Symposium 2013: Discrimination Against Muslim Americans in a Post-9/11 World

Nancy Hollander

Keynote Speaker

Ms. Hollander is an internationally recognized criminal defense lawyer from the Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA firm of Freedman Boyd Hollander Goldberg Urias & Ward P.A. Her practice is largely devoted to criminal cases, including those involving national security issues. She has also been counsel in numerous civil cases, forfeitures and administrative hearings, and has argued and won a case involving religious freedom in the United States Supreme Court. Ms. Hollander also served as a consultant to the defense in a high profile terrorism case in Ireland, has assisted counsel in other international cases and represents two prisoners at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. She has been accepted as a lead counsel for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. Ms. Hollander is an international member of Perren Buildings Chambers, London, which is comprised of individual criminal defense practitioners who practice independently, and are subject to professional regulation as individuals in their respective jurisdictions.

Abed Ayoub

American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), Legal Director

Ayoub is admitted to the Michigan State Bar, and a member of the American Bar Association. Ayoub was born and raised in Dearborn, Michigan, home of the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the U.S. He is a graduate of the University of Detroit-Mercy School of Law, where he received recognition for his public interest work and dedication to the legal community. He joined ADC in 2002, as the Membership and Development Coordinator for the ADC-Michigan Office. In 2003, he was elected as Chapter President of ADC-Detroit, a position he held for two terms. Ayoub went on to serve on the ADC-Michigan Advisory Board, and contributed to the growing success of the ADC Michigan Network. Before joining the ADC National Office in 2007, Ayoub was in private practice in Michigan, specializing in immigration and criminal law. Ayoub attended the University of Michigan where he received a BA in Corporate Communications and Public Relations. Outside of ADC, he worked with a number of organizations on interfaith projects and has participated in numerous diversity training programs throughout the State of Michigan.

 Amara Chaudhry

Council on American Islamic Relations (Philadelphia), Civil Rights Director and Staff Attorney

Amara S. Chaudhry has dedicated her legal career to the struggle for civil rights and equality and focuses her practice at the intersection of law and race, religion, gender, ethnicity, and national origin – primarily in the context of the criminal justice system.  Amara is currently the Civil Rights Director and Staff Attorney for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Philadelphia Office.  Amara joined CAIR after serving as legal director of an LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) civil  practice at two separate agencies -- Mazzoni Center and Equality Advocates Pennsylvania.  Prior to her legal services career, Amara had a criminal defense career which included private practice and positions as an assistant public defender in suburban Philadelphia and and Charleston, West Virginia. In her current position, Amara focuses her practice on governmental discrimination against American Muslims.  Amara’s ongoing projects include “anti-Shariah” legislation in Pennsylvania and nationwide, anti-Muslim profiling by the NYPD throughout the northeastern United States, security clearance denials of federal employees related  to their identity as American Muslims, the official non-engagement policy of the FBI against Muslim organizations nationwide, anti-Muslim discrimination by state and federal prisons, and anti-Muslim discrimination by private employers.  In each of these projects, Amara focuses her research on legal definitions of “race” and the extent to which anti-Muslim bias is motivated by race, ethnicity, and national origin influence anti-Muslim bias.

 Asma Uddin

Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, Legal Counsel; Founder and Editor-in-Chief of altmuslimah.com

Asma T. Uddin joined The Becket Fund in 2009 after practicing commercial litigation at prestigious national law firms for several years. She is a 2005 graduate of The University of Chicago Law School, where she was a member of The University of Chicago Law Review. Most recently, Asma has taken on the role of Legal Counsel, defending religious liberty in the U.S. through several prominent cases at The Becket Fund, including ACSTO v. Winn, Alcazar v. Rosas, Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC, IFHC v. Boise Rescue Mission, Ward v. Willbanks, Spry v. Jenks, FFRF v. Weber, and others. Asma is also the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of altmuslimah.com, a web magazine dedicated to issues on gender and Islam. Her work at altmuslimah has earned the praise of many, including Dr. Robert George of Princeton University, who has said, "On matters of sexual morality, marriage, and family in Islam, particularly in the American context, I recommend the writings of two exceptionally gifted young Muslim women writers: Suzy Ismail and Asma Uddin." Aside from altmuslimah, she has helped edit the book, A Muslim in Victorian America, which was published in 2007 by Oxford University Press. Asma was also an Associate Editor and legal columnist for Islamica Magazine. She is an expert panelist for the Washington Post religion blog, On Faith, and a contributor to Huffington Post Religion, CNN's Belief Blog, the Guardian's Comment is Free, and Common Ground News.

 Daniel Cox

Public Religion Research Institute, Co-founder and Director of Research

Dan Cox is the Research Director and co-founder of Public Religion Research Institute, a non-partisan, non-profit research and education organization focusing on religion, values and public life. Prior to joining PRRI, he served as Research Associate at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, where he worked on the core research team for dozens of polls, including the groundbreaking Religious Landscape Survey, one of the largest public opinion surveys on religion ever conducted. Dan specializes in youth politics and religion, and his work has appeared in numerous national news and religious publications including the New York Times, ABC News, CNN, Newsweek, World Magazine, and others. Dan holds an M.A. in American government from Georgetown University and a B.A. in political science from Union College. He is an active member of the American Association of Public Opinion Research (AAPOR).

 Hamid Khan

United States Institute of Peace, Senior Program Officer, Rule of Law Center

Hamid M. Khan is a Senior Program Officer of the Rule of Law Center with the United States Institute of Peace where he works on rule of law issues regarding Afghanistan and teaches a training course on Islamic Law within the Institute. Khan is also a Professorial Lecturer of Islamic Law at the George Washington University Law School. Previously, Khan worked as Rule of Law Adviser in USIP's Kabul office and before his tenure at USIP, he served as Postdoctoral Fellow for Stanford Law School's Afghanistan Legal Education Project where he directed legal education efforts at the American University of Afghanistan. Later, he served as an international observer for the 2010 Afghan parliamentary elections. Khan is a former adjunct professor of Islamic law at the University of Colorado Law School and former visiting professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Wyoming. He lectured on Islamic legal matters around the world including at the NATO School, the U.N. Department of Peace Keeping Operations (DPKO), Stanford Law School, Northwestern Law School, American University College of Law, Sturm College of Law at the University of Denver, and in various interagency capacities with the U.S. Government including the U.S. Navy's Postgraduate School, the National Defense University, the Marine Corps University, USAID, and the State Department, and he served as an advisor to to NATO/ISAF on issues of Islamic law, counterinsurgency, and empowering women under Islamic law and theology.

 Haris Tarin

Muslim Public Affairs Council, Washington, D.C. Office Director

Haris Tarin is currently the Director of the Washington DC office of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC). In his capacity as the DC Director of MPAC he engages various agencies within government including the White House, Department of Justice, State Department, Department of Homeland Security and offices on Capitol Hill. This past summer President Obama chose to call three leading young Americans to discuss various policy issues; the President called and then met with Haris to discuss policies pertaining to national security, countering violent extremism, the American Muslim community and civic engagement. Haris has been published in various national and international publications including the LA Times, CNN and has a regular column on the Huffington Post. He has spoken at various domestic and international conferences and media outlets on topics such as National Security, Islam and governance, US-Muslim World Relations, Role of the American Muslim institutions in Policy Formation, Religion and Public Life, and Civic Engagement. Haris is a and a USC/Georgetown AMCLI Fellow and is also the author of Intro to Muslim America.

 Professor Robin Wilson

Washington and Lee University

Professor Robin Fretwell Wilson, the Class of 1958 Law Alumni Professor of Law and the Law Alumni Faculty Fellow for 2011—2012, received her J.D. and B.A. degrees from the University of Virginia where, at the School of Law, she served on the Editorial Board of the Virginia Law Review. Before entering practice, she clerked for the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Named "Professor of the Year" by the Women Law Student Organization in 2008, Prof. Wilson has twice received the faculty award for outstanding scholarship. She is a member of the American Law Institute, and in 2010 was ranked among the Top 10 Family Law Scholars in the United States in Scholarly Impact. Professor Wilson has treated the subject of sharia law in a guest blog on The Volokh Conspiracy entitled,“Greece Abandons Sharia Law Resolution of Muslim Family Law Disputes.”