Since we are often asked for suggestions of speakers and workshop facilitators, we have developed a speakers bureau (list in progress) that includes community leaders and organizers who offer critical perspectives rooted in tremendous knowledge and experience. They are available to present, facilitate workshops, etc. in your communities, organizations, and schools as well as online.
If you contact us at jewsagainstantimuslimracism@gmail.com, we will immediately pass on your email to the speaker(s) you identify to discuss your request, including dates/travel and fees/stipends.
Kalia Abiade
Kalia Abiade is the Director of Programs at the Pillars Fund, a philanthropic initiative that invests in opportunities to elevate and amplify the leadership, narratives and talents of Muslims in the United States. In this role, she oversees the annual grant cycle, works closely with grantee partners and provides leadership for emerging initiatives. Prior to joining Pillars, Kalia spent four years working with community-based groups, faith communities, and national coalitions across the U.S. to challenge the country’s most aggressive anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim movements and their policies. Kalia has more than 15 years of journalism experience, is a contributor at In These Times, and taught high school students in rural Southwest Virginia with the Upward Bound program. Her analysis has been cited in the Washington Post, The Nation, NPR, Public Radio International, and USA Today, among other outlets.
Topics
- Islamophobia
- Philanthropy and fundraising
- Race/racism/racial justice
- Strategic communications
- Movement building
Geographic Region
Nationwide, with adequate notice
Bina Ahmad and Donna Nevel
Bina Ahmad is a social justice attorney and has worked with numerous animal rights and human rights organizations. She provides political and legal support to social justice movements and conducts Know Your Rights training for organizers and state targeted communities, including for Muslim communities. She lived and worked in Palestine with Al-Haq and was a legal consultant to the Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, among others. She serves on the Steering Committee of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights and the advisory board of The Food Empowerment Project. She works as a public defender in Manhattan.
Donna Nevel, a community psychologist and educator, is a co-director of PARCEO, a participatory research center. Donna organizes, teaches, and writes on Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism, on Israel and Palestine, and on public education. Among other organizations, she is a co-founder of Jews Against Anti-Muslim Racism and coordinating team member of Facing the Nakba project. She was a co-founder of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) and the Center for Immigrant Families and its Project to End Segregation in Our Public Schools, and continues to work with immigrant rights and racial justice groups.
Bina and Donna have worked, organized, facilitated workshops and presented together against anti-Muslim racism and for justice in Palestine. Their collective work combines legal and organizing perspectives.
Topics
- Challenging Islamophobia and racism
- Being partners in the struggle for justice
- Organizing against anti-Muslim racism and related issues, with a focus on how the issues interconnect and how we can be effective and accountable organizers.
They are also available for separate presentations/workshops:
Bina
- Know Your Rights trainings, which she has done across the US.
Donna
- Being an accountable Jewish partner in the broader movement against Islamophobia and for justice.
Geographic Region
Northeast and Southeast
Sister Aisha al-Adawiya
Sister Aisha al-Adawiya is a long-time community leader and human rights activist. She is the founder of Women in Islam, Inc., an organization of Muslim women focusing on human rights and social justice. She organizes and participates in conferences, symposia and other forums on Gender Equity, Islam, Conflict Resolution, Cross-Cultural Understanding, and Peace Building. She also represents Muslim women’s Non-Governmental Organizations at United Nations forums. She has worked for more than 30 years at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem and is currently the administrator of its Scholars-in-Residence Program.
Topics
- Challenging racism and all forms of injustice
- Peacebuilding and cross-cultural understanding
- Other topics as determined together
Geographic Region
Nationwide
Manzoor Cheema
Manzoor Cheema is the Southern Regional Organizer for Project South. A resident of Raleigh, NC, Manzoor has been an active member of social justice movements for over 15 years. In 2004, for five years, he launched a grassroots social justice TV show, Independent Voices. He co-founded Muslims for Social Justice in 2013, an organization dedicated to pursuing Muslim liberation theology. In 2015, he launched the Movement to End Racism and Islamophobia (MERI), a network of organizations to fight racism and Islamophobia. Manzoor is the recipient of the 2014 International Human Rights Award awarded by the Human Rights Coalition of North Carolina, and the 2016 Self-Determination Award by Black Workers for Justice. Manzoor Cheema’s work on social justice has been covered in the local, national, and international media.
Topics
- Defining Islamophobia
- Placing Islamophobia in a larger context of racialized oppression
- Addressing common myths and assumptions about Islam and Muslims
- Intersectionality between Islamophobia, racism, homophobia, anti-immigrant bigotry, sexism, and attack on workers
- How to show solidarity with grassroots Black, Brown, and Muslim social justice forces
- Clarifying action steps
Geographic Region
Nationwide with a particular focus on the Southeast
Darakshan Raja
Darakshan Raja is the founder/co-director of Justice For Muslims Collective, an initiative that seeks to combat institutional and structural Islamophobia in the DC metro area through grassroots organizing, political education, mobilizations, and building alliances across movements. She also serves on the board of directors for South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), a leading national civil rights organization that fights for racial justice and advocates for the civil rights of all South Asians in the United States. She also serves on the board of trustees for the Consumer Health Foundation. Previously, Darakshan was the interim executive director of the Washington Peace Center and worked at the Urban Institute’s Justice Policy Center for 4 years on a range of projects focused on evaluating interventions for victims of sexual assault for state and federal government agencies. Darakshan holds an MA in Forensic Psychology from John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Topics
- Understanding Islamophobia
- Gendered Islamophobia
- Surveillance
- Organizing as Muslims
- Coalition and alliance building around fighting Islamophobia
- Muslim victims of crime
- The ways survivors of sexual assault & domestic violence are impacted by Islamophobia.
Workshops Darakshan has facilitated include
- Understanding Islamophobia 101
- We Are More Than Collateral Damage and Intercept Articles: The Global War on Terror and Structural Islamophobia
- Unpacking Gendered Islamophobia
- Understanding the Intersections of Structural Islamophobia and Gender-Based Violence against Muslim Women
- Surveillance and History of South Asian Resistance in the US 101
- From Outrage to Action: Building Collectively To Fight Islamophobia
- Organizing Protests as Muslims 101
- Who Is Serving Our Needs: Understanding Barriers Experienced by Muslim Victims of Crime Post-9/11
Geographic Region
Nationwide but preference for the East Coast
Lesley Williams
Lesley Williams, an educator, librarian, and leading Jewish voice organizing and speaking out against Islamophobia, is co-chair of the Chicago Chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace’s Network Against Islamophobia. Among other initiatives, she organized a 2015 “Stand With Muslims” event in Evanston, collaborated with local faith organizations to lead anti-Islamophobia canvasses in several Chicago communities, and co-led the de-funding campaign demanding the Jewish United Fund of Chicago stop funding anti-Muslim hate groups. Lesley has been honored by Open Communities and the Muslim Community Center for her work countering Islamophobia.
Topics
- Facilitate discussions using the Network Against Islamophobia (NAI) curriculum and modules, which can be used within a variety of contexts
- The Defund Islamophobia campaign and the ways that federations and institutional Jewish communities are complicit in funding anti-Muslim groups as well as settlement activity
- Connections between Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian sentiment, and anti-black racism
Geographic Region
Largely Midwest but also open to others places across the country