Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad,
Ph.D. (President, director) is an
internationally known interdisciplinary
scientist of Palestinian descent, born at
sea and raised in the United States. He is
author of Signs in the Heavens: A Muslim
Astronomer's Perspective
on Religion and Science and he has
taught courses on Islamic religion, history
and civilization and religion, science and
freedom at Wesley Theological Seminary and a
course on "Changing Views of the Universe"
at American University. Dr. Ahmad has
received the “Star Cup for Outstanding
Public Service” award from the Montgomery
County Civic Federation, the “Champion of
Democracy Award” from Marylanders for
Democracy, the “Samuel P. Chase Freedom
Award” from the Libertarian Party of
Maryland, and the “Sentinel Award” from the
Montgomery County Civic Federation.
Charles
Butterworth (Vice President, director)
is emeritus professor of Government and
Politics at the University of Maryland,
College Park, He specializes in medieval
Arabic and Islamic political philosophy.
His publications include critical editions
of most of the Middle Commentaries written
by Averroes on Aristotle's logic,
translations of books and treatises by
Averroes, Alfarabi, and Alrazi, as well as
Maimonides, and studies of different
aspects of the political teaching of these
and other thinkers in the ancient,
medieval, and modern tradition of
philosophy. He has been a fellow at
the Woodrow Wilson International Center
for Scholars in Washington, D.C., lecturer
in the Chaire de l’Institut du Monde Arabe
lecture
series in Paris, France for a series of
lectures entitled “Des origines de la
philosophie politique en Islam,”
Distinguished Visiting Professor in the
Department
of Political Science at the American
University of Cairo, president of the
American
Academy of Liberal Education, and
currently serves as an editor or as a
member of the editorial committee for
several learned journals.
Ramy Osman
(Secretary, director) isa
co-founder
of Muslims4Liberty (M4L),
the
Virginia
M4L Coordinator, and webmaster/blogger/artist
for
the M4L website. He
volunteers
for a number of charitable, community
and activist causes and edited
the final report for the "NYC Coalition
for Muslim School Holidays" http://eidinnyc.org.
For
10 years Ramy has also been organizer
and occasional Imam of a Friday
congregational group of over 200 Muslim
government employees in the
Northern
Virginia
area.
Shahid N. Shah, M.S.(Treasurer, director) is a
cofounder of Alim Foundation, Chief
Architect of The
Alim Islamic Knowledge Platform, and
an award-winning IT professional that
consults for
governments and NGOs. He has over two
decades of business strategy, technology
strategy, architecture, engineering,
entrepreneurship, speaking, and writing
experience.
Prof. Antony T.
Sullivan, Ph.D. (director) is
senior associate of TerraBuilt Corp.
International and author of or contributor
to eight books and some 100 journal
articles and academic reviews focusing on
the Arab and Muslim world and holds an
honorary position as Associate at the
Center for Middle Eastern and North
African Studies at the University of
Michigan. Dr. Sullivan has played a major
role in bringing together moderate Muslim
intellectuals and their appropriate
Western counterparts to address
contemporary challenges that are common to
both the West and the Islamic world.
Maliha Shaikh (director)
is a Management and Communications
consultant with over 20 years of expertise
working in varied international
settings.
.
Board of Advisers
Omar Altalib, Ph.D.is an international author,
speaker and trainer, a former adviser to the Iraqi Ministry
of Education and co-author of the book
Parent, Child Relations
published in English and translated into Arabic, Bosnian,
Malay, and Russian.
Abdul Hafiz Shaikh, Ph.D. is
a Pakistani political economist e with
over 30 years of experience in economic
policy-making, management and
implementation who served as the 20th
Finance Minister of Pakistan.
The Minaret of Freedom Institute is now
assembling a team of highly qualified
academics and policy experts with an
interest in promoting liberty, free
markets, and a better understanding of
Islam to serve as fellows
to write academic papers, policy
advisories, and op-ed pieces. Click
here for further information.