Tensions have risen across the country in response to the brutal killing of George Floyd. Thousands of people have taken to the streets of America under the ‘Black Lives Matter’ banner. What are the obligations of the Muslim community concerning these protests? Should we align ourselves with the non-profit organization ‘Black Lives Matter’? What should Muslims contribute to the ongoing protests against racism and police brutality?
Imam Dawud Walid is the author of a groundbreaking book on activism in the Muslim community entitled “Towards Sacred Activism” Join us for a particular discussion of this work between Imam Dawud Walid and Nour M. Goda on Monday, June 15th at 7 pm EST. You can view this conversation LIVE on this page or our Lamppost Education Initiative’s Facebook page.
Imam Dawud Walid’s book “Towards Sacred Activism”
Click below to see this and other works from Imam Dawud Walid
Imam Dawud Walid
Imam Dawud Walid is currently the Executive Director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI), a chapter of America’s largest advocacy and civil liberties organization for Muslims. He frequently delivers khutbahs at Islamic centers across America and is a political blogger for the Detroit News. Imam Walid has spoken at some thirty institutions of higher learning about Islam and interfaith dialogue including DePaul University, Harvard University and the University of the Virgin Islands. He has also presented on prominent panel discussions with international leaders and academics including the 2008 and 2011 Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Conventions and the 2009 and 2010 Malian Peace & Tolerance Conferences held in Bamako, Mali, which were attended by religious scholars from twelve different countries.
Imam Walid has been a regular contributor to the Muslim Observer newspaper and Illume Magazine and has also been interviewed, quoted, and published in numerous media outlets throughout the globe including Al-Jazeera, BBC, CNN, FOX, NBC World News, National Public Radio, the New York Times, USA Today and the Wall Street Journal. Imam Walid served as assistant Imam of Masjid Wali Muhammad in Detroit from 2001 until September 2011 while also serving as interim resident Imam of the Bosnian Islamic Center in Hamtramck during the summer of 2007. Imam Dawud Walid is currently a member of the Board of Directors for the Lamppost Education Initiative
Nour Goda
Nour Goda is a Syrian-born Arab American and a native of the Bronx, New York. In 2015, she founded the Between Arabs Project, a multimedia platform designed to foster intracommunity dialogue among Arabs and Muslims in the West. A podcast and blog, the project ran from 2015-2017, covering topics such as Muslim American 
identity politics, feminism, the LGBTQ question, racism within the Muslim American community, polygamy, mental health, faith crises, and more. Nour has delivered lectures at Connecticut College, CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice, George Mason University, Harvard University, and LIU Brooklyn. She has also spoken at mosques and the Muktamar Conference of the Indonesian Muslim Student Association.
She has been featured on The Mad Mamluks podcast, and in 2017 she co-hosted several episodes on behalf of TMM at the Texas Dawah Convention in Houston where she interviewed Ustadha Zaynab Ansari, Sheikh Mohammad Elshinawy, and Brother Fahad Tasleem. Nour recently become a board member of the Lamppost Education Initiative.
She is currently writing a monograph on the modest fashion industry and the liberalization of the hijab, which will be available in early 2020. Nour is an alumni of Connecticut College where she studied English and Religious Studies. She holds a master’s degree in English Education, is licensed in Montessori, and is an experienced English language teacher and school administrator. She is currently pursuing the Islamic Essentials program with Darul Qasm. Nour now serves as a board member of the Lamppost Education Initiative. Nour’s writings and talks can be found on her website at nourmgoda.com
