Greetings! Greetings of Peace and an early Eid Mubarak! For twenty years now, the ISB has been sharing the powerful stories and contributions of Muslims in Georgia. The ISB has created positive and educational programs that engage, recognize, and celebrate American Muslims and Muslim tradition. It is with this spirit of optimism that I ask you to join me in supporting the ISB. For me, making a...
On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we would like to encourage everyone to keep moving forward and to do good. In light of the pandemic, many of us have been home. It can be easy to become stagnant and to lose hope. We would like to remind all of this inspiring quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We encourage everyone to take time...
Participating in the ISBLI 2020 course has deepened and widened my understanding of myself and how to grow into the leader I aspire to become. I grew up with many privileges owing to my father’s job in the esteemed Pakistani military, but was limited on how high I could reach as I was a woman, despite my analytical and communication abilities and a desire...
ISBLI intentionally brought together a diverse group of people from various cultural, ethnic, religious, socio-economic, occupational, ideological, and intellectual backgrounds. The Islamic Speakers Bureau of Atlanta (ISB) has cultivated space for Muslims to lend their voices to the work of their communities and be affirmed in their right to participate as leaders in the beautifully diverse communities of Georgia. Seeing members of the ISB...
“ISBLI has taken on the task to produce driving leaders all over the globe, especially when leaders are faced with decisions and situations that are testing what good leadership looks like! My experience at ISBLI will help me better myself and any organization I am affiliated with. Leadership is about service to ourselves, our families, and our communities!” As’salamu Alaikum, my name is Shomaila...
I feel more confident in my leadership skills and more importantly, I am eager to continue my growth as an effective leader as continue to progress in my career. I am a proud Nigerian-American woman who grew up in a dual-religion household in North Carolina. Growing up in the South to immigrant parents that had to face certain racial, ethnic, and economic struggles due...
The ISBLI 2020 experience sharpened my leadership skills and provided me with the tools I need to continue working on building bridges of understanding between people. I was born in the US, started school in Georgia, and with my family moved to Jordan, United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia for my middle and high school years. I returned to the US to pursue a...
To me, leadership means the courage to overcome your fears, learn from failure, and inspire others to do the same. My purpose is to show my individuality and to express myself. My parents immigrated to this country from Bangladesh many years ago and they brought along their culture which is a major part of my identity. I used to be a high school science...
I use every single leadership principle that was taught in this year’s program as they are staples when it comes to leadership practices. The ISB Leadership Institute (ISBLI) is an absolutely phenomenal training. I have made great connections with my classmates, the facilitators, the panelist, and the team at ISB. I believe this year’s ISBLI leadership training experience has been unique as we all...
I could not have asked for better opportunity to interact, learn and create relationships with the brilliant individuals who are a group of change advocates who are equipping themselves with the tools to change the world. I am a proud Muslim woman who trained as an engineer and had a professional career that spanned twenty-three years both in the US and the Middle East....
At its essence, leadership is about service: to ourselves, our families, and our communities. I’ve always admired the work that the Islamic Speakers Bureau (ISB) does to combat anti-Muslim sentiment, and I’ve done presentations for them on Islamic art. I joined the ISB Leadership Institute (ISBLI) to challenge myself and embrace the possibilities of leadership. I’ve always considered myself a team player, someone who...
ISBLI helped me understand the requirements and processes for being an effective leader within our current context of an increasingly diverse world. One of the primary reasons for my participation in the ISBLI program was to learn from other professionals and to work collaboratively in a team. Making the decision to participate in ISBLI was not one that was taken lightly. However after careful...
ISBLI challenged my personal leadership goals and has been a significant contributor to the process of my personal and professional development. “Southern rooted, West Coast cultivated” is how I describe myself to others, a nod to being born and raised in rural Mississippi, then moving to Oakland, California where I graduated from high school. My undergraduate, medical, and residency education were completed in Louisiana...
The ISB Leadership Institute (ISBLI) gifted me with an opportunity to engage in the long overdue process of transforming my leadership skills. I could not have imagined that the impact of the ISBLI training program would manifest in my life so profoundly and quickly. I figured my time in ISBLI would serve as an incubation, readying me for future leadership positions. Frankly, I hadn’t...
Since graduating from ISBLI, I am more confident when working in a team setting, dividing and conquering tasks based on skill levels and knowledge. The ISBLI 2020 experience I had was not one that I foresaw, but it was eye opening and thought-provoking nonetheless. The excitement and energy I felt from the organizers, the participants and the guests at the Welcome Dinner on night...
From the very beginning of ISBLI we learned about personal leadership and our own development and leadership styles, and by the end we were able to harness our abilities into long terms goals and initiatives. Originally from the Midwest, I relocated to Georgia during high school. I received my Bachelors and Masters degrees in Biochemistry and now work as a reference Chemist at the...
ISBLI has cemented how I will move forward as a leader: I will listen deeply, be honest, value surprises, and pay attention to how I am leading others. As a kid growing up in Houston Texas, I was often the one nominated to lead the group. From those days until now, I have always held leadership roles. Currently, I serve as the Director of...
If I have learned anything from my ISBLI experience, it is that leadership is not stationary—it is all about action! Currently, I work for the federal government and I am in active pursuit of personal development and professional excellence. When I was presented with the opportunity to become part of ISBLI, I saw that I would be able to take my next step as...
Islamic Speakers Bureau of Atlanta collaborated with StoryCorps and American Pathways to bring Muslim stories to StoryCorps. The StoryCorps Archive comprises one of the largest born-digital collections of human voices, featuring conversations recorded across the United States and around the world. In this conversation Mohannad Malas talks to his niece, Yasmine Malas, about growing up in the Middle East, his education, his family’s business,...
Islamic Speakers Bureau of Atlanta collaborated with StoryCorps and American Pathways to bring Muslim stories to StoryCorps. The StoryCorps Archive comprises one of the largest born-digital collections of human voices, featuring conversations recorded across the United States and around the world. In this conversation Alan Howard talks to his friend and colleague Soumaya Khalifa about his activism, his spiritual journey, losing his first wife...
Islamic Speakers Bureau of Atlanta collaborated with StoryCorps and American Pathways to bring Muslim stories to StoryCorps. The StoryCorps Archive comprises one of the largest born-digital collections of human voices, featuring conversations recorded across the United States and around the world. In this conversation Zaheer Faruqi is interviewed by his daughter Reem Faruqi about some of his adventures as a young adult when he...
The Challenge: The recent tragic deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Jacob Blake and too many others are a clear sign that our country still suffers from racism. Racism divides communities and divides hearts. The Atlanta Muslim community is not immune. We, too, struggle with understanding each other’s experiences of systemic racism. This division has kept us from becoming one Muslim community....
The ISB was presented with a Georgia State Senate resolution on Thursday, March 5, 2020. Co-sponsored by State Senators Shaikh Rahman and Zahra Karinshak the resolution commends ISB for its “continued good work in this great state.” ISB’s Executive Director, Soumaya Khalifa, was joined in the Senate Chamber by Dr. Nabile Safdar, president of the ISB board of directors, Ms. Amanda Shaikh, a key ISB volunteer, Mr. Tariq Abdul-Haqq...
Islamic Speakers Bureau of Atlanta Leadership Institute Announces Class of 2020! Emerging Community Leaders to Join 2nd Annual Institute. The Islamic Speakers Bureau of Atlanta Leadership Institute (ISBLI), in partnership with CIFAL Atlanta, trains and cultivates civic leaders who create positive and constructive changes within communities and add value in the public square. Beginning on January 11, 2019, the 17-member class will participate in a nine-month program...
Pathways is the annual journal for Diocese of Atlanta, the Episcopal Church in Middle and North Georgia. Bishop Robert C. Wright and Soumaya Khalifa sat down with Pathways for an honest conversation about interfaith understanding. You can read the interview here. And you can watch the interview here.
Georgia Public Broadcasting interviewed ISB Executive Director Soumaya Khalifa about Ramadan. To find out more about Ramadan, the history behind it, and what compels Muslims everywhere to devote themselves to an entire month of fasting and prayer click here to listen.
“It was a celebration of women making a difference as well as a powerful lens from which we could see and experience the ISB’s longstanding mission of uniting communities and promoting understanding and inclusion.” “The annual ISB Gala became the charging hub for the good doers of Atlanta.” “An event by the ISB that amplified the important work by influential women from diverse backgrounds.”...
SIETAR, the Society for Intercultural Education Training and Research, is the world’s largest interdisciplinary network for all those working in the field of intercultural relations. ISB Executive Director, Soumaya Khalifa, shares her thoughts on the ISB Leadership Institute (ISBLI) and growing and developing diverse leaders in SIETAR’s recently published newsletter. You can read the article here.
Congratulations to the first class of the Islamic Speakers Bureau Leadership Institute who graduated on June 15th, 2019. The elegant event took place at Ray’s on the River and celebrated eighteen graduates who successfully completed a rigorous program. The graduates committed to Saturday sessions and worked on a project to advance an Atlanta non-profit. Graduates, family, donors, team coaches, project sponsors, ISB board members, ISB...
ISB members were involved in a number of MLK Jr. Day projects and programs in the Atlanta area. On Saturday, January 19th, several ISB members and their families volunteered to clean up Washington State Park. It was a dreary, chilly and overcast day, but that did not dampen the spirits of the cleaning team as they worked the park and collected several bags of...
Many religious communities as well as minority groups have leadership institutes, but having a leadership institute for the Georgia Muslim community was a vision yet to be realized. While researching how to start a community leadership institute, we found that there were many models followed by various communities. The Georgia Association for Latino Elected Officials (GALEO) provided a framework that best fit the needs...
As a gesture of support, in the aftermath of the government shut down, the ISB decided to serve a hot meal to the TSA agents at Hartsfield Jackson International Airport on Friday February 1st, 2019. It was a great team effort by all the volunteers from ISB who were able to serve over 350 TSA team members. The ISB volunteer teams visited the TSA...
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