Islam in America

More info coming soon.

February 11th 7:30 PM at Maryam Islamic Center.

About the Speakers:

IMAM 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. In 2007, he was a signatory of the 2007 letter “A Common Word Between Us and You,” an appeal for peace and cooperation between Christians and Muslims, and in 2016, he presided over the public memorial for Muhammad Ali.

USTADHA IESHA PRIME is the Director of Women’s Programming at Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Virginia and the founder of the DC Muslim Women’s Conference. She converted to Islam more than 20 years ago after being a Youth Ambassador to Morrocco and Senegal. There she developed a thirst for knowledge that would cause her to sit at the feet and learn from some of the top Islamic scholars of our time. After having participated in several circles of knowledge in the US, Iesha decided to pursue religious studies abroad. She studied Arabic, and Quran at the Fajr Institute in Cairo, Egypt. Later, she moved to Hadramaut, Yemen, and enrolled in Dar al Zahra, an Islamic University for Women. There she studied Aqeedah, Quran, Hadith, Arabic, Jurisprudence (Fiqh), Islamic law, Purification of the Heart, and other religious-related learning. She has received several scholarly licenses (ijaza). The work that she is most committed to and enjoys has been the development of Islamic programming, Islamic Studies curriculum, and Rites of Passage programs for youth and adults. The majority of her life has been spent as an educator and activist. She is most passionate about combining Islamic studies, cultural art, activism, and service for the purpose of training leaders to rise above whatever challenges stand in their way and that of the community they serve. In addition to her full-time work, she is the co-founder and Executive Director of Barakah INC, an organization committed to training Muslim women in traditional Islamic sciences with a focus on modern application. Sister Iesha is recently known for her participation in the National Women’s March, and the courses she teaches on traditional knowledge, the challenges of race and gender in the Muslim community, and Spirituality. Iesha Prime is a proud wife and mother of three children.

DR. RAMI NASHASHIBI is a MacArthur Fellow, a Doctor of Sociology from the University of Chicago, and the founder and Executive Director of the Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN), a non-profit organization incorporated in 1997 that fosters health, wellness, and healing in Chicago’s South Side & Atlanta’s west end by organizing for social change, cultivating the arts and operating a holistic health center.

As a community leader building bridges across racial, religious, and socioeconomic divides to confront the challenges of poverty and disinvestment in urban communities, Rami has successfully unified a diverse set of constituencies around a shared focus of social justice. He serves on the board of directors of the Margaret Casey Foundation and in 2020, Rami made his debut as a musician, songwriter, and executive producer of “THIS LOVE THING”, a soul-stirring LP. The album’s first single “Mama Please” was dedicated to raising the profile of and advocating for Cariol’s Law, legislation that passed in late 2020 to help transform police accountability in Buffalo, New York. He has worked with several leading scholars in the area of globalization, African American studies, and urban sociology and has contributed chapters to edited volumes by Manning Marable and Saskia Sassen.

Rami has lectured around the world on a range of topics related to American Muslim identity, community organizing, and social justice issues and has received much prestigious community service and organizing honors. He has been featured in several prominent media publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Atlantic, the Chicago Tribune, and multiple stories on PBS, CBS, and National Public Radio. Rami has also taught at the Chicago Theological Seminary, where he was a visiting professor of the Sociology of Religion and Muslim Studies.

PREACHER MOSS is a comedian and educator. His “End of Racism” Comedy and Lecture tour was voted “Best Diversity Act” on college campuses and is recognized as an industry standard for being a tough, honest, and brilliantly funny voice on the conversation of race, diversity, and understanding in the world.

His unique lecture style has been described as “smooth, intelligent, and thought-provoking”, as his “seriously funny” message simultaneously occupies two spaces of laughter and intellectual engagement at the same time. Making you laugh and reflect, Moss is a master thinker, craftsman, and storyteller. His comedy is a reminder of the old school art of “comedy as protest, and enlightenment.”

Allah Made Me Funny toured 30 U.S. cities during its first year, and also in Canada, Europe, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, and the Middle East.

As a writer for Hollywood heavyweights like Damon Wayans, George Lopez, and Darrell Hammond on Saturday Night Live, Preacher Moss had proven his value across many levels of stand-up, activism, and community empowerment.

His experiences as a comedian, writer, lecturer, Muslim, African-American, and the poor righteous teacher are the sum of all his parts. Ultimately he is the storyteller on the corner that shares the good news, and sometimes the bad, but always with sincerity. He is a comedian of the times. So park yourself on the corner of laugh and think. Share a little time with the comedic stylings of your brother, The Mighty Preacher Moss.