Qasim Rashid is currently serving as the Chairman of the Muslim Writers Guild of America. He is a National Spokesperson for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and serves as a Muslim Chaplain for Virginia State Prisons.Qasim received his Bachelors of Science degree in Marketing from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and his JD at the University of Richmond School Of Law. At Richmond Law, Qasim founded the Muslim Law Student Association.He is a vocal human rights activist, prolific writer and a frequent lecturer on American-Islamic issues across a wide range of media. Having co-authored and co-edited two books, (Towards a Greater Jihad and By the Dawn’s Early Light), he is currently completing his latest book, The Wrong Kind of Muslim.
Kashif N. Chaudhry is currently serving as the Vice Chairman of the Muslim Writers Guild of America. A physician by profession, Kashif is the Chief Medical Resident at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine’s Englewood Hospital Program in New Jersey. He is also a registered first responder with the international charity Humanity FIRST. Kashif writes for various American newspapers and Pakistani publications. He blogs on the Huffington Post, Express Tribune and is a columnist with Newsline in Pakistan. His interests include Medicine, Pakistan affairs and Muslim-American community affairs.
Kashif is a recipient of the Presidential Service Award (Gold) for his work in the community. Through his interfaith initiatives, he works to avidly promote dialogue amongst American youth. Find him on Twitter or reach him at kashifnadeem@live.com
Sohaib Awan is a high school student in Columbus, Ohio. He has published in several leading local and national newspapers and looks forward to a major in Arabic followed by Medical school.
He is serving as the current Secretary for the Muslim Writers Guild of America and can be reached at secretary@muslimwriters.org
Dr. Faheem Younus serves on the Advisory Board of the Muslim Writers Guild of America. Dr. Younus is the Adjunct Faculty for Religion and History at the Community Colleges of Baltimore County and a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland. He is a recipient of the prestigious Presidential Service Award (Gold) by Barack Obama in 2009 for his work with Muslim Youth in America, Dr. Younus served as the National Youth President of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA (MKA USA) from 2006-10. This leading Muslim Youth group has thousands of members organized in over 63 chapters all across USA. He currently serves as the National Secretary for Education for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA. Being an expert on issues surrounding Muslim youth in America, Dr. Younus launched his blog –Muslimerican – where you can find an archive of his works .
Dr. Younus teaches a popular course, Islam: Fact and Fiction, at multiple campuses across community colleges in Maryland. Dr. Younus has represented Islam on FOX News, ABC News and NPR. His Op-Ed pieces have been published in National Media outlets and newspapers such as The Christian Science Monitor, The Huffington Post, AOL News, The Baltimore Sun, Orlando Sentinel, Express Tribune, The Asbury Park Press, The Star Press and others. His short pieces have been published in prestigious newspapers and magazines including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News, Boston Globe, and The Economist.
Dr. Younus is a respected physician, currently in the practice of Infectious Diseases at a Maryland Hospital, who remains committed to the spirit of volunteerism. He was awarded a Governor’s Citation by Robert Ehrlich for his humanitarian services in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. He can be reached at Faheem.Younus@Ahmadiyya.us. You can also follow him on Twitter.
Sardar Anees Ahmad is currently pursuing a JD and has a B.A. in Economics. He currently has a monthly column in The Finger Lakes Times and runs the AAMS-USA science blog. He served as Chairman of the Muslim Writers Guild of America for the 2010-2012 term. He has published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, TIME Magazine, London Independent, New York Post, New York Daily News, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Sun Times, Boston Globe, Denver Post, and various regional and local newspapers. He is currently completing a book on hermeneutics for academic press.
Anees also serves on the Advisory Board of the Muslim Writers Guild of America. Contact him at anees.ahmad@ahmadiyya.us
Harris Zafar serves as National Spokesperson for Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA – the oldest Muslim organization in the United States. In this role, Harris presents and elucidates the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community’s nationwide “Muslims for Peace” initiative that is active across its 70+ chapters throughout the country. Programs like this encourage Muslim youth to speak out about the true, peaceful and tolerant teachings of Islam.
Harris is a frequent speaker and lecturer about Islam at conferences, universities, schools, churches and other public events. He has spoken in cities such as London, New York, Washington DC, Los Angeles, Seattle and Portland. Harris is also an Adjunct Professor in Vancouver, WA, teaching classes about Islam. He has appeared on several national and local news programs to provide commentary on current issues from an Islamic perspective and to explain what Muslim Americans are doing to combat intolerance.
As a writer, he is also an award-winning member of the Muslim Writers Guild of America. An American-born Muslim, Harris frequently writes about Islamic issues in various publications. His approach to religion is based on rational discourse and justice.
Reach him at harris.zafar@ahmadiyya.us.
Sohail Z. Husain is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh. He is a Pediatric Gastroenterologist with an expertise in Pediatric pancreatitis. At the University of Pittsburgh, he is the head of a scientific laboratory that investigates new treatment paradigms for the painful disease “pancreatitis.”
Dr. Husain is an active member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA (www.alislam.org) and has served in various leadership roles within the Community’s Youth Organization, including as former President of local chapters in Boston and Connecticut. He currently serves as Youth President of the Pittsburgh chapter.
Dr. Husain has published opinion editorials and letters in multiple high impact and local newspapers including USA Today, the New York Times, the Hartford Courant, and the New Haven Register. He is also the senior author of scientific manuscripts in the field of pancreatitis research and the recipient of independent research funding from the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Husain has also served in humanitarian relief with Humanity First USA during the 2005 Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, as well as during the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. For his volunteer efforts, Dr. Husain was awarded the Presidential Service Award as well as a Governor’s Citation Award. He can be reached at sohailzhusain@gmail.com.
Amjad Mahmood Khan is a senior litigation associate at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP in Los Angeles, a post-graduate research fellow at Harvard Law School and National Director of Public Affairs for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA. He graduated summa cum laude from Claremont McKenna College with degrees in English Literature and Government and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. His senior thesis, “Fighting Islamic Extremism,” earned departmental honors. He later earned a “Juris Doctor” (J.D.) degree from Harvard Law School, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Human Rights Law Journal. He is a former judicial clerk to the late Honorable Warren J. Ferguson, Senior Circuit Judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Mr. Khan is a frequent lecturer on topics concerning the Islamic world, particularly human rights, law and governance. He has lectured at several leading academic institutions, including Stanford University, Harvard Divinity School, Carnegie Mellon University, Claremont McKenna College, University of California Berkeley and the State University of New York at Buffalo. His writings have appeared in a variety of prominent journals and newspapers, including the Harvard Human Rights Law Journal,Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor and New York Daily News. He has testified three times before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission at the U.S. House of Representatives about the persecution of religious minorities in the Islamic world.
