UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Adnan Zulfiqar is an Adjunct Professor of Islam at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and also pursuing doctrates in Law (J.D.) and Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations (Ph.D.) at the University of Pennsylvania. Adnan serves on the editorial board of Renaissance Islamic Journal (Pakistan) and has previously published in a variety of newspapers, both nationally and internationally. In addition, he has made appearances on CNN, NPR and the Osgood File. Over the past few years, Adnan has helped draft the Republic of the Maldives' Criminal Code under the auspices of the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP). Prior to his current academic pursuits, Adnan spent 2 years working in the United States Senate as a Legislative/Personal aide to Senator Max Cleland (D-GA) on issues relating to immigration, education and foreign policy. He has also worked for the NAACP, the Legal Resources Centre (South Africa), UNICEF (Malawi), and Kirkland & Ellis, LLP. Adnan was born in Alexandria, Virginia and was recently the recipient of the Janet Lee Stevens Award in Arabic & Islamic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

City: Philadelphia

Afeefa Syed is the Founding Director of Al Fatih Academy, a community school whose philosophy is integrated learning with an emphasis on civic education and participation. Through the school, she has helped develop the Peace Leaders Program to teach conflict resolution skills to elementary school students. She has also worked to initiate Kids Giving Salaam (Peace) to foster and inculcate the love of community service in children. In her capacity as Director, Afeefa has consulted with various national and international organizations about innovative curriculum models and dynamic definitions of cultural identity in educational settings. Afeefa is also diversity consultant and multicultural trainer based in Northern Virginia. She has consulted with a range of organizations including public school systems in the DC metro area, Simon & Schuster Children's Book Division, the U.S. State Department, and MTV/Nickelodeon Productions. Afeefa is a member of various interfaith, social service and political action organizations. Her involvement and community activism led her to run for local office in 2003 as the Democratic candidate for the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors from the Potomac District. Afeefa holds a Masters Degree in Applied Anthropology with a focus on Community and Grassroots Development. She is married with three sons.

City: Washington D.C.

Anas Osman is a co-founder and active Board Member and of the Nawawi Foundation, a non-profit educational organization dedicated to creating a dynamic and relevant American Muslim culture. He formerly served as the organization's Executive Director, contributing to a variety of programming efforts including multiple weekend intensives with 750+ attendees on topics such as "Connecting to God in Today's World", the publication of numerous articles by Dr. Umar F. Abd-Allah, and 2 week historical-immersion travel tours for 100+ participants to Morocco, China, Spain, Turkey, and Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Professionally, Anas is the Vice President of Marketing Planning and Strategy for Discover Financial Services, a division of Morgan Stanley. In this role, he reports directly to the Chief Marketing Officer and is broad responsibility for managing the marketing strategic plan and budget, competitive analysis, new product development/incubation, and customer strategy. Prior to this role, Anas worked in consulting and then co-founded an Internet company that was sold to a large retail bank in 2002. Anas was born near Chicago, Illinois and acquired a BA in Economics at Northwestern University. He is currently pursuing an Executive MBA at the Kellogg School of Management.

City: Chicago

Davidson MacLaren is the Director of Manuscript Research and the Managing Director of the Sunna Project for the Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation. The Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation is a not-for-profit educational trust established to advance, support, and promote the protection, preservation, study, and dissemination of the Islamic intellectual, cultural, and artistic heritage. It prepares the highest quality critical editions of works of traditional Islamic literature and strives for the revivification of all Islamic arts, particularly those of the book. Mr. MacLaren divides his time between the Foundation's offices in Cairo, Egypt and at the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. He is currently working on the Foundation's project to catalogue and conserve the estimated 60,000 manuscripts of the National Library and Archives of Egypt and is organizing The Islamic Manuscript Association as well as the Second Islamic Manuscript Conference, which will be held at Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge from 7-9 August 2006. The Islamic Manuscript Association is an international body which will - through the unanimous consensus of its member institutions - work to standardize the terms of and facilitate access to digital and microfilm images of manuscripts as well as construct a mechanism for protecting the rights of institutions possessing manuscripts. It will assist in the creation of universal cataloguing standards and encourage and assist with conservation. It will assess the needs of manuscript collections around the world, prepare a list of priorities for action, and seek international funding for fulfilling those objectives. Furthermore, it will encourage scholarship related to Islamic manuscripts. In general, it will promote the welfare and interests of Islamic manuscript collections. Mr. MacLaren was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1976.

Debbie Almontaser is currently Coordinator of External Programs for Brooklyn public schools. Ms. Almontaser sits on the boards of The Dialogue Project, Brooklyn Borough President's New Diversity Task Force, Muslim Consultative Network, Women In Islam Inc., We Are All Brooklyn Coalition, and Youth Bridge NY. As a multicultural specialist and diversity consultant, Ms. Almontaser frequently lectures and serves on panels as well as facilitates workshops on Arab culture, Islam, conflict resolution, cultural diversity, and Augusto Bola's Theater of the Oppressed around the city, at local, national and international conferences. Ms. Almontaser co-designed a curriculum for the Muslim Communities Project at Columbia University and for Educators for Social Responsibility/Metro. In addition, she has contributed a chapter in The Day Our World Changed: Children's Art of 9/11 for New York University's Child Study Center and the Museum of the City of New York and in Forever After: New York City Teachers on 9/11 for Teachers College Press as well as articles and essays in several magazines. Ms. Almontaser also serves as a consultant to Nickelodeon's Nick Jr. Muslim American Series Project, Independent Production Fund on the Islam Project (producers of Muslims and Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet PBS Productions), Islam Access Project (Channel 13 WNET), the Muslim Communities Project, Columbia University, Educators for Social Responsibility, the Interfaith Center of NYC, and the Church Avenue Merchants Block Association's (CAMBA, Inc.) Diversity Project. Ms Almontaser has been featured in several documentaries locally on New York Voices, Teaching Tolerance and internationally on Voice of America, From Yemen to Coney Island; From Teacher to Community Activist. Ms. Almontaser has been quoted on Muslim Community issues and Cultural Diveristy issues in the NY Times, NY 1, Time Magazine, Newsweek, and profiled in the Daily News. Debbie Almontaser was born in Yemen and raised in the United States. She acquired a B.A. from St. Francis College in English and World Religions and an M.S. in Multicultural Education and Reading from Adelphi. She holds an M.S. from Baruch College's School of Public Affairs through their Aspiring Leaders Program. In the past few years, Ms. Almontaser has recieved a few awards from faith based groups and proclamations for building bridges of understanding from the Borough President of Brooklyn and the Mayor of the City of New York. In 2004 Ms. Almontaser recieved the Revson Fellowship award for her contributions to City life.

City: New York

Faiz Khan is a founding member and on the board of directors of ASMA (American Society for Muslim Advancement). An MD and Assistant Professor with dual specialization in Emergency Medicine and Internal Medicine, and degrees in History and Biology, Dr. Khan are equally active in Islamic outreach. He served as a trustee for the Islamic Center of Long Island in Westbury, NY, and currently serves as an Assistant Imam at the Al-Farah Mosque in Manhattan and the Islamic Center of Long Island. Since 9/11 where he treated victims of the tragedy he has embarked to dispel misunderstandings about Islam. He was the Islamic representative and lecturer at the Interfaith Memorial Services at the United Nations Chapel for the victims of 9/11. In addition, he has been a panelist and lecturer for a variety of programs and audiences that include the New York Police Department, area religious seminaries, the United Nations Committee of Non-governmental Officials, universities, high schools, various special interest and grass roots organizations, and the general public. He is also a consultant to the Interfaith Center in Manhattan. Dr. Khan was a delegate on a Peace Pilgrimage to Baghdad shortly before Operation Iraqi Freedom, and has visited with religious scholars in India, Pakistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Tunisia, Syria, Morocco, and the United Kingdom and within the United States. Dr. Khan was associate producer of an award winning documentary called, Becoming Muslim: Submitting to Allah in America, which focused on Americans who adopt Islam as their vehicle of religiosity. He has authored articles for and has been cited in a variety of periodicals, including "9-11 an Islamic Perspective" featured on the homepage of beliefnet.org and published in an anthology titled Conscious Choices, comprised of authors from around the world. He was featured on the CBS series Eye on America, in a TV documentary called Listening to Islam on the Hallmark Channel, and on Australia Broadcasting Corp's Compass Series. Dr. Khan immigrated to the United States from India as an infant, and now lives with his wife and daughter in New York.

City: New York

Gul Rukh Rahman is the co-Executive Director of Children of Abraham, an educational non-profit organization that builds bridges and foster dialogue between Jews and Muslims around the world with a particular focus on the youth. Children of Abraham open channels of communications by using the similarities in Islam and Judaism as the foundation of its educational seminars. Ms. Rahman has previously worked with organizations addressing the refugees' problems. She has also been a freelance journalist for many South Asian and Arab media outlets writing about human rights, the Afghan refugees and other social, cultural and economic issues. Her articles have appeared in many publications, including The News International, the second largest English daily newspaper in Pakistan, Hajj & Ummrah, a monthly magazine distributed throughout the Middle East published by the ministry of Religious Affairs in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, The Middle East Times and Islamicity.com. Born in Pakistan and educated both in Pakistan and the US, Ms. Rahman worked as a computer engineer before joining Children of Abraham.

City: New York

Hady Amr serves as Senior Advisor to the World Economic Forum Council of 100 Leaders on West-Islamic World Dialogue. He is an author of articles which have appeared in Newsweek, the International Herald Tribune, the Arab News, and the Daily Star (of Lebanon), as well as. He is also the author of a leading study for the Brookings Institution entitled "The Need to Communicate: How to Improve US Public Diplomacy with the Islamic World." He is the co-author of the forthcoming "Restoring America's Good Name: Improving Strategic Communications with the Islamic World" being published by the US National Defense University. He appears often on the BBC speaking about US relations with the Arab World and the role of the Arab American Community in the United States, and has appeared on several Arab World television stations. He is also the co-founder of the Arab Western Summit of Skills, a Berlin-based NGO that brings together young Arab leaders from Europe, North America and the Arab World to foster development in the Arab World and improved Arab-Western relations. Mr. Amr was born in Beirut, Lebanon and raised in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Greece and the United States. He is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

City: New York

Hussein Rashid is a PhD candidate at Harvard University, where his is focusing his research on ghazal and qawwali literature in immigrant communities. He is also the organizer of the group blog islamicate (islamicate.com). Aside from islamicate, Hussein has several papers he's presented, and that are awaiting publication, including a short piece on the impact of 9/11 on adolescent Muslim youth identity and on Muslim blogs. He is currently working on piece on Muslims in comic books. Hussein was born in New York, to parents who were born in Tanzania. He is of South Asian (specifically Gujarati/Kutchhi) descent. He has received several teaching awards from Harvard, and has won a dissertation completion fellowship.

City: Boston

Imam Haneef Rajun Rashada, affectionately known as "Ibn-Ra'd" (Son of Thunder) is the Resident Imam of Masjid-Ul-Shukriyah, a small community Mosque and Executive Director of V.I.S.I.O.N. Inc., a community and Faith-based organization, which serve as the social service component of the Mosque. Imam Rashada is the principle founder of both organizations, located in the City of Elizabeth, New Jersey. He was born on February 23, 1964 in Newark, New Jersey. In 1975 along with his parents, he made the transition from the original Nation of Islam to the traditional and universally practiced Religion of Islam. He has attended both Essex County College and Audrey Cohen College, majoring in Human Services and is currently pursuing a Masters Degree in Divinity. He has served in the US Marines for 11 years and as a New Jersey Juvenile Justice Commission Superintendent for 10 years. Ibn Ra'd is an Executive member of the Elizabeth branch NAACP, New Jersey's Council of Imams and the Founder and Chair of a multi-faith organization Children of Abraham United in Service.

Imam Rashada is committed to the necessary work in the field of inter-Faith collaborations and is too happy to work along side Rabbis, Ministers and Imams to bring to fruition a Ministry of Service that is not confined or constricted by the walls of Theology.

City: New Jersey

Imam Tahir Anwar is the Imam and Director for Religious Services at the South Bay Islamic Association, in San Jose, California. He is also the Head of the Islamic Studies Department at Granada Islamic School, a full-time Islamic school in the heart of the Silicon Valley. Imam Tahir has previously published and compiled a CD on the practical aspects of Hajj, titled: Performing Hajj- A Practical Guide to the Journey of a Lifetime. Much of his time is dedicated to teaching Islamic Shari'a, which he teaches at the world-renowned Zaytuna Institute. Imam Tahir frequently lectures at various mosques and universities around the world, and has recently delivered a series of lectures in the UK, including Oxford. With his passion in outreach, he has been featured on many TV stations, such as CNN, ABC, and national newspapers, such as the New York Times. He was also the official Imam for CNN International during Hajj 2005. Born in London, England, he moved to San Francisco Bay Area in 1983. He committed the entire Qur'an to memory, and earned a BA in Islamic Theology in 1999, after which he has spent all his time portraying a positive message about Islam and Muslims around the world. He speaks 5 languages fluently, and was recently the recipient of the Community Service Award from NISA (North American Islamic Shelter for the Abused).

City: San Jose

Jamal L. Mahmood is a Financial Advisor for Northwestern Mutual Financial Network, and a graduate student at Rutgers University in New Jersey in the area of international relations. He has also dedicated much of his free time to volunteering for several interfaith and community endeavors. He was one of the earliest members of Muslims Against Terrorism (MAT), which formed immediately after September 11th, 2001, as a channel for outreach toward mainstream Americans through speaking at schools, rotary clubs, and religious organizations. Born in the Netherlands, Jamal immigrated to the US at a young age with his parents in 1980. He received a BA in Leadership Studies from the University of Richmond in 1999. He is married to Hannah Mir and lives in NY metro area.

City: New York

Jihad F. Saleh is completing his Master in Public Affairs degree at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public Affairs. Brother Jihad studies domestic affairs, focusing on education and anti-poverty policy. While at Princeton, Jihad has been the Chair of Princeton's Black Graduate Caucus, which advocates on behalf of Pan-African graduate students to university officials; produces academic, political, and cultural programming; coordinates community outreach; and, helps in the recruitment of qualified Black faculty and students to Princeton. Jihad is also the graduate representative on the Muslim Student Union executive board, and he has been a mentor to Muslim college students throughout central New Jersey. The Association of Black Princeton Alumni recently honored Jihad with their 2006 Patrice Y. Johnson Memorial Service Award in recognition of his high level of commitment and service to Princeton University. Jihad is an organizer and speaker in African-American, Muslim, and progressive communities. Currently, he is an advisor to the Qunoot Foundation; a Washington D.C. based organization devoted to creating spaces where young Shia-Muslims can give voice to their political, cultural, and gender concerns. Attention is given to the development of artistic forms such as poetry, music, visual arts, and video documentaries that increase youth's critical awareness and activism. Jihad frequently presents on the state of the African-American community, the rise of a political American Muslim youth identity, the critical role of women in social change movements, and the need for progressive multicultural, political coalitions. Born and reared in Los Angeles, Jihad acquired a BA in Political Science/Sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles. He also earned a prior MA in Education from Stanford University. Before graduate studies, Jihad was a high school teacher and community activist for four years in Los Angeles. He continues to be a consultant for multicultural dialogue and outreach in community-based organizations.

City: Princeton, New Jersey

Karen E. Klose is the Personal and Executive Assistant to actor and humanitarian Richard Gere in New York City. She has been a Personal Assistant to world-renowned celebrities, business leaders, and philanthropists in media and entertainment for 16 years. Ms. Klose works extensively with Mr. Gere's "Healing The Divide" Foundation and the "Gere Foundation". "Healing the Divide" was created to challenge existing, failed modes of thought and action and to foster revolutionary ideas to help break the bonds of ignorance, intolerance and injustice. Tibetan human rights and Aids awareness in India are among the foundations' areas of expertise. As a Muslim convert of 21 years, demystification of Islam in the West is of immediate importance to Ms. Klose. Some of her experiences have been featured in the book "Struggling to Surrender: Some Impressions of an American Convert to Islam" by Jeffrey Lang. She is focused on leveraging her extensive media skills to begin developing innovative methods that best address misunderstood conflicts, while humanizing those involved. Current projects include assisting with the Dubai International Film Festival's goal of "Bridging Cultures/Meeting Minds", and helping in the organization of a "Pan Arab Cultural Icon Initiative" that was conceived at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East. Born in Frankfurt, Germany to US Military parents, Ms. Klose grew up all over the United States, Hawaii, Korea and Japan. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mass Media/ Journalism from the University of San Francisco.

City: New York

Kareem Saleh serves both as a German Marshall Fund Program Officer and as Deputy Director of the Trade and Poverty Forum (TPF) — a north-south coalition of eminent persons from the key democracies working to mobilize political will and economic resources in the fight against global poverty. Mr. Saleh's research focuses on how the United States and Europe can cooperate in the areas of international economic and development policy. Kareem is an honors graduate of the University of Chicago, holding B.A. degrees in both near-eastern history and economics and is a fluent speaker of English, French and Arabic.

Kecia Ali is a newly appointed Assistant Professor of Religion at Boston University. She is the author of Sexual Ethics and Islam: Feminist Reflections on Qur'an, Hadith, and Jurisprudence (Oneworld, June 2006) and is completing a book on marriage in ninth-century jurisprudence. She is also working on a biography of the jurist al-Shafi'i. Born in Boston, Ali obtained her undergraduate education at Stanford and her Ph.D. from Duke University. She has been a research associate in the Women's Studies in Religion Program at Harvard Divinity School and most recently held a Florence Levy Kay Postdoctoral Fellowship at Brandeis University.

City: Boston

Leila Ezzarqui is currently a Senior Researcher for the UN Alliance of Civilizations initiative in New York. The Alliance seeks to forge collective political will and to mobilize concerted action at the institutional and civil society levels to overcome the prejudice, misperceptions and polarization that militate against such a consensus.She has served in UN field missions in places like Bosnia Herzegovina, the Middle East and Asia during periods of ethnic turbulence. Leila has held various responsibilities in Political, Legal and Humanitarian Affairs and at the Executive Office of the UN Secretary-General. She has also gained experience working in regional bodies, the Council of Ministers of the European Union, Brussels as well as the European Commission and the Organization of the Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Leila holds a Diplôme d'Etudes Approfondies in International Law and International Organizations from the University of Pantheon Sorbonne in Paris. She also wrote a book entitled "Resolution 986: Oil for Food Programme" (Editions Montchrestien) published by Sorbonne University as the best work research on the issue of UN sanctions against Iraq and was prefaced by the then Secretary-General Boutros Boutros Ghali. Ms. Ezzarqui is also author of several articles about the Embargo in Iraq in French-Arabic Magazines and has participated to various Television and Radio programs to promote her book as well as UN economic sanctions against Iraq. She has excellent language and communication skills in English, French, Spanish and Arabic.

City: New York

Mona Eltahawy is a New York-based writer and columnist. Before she moved to the US in 2000, she was a news reporter for 10 years in the Middle East. She worked as a Reuter's correspondent in Cairo and Jerusalem and covered the region for The Guardian newspaper. Since she moved to the US, she has concentrated on writing opeds on Arab and Muslim issues and is a frequent guest analyst on television and public speaker on these issues.

City: New York

Naz Ahmed Georgas graduated with a Masters in International Affairs at Columbia University and a BA in Sociology from Jesus and Mary College Delhi University. Upon graduating, she has worked for several agencies at the United Nations in New York including the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the United Nations Office of Project Services (UNOPS). Naz has also worked to for The World Council of Churches (WCC) and the National Council for Women non-governmental organizations located at the UN in New York City. She is currently working with ASMA Society as the Coordinator for Muslim Spiritual Affairs and provides training to young Khateebs on the basic requirements of Jummah (Friday) prayers at Masjid Al Farah in New York. As an avid spiritualist, she lectures widely on Islam and Sufism in various Churches, Synagogues and Colleges. Born in Bangladesh, Naz lived in France, UK and now resides in New York City with her husband and their two sons.

City: New York

Nuri Friedlander is a graduate student at the American Universtiy in Cairo and works part time as a translator at Dar al-Ifta al-Masriyah. He has previously written for The Daily Star Cairo and Islamica Magazine. Born in New York, and educated in the U.S., Cairo and Damascus Mr. Friedlander has recently completed a master's degree in Arabic Studies at the American University in Cairo. Nuri Friedlander was recently the recipient of the Madalyn Lamont Creative Writing Award and placed second in the Qalam Creative Writing Competition.

City: Cairo

Reem Al-Alusi is currently a graduate student at the University of Cambridge studying Islamic art and architecture. She currently works as a researcher at the UC Berkeley Religion, Politics, and Globalization Program, where she studies the effects of globalization on the political economies of developing nations. Ms. Al-Alusi has previously written for Seasons, the journal of the Zaytuna Institute, as well as having written UC Berkeley's protocol and cultural competence guides for the Arab World, the Far East, Europe, Latin America, the Indian Subcontinent, and International diplomatic protocol. Born in California, she graduated magna cum laude from UC Berkeley in 2005.

City: Berkeley, California

Reema Siddiqui

City: New York

Reza Aslan is a Research Associate at the University of Southern California's Center of Public Diplomacy. He has written for the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Slate, Boston Globe, the Washington Post, the Nation, and others, and has appeared on Meet The Press, Hardball, The Daily Show, The Tavis Smiley Show, Real Time with Bill Maher, The Colbert Report, and Nightline. His first book, No god but God has been translated into half a dozen languages and was short-listed for the Guardian (UK) First Book Award. Born in Iran, he now lives in Santa Monica and New Orleans, where he is the Middle East commentator on Marketplace and a regular Op-Ed contributor to the Los Angeles Times.

City: Santa Monica, California

Saleemah Abdul-Ghafur is committed to a life of service. Saleemah is a leader in the national movement to end gender discrimination in the American Muslim community. In 2004 she participated in a civil action to give women space and voice in American mosques where they have traditionally been banned. In 2005, Saleemah took on establishing women as prayer leaders, a concept that is unprecedented in the American Muslim community, and co-organized the historic woman-led prayer in New York City. Saleemah edited the first anthology collecting the voices of outspoken American Muslim women. The book, entitled LIVING ISLAM OUT LOUD: American Muslim Women Speak (Beacon Press 2005), presents American Muslim women dealing with the complexities of forging their own identities while contributing powerfully to public life. Saleemah is the associate director of corporate volunteerism with Hands On Atlanta an NGO which manages the team that produces service projects for corporate volunteers every year. Saleemah was a member of the triad that produces Azizah magazine. The first publication that presents the perspectives and accomplishments of American Muslim women. At Azizah, Saleemah developed its organizational capacity by initiating its first strategic planning process and securing investors, developing a public relations campaign that branded Azizah in its market and contributed to the editorial direction of this pioneering publication. She was a also a program officer for Victoria Foundation. Saleemah is also a member of Friends of Open House regional council. Open House is a community center in Ramle and a model of authentic interfaith and intercultural dialogue. Saleemah is a founding member of the Progressive Muslim Union of North America's.

City: Atlanta

Samina Ali was born in Hyderabad, India and raised both there and in the United States. Her debut novel, MADRAS ON RAINY DAYS (Farrar Straus Giroux), chronicles a young Muslim American woman's journey to freedom and was awarded the Prix Premier Roman Etranger 2005 Award (Best First Novel in Translation of the Year) by France and was also chosen as the finalist for both the PEN/Hemingway Award in Fiction as well as the California Book Reviewers Award. Poets&Writers named MADRAS as one of the Top 5 Best Debut Novels of the Year 2004. The novel has been translated into many different languages and released around the world. Ms Ali has been invited to lecture on the book extensively, from University of California, Berkeley on the West Coast to Harvard and Yale Universities on the East. She is the recipient of the Rona Jaffe Foundation and Barbara Deming Memorial awards for fiction. Most recently, essays of hers have been included in The May Queen and Living Islam Out Loud anthologies. She has also written for publications as diverse as Self and Child Magazines, The New York Times and The San Francisco Chronicle. She resides in California with her son.

City: San Francisco, California

Sayyeda Mirza is the EWI project manager for the 'Reframing Perceptions of Islam and Muslims' Project. Prior to joining EWI in February 2004, Ms. Mirza served as Program Associate for the Bridging Leadership Program at the Synergos Institute, where she managed a global network of partner organizations, co-facilitated and organized the global leadership trainings in Southern Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia, developed overall communication strategy and materials both internally and externally, and engaged in research initiatives of conflict resolution, leadership development and systems thinking. Additional endeavors include foreign policy work experience at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) where she focused on issues related to Islam and specific involvement in the project Pluralism in Muslim Societies sponsored by the Ford Foundation. At the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) she focused on the Middle East and North Africa. Furthermore, her background in international economic development, specifically microfinance, working for the Grameen Bank/Trust in Bangladesh and India are also to be noted. Ms. Mirza obtained a Masters degree in International Political Economy (PWE Course) from the London School of Economics in 1999 focusing on issues of economic development and investment in developing countries (specifically in the Middle East and North Africa). She graduated cum laude from New York University with a BA in International Politics and Middle East Studies. Her language skills include: Arabic, Bengali, Hindi, Persian, Spanish and Urdu.

City: New York

Shahzia Sikander is an independent artist who specializes in Indian and Persian miniature painting, a traditional style that is both highly stylized and disciplined and has transported miniature painting into the realm of contemporary art. Exploring boundaries imposed by time, gender, religion and culture, Sikander's works are commentaries on lived experience, art history and pop culture. Reared as a Muslim, Shahzia is interested in exploring both sides of the Hindu and Muslim border, resisting, subverting and challenging stereotypes in particular. She works in a variety of mediums including murals, site-specific installations, performance and Video animation. Sikander's work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York and Paris, Whitney Museum, Smithsonian, Istanbul Biennale, Venice Biennale and many other international venues. Sikander's work has been regularly reviewed in many publications including Art Forum, Art News, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine and many others. In 2004, Newsweek listed her as one of the most important South Asians transforming the American cultural landscape. Sikander has received many awards and honors for her work, including the National Pride of Honor from the Pakistan government, the Tiffany Foundation award and Joan Mitchell award. She has appeared on several talk shows including Charlie Rose, and has a documentary on her work by the award winning series Art in the Twenty First century. Her work is in the permanent collection of museums across the world. Sikander's work is featured in textbooks for high school and college level art education in the US. She teaches and lectures regularly across universities in the US. Born in Pakistan, she holds a BFA from National College of Arts, Lahore and an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Sikander was appointed a young global leader by the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland in 2006. Sikander is invested in collaborating with artists, educators, and social scientists. She believes in the potential of contemporary artists as catalysts of positive change. (www.shahziasikander.com)

City: New York

Su'ad Abdul-Khabeer is currently a PhD student at Princeton University in the Department of Anthropology and received her BA from Georgetown University in International Politics. She also completed the Islamic Studies Institute at Abu Nur University in Damascus, Syria. At Princeton, her work focuses primarily on the construction of faith and identity. Prior to pursuing her PhD, Su'ad worked for the Annie E. Casey Foundation where she was instrumental in formulating a community development initiative. She also helped create Esperanza/Hope an initiative of the Vera Institute of Justice, Esperanza is an alternative to incarceration program for New York City's youth. Su'ad has spoken and presented papers at various conferences and universities across the country. She speaks Spanish, Arabic and a tad of French and traces her heritage to the Caribbean, Latin America, and Brooklyn, her hometown.

City: Princeton, New Jersey

Sultan Muhammad is the Communications Coordinator of CAIR-Chicago (Council on American Islamic Relations - Chicago), America's largest non-profit Islamic civil liberties group, with 32 chapters nationwide and in Canada. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding. Sultan's professional background and life experience have been highly concentrated in the field of audio-visual communications and the development of Islamic media as educational tools. He produced 'Muslim Daily Prayers - A Learner's Guide' and 'Short Chapters from the Holy Quran ? A Learner's Guide.' He is a multi-media producer by trade, having trained in broadcast editing and production at NBC/Universal and is the co-founder of MPD studios based in Chicago. At an early age Sultan studied Arabic and Islamic studies, on scholarship, at the Minaret International School in Riyadh Saudi Arabia. Born in Chicago Illinois, his experiences abroad and a more than seventy-five year family tradition of prominent Islamic activism in America have contributed largely to his life-long focus on building understanding through education, cultural dialog, and accurate representation of Muslims and minorities in America. Sultan is the son of the late Imam Sultan Muhammad (grandson of Elijah Muhammad) and the nephew of Imam W.D. Muhammad (Muslim American leader and author).

City: Chicago

Yasir Kazi was born in Houston, TX, and completed his secondary education in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He graduated with a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineerin1g from the University of Houston, after which he was accepted as a student at the Islamic University of Madinah. After completing a diploma in Arabic, he graduated with a B.A. from the College of Hadeeth and Islamic Sciences. He then went on to complete an M.A. in Islamic Theology (`Aqeedah) from the College of Da`wah at the University, and he was awarded his degree with the highest distinction. Yasir is now pursuing a Ph.D. in Islamic Studies from Yale University. In addition to the formal studies of the University of Madinah, he has also studied in the traditional manner under scholars, and has been conferred ijaazahs in various recitations of the Quran, and in the famous books of Hadeeth. Of his published works are: Riyaa: Hidden Shirk; An Introduction to the Sciences of the Quran; Du'aa: The Weapon of the Believer; Fifteen Ways to Increase Your Earnings From the Quran and Sunnah; An Explanation of the Four Principles of Shirk; A Critical Study of Shirk; and others. He has also translated a significant portion of the Sunan of Abu Dawud along with explanatory comments. Presently, along with his graduate studies, he is a full-time Instructor for Maghrib Institute.

City: New Haven, Connecticut

Yousuf Siddiqui is an independent Management Consultant concentrating in IT Project Management, and Leadership development. Mr. Siddiqui has been working as a volunteer in the Muslim community in New York for approximately 10 years. He has worked with several youth programs and focused on young adolescent issues by conducting workshops and participating in speaking engagements. Mr. Siddiqui has experience in conducting workshops related to group and personal identity issues. Mr. Siddiqui is on the board of Muslim Reform Movement Organization and is involved with a grassroots movement called the Progressive Muslim meetup which is a discussion group focused on religious, social, political and economic issues related to the Muslim world. Mr. Siddiqui is a graduate student at Teachers College, Columbia University with a major in Social Organizational Psychology.

City: New York

Zahra Nasiruddin Jamal is a doctoral candidate in Social Anthropology and Mideastern Studies at Harvard researching Muslim voluntarism. She has conducted fieldwork on Muslim communities in North America, South Asia, the UK, Russia, and Tajikistan. Ms. Jamal has lectured on Islam at Harvard, Wells, Bridgewater State, and Emory, and has presented conference papers on giving and voluntarism among American Muslims, the cultural politics of Qawwalis, and faith and identity in Tajikistan. She has published online, in The Ismaili USA, and in a forthcoming edited volume on transnationalism, Muslims, and the West. Ms Jamal serves on the Aga Khan Social Welfare Board for the United States of America, and has assisted in conflict resolution and women's rights projects for the Aga Khan Humanities Project and the Swiss Development Cooperation in Tajikistan, respectively. In 2005, she designed a project on Muslim Philanthropy in post-9/11 America for the Aspen Institute's Nonprofit Sector and Philanthropy Program. Born in upstate New York, Ms. Jamal holds BA degrees in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies and in Slavic Studies from Rice University, and an MA in Social Anthropology from Harvard. Among numerous awards, she has held the Javits, Honorary Mellon, Hearst, and Pluralism Project Fellowships.

City: Boston

Zuriani 'Ani' Zonneveld is a singer/songwriter who uses her craft to educate people about Islam. She is also the Executive Director of the Progressive Muslim Union, a grassroots organization advocating progressive politics from the framework of a compassionate and humane understanding of Islam. Ani is the co-founder of an annual festival called God Loves Beauty, an interfaith arts and music festival with two purposes. It is an event that celebrates our differences as interfaith communities and to build solid relationships by working together. Its purpose is also to nurture Muslim female artists by giving them a platform to promote their craft. Ani is often sought out to educate people about Islam from local synagogues and churches to national organizations. She has two CDs released "Ummah Wake Up" and "One". She has been interviewed numerous times by national and international newspapers and most recently featured on BBC/PRI's radio program "The World". Ani was born in Malaysia, raised in Germany, Egypt and India; and earned her B.A. of Economics and Political Science in the U.S. As a songwriter she has garnered many awards including that of a Grammy for a song contribution in 2005.

City: Los Angeles