Contributors

Ruby Amatulla

Ruby Amatulla graduated from Carlson School of Management of University of Minnesota in Business and Management. She worked with 3M and Champion International as internal and management auditor for several years before starting her own business in the United States. Outside of her business career, she has also served as a political activist for many years, working with varied groups including the American Muslim Iraq Peace Initiative and Peace and Justice International.

Iffat Khan

Dr. Iffat Khan is a pathologist by profession. A U.S. citizen originally from India, she has been in the USA for 34 years. Dr. Khan’s social activism led her to co-found the Texas Muslim Women’s Foundation (TMWF), a non-profit organization dedicated to the empowerment of Muslim women. Dr. Khan served as the Vice-President of TMWF from its inception in 2005 till 2008. She also served on the Finance and Social Services committees, and was the Recording Secretary during this period. She was instrumental in formulating organisation policies and guidelines, and played a key role in organisation of fundraisers and promoting TMWF to the Muslim organisations and community at large in the DFW area. Dr. Khan has a keen interest in promoting the welfare of American Muslims, American society at large, and in fostering a more accurate understanding of Islam.

Matthew Naim Abdullah

Matthew Naim Abdullah is a medical student and political activist from the United States, with research interests encompassing multiple aspects of foreign policy in Muslim-majority societies. He currently serves as an executive board member of the Egyptian American Alliance for Democracy, and he has lobbied the United States Congress in advocacy of expanding the role of Afghan American nonprofits in international development efforts. Matthew also has a strong research interest in sustainability and climate resilience projects in Muslim-majority societies, and he plans to tailor his medical career towards the intersection of health care and the environment.

Kamran Cheikh

Kamran graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2009 with a degree in Political Science, Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies. During his time at Notre Dame he was president of the Muslim Student Association from 2008-2009 and co-coordinator of the Notre Dame interfaith Fellowship. His interests in political science and international development issues in the Muslim World ultimately led him to the involvement and contribution to MPJP, in hopes that the organization could help to build successful bridges between the Western and Muslim worlds. He hopes to continue his studies in graduate school regarding international affairs, as well as to build his working knowledge of classical Arabic and comparative religious studies. Additonally, Kamran currently serves as a blogger for the Deen Research Center think tank organization.

Reem Elghonimi

Reem Elghonimi is a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Cairo, Egypt. Raised in Texas since the age of 6, while her father completed his PhD, Reem graduated as Valedictorian of her 5A high school. She still enjoys residing in Texas and is currently working on her own graduate studies in the Humanities. For the last 8 years in the north Texas area, she has been the most widely called on female Muslim speaker to teach about Islam’s contributions to world civilization, historical interactions between the Muslim world and the West, and the role of women in Islam. She is dedicated to MPJP’s goal of constructing an optimistic discourse for both Americans and Muslims worldwide for the peaceful resolution of the world’s most pressing issues, which is the necessary preamble to hope and peace in global relations.