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MFI Personnel

Officers and Board of Directors

ImadImad-ad-Dean Ahmad, Ph.D. (President, director) is an internationally known interdisciplinary scientist, author of Signs in the Heavens: A Muslim Astronomer's Perspective on Religion and Science. He is a senior lecturer at the University of Maryland where he teaches courses on religion and progress and on religion, science and freedom. He also teaches a course on Islam, Science and Development at Georgetown University for the Center on Muslim-Christian Understanding.

Aly Ramadan Abuzaa`kouk (Vice-President, director) is Aly Ramadan Abuzaakouk was born and raised in Libya. He received a Bachelor's degree from Cairo University in Journalism in 1968 and a Master's degree in Communications from Stanford University in 1971.  He also holds a Master's degree in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies from the University of Michigan.  In 1973, he Alyestablished the Department of Communications at the University of Bengazi, Libya.  In 1981, he was a founding member of the National Front for the Salvation of Libya, and served as its director of communications until 1987. From 1987 to 1998, he served as Director for Publications at Amanah Publishing House, and later served as Executive Director of the American Muslim Council. During this time, he served as Ambassador of Goodwill for the U.S. State Department to several Arab and Muslim countries.  In addition to translating and transliterating the last three chapters of the Qur'an, he has published numerous articles (in Arabic and English) and has worked extensively with foreign and domestic media.  In 2003, he co-founded the Libyan Human Development Forum to promote human rights, democracy, and civil society in Libya. He is now director of the Middle East and North Africa program at the Center for the study of Islam and Democracy.

SSharminharmin Ahmad (Secretary, director) was born and raised in Bangladesh and immigrated to the United States in 1984. She earned a masters degree in women's studies from GWU.  She  received the "woman of distinction award" from the Soroptimist International, one of the world's largest professional women's organizations, for "outstanding contributions in the field of international goodwill and understanding." Sharmin  has served on steering of Women in Development and Samhati to help destitute women.  She has organized numerous workshops on women's rights and human rights a spoken at various institutes and on numerous television and radio talk shows. She participated in the Fourth World Conference on Women in China and in the First International Nongovernmental Organization Conference in Iran. Her children's book The Rainbow in a Heart has been approved for use in the Montgomery County Public Schools' English Language Art Curricullum.

Shahid N. Shah (Treasurer, director) is a co-founder of the Minaret of Freedom Institute. He has been a thought leader, Islamic political evangelist, Shahidand influential memberof the Muslim community in America for more than 15 years. He is the founder of ISL Software Corporation  and Chief Architect of The Alim Islamic Knowledge Platform, the world's most popular English-based Islamic software which is a staple in homes of hundreds of thousands of Muslims  worldwide. He is also the Founder & CEO of Netspective Communications LLC, a software development firm that provides the tools and skills necessary for enabling mission- and safety-critical enterprise software. He serves as a director on several corporate and non-profit boards and as the Chairman of the IEEE Computer Society's Northern Virginia Chapter

Antony T. Sullivan (director) is an internationallyAntony Sullivan recognized senior scholar who holds an honorary position as Associate at the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies at the is  University of Michigan. He is the author of or contributor to five books and some 100 journal articles and academic reviews focusing on the Arab and Muslim world. Dr. Sullivan has played a major role in bringing together moderate Muslim intellectuals and their appropriate Western counterparts to address contemporary challenges that are common to both the West and the Islamic world.  Currently, he is a Senior Fellow, Mediterranean and Near East Programs at the Fund for American Studies in Washington, D.C., and serves as Director of Faculty at the International Institute for Political and Economic Studies (Greece) that the Fund operates in conjunction with Georgetown University.

Omar AltalibOmar Altalib, Ph.D. (director) obtained his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago, specializing in education and the family.  He served in Iraq as an Advisor to the Iraqi Ministry of Education in 2004 and is currently a Senior Knowledge Engineer for Science Applications International.  He is fluent in English & Arabic and has engaged in research on endowments (waqf) as a support system for private schools in the Middle East.  

Board of Advisors

  • Prof. Charles Butterworth is a leading scholar of Islamic studies at the University of Maryland. 
  • Prof. Sulayman Nyang is a distinguished Muslim scholar of international affairs at the African Studies Center of Howard University. 
  • Imam Warith Deen Muhammad is an outstanding American Muslim spiritual leader. 
  • Abdul Hafiz Shaikh is a federal minister for privatization and investment the government of Pakistan. 
 
 

Staff and Fellows of the Institute

The Minaret of Freedom Institute is now assembling a team of highly qualified academics and policy experts with an interest in promoting liberty, free markets, and a better understanding of Islam to serve as fellows to write academic papers, policy advisories, and op-ed pieces. Click here for further information.

Sarah Swick

Currently on our team are:

Sarah Swick (Program Assistant) holds a Masters of Science in Human Rights at the London School of Economics and Political Science. In 2003, she completed a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies at the University of South Carolina. She completed her undergraduate thesis doing field research on the political and social status of  Moroccan women and is now pursuing a Ph.D. in anthropology at American University, specializing in race, gender and social justice.

Alejandro Beutel
Alejandro J. Beutel (Program Assistant) recently finished a Bachelor's of Science in International Relations at Seton Hall University. He completed his undergraduate thesis on Islam and International Relations paradigms. His research interests are international religious freedom, democratization and security studies.

   




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