Please look through all the speaker bios in order to decide which speaker/s will be best for your event. Once you have decided, please use the booking form below and we will get back to you if the speaker/s are available on your chosen dates.
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Ijlal Khalid
Ijlal Khalid is the current President of FOSIS. Ijlal was previously VP and President at Sussex ISoc and has been involved in FOSIS since the past 4 years. He served as South Regional Chair and most recently as Vice President of Higher Education in FOSIS. Ijlal graduated from the University of Sussex with a Bachelor’s in International Relations & Development Studies as well as a Master’s in Global Political Economy and is currently working towards a Master’s in Islamic Studies. Ijlal was also actively involved in his Students’ Union where he led as a Sabbatical Officer from 2019-2021. In his Bachelor’s, Ijlal’s final essay was on ‘The Prevent Strategy and Disciplining Dissent’ and his Master’s dissertation was on ‘Neoliberal War Making: The Case of Afghanistan’. Ijlal has spoken on, led and advised on numerous projects and campaigns relating to Islamophobia.
Adnan Rahman
Adnan Rahman served as the Education officer at Leicester Students Union from 2019-2021 and now works as a Higher Education (HE) Policy Advisor with experience of working on and tackling issues of Structural Islamophobia & Racism as well as general organising with students and staff.
Graduated in BA Politics and International Relations from the University of Leicester in 2019.
Held two successive National Executive Committee (NEC) positions within the National Union of Students (NUS) from 2019 to 2021. His time in NEC entailed sitting on panel discussions, running workshops on securitisation & Prevent, decolonisation as well as equipping and enabling students to run their own grassroots campaigns. Also was part of the student consultation panel that contributed to the NUS-UUK Report on Racial Harassment in Higher Education.
Abubakar Nanabawa
Abubakar Nanabawa is a graduate in Politics and International Relations from the University of Birmingham. He was the vice president of University of Birmingham ISoc and currently is a caseworker in FOSIS where he engages with the Muslim student community and ISocs across the country helping them in tackling Islamophobia and Racism as well as general student advocacy.
His dissertation focused on the impact that Prevent had on Muslims across the country with a focus on how MPs are misinformed on how Prevent works on the ground.
Abubakr is also a writer for Traversing Tradition,a political blog run by Muslim, with experience engaging and writing about Politics from a Muslim perspective.
Muna Ali
Muna Ali holds a degree in Economics from Kingston University and is the current Vice President Student Affairs in FOSIS, leading the political arm of the organisation. In her time in FOSIS, she worked on over 40 cases supporting the membership of the organisation on issues happening on campuses including prayer room issues, Islamophobic course content, guest speaker issues, advocacy, Palestine and so much more. She has also led on a variety of projects and campaigns targeting the issues facing the Muslim student community, particularly within the Higher Education sphere.
Previously, Muna served as the Vice President Student Opportunities at Kingston University Students Union for two years from 2019-2021, during which she undertook a wide range of initiatives such as removing barriers that prevent students from engaging in extracurricular activities and opportunities and implementing a university-wide sustainability strategy. She also served on the National Scrutiny Committee (NSC) in the National Union of Students (NUS).
Moazzam Begg
A British-born Muslim, Moazzam Begg is a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner and outreach director for CAGE.
After his release, he became one of the most prominent public-speakers and Muslim advocates for justice and dialogue.
He is the author of the best-seller Enemy Combatant in which he recounts his experience as an innocent man detained and torture at Guantanamo, Bagram and Kandahar.
The Muslim 500 listed him as one of the 500 “most influential Muslims” in the world.
The New Statesman listed him in the top 50 “Heroes of our time”.
He has travelled extensively to investigate state abuses and western complicity in torture including to Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and Syria.
A direct eye-witness to the conflicts in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Syria, his life has been recorded by the Columbia University Oral History project, and the BBC Storyville documentary, The Confession.
Shezana Hafiz
Shezana Hafiz has spent years involved in grassroots community work, campaigning on justice related issues, and leading on some of the most pertinent issues threatening fundamental human rights. She is currently the Outreach Coordinator at CAGE and also the Campaign Coordinator for the International Witness Campaign which explores two decades of the war on terror, its impact, its failures and its future, while promoting solidarity, justice and dialogue.
Azfar Shafi
Azfar Shafi is a Researcher at CAGE. He is also the co-author of the report, Stranger than Fiction, edited by Professor Arun Kundnani and Niamh Ni Bhriain. The report is part of a project by TNI and the Stop Islamophobia collective to highlight and combat the structural drivers of Islamophobia.
Dr Asim Qureshi
Dr Asim Qureshi is the Research Director at CAGE. He graduated in Law (LLB Hons) LLM, specialising in International Law and Islamic Law. In 2018, he completed his PhD in International Conflict Analysis from the University of Kent. He has published a wide range of NGO reports, academic journals and articles.
Since 2010, he has been advising legal teams involved in defending death penalty trials in the US and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
He is also the author and editor of three books so far: In 2009, "Rules of the Game: Detention, Deportation, Disappearance" (Hurst, Columbia UP), "A Virtue of Disobedience" (Unbound and ByLine Books), and "I Refuse to Condemn: Resisting racism in times of national security" (Manchester University Press).
An avid reader, Asim launched thebookslamist.com, a book review platform dedicated to encouraging readers to reflect on how books have made them think.
Azad Ali
Azad Ali has been a community activist for over 30 years. He was a Civil Servant in a central Government department and founder of the Civil Service Islamic network. He is the former chair of the Muslim Safety Forum and a member of the East London Mosque. He is currently the Director of Operations with CAGE.
Muhammad Rabbani
Muhammad Rabbani is the Managing Director of CAGE. He has been instrumental in bringing to light abuses of torture and human rights violations, seeking justice and accountability for victims. Rabbani has spent his life committed to promoting the welfare of his community and upholding the fundamental principles of due process and the rule of law. He worked within his community mediating between gangs to end cycles of violence and reach peaceful solutions to the issues they were raising. He has consistently maintained and promoted the use of dialogue as a means of bringing conflicts to an end.
Arnaud Mafille
Arnaud Mafille is the Director of Education and training for CAGE, a UK-based organization that advocates for due process, the rule of law and conflict resolution in the War on Terror. He has interviewed and assisted over 300 survivors of state-abuse. His experience includes submitting complaints alongside U.S military defense attorney for Afghan Guantanamo detainee and filing representations for victims of alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Afghanistan to the International Criminal Court.
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