisory board of the American Civil Liberties Union, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Additionally, he is a Senior Advisor for the polling firm Zogby International.

In 1975, Dr. Zogby received his doctorate from Temple University's Department of Religion, where he studied under the Islamic scholar, Dr. Ismail al-Faruqi. He was a National Endowment for the Humanities Post-Doctoral Fellow at Princeton University in 1976, and on several occasions was awarded grants for research and writing by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Defense Education Act and the Mellon Foundation. Dr. Zogby received a Bachelor of Arts from Le Moyne College. In 1995, Le Moyne awarded Zogby an honorary doctoral of laws degree and in 1997, named him the college’s outstanding alumnus. In 2007, the Temple University College of Liberal Arts also singled out Dr. Zogby as an outstanding alumnus of the year. And in 2008 the American University of Cairo awarded Dr. Zogby a Doctorate in Human Letters “in Recognition of Outstanding Efforts to Secure Arab American Political Empowerment.”

Dr. Zogby is married to Eileen Patricia McMahon and is the father of five children.