Ph.D. Candidate at GSU, SERB Scholar

Independent researcher from Detroit. Member of the National Jummat of Al-Ummah. He has researched Islam and America with a focus on Detroit for 30 years. A Wayne State University graduate with over 15 years of a of experience in the IT field. He served as a researcher associate for Building Islam in Detroit and worked on various non-profit organizations centering on community activism.

Dr. Rasul Miller Is a historian of Black Muslim communities in the Atlantic world. He received his PhD in the fields of History and Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He has taught courses in African and African American history at the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University. His research interests include Muslim movements in 20th century America and their relationship to Black internationalist thought and West African intellectual history.

Dr. Rudolph Bilal Ware is a historian of Africa and Islam. In 2004, he received his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania in African History, African-American History, and Islamic Intellectual History. His research centers on the last thousand years, with a focus on West Africa as well as the Mediterranean lands of Islam and the Atlantic worlds of the African diaspora.

Dawud Walid is currently the Executive Director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI) and member of the Imams Council of Michigan. Walid has studied under qualified scholars the disciplines of Arabic grammar and morphology (al-Nahw wa al-Sarf), foundations of Islamic jurisprudence (Usul al-Fiqh), Prophetic narrations (al-Ahadith al-Nabawiyyah) and sciences of the exegesis of the Qur’an (‘Ulum Tafsir al-Qur’an). He previously served as an imam at Masjid Wali Muhammad in Detroit and the Bosnian American Islamic Center in Hamtramck, Michigan. He is the author of the books Futuwwah and Raising Males Into Sacred Manhood, Blackness and Islam, and Towards Sacred Activism as well as co-author of the books Centering Black Narrative: Black Muslim Nobles Among the Early Pious Muslims and Centering Black Narrative: Ahl al-Bayt, Blackness & Africa.

Imam Dr. Khalil Abdur-Rashid is the first full-time University Muslim Chaplain at Harvard University, Instructor of Muslim Studies at Harvard Divinity School, and Public Policy Lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He serves all Muslim students at Harvard, supervises the staff of the Harvard University Office of the Chaplain and also serves on the Board of Religious, Spiritual and Ethical Life at Harvard. He was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia and completed his doctorate degree in Liberal Studies and American Islam from Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He completed his Doctorate in Liberal Studies in American Islam from Southern Methodist University and holds both a Master of Arts in Islamic law and Middle East Studies as well as a Master of Philosophy in Islamic Law and Middle East Studies from Columbia University in New York City.

Imam Furqan A. Muhammad accepted Al-Islam in 1968. Imam Furqan is presently serving as Imam at Masjid Al-Muminun in Atlanta, Georgia. Imam Furqan has been a full time Daa’I (Propagator Of Al-Islam) since 1989 He services 37 prisons. Imam Furqan made Hajj (Pilgrimage to Mecca) in 1989. He has traveled to Morocco, China, Sudan, Senegal and recently to Turkey on a 10 day interfaith Pilgrimage with Muslims, Christians and Jews.

Imam Hamzah Abdul-Malik is a graduate of Al-Azhar University in Egypt; he has studied and taught Islam for over 15 years. He memorized the Holy Quran, and served as a teacher for Islamic schools and mosques in Georgia, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee, and in the Middle East. He also obtained a Master’s degree in Islamic Studies and Leadership from Bayan Claremont. He co-founded Midtown Mosque in 2015 as an effort to revitalize blighted areas in Memphis, Tennessee.

Imam Khalid Griggs is a Muslim leader and activist who has served as the Imam of the Community Mosque of Winston-Salem, North Carolina since 1984

Zaid Shakir is a prominent American Muslim scholar and a professor emeritus and board observer of Zaytuna College. He has taught courses in Arabic, Islamic spirituality, contemporary Muslim thought, Islamic history and politics, and Shafi’i fiqh at the College. He speaks and writes on a wide range of topics, and he travels frequently across the United States to support institution-building projects in the Muslim community.

A Virginia native who while attending Howard University took shahadah in 1974 at the community mosque in Washington DC. Soon after taking the shahadah he became a member of the IPNA and became a key member of the Dawah program. He also served as an assistant in the publications office that produced the “Al-Islam: The Islamic Movement Journal.” He was also commissioned to start the first branch of the IPNA in the Caribbean. He relocated to the south where he finished his degree in English Journalism and Communication.

Shahidah Sharif has an extensive background in Islamic education and community service. At a young age, she began working with organizations such as Muslim Youth of North America and Clara Mohammed School of South Florida and Oakland, CA. Sharif has also worked with the Islamic Society of the University of Miami and United Youth Leadership Forum of the Bay Area, where she organized and coordinated many events to serve the Muslim and non-Muslim community. She studied for three years at the Abu Nour University in Damascus through the Mosque Cares Study Abroad Program with a focus on the Arabic language and the Islamic Sciences.

Ustadh Jamal-ud-Deen Hysaw originally from Chicago, Illinois obtained his Bachelors degree in Political Science from Southern Illinois University. In the summer of 1992, he accepted Islam and subsequently travelled to Damascus, Syria where he studied Arabic and Islamic Studies at Abu Nur and the University of Damascus for three years. He continued his studies in Tarim, Yemen where he studied at Dar al-Mustafa for another five years. Ustadh Jamal-ud-Deen presently resides in Atlanta, Georgia with family where he conducts regular learning programs, study circles, seminars, retreats and programs in the arts.

Born Emerson Wayne Brandon in Washinton DC in the late 1930s. The grandson of former slaves and the 9th of ten siblings. His parents were artistic and enterprising. He was one of the first students to attend a desegregated public school. He joined the Nation of Islam in the 60s. Muhammed picked up the camera after being inspired by a life long friend. He focused on local photography for a while. He earned press credentials overnight while covering the First Muslim Parade in Chicago in the fall of 1969. After 1975 he was given the name Wali Akbar and continue to work with the succession of publications that mirrored changes in the Muslim Community.