Moulana Seyed Farhat Abbas is a computer engineering graduate from Cal State University; before he began his quest for religious studies, he spent many years in the US working in corporate environment gaining experience in interaction with the community of both Muslims and non-Muslims.  About 9 years ago he was guided by Allah(swt) towards a better path and went to Qom for Howza studies pursuing a degree in Islamic studies.  Syed’s areas of studies have  included years of Arabic syntax and grammar, logic (mantiq), Islamic theology (kalaam), Islamic rulings and law (ahkaam), Islamic history, jurisprudence (fiqh), principles of jurisprudence (usul al-fiqh), Islamic philosophy and various other disciplines.

Seyed Abbas Ayleya, a well-respected Islamic Scholar, received his degree in Religious Studies and his Masters in Arabic and Islamic Studies from Pakistan. He was invited to the United States in 1997 and has since traveled throughout the United States as a notable lecturer of Shia Islam. Syed Abbas Ayleya regularly hosts workshops and lectures on numerous topics in Islam, including Beliefs, Ethics & Moral Values, The Quran, Jurisprudence, Historical Events, Spirituality, and Issues facing the Youth.

Imam Muhammad Al-Asi was born in Grand Rapids, MI in the year 1951, but moved to Lebanon at age 11. After studying in the Arab University of Beirut, Imam al-Asi returned to the united states ins 1973, and graduated with a degree in Government and Politics in 1979. Imam al-Asi currently spends much of his time attending conferences, speaking to a variety of student groups, and lecturing in several countries around the world. His primary work in progress is the first tafsir of the Qur’an written in the English language.

Sheikh Usama Abdulghani was born in Washington DC in 1973. He grew up in the USVI on a small Island called St. Croix. Sheikh was approximately 14 years old when his family converted to Shi’ism. After graduating from high school, he moved back to the USA and lived in Upstate New York where there was a small hawza, i.e. Islamic seminary. As a convert, this was a great opportunity for him to learn about the Shia faith.

His journey to Iran began when it was suggested by the principal of the school (Sheikh Faezi) that some of the students should go to Iran for 4 months and then return to the USA to propagate the religion. Once the group arrived in Iran it was a turning point in the lives of several of the students. It was the month of Muharram when they arrived and Sheikh Usama says, “Muharram is something else in Iran. For those brothers and sisters who have not seen it, it is something to see and feel rather than be described”.

It was then that one of Sheikhs’ teachers in Iran convinced him by his character that the hawza was the way to go if Sheikh Usama wanted to serve our beloved religion. By the grace of Allah, Sheikh Usama is now a student in post-doctorate studies in Islamic law and the methodologies of deriving laws. Sheikh has also completed his Phd equivalent in Qur’anic studies and will be writing his thesis after the summer.

Excitingly, Sheikh wrote his master’s thesis on the relationship between husband and wife according to the Qur’an and Sunnah. Sheikh Usama has given numerous lectures and facilitated seminars and camps on the topic of marital bliss and Islamic family life. Sheikh has a particular focus on developing communities and families that are focused on the preparing for the arrival of the twelfth Imam.

Maryam Ghassemi, is a devoted mother, teacher, mentor, wife and a community leader. She homeschooled her 5 children and continues to mentor them through the graduate studies today. She has served as a volunteer in a number of schools and assists with Al Mahdi Education Center in El Paso, Tx.

Safiyyah Abdullah - DC-based Muslim American activist and spoken-word artist.

Dr. Johanna Movassat graduated from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, with a BA in Art History, and the University of California, Berkeley, with a MA and a PhD in Near Eastern Studies: Art and Archaeology. She attended the Goethe Institute in Berlin; studying German and lived in Iran for five years, where she studied Farsi, and taught English at the Iran America Society, Iranzamin College and Language House International. She has traveled throughout Europe and the Middle East photographing works of art and has taught at UC Berkeley, City College of San Francisco and Santa Clara University. For the past 26 years she has been teaching at San Jose State University in the Department of Art and Art History and for the Humanities Honors program for the Department of Humanities. She has taught courses in art history ranging from Western Art, Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, East Meets West: The Silk Road, Islamic Art and Architecture, Writing in the Arts, to Arts in a Global Context. She has written and lectured on numerous topics on the arts of the Middle East and published The Large Vault at Taq-i Bustan: A Study in Late Sasanian Royal Art (Mellen Press, 2005).

Ms. Sabour considers herself a Muslim Activist, and co-founder of M.A.N.A. (Muslim Ambassadors of North America), an outreach organization aimed to serving humanity by bridging gaps and promoting understanding within and between faiths, cultures, communities, as well as marginalized and underserved groups.  She frequently delivers lectures at local schools, churches and various Islamic centers throughout the country.  Desiring to give back to her own community, in hopes of making a positive influence in tomorrow's generation,  Sr. Sabour continues to foster children from both Hispanic and African American backgrounds.

Imam Abdul Alim Musa (born 1945 as Clarence Reams) is a Muslim American activist and director of Masjid Al-Islam in Washington, D.C. He is a member of the Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought (ICIT) and a well-known speaker around the world. He is founder and director of As-Sabiqunand the Islamic Institute of Counter-Zionist American Psychological Warfare.

John Andrew Morrow (born 1971) is a Métis Canadian professor, author, and research scholar from Québec who specializes in Hispanic, Native, and Islamic Studies.

Raised in a multilingual family, he lived in Montreal for ten years and in the Greater Toronto Area for another twenty. The product of a Catholic education, he completed his elementary school in French, his high school in English, and his university studies in English, French, and Spanish. He embraced Islam at the age of 16 after which he adopted the name Ilyas ‘Abd al-‘Alim Islam. After completing his Honors BA, MA, and PhD at the University of Toronto, where he acquired expertise in Hispanic, Native, and Islamic Studies, he pursued post-graduate studies in Arabic in Morocco and the United States. Besides his Western education, Dr. Morrow has completed the full cycle of traditional Islamic seminary studies both independently and at the hands of a series of Sunni, Shi’i, and Sufi scholars. Not only is he a senior scholar, academic, and professor, he is also a respected ‘alim holding the titles of ustadh, duktur, hakim, and shaykh. Dr. Morrow has spent over a decade and a half in the United States working at various universities including Park University, Northern State University, Eastern New Mexico University, the University of Virginia, and Ivy Tech where he was unanimously appointed to the rank of Full Professor. One of his most noteworthy and memorable experiences involved working as a professor of advanced Spanish, Islamic culture, and world literature for the Institute for Shipboard Education’s Semester at Sea Program. Aside from his academic duties, Dr. John Andrew Morrow is the Director of the Covenants Foundation, an organization dedicated to disseminating traditional, civilizational, Islam; promoting Islamic unity; protecting persecuted Christians; and improving relations between Muslims and members of other faiths. He regularly travels the world to promote peace and justice.

Rasoul Naghavi is a PhD candidate in Shiite Jurisprudence (Fiqh) at the “Islamic Seminary of Qom” Iran and a visiting researcher at ACMCU since August 2013. His areas of interest include Islamic Jurisprudence (fiqh), Principles of Fiqh, Exegesis of the Holy Qur’an, Shiite Theology, Islamic history, Shiite Political Theory, Faith-based peacebuilding, theological   formation of peace, restorative justice and Conflict analysis.

Dr. Abbas Ghassemi, is a frequent speaker at the Al Mahdi Education Center in El Paso and an Emeritus Professor of Chemical Engineering and Emeritus Director of Institute for Energy & the Environment (IEE).