The Council on American-Islamic Relations has offices in over 30 cities in 19 states. Each chapter is overseen by a Board of Directors and managed by an Executive Director.  Click here to see a list of all chapters.

Larry Shaw
Chairman

Senator Larry Shaw is a long-standing member of the North Carolina Senate General Assembly and a former member of the North Carolina House of Representatives General Assembly. He also serves as the chairman of the Transportation Committee and vice-chairman of the Finance Committee.

Prior to becoming a public official, Shaw gathered extensive business experience in the food service industry. In September of 2003, the five-term legislator was elected as vice-chairman of the North Carolina Legislative Black Caucus of the state's general assembly.

Nabil Sadoun
Vice Chairman

Nabil Sadoun (Ed.D) is a national board member of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. He is also a board member of CAIR's chapter in Dallas-Ft. Worth area and CAIR-Texas.

Dr. Sadoun received his B.A in Islamic Studies in 1980, his masters of education in the University of Montevallo in 1988, and earned his Doctorate of Education in Oklahoma State University in 1996. He also obtained training on School facility Planning from Harvard University, Strategic Planning and Management from the American Management Association (AMA) and Islamic Economics from the Islamic Development Bank.

Dr. Sadoun's work experience includes Teacher of Islamic Studies, Director of Religious Studies, Imam, School Principal in the U.S and abroad, Educational Consultant, Strategic Planner, Curriculum designer and Author of Islamic Studies textbooks.

He is currently an educational consultant who works primarily with the Islamic Services Foundation ( ISF ), Brighter Horizons Academy and other Islamic Schools in America and abroad . He is the Director of Curriculum Department at ISF and is currently developing full scale curricula of Islamic Studies and Arabic Language for grades first to twelfth.

Recently, Nabil Sadoun headed and coauthored ISF Publications' Islamic Studies Textbooks series “I love Islam” for grades 1-5 and “Learning Islam” for grades 6-8. These series are implemented in hundreds of schools in North America and around the world.  Currently, Dr. Sadoun is working on ISF ’s next series of Islamic Studies “Living Islam” which is designed for highschool grades 9-12.

Dr. Sadoun's interests also include educating Americans about the true teachings and image of Islam, combating extremism and stereotypes, and promoting an environment of mutual understanding among Muslims and other nations. He is a member of the American Academy of Religion (AAR), Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), and other organizations.

Nihad Awad
Member

Nihad Awad is the Executive Director and co-founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest non-profit Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States.

He has been frequently interviewed on national and international media such as CNN, BBC World Service, PBS, C-SPAN, National Public Radio, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Voice of America and Al-Jazeerah. CAIR news releases are disseminated to hundreds of thousands people worldwide on a daily basis.

After the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, Mr. Awad flew to Oklahoma to aid in the relief effort. He personally met with Governor Frank Keating and gave the governor a sizable donation for the victims’ fund on behalf of the American Muslim community.

In 1997, Mr. Awad served on Vice President Al Gore’s Civil Rights Advisory Panel to the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security.

In his professional capacity, Mr. Awad has also personally met with former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and current Secretary of State Colin L. Powell to discuss the needs of the American Muslim community.

Numerous law enforcement agencies and Fortune 500 companies—including Nike and DKNY—have benefited from CAIR educational seminars on Islamic traditions and culture. In addition to resolving employment discrimination issues involving American Muslims, Mr. Awad has also conducted over 100 public relations and media training seminars nationwide.

For the 2000 presidential election, Mr. Awad was a key figure in the American Muslim Political Coordinating Committee (AMPCC), an umbrella organization of the largest American Muslim organizations, which helped to create the first Muslim voting bloc for a presidential election.

Mr. Awad is a regular participant in the U.S. Department of State’s “International Visitors Program”, which welcomes foreign dignitaries, journalists and academics who are currently visiting the President of the United States.

A few days after September 11, 2001, Mr. Awad was one of the few American Muslim leaders invited by the White House to join President Bush in a press conference at the Islamic Center of Washington, the oldest mosque in Washington DC.

Mr. Awad has testified before both houses of the U.S. Congress, most recently at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on matters involving Muslims in America.

He has also spoken at prestigious educational institutions, including Harvard, Stanford and Johns Hopkins Universities. He was also a featured speaker at the 2002 Reuters Forum on global cooperation at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. In addition, he actively works with local and national interfaith leaders and organizations in the interest of promoting positive relations among people of diverse faith communities.

Mr. Awad is also featured in Silent No More by former United States Representative Paul Findley (R-IL), a book chronicling the history of the American Muslim community.

Ihsan Bagby
Member

Ihsan Bagby is currently Associate Professor of Islamic Studies at University of Kentucky. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He obtained a PhD from University of Michigan in Near Eastern Studies (1986). His research for the last 10 years has focused on Muslims in America.

In 2001 he published the results of the first comprehensive study of mosques in America, entitled The Mosque in America: A National Portrait. (available at www.cair.com). Based on the 2001 study, Dr. Bagby has published four articles, “Imams and Mosque Organizations in the United States,” in Muslims in the United States, “A Profile of African American Mosques” in Journal of the Interdenominational Theological Center, “Attitudes of Mosque Participants Towards America,” in the forthcoming book A Nation of Religions: The Politics of Pluralism in Multireligious America, and “The Mosque in the American Public Square,” in Muslims’ Place in the American Public Square.

In April 2004 he published the results of his Detroit Mosque Study, entitled A Portrait of Detroit Mosques (available at www.ispu.us). Based on that study he has written a paper “Second Generation Muslim Immigrants in Detroit Mosques.” Presently he is working on a book on African American Muslims. He serves on the advisory board of Hartford Seminary’s The Hartford Institute for Religion Research, and is active in other organizations including Interfaith Alliance, Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA) and Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).

Sarwat Husain
Member

Sarwat Husain is the founding president of the San Antonio chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and a national board member of CAIR.

Ms. Husain also serves on the San Antonio Interreligious Council and the Texas Media Empowerment Project. She is a founder of the San Antonio Muslim Council and a member of the San Antonio Council for International Visitors. She formerly served on the FBI Regional Advisory Council and was selected to serve on the board of the San Antonio Mayors Commission under Mayor Garza.

Ms. Husain publishes Al-Ittihaad Monthly, the largest American Muslim newspaper in Texas, and is a frequent guest columnist for the San Antonio Express News.

Ms. Husain works to encourage political engagement in Texas, conducting regular voter registration drives and trainings on how to become delegates, precinct chairs and judges. She is a member of the Texas Muslim Political Taskforce and currently serves as president of the Texas Muslim Democratic Caucus. In her personal capacity, Ms. Husain is a precinct chair for 2008 - 2010 and a delegate to the Texas Democratic Convention.

Ms. Husain helped found the American Muslim Youth Association and the Muslim Boys Scouts of America, Pack 786, and acts as an advisor to both. She is extensively involved in interfaith dialogue and regularly offers diversity trainings on Muslim beliefs and practices at businesses, universities, churches and law enforcement agencies.

Ms. Husain has been profiled in The Face Behind the Veil: The Extraordinary Lives of Muslim Women in America and in articles published in the San Antonio Current, ColorLines, PressTime, and the San Antonio Express News.

She holds a master’s degree in nutrition from the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. She has owned and operated alternate care facilities for the elderly and a child development center, and has worked as a nutritional consultant to hospitals and nursing homes.

Fouad Khatib
Member

Fouad Khatib is a well known community activist in the San Francisco Bay Area and a pioneering volunteer for the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). For a decade he has served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the California chapter of CAIR. During his tenure, CAIR-California expanded from one office in the San Francisco Bay Area to four offices across the state, adding Los Angeles, San Diego and Sacramento.

Mr. Khatib is an electrical engineer and computer scientist by profession, specializing in energy management systems. He graduated in electrical engineering from the University of Bombay, obtained his master’s degree in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University, and a master’s degree in computer science from University of Houston. A California registered professional engineer, Mr. Khatib works at one of the largest electric utilities in North America.

Mr. Khatib resides in San Jose, CA, where he has been active for over two decades volunteering to build a strong community in nearby Santa Clara. He is a co-founder of the Granada Islamic School of Santa Clara, CA. He is also a co-founder of, and a regular contributing writer for Southern California In-Focus, a community newspaper published from Los Angeles. Mr. Khatib had also co-founded iViews.com, an online news and views site now operated by Islamicity.

Isam Zaiem
Member

Nihad Awad
Executive Director

Nihad Awad is the Executive Director and co-founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest non-profit Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States.

He has been frequently interviewed on national and international media such as CNN, BBC World Service, PBS, C-SPAN, National Public Radio, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Voice of America and Al-Jazeerah. CAIR news releases are disseminated to hundreds of thousands people worldwide on a daily basis.

After the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, Mr. Awad flew to Oklahoma to aid in the relief effort. He personally met with Governor Frank Keating and gave the governor a sizable donation for the victims’ fund on behalf of the American Muslim community.

In 1997, Mr. Awad served on Vice President Al Gore’s Civil Rights Advisory Panel to the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security.

In his professional capacity, Mr. Awad has also personally met with former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and current Secretary of State Colin L. Powell to discuss the needs of the American Muslim community.

Numerous law enforcement agencies and Fortune 500 companies—including Nike and DKNY—have benefited from CAIR educational seminars on Islamic traditions and culture. In addition to resolving employment discrimination issues involving American Muslims, Mr. Awad has also conducted over 100 public relations and media training seminars nationwide.

For the 2000 presidential election, Mr. Awad was a key figure in the American Muslim Political Coordinating Committee (AMPCC), an umbrella organization of the largest American Muslim organizations, which helped to create the first Muslim voting bloc for a presidential election.

Mr. Awad is a regular participant in the U.S. Department of State’s “International Visitors Program”, which welcomes foreign dignitaries, journalists and academics who are currently visiting the President of the United States.

A few days after September 11, 2001, Mr. Awad was one of the few American Muslim leaders invited by the White House to join President Bush in a press conference at the Islamic Center of Washington, the oldest mosque in Washington DC.

Mr. Awad has testified before both houses of the U.S. Congress, most recently at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on matters involving Muslims in America.

He has also spoken at prestigious educational institutions, including Harvard, Stanford and Johns Hopkins Universities. He was also a featured speaker at the 2002 Reuters Forum on global cooperation at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. In addition, he actively works with local and national interfaith leaders and organizations in the interest of promoting positive relations among people of diverse faith communities.

Mr. Awad is also featured in Silent No More by former United States Representative Paul Findley (R-IL), a book chronicling the history of the American Muslim community.

Ibrahim Hooper
Communications Director

Ibrahim Hooper is the Director of Strategic Communications for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). He holds a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s of art in journalism and mass communication.

Hooper has been with CAIR since its founding in 1994. As CAIR’s spokesman he appears frequently on national and international television programs to offer an Islamic perspective on current events or debate controversial issues.

Corey Saylor
Director of Government Affairs

Corey Saylor is legislative director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), with more than a decade of nonprofit political communications, legislative advocacy, and media relations experience.

Saylor played a role in advocacy campaigns drawing concessions from corporate giants such as Burger King and Bell Helicopter-Boeing.

His media relations efforts have placed stories in most major national and international media, including London’s Financial Times and Al-Hayat. Additionally, news outlets such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and NPR have sought Saylor’s opinions.

The Philadelphia Inquirer named a Saylor-maintained blog focused on the 2005-2006 reauthorization of the USA PATRIOT ACT, a “Web Winner.” His criticism of bigoted remarks by Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA) helped draw national media focus to the issue.

Saylor has conducted dozens of leadership, advocacy and media training across the United States.