Speakers

Afroz Ali is the Founder and President of Al-Ghazzali Centre for Islamic Sciences & Human Development, based in Sydney, Australia. He is a qualified Imam in the Islamic Tradition, having studied under Traditional Islam and received licence to teach in various Islamic Sciences. His studies have taken him from university-based Islamic University- Madina, Saudi Arabia…

Habib Ali was born in the city of Jeddah in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from parents who are both descendents of Imam Hussein son of Ali, peace be upon them. He began taking knowledge from his early childhood from his first teacher, his mother’s great-aunt, the scholar and knower of God Safiah daughter of…

Imam Tahir Anwar is an American Muslim Imam (religious leader) who has been around Imams since the day he was born. Namely his father and grandfather (his first teachers), and his two brothers, who are also both Imams in California. Born in London, Imam Tahir moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1983 and…

From Seattle, Washington comes Ahmed Abdul Aziz, a simple poet lost in reverence of the Divine. Deep into hip-hop at an early age, Baraka Blue’s journey through life and music greatly intertwined and balanced each other.  Aspiring to transmit the prophetic wisdom in a medium culturally relevant to people of the 21st century, Baraka Blue…

Ustadh Yahya Rhodus was born in Kansas City, Missouri. At the age of 19, he embraced Islam in Santa Clara, California. He began his study of Islam with Shaykh Hamza Yusuf and visiting Mauritanian scholars such as Shaykh Khatri wuld Baybba and Shaykh Abdullah wuld Ahmadna. In 1998, Ustadh Yahya traveled to Mauritania to pursue…

Shaykh Ali Gomaa was born on March 3rd 1952 in Bani Suwaif, Upper Egypt. Sheikh Ali began memorizing the Qur’an at the age of ten, and although he did not go to religious schools, by the time he graduated from high school he had studied the six canonical collections of hadith as well as Maliki…

With John L. Esposito, Ph.D., she is co-author of the forthcoming book Who Speaks for Islam? Listening to the Voices of a Billion Muslims. Mogahed provides leadership, strategic direction, and consultation on the collection and analysis of Gallup’s unprecedented surveying of more than 1 billion Muslims worldwide. She also leads the curriculum development of an…

Shaykh Faraz Fareed Rabbani was born in Karachi, Pakistan and raised in Toronto, Canada. He entered the University of Toronto with a full scholarship and completed his Bachelor’s in Economics & Commerce in May 1997. While in Canada, Shaykh Faraz was involved with various organizations and projects, including founding and running the monthly The Muslim…

Dr. Ingrid Mattson is Professor of Islamic Studies and Director of Islamic Chaplaincy at the Macdonald Center for Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary in Hartford, CT. During her graduate studies in Chicago, Dr. Mattson was involved with the local Muslim community, serving on the board of directors of Universal School in Bridgeview…

Maher’s first musical inspiration came from his father, who was a singer himself, performing locally in the beautiful Mediterranean city of Tripoli – Lebanon. Fascinated by the music and instruments, Maher got his first keyboard when he was only ten and ever since music officially became part of Maher’s world. The family moved to Sweden…

Shaykh Muhammad Jebril (full name Mohamed Mohamed Jibril Essayid Hasanine) is a great Quran reciter of Egyptian nationality. He was born in the village center Tahourya Shebine Al Qanatir in the region of Egypt Qalyoubiya. At the age of 9 years, Shaykh Muhammad Jebril memorized the entire Qur’an, and won several competitions for his Qur’anic recitation….

Nader Mohammed Khan is a Canadian Muslim singer & social activist. He is the Programs Director of ReliefWorks (www.Relief-Works.org), a unique initiative that promotes local relief efforts through Islamic music, arts, and youth engagement. Over the last 15 years, he has toured and performed across Canada, USA, UK, Australia, Malaysia, and Singapore in solo performances,…

Dr. Tariq Ramadan was born on August 26, 1962 in Geneva, Switzerland. Dr. Ramadan holds an MA in Philosophy and French Literature from the University of Geneva, and a PhD in Arabic and Islamic Studies. Dr. Ramadan continued to study the Islamic Sciences in Cairo, where he received intensive one-on-one training in classical Islamic scholarship…

Imam Suhaib was born William Webb in 1972 in Oklahoma. In 1992 at the age of twenty, Imam Suhaib became Muslim. 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…

Yasmin Mogahed received her B.S. Degree in Psychology and her Masters in Journalism and Mass Communications from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After completing her graduate work, she taught Islamic Studies and worked as a writing instructor for Cardinal Stritch University, and a staff columnist for the Islam section of InFocus News. Currently she’s a freelance…

Imam Zaid Shakir is a co-founder of Zaytuna College, located in Berkeley, CA., and also teaches Islamic law and history. He obtained a BA summa cum laude in International Relations at American University in Washington D.C. and later earned his MA in Political Science from Rutgers University. In 1994, he departed for Syria to further…

Born and raised in California, Usama Canon embraced Islam in 1996. Since then he has had the honor of studying various Islamic Sciences both at home and abroad under some of today’s foremost scholars. Currently, Usama serves as an instructor at Zaytuna Institute and as a Muslim Chaplain for the State of California Department of…

Abdul Nasir Jangda is the founder and director of Qalam Institute. He was born and raised in the Dallas area. At the age of 10 he went to Karachi, Pakistan to memorize the Quran. He excelled in his memorization and committed the entire Quran to memory in less than 1 year. He then returned home…

AbdelRahman Murphy is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago with a degree in Teaching of English and Religious Studies, and is currently pursuing his Masters in Counseling and Family Therapy. His passion is working with Muslims to help improve on a personal, family, and community level. He serves as the director of…

Dr Yusuf Islam, also known to many as Cat Stevens, rose to fame in the 1970s as a Folk Singer selling over 80 million records worldwide. In 1977 after many years of searching Dr Yusuf received a copy of the Quran from his brother and shortly after, Cat Stevens accepted Islam and became Yusuf Islam….

Azhar Usman is a Chicago-based stand-up comedian and co-founder of the wildly popular “Allah Made Me Funny–The OfficialMuslim Comedy Tour.” He produced a documentary-concert film based on the Tour, which was released in select U.S. movie theaters in late 2008. Formally trained as an attorney, Azhar has been touring as a full-time comedian since 2004,…

Born in Washington D.C. and raised in Maryland, Raef is a singer-songwriter, computer science high school educator, and musician. He has performed across the United States and is known for his unique lyricism and acoustic sound. Raef’s music moves seamlessly between commercially accessible rock tunes, and introspective folk songs. Over the years Raef has shared…

Sherman A. Jackson is an American scholar. He is the King Faisal Chair of Islamic Thought and Culture and Professor of Religion and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. He was formerly the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Near Eastern Studies, Visiting Professor of Law and Professor of Afro-American Studies at…

Karen Armstrong is a former Catholic nun who left the convent to study literature, becoming one of the most provocative and original thinkers on the role of religion in the modern world, and a leading international authority on faiths, religious fundamentalism and monotheism. Her poignant and captivating talks have sparked worldwide debate and healthy discussion….

From his start as a preacher to his status as then Arab world’s prevalent Muslims icon on television, Amr Khaled has magnetized Muslim youth in the Mideast and around the world with his emphasis on attaining spiritual self-renewal by adhering to simple Islamic manners and beliefs. Khaled, a 39-year-old Egyptian accountant, was born in Alexandria…

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…

Dr. Umar Faruq Abd-Allah (Wymann-Landgraf) is an American Muslim, born in 1948 to a Protestant family in Columbus, Nebraska. He grew up in Athens, Georgia, where both parents taught at the University of Georgia. His father taught Veterinary Medicine and Organic Chemistry, while his mother’s field was English. In 1964, his parents took positions at…