The Rumi Forum presented “Countering Hate Speech with Social Responsibility“ with Asma T. Uddin.
Tuesday, February 23rd
12:00 pm – 1:30 pm
Asma T. Uddin is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of altmuslimah. She joined The Becket Fund as an International Legal Fellow in 2009. She has several years of experience practicing commercial litigation at prestigious national law firms, and she has handled a significant number of asylum, prisoner’s civil rights, constitutional, and employment discrimination cases. Most recently, she played an integral role in a case brought by a Muslim policewoman against the City of Philadelphia for its refusal to allow the plaintiff to wear the Muslim headscarf on the job.
Asma also sits on the Board of Directors for Karamah: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights, and is the editor-in-chief of altmuslimah. As an editor, Asma has worked with Dr. Umar F. Abd-Allah on a number of articles for scholarly journals on Islamic Law. She also helped edit the entire manuscript of Dr. Abd-Allah’s A Muslim in Victorian America, which was published in 2007 by Oxford University Press. As Associate Editor and legal columnist for Islamica Magazine, Asma focused her writings on how American Muslims can rethink their social position within the American legal framework.
Asma’s writing has appeared in Muslim Girl Magazine, altmuslim, beliefnet, and the Washington Post/Newsweek blog, On Faith. Her more scholarly work has been published in the Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion and The Review of Faith & International Affairs. In May 2008, Asma was part of a U.S. State Department delegation to Norway, Belgium, and Ireland, where she met with Muslim and other minority groups as well as politicians, journalists, and a number of prominent anti-discrimination organizations. In April 2009, Asma was selected as a “Muslim Leader of Tomorrow.” Most recently, she was named a weekly On Faith expert panelist for the Washington Post.
Asma is a 2005 graduate of The University of Chicago Law School, where she was a member of The University of Chicago Law Review.
Moderator :
Sarah Sayeed is Founder and President of oneblue.org and a freelance journalist who covers State Department and other news in the Washington, DC area. She meets regularly with community leaders, scholars and business entities to foster and develop intercultural and religious awareness. An integral part of her work at oneblue.org consists of providing outreach to Muslim communities for entities such as PBS/WETA, foreign news media and the State Department. Sarah is currently developing an interactive internet website project surrounding America and Islam as her main project at oneblue.org. She has served as a member of the Women’s Empowerment Action Team on Education at the State Department led by Ambassador Shireen Tahir-Kheli, where she was involved in suggesting and discussing ways media can be used to make education more accessible to women and girls around the world and especially in Muslim countries. Sarah completed her A’ Levels in History and Economics in Kuwait and graduated with a triple major in Economics, Political Science and International Studies from Southern Methodist University. Sarah currently serves on the Board of Directors of The Women’s Centre a non-profit counseling and resource facility that addresses the personal, professional, legal and financial concerns of women and their families.
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