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Guest Speakers @ UIAW2021

Every year, the campuses taking part in United Islam Awareness Week invite guest speakers to discuss relevant and topical social issues on Islam. Each speaker brings with them a unique perspective on Islamic thought and Muslim societies.

Abdullah Al-Andalusi
Founder - Muslim Debate Initiative
Dr. Abdullah Hakim Quick
Historian, Scholar, Lecturer
Sheikh Abdurrahmann Murad
Community Leader, Imam
Sheikh Dawud Walid
Executive Director of CAIR-MI
Sheikh Mohamed Yaffa
Community Leader, Consultant

Abdullah Al-Andalusi

Abdullah Al-Andalusi is an international speaker, thinker and intellectual activist for Islam and Muslim affairs. His work involves explaining and demonstrating, by rational argument, the intellectual proofs for the Islamic belief system, and promoting the Islamic way of life and Islamic solutions for contemporary problems.

Abdullah has had a long experience of working in the Muslim community, and his activities involve researching, writing and talking extensively on Islamic revivalism , theology, philosophy, the physical sciences, sociology, psychology, anthropology and political philosophy. Abdullah has delivered talks internationally on the question of the purpose of life, the existence of God, the Miracle of Quran, the superiority of the Shariah as a social and political system, and Islamic Economics. Furthermore, Abdullah has given extensive talks and written articles rationally critiquing Secularism, Liberalism, Secular Democracy and Materialism (Atheism & Secular Humanism).

He has spoken in community centres, universities, colleges and numerous appearances on various programs on TV channels including the BBC, ITV, BBC Arabic, Press TV, Islam Channel and IQRA TV. He also has engaged in a number of debates, with Atheists, Secularists, Agnostics, Liberals and Christians on a variety of topics from theology to political philosophy.

In 2009, he co-founded the public discussion forum: The Muslim Debate Initiative, a forum that promotes open dialogue and critical debate between thinkers, academics, politicians and public speakers of all backgrounds.

Dr. Abdullah Hakim Quick

Dr. Abdullah Hakim Quick was born in the United States of America. He is of African American, Caribbean and Mohawk (Native American) descent. He was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts and grew up in Boston. He converted to Islam in Canada in 1970.

He received a Bachelor’s Degree from the Islamic University of Madinah in 1979. He was one of the first two students from the West and the first American to have done so and receive an Ijazah. He received a Master’s Degree and PhD from the University of Toronto. His thesis was an analysis of the life and writings of Sheikh ‘Uthman Dan Fodio, a great West African Scholar, warrior, and social activist.

Over the past four decades Quick has travelled to 61 countries where he lectured at universities, mosques and at public events. He has also served as an imam, teacher, counsellor and media consultant in the USA, Canada, South Africa and the West Indies. He is currently senior lecturer with the Islamic Institute of Toronto (I.I.T.) and the outreach coordinator with the Canadian Council of Imams. He is also the history department head and a lecturer at AlMaghrib Institute and advisory committee member at Islamic Online University.

Sheikh Abdurrahmann Murad

Born in Western Canada and raised mostly in Vancouver, BC, Sheikh Abdurrahmann has been actively involved in outreach activities (for non-Muslims and Muslims) in the local community and abroad. He continues to be actively involved in youth programs, counselling, interfaith activities and public speaking. He also counsels new Muslims and has developed programs for understanding Islam. He graduated with Honors Bachelor of Arts in Shariah (Islamic Law) from Imam Muhammad University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and a Master of Arts in Halal Industry Management from IIUM (International Islamic University of Malaysia). He has been involved in a number of different areas of Islamic education and has delivered presentations on the Quran, Islamic Jurisprudence & Creed and Islamic History in Saudi Arabia, Canada and in other countries. Shaykh Abdurrahmann has also worked in outreach offices in Saudi Arabia with Islamic websites, and with Jumuah magazine as a translator and editor.

Sheikh Abdurrahmann has translated and published many books which have been internationally distributed. Among them is “The Key to Understanding Islam” and “Muhammad the Messenger of Allah”. He was the Imam of Masjid Omar al-Farooq in Vancouver, Canada and is currently the Imam of MarkazulIslam in Ft. McMurray, Alberta.

Sheikh Dawud Walid

Currently the Executive Director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI, a chapter of America’s largest advocacy and civil liberties organization for American Muslims) and is a member of the Michigan Muslim Community Council (MMCC) Imams Committee.

Sheikh Walid has studied under qualified scholars the disciplines of Arabic grammar and morphology, foundations of Islamic jurisprudence, sciences of the exegesis of the Qur’an, and Islamic history during the era of Prophet Muhammad through the governments of the first 5 caliphs.

Sheikh Mohamed Yaffa

Sheikh Yaffa is currently a Talent and Organizational Development Consultant at the Nova Scotia Health Authority, with focus on Diversity, Inclusion and Cultural Competence. Over the past 15 years, Sheikh Mohamed Yaffa has worked with several organizations in the area of social justice, supporting communities that face systemic and social barriers in Canada, such a immigrants, African Canadians, Aboriginal people and people with disabilities. He has training and many years of practice in education design, group facilitation and mediation. He also has background in life coaching and project management. He is a member of several educational and health groups and committees, including the Health Care Human Resource Sector Council, The IWK Health Centre Diversity Committee and the Halifax Police Diversity Committee.

Sheikh Yaffa is Khatib and Islamic Studies teacher at the Centre for Islamic Development in Halifax and a member of its board of directors. He is a graduate in Islamic Studies, Arabic Language and Translation studies. Sheikh Yaffa has ijazah in the narration of Imam Nawawi’s Forty Hadith, The Coupled-chains (Thunaaiyyaat) of Imam Malik and the preliminary Hadiths of the six Sunan and other books of Hadith.

Other areas of Sheikh Yaffa’s interest and experience in teaching include Tafseer, Fiqh, Tajweed, Arabic grammar, Morphology (Sarf) and Eloquence (Balaaqha).