ProgressiveIslam.Org is run by a core team, with volunteers coming on and off to work on various projects. If you are interested in helping out on a project, please us.

Core Team:

: Laury Silvers is Assistant Professor of Religion at Skidmore College in upstate New York. Her research speciality is early Islamic Mysticism. She is also fascinated by American alternative histories, specifically counter-cultural religious movements in American Islam. Her life is pretty much centered at Skidmore where she tortures and is tortured by her students and their friends, advises the Sci Fi and Hayat clubs, and does her time in committee meetings. Otherwise she is to be found sucking back another cup of coffee at the local cafe with her buddies Kathleen , Matthew, and Hassan . She would like to assure everyone that this whole activism thing is an accident.

: Born and raised in India, Ilan Bashir is now a technology consultant living in Orlando, Florida. He has an undergraduate degree in Political Science and spent seven years in Security and Crisis Management before leaving the field to spend more time on personal projects. He is currently working on a research project in the field of data visualization. While Ilan has no ties to the great Shia Imams as far as we know, the community here suspects he may be in ghayba since none of us has met him or even seen his picture. Laury claims to have spoken with him on the phone once, but this cannot be verified by independent investigators or psychical research. Others have suggested that he is a famous recluse novelist or former Bollywood star now devoted to cyber-activism. Whatever the case, Ilan runs this show.

The Core Team has a blog that can be found at http://team.progressiveislam.org


Team Affiliates:

Leader of the Human Rights Project at ProgressiveIslam.Org:

: A writer and a journalist who currently makes his living as a technical writer based in Silicon Valley, Sabahat has lived in Nigeria (including Sokoto and Gusau), Pakistan, and both coasts in the US.

As a journalist, he has been editor of "The Teenager, Pakistan"; a Columnist for "Mag"; and has edited newsletters on-campus and off, in Pakistan and in the US. He has recently been published in "Spider," Pakistan's Internet magazine and blogs extensively at http://iFaqeer.blogspot.com and http://WadiWallah.blogspot.com. He also edits/manages http://Rickshaw.blogspot.com and contributes to http://urdu-ke-naam.blogspot.com. He is the founder of http://genealogy.wikicities.com

Technical writing assignments have included a Pakistani electronics manufacturer, an offshore software house; Cisco, Mentor Graphics and Cadence in the US.

As an activist, he counts himself as a member of the War Against Rape in Karachi and tries to keep himself aware and involved in Human Rights and political issues in Pakistan the US and around the world. He is also a co-founder of the Friends of South Asia (http://www.friendsofsouthasia.org).

Media Watch-Cat, Statements Wrangler, and Blogger:

: Ginan Rauf is currently completing a PhD. Dissertation in Comparative Literature at Harvard University. Her special areas of interest include Arabic, Francophone, Arab-American and Sephardic literature. Rauf received a joint MA degree in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies and Women’s Studies from Brandeis University where she was a lecturer in Arabic. Before coming to the United States, she studied English and Comparative Literature at the American University in Cairo where she received a B.A and M.A in the field. In addition to her extensive teaching experience in the Middle East, Rauf is the associate editor of an English-Arabic Junior dictionary issued by the Elias Modern Publishing House. As cofounder of a nonprofit organization called Art for Action that seeks to fuse socially responsible action with a deeper appreciation of the Arts, Rauf is deeply committed to expanding the receptive space for independent and marginalized artists as a means of promoting cross cultural understanding. To that end she is currently engaged in organizing a mini film series focusing on the varied experiences of children and adolescents in Middle Eastern cinema that she hopes to develop into a long term curriculum. An avid collector of art, Rauf hopes to one day see a museum of Muslim Art in the New York area. During the siege of Sarajevo Rauf worked as a community activist in the Boston area and assisted Bosnian families.

Rauf took part in a documentary Muslim Women in America that was produced by the Boston Neighborhood Network in honor of International Women’s Day and her articles occasionally appear on the Muslim Wake Up website. Last but not least Rauf is a feminist hands-on proud mother of two wonderful boys.

Ginan's blog can be found at http://grauf.progressiveislam.org

Michael Muhammad Knight: Michael Muhammad Knight is a fiction and non-fiction writer. Knight self-published his first novel Taqwacores at Kinko's and gave it away out of the back of his car around Binghamton campus. Word about the novel spread and Jello Biafra's label Alternative Tentacles picked it up for distrubution. The novel is now published by the subversive press Autonomedia. Knight's second book, entitled Blue-Eyed Devil, will be released by Autonomedia in the Spring of 2006. Blue-Eyed Devil is a non-fiction exploration of American Muslim identity written over one summer wandering the states in Greyhound Buses and his now collapsed Buick Skylark. Knight's essays, short fiction, and accounts of his anti-establishment pranks--stink-palming Imam Siraj Wahhaj and Yusef Islam as well as challenging Ibrahim Hooper to a wrestling match--have been published in numerous web-zines, most notably "Muslim Wake Up!."

Mike's blog can be found at http://knight.progressiveislam.org

Hager Youssef: Hager is a student at Skidmore college and campus activist. She is a blogger on ProgressiveIslam.Org and will be the moderator of a members-forum for young Muslims to talk about difficult issues such as sex, drugs, and being true to themselves.

Hager's blog can be found at http://hager.progressiveislam.org

Omer Muzaffar: Omar is a scholar of the study of Islam, a historian of Chicago's Muslims, and beloved brother to all who know him. He is Imam and Khatib of ProgressiveIslam.Org's Sim Mosque, blogger, fiction writer, and mooring.

Omer's blog can be found at http://mozaffar.progressiveislam.org

Muhammad Timurhan: Timuhan was born and raised in a Muslim country, but as of late he has been living in North America, where he spends most of his time researching Islamic religion. In his spare time, Timurhan likes drinking tea and coffee, reading, listening to music, taking walks, and swimming. We think that is a boring life, but he finds it exciting. He is in his 30's, and is amazed by how quickly time passes. Quoting one of the songs in the musical "Hairspray," he reminds us, "Times keep a changin'/Castro's invadin'/Soon we'll be nothing at all." He believes in the importance of integrity and in taking a stand for what is right, for which he quotes from the movie "The Big Lebowski," Dude, this aggression will not stand."

Timuhan's blog can be found at http://timurhan.progressiveislam.org