On behalf of the Black American Muslim Internationalism Project (BAMI) and Jadaliyya’s “Gaza in Context Series” we invite you to join us for a virtual roundtable on campus dissent on Saturday, June 8th at 7pm EST (4pm PST). Dr. Rasul Miller, Sis. Ayesha Mustafa, Sis. Sanyika Maloney, and Dr. Ajamu Dillahunt-Holloway will engage in this important conversation as they reflect together on questions of freedom of speech and right of peaceful assembly, particularly inspired by recent violent repression of student protests on university campuses in various parts of the country. This virtual roundtable will be moderated by Dr. Bassam Haddad and is sponsored in part by Abu Sulayman Center for Global Islamic Studies at George Mason University.
Register on this link to join a virtual program presented by Black American Muslim Internationalism Project (BAMI)and Gaza in Context Series on Saturday, June 8 @7pm EST.
REGISTER to receive the Zoom Link: https://gmu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUrc-ytrj0pEtOzBfQ5M-60jRK6lRt8uMW9
Dr. Ajamu Dillahunt, NC State Univ.
Born and raised in Southeast Raleigh, Ajamu Dillahunt-Holloway is proud to be an Assistant Professor of African American History and Public History at NC State University. His research is on twentieth century African American history with a focus on the U.S. South, labor, environmental justice, and the Black Freedom Struggle. At present, he is the co-leader of The Communiversity, a community based archive and educational institution that houses the records of Black Workers for Justice. He is also a board member of the Interreligious Foundation of Community Organizations (IFCO), the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network (NCEJN), and Democracy North Carolina.
Dr. Rasul Miller, Univ of California—Irvine
Dr. Rasul Miller’s work explores the histories of Black Muslim communities in the Atlantic world, Black radicalism and its impact on social and cultural movements in the twentieth century U.S., Black internationalism, and West African intellectual history. Dr. Miller’s current book project, Black World Revelation: Islam, Race and Radical Internationalism in New York City from 1930 – 1990, examines the Black internationalist origins of early twentieth-century Black orthodox Muslim congregations in and around New York City, and the cultural and political orientations that characterized subsequent communities of Black Muslims in the U.S. who built robust, transnational networks as they actively engaged traditions and communities of Muslims on the African continent.
Sis. Sanyika Maloney, Univ of California—Los Angeles
Sanyika Maloney is a rising second-year law student at the University of California-Los Angeles School of Law. She serves as a co-chair of the National Lawyers Guild Chapter at UCLA. Sis. Maloney has a background in social justice organizing for over ten years in D.C. Metro Area / DMV area and now Los Angeles. She is a proud member of Student for Justice in Palestine at UCLA. Sis. Maloney is a Pan-Africanist cultural worker who utilizes graphic design and other art forms to highlight the importance of political education and express solidarity with anti-colonial and anti-racist movements.
Hajja Ayesha Mustafa, Tougaloo College; The Muslim Journal
Ayesha K. Mustafaa is a graduate of Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Penn., where she earned a BA Degree/Double Major in Psychology and Political Science, and a Master’s in Journalism from Columbia College-Chicago.
In 1974, she converted to Al-Islam, coming from a Mississippi family of Civil Rights activists of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. era. She joined the community of Muslims affiliated with Imam W. DeenMohammed in late 1974. She was named Muslim Journal editor in 1989. She also worked in Prison Dawah/Islamic teachings to incarcerated populations.
Hajja Ayesha also traveled as part of delegations led by Imam Mohammed, several to Saudi Arabia, to Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories of Gaza and West Bank – most notable was the meeting between Imam Mohammed and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat. She made Hajj in 1977 with the then largest Muslim group from the U.S.A. led by Imam Mohammed and has made Umrah several times. She was named the Muslim Woman of the Year 1994 by the Community of Imam W. Deen Mohammed. She was a presenter at the 3-day International Media Conference, hosted by the interfaith based Focolare Movement’s NetOne Media Group held in Rome, Italy, in 2004, with 800 participants from over 20 countries.A street in New Medinah, Miss., was named in her honor in 2011.
In 2015, Hajja Ayesha joined the faculty of the HBCU, Tougaloo College,in its Mass Communications Department as instructor teaching courses like Investigative Reporting and “The Race Beat.” In 2020, she joined the International Museum of Muslim Cultures (IMMC) board of directors in Jackson and became a member of the advisory board of the online news platform Mississippi Free Press. In December 2022, she joined the African Diaspora Connect delegation of 47 people, traveling to Senegal, West Africa, organized by Special Envoy for Sierra Leone, Ambassador Waleed Shamsid-deen.
The U.S. Council of Muslim Organization (USCMO) honored Ayesha among its 2022 “National Muslim Woman Achievement” Awardees.
Bassam Haddad, Jadaliyya & George Mason University
Bassam Haddad is Founding Director of the Middle East and Islamic Studies Program and Associate Professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. He is the author of Business Networks in Syria: The Political Economy of Authoritarian Resilience (Stanford University Press, 2011) and co-editor of A Critical Political Economy of the Middle East (Stanford University Press, 2021). Bassam is Co-Founder/Editor of Jadaliyya Ezine and Executive Director of the Arab Studies Institute. He serves as Founding Editor of the Arab Studies Journal and the Knowledge Production Project. He is co-producer/director of the award-winning documentary film, About Baghdad, and director of the acclaimed series Arabs and Terrorism. Bassam serves on the Board of the Arab Council for the Social Sciences and is Executive Producer of Status Audio Magazine and Director of the Middle East Studies Pedagogy Initiative (MESPI). He received MESA’s Jere L. Bacharach Service Award in 2017 for his service to the profession. Currently, Bassam is working on his second Syria book titled Understanding the Syrian Calamity: Regime, Opposition, Outsiders (forthcoming, Stanford University Press).