Meet the Speakers

Our lineup of speakers features renowned scholars, community leaders, and experts who have been guiding and inspiring audiences for years. Join us to gain valuable insights, engage in thought-provoking discussions, and strengthen your understanding of faith and society.

Imam Siraj Wahaj

Senior Scholar, Imam of Al-Taqwa mosque in Brooklyn, New York

Shawn King

Co-Founder, Real Justice and The Action PAC

Sh. Mokhtar Maghraoui

Sh. Mokhtar Maghraoui is thoroughly versed in the Islamic sciences and holds a doctorate joined between the fields of physics and engineering.

Imam Khalid Griggs

 Imam of The Community Mosque of Winston-Salem in North Carolina. Executive Director, ICNA Council for Social Justice

Imam Jawad Ahmed

Imam of Islamic Society of North Jersey. National Director WhyIslam.

Sh. Abdool Rehman Khan

Chairman of the Shari’ah Council of ICNA

Br. Saad Kazmi

Current President of ICNA. A pharmacist by profession, resides in Murphy, TX, deeply commited to ICNA’s mission of building a society grounded in morality and God-consciousness. 

Sh. Suleiman Hani

Director of Academic Affairs, Al-Maghrib Institute

Imam Abu Taleb

Senior Fellow at the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research

Imam Tahir Anwar

Chairman, the NISA, North-American Islamic Shelter for the Abused

Dr. Ovamir Anjum

Chair of Islamic Studies at the Department of Philosophy, University of Toledo

Sh Saad Tasleem

Muslim youth Coach, Al-Maghrib Institute

Ustadha Sumaira Afzal

President of ICNA Sisters

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Naila Farooqui

Ph.D. Computer Scientist and Stealth Startup Co-founder, formerly at Apple and NVIDIA, mentoring young engineers through a garage robotics team.

Ustadha Farhana Mateen

Director of ICNA Relief New Jersey

Ustadha Hena Syed

ICNA Sisters’ English track

Ustadha Zaynab Ansari

Ustadha Zaynab Ansari serves as an adjunct instructor at Boston Islamic Seminary and a full-time instructor at Tayseer Seminary

Dr. Sharif El-Tobgui

Dr. Sharif El-Tobgui holds a B.S. in Arabic Language from Georgetown University and a Master’s and Ph.D. in Islamic Studies from McGill University

Sh. Junaid Bhaiyat

Director Religious Affairs at Int. Muslim Organization (IMO)

Mufti Azeemuddin

Director of Masjid DarusSalam
Deana Helmy

Deana Helmy

A Licensed Marriage and Family Counseling Therapist who strives to improve the emotional and social strength of Muslim families in Riverside, California. Director of Counseling Services at ICNA Relief’s Crescent Counseling Center in Anaheim. 

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Rehan Hameed

Edge AI Innovator & Tech Entrepreneur
Silicon Valley Technologist
PhD, Stanford | Co-Founder, Kinara Inc.

Prof. Naeem Zafar

Silicon Valley Entrepreneur, Investor, and UC Berkeley Professor

Mateen Syed

 Co-Founder & CEO of Bizhance

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Imam Siraj Wahaj

Senior Scholar, Imam of Al-Taqwa mosque in Brooklyn, New York

Shawn King

Co-Founder, Real Justice and The Action PAC

Sh. Mokhtar Maghraoui

Originally from Algeria, he is thoroughly versed in the Islamic sciences and holds a doctorate joined between the fields of physics and engineering. His expertise includes the disciplines of Tazkiyah and Fiqh, and he is best known for his enlightening retreats and seminars empowering Muslims on their spiritual quest.

Imam Khalid Griggs

 Imam of The Community Mosque of Winston-Salem in North Carolina. Executive Director, ICNA Council for Social Justice

Imam Jawad Ahmed

Imam Jawad Ahmed is a well-respected scholar and community leader with degrees in Islamic Sciences and Physical Sciences. He studied at the International Islamic University in Islamabad and the University of Maryland, and is certified by Al-Azhar University to teach Arabic and Islamic Studies.

 

With over 20 years of service, he has held leadership roles in several New Jersey masajid and served as Director of Religious Studies at Al-Ghazaly Islamic High School. He is a founding member of 1-877-WhyIslam, managing its national hotline and guiding over 200 individuals to Islam.

 

Imam Jawad is highly regarded among youth and has been active with ICNA’s Young Muslims since 2001. He currently serves as Religious Director at both the Muslim Community of New Jersey (Fords) and Masjid Wali (Edison), where he continues to give khutbahs and lectures.

Sh. Abdool Rehman Khan

Chairman of the Shari’ah Council of ICNA

Br. Saad Kazmi

Saad Kazmi is the current President of ICNA.
Saad Kazmi, a pharmacist by profession, resides in Murphy, TX, and is a proud father of four. His leadership journey is rooted in a deep commitment to ICNA’s mission of building a society grounded in morality and God-consciousness. His election comes after a fair and transparent voting process conducted through an electronic voting system, ensuring broad participation and representation across ICNA’s diverse membership.

Sh. Suleiman Hani

Director of Academic Affairs, Al-Maghrib Institute

Imam Abu Taleb

Senior Fellow at the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research

Imam Tahir Anwar

Chairman, the NISA, North-American Islamic Shelter for the Abused

Dr. Ovamir Anjum

Chair of Islamic Studies at the Department of Philosophy, University of Toledo

Sh Saad Tasleem

Muslim youth Coach, Al-Maghrib Institute

Ustadha Sumaira Afzal

President of ICNA Sisters

Naila Farooqui

Naila Farooqui is an accomplished computer scientist and software engineer with expertise in compilers, architecture, and machine learning. She holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Georgia Institute of Technology, focusing on software execution environments for heterogeneous GPU platforms. Naila has held key roles at prominent tech companies, including Apple, NVIDIA, Intel and HP Labs. Presently, as a co-founder of a stealth startup, she is designing scalable training frameworks and optimized inference stacks for large language models. Outside of her professional life, Naila is a dedicated mother to three children: two teenagers and a 7-year-old. When she’s not immersed in cutting-edge technology, she channels her passion for innovation into running a competitive high school robotics team from her garage, fostering the next generation of engineers and problem-solvers.

Ustadha Farhana Mateen

Director of ICNA Relief New Jersey

Ustadha Hena Syed

ICNA Sisters’ English track

Ustadha Zaynab Ansari

Ustadha Zaynab Ansari serves as an adjunct instructor at Boston Islamic Seminary and a full-time instructor at Tayseer Seminary, where she teaches classes on Islamic law, Qur’an & Hadith studies, Prophetic biography, American Muslim history, and women in Islam. She also serves on the boards of the Tayseer Foundation and the Muslim Community of Knoxville. Prior to moving to Tennessee, Zaynab Ansari was based in Atlanta, where she was active in interfaith dialogue and bridge-building through the award-winning Islamic Speakers Bureau of Atlanta.

Dr. Carl El Tabougi

Carl Sharif El-Tobgui holds a B.S. in Arabic Language from Georgetown University and a Master’s and Ph.D. in Islamic Studies from McGill University and currently serves as Associate Professor Arabic & Islamic Studies and Director of the Arabic Language Program at Brandeis. He previously taught for five years at Harvard University as Preceptor of Arabic, and has also taught at the Middlebury College Summer Arabic Language School. Prof. El-Tobgui’s scholarly expertise lies in the field of Islamic thought, with a concentration on theology, law, and jurisprudence. He is particularly interested in questions concerning the relationship between reason and revelation in the Islamic tradition and has published on the manifestations of this tension in the fields of classical Islamic jurisprudence and Qur’anic exegesis. His first monograph is an extensive study of Ibn Taymiyya’s (d. 1328) 10-volume magnum opus, “Refutation of Contradiction Between Reason and Revelation” (published Open Access by E.J. Brill, 2020). In addition to his expertise in Islamic thought, Prof. El-Tobgui has a deep love of language in general and of Classical Arabic in particular and has enjoyed for many years exploring the intricacies of Arabic grammar as well as classical literature and poetry with his students.

Sh. Junaid Bhaiyat

Director Religious Affairs at Int. Muslim Organization (IMO)

Mufti Azeemuddin

Azeemuddin Ahmed serves as director of Masjid DarusSalam. He was born and raised in the Chicagoland area. At a tender age, he memorized the Holy Qurʾān. Thereafter, he traveled to South Africa where he studied a rigorous eight-year ʿālimiyyah and iftāʾ course. During his studies, he was blessed with the opportunity to spend extensive time in the company of one of the world’s elite jurists and scholars. After graduating with top honors from South Africa, he went on to earn a BA in Psychology from Elmhurst College. He served as the director of AIA Masjid in Frankfort, Illinois from 2006 to 2012.

Deana Helmy

Deana Helmy

A Licensed Marriage and Family Counseling Therapist who strives to improve the emotional and social strength of Muslim families in Riverside, California. Director of Counseling Services at ICNA Relief’s Crescent Counseling Center in Anaheim. 

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Rehan Hameed

Edge AI Innovator & Tech Entrepreneur
Silicon Valley Technologist
PhD, Stanford | Co-Founder, Kinara Inc.

Prof. Naeem Zafar

Naeem is a seasoned executive who has led several high-tech businesses as the CEO and guided dozens as a Board member or an advisor. Naeem has taught entrepreneurship and innovation at several leading universities in the world. He is an entrepreneur, a teacher, an investor, and a mentor. Having co-founded or worked at seven startup companies, he is steeped in the Silicon Valley culture and promotes the lessons of Silicon Valley to organizations and entrepreneurs all over the world.

Naeem’s specialties include raising capital for startups, corporate strategy, product positioning, marketing, business development as well as M&A.

Naeem has been teaching entrepreneurship as a faculty member at the University of California, Berkeley since 2005 as a part of the Haas Business School MBA program, as well as in the College of Engineering to graduate and undergraduate students. He has consistently been one of the highest ranked professors in entrepreneurship and strategy. He has written five books on topics related to entrepreneurship, some of which are now being used as curriculum textbooks at various universities. These books can be found at www.FiveMountainPress.com.

Naeem has served on the Board of Directors of several companies and as the Board Chair of OPEN Silicon Valley. He is also the Founding President of Brown University Club of Silicon Valley.

Mateen Syed

Co-Founder Bizhance

Mateen is a strategy and partnerships leader with over 20 years of entrepreneurial and professional connectivity in the Silicon Valley ecosystem. He advises, mentors and speaks on innovation, leadership, entrepreneurship and networking platforms.

Mateen is the Co-Founder & CEO of Bizhance, a Silicon Valley strategy firm focused on adding value to scalable businesses through structure, strategy and connectivity. It works with corporations, entrepreneurial organizations and government agencies establish partnerships through conducive policies to build innovation and entrepreneurial vibrant hubs across domains.

Areas of Expertise include – Business Strategy, Market Growth, Advisory Boards, Innovation Hubs, Cross Border Relationships, Operations and Resource Management.

Mateen had Co-Founded Ann Arbor Group, an international business advisory firm leveraging the economic opportunities of local regions and build partnerships with global businesses.

Mateen is recognized for his organizational and leadership skills running tech and entrepreneurial conferences. He actively engages with TiE, an organization renowned for fostering entrepreneurship globally. For over 15 years he lead leadership roles in TiEcon – one of the largest entrepreneurial conferences, and chaired its many programs including Global Connect, TiE 50 Awards, Visionary Circle, Startup Bootcamp, Media, Entertainment and Operations. He was the Global Connectivity Chair of TiE Detroit, and was the founding chair of TiE 20 Startup Awards program.

He had leadership roles in Global Entrepreneurship Program hosted by the Hoover Institute, Stanford University & the US State Department. And at the IIT Alumni Global Leadership Conferences in the US, and TiE’s Global Conferences in India. He is the Global Strategy Advisor of the Business Chambers of the Indian State of Telangana, and serves as the Chairman of the Committee on Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Mateen has contributed to entrepreneurial research works for WEF, Stanford, UC Berkeley. He has interviewed more than 700 prominent World Leaders, Policy Makers, Academicians, Entrepreneurs, Global CXOs and VCs. Some of the notable names being: Elon Musk, Jack Welch, Steve Wozniak, Steve Case, Mike Moritz, John Chambers, Marissa Mayer, George Schultz, Condoleezza Rice, Shaukat Aziz, Vicente Fox, Muhammad Yunus, Amartya Sen, Sal Khan, Shahid Khan, Vinod Khosla, Romesh Wadhwani, Vinod Dham, Manoj Bhargava, Anand Mahindra, Narayana Murthy and more.