Mere days aways from Election Day 2024, Parvez and Omar are rejoined by Civil Rights Attorney and Activist Zahra Billoo to discuss the Muslim vote and the 2024 Presidential Election. Are Muslims simply approaching who to vote for with the "lesser of two evils" calculus? Is there a long game and what are the short term consequences of playing the long game? All this and more for the show's special Election 2024 episode!

About Zahra Billoo

Zahra Billoo serves as the Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, San Francisco Bay Area (CAIR-SFBA) office, the oldest CAIR chapter office. Since joining in 2009, Zahra has led the organization through a period of six-fold growth. Today, she manages one of the largest CAIR offices in the country with a team of civil rights and social justice advocates dedicated to the empowerment of American Muslims through legal services, legislative advocacy, and community organizing.

Under Zahra’s leadership, CAIR-SFBA has filed lawsuits against the United States Department of Justice, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Southwest Airlines, representing American Muslims facing discriminatory treatment. CAIR-SFBA has also significantly expanded its capabilities to provide know-your-rights sessions on a nearly weekly basis to mosques and community members in the San Francisco Bay Area, while also providing direct legal representation to Bay Area residents facing numerous civil rights violations, including FBI interviews, employment discrimination, airport harassment, school bullying, and hate crimes.

Zahra’s advocacy has included media appearances in local and national media, including MSNBC, NPR, the San Francisco Chronicle, and even FOX News. Among her awards, she received the 2017 Human Rights Award from the Society of American Law Teachers and the 2018 Community Builder Award from People Acting in Community Together (PACT). She was also listed by the San Jose Mercury News as a “Woman to Watch” in March 2017 for Women’s History Month, as well as by the Chronicle of Philanthropy in their January 2018 cover story on millennials who lead.

She is currently a fellow with Levi Strauss Foundation Pioneers in Justice, a senior fellow with the American Leadership Forum’s Silicon Valley Chapter and an alumna of Rockwood’s Fellowship for a New California, LeaderSpring’s Executive Directors Fellowship, and USC’s American Muslim Civil Leadership Institute. Zahra earned her undergraduate degrees from the California State University, Long Beach, and her Juris Doctorate from the University of California, Hastings. She is licensed to practice law in California.

After a bit of a hiatus due to busy schedules, Parvez and Omar are honored to be joined by Imam Jihad Mustafa, Founder of the Qawwamun Retreat. This was a wide-ranging conversation with Imam Jihad discussing how socially conscious Hip-hop brought him to Islam, how today's Zeitgest and pop culture has engendered a crisis of defining and exemplifying masculinity to young men, and how the Qawwamun Retreat for young men seeks to address these challenges.

About Imam Jihad Mustafa Jihad Mustafa was born JC Wren and converted to Islam shortly after returning home from serving in the US Army in Germany. He served as Imam at Masjid Tasbeeh in Oakland before it's closing and in his tenure there also opened one of the few Muslim transitional and temporary living facilities. He has a background in business, financial advisory, security and organization. Jihad is the founder of Al Qawamun, an organization formed to develop and maintain righteous manhood based on Quran; as well as some branches stemming from it; including The Young Lions Program, Muslim Incident Response Team and Muslim Town Hall. In addition to maintaining his responsibilities, he is currently developing The United Muslim Association, an effort to unite Muslim Americans in the areas that effect us all regardless of ethnicity, school of thought, leadership or association.

Closing out the blessed month of Muharram, Parvez and Omar are back for a timely and important discussion about Muharram, the Day of Āshūrā, and the events of Karbala from a Shīʿī perspective. This is a deep dive into Shīʿī readings of early Muslim history and the centrality of the Ahl-al Bayt (The Household/Progeny of the Prophet Muhammedﷺ) and specifically how the events of Karbala and the venerative rites and traditions of Muharram inform Shīʿī devotional life.

About Ahmad Rashid Salim

Ahmad Rashid Salim (احمد راشد سليم) is a doctoral candidate and instructor at the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Berkeley, in the fields of Islamic studies and Persian literature. His areas of scholarship include classical Persian literature - particularly mystical poetry, translation, Sufism, Qur’an interpretation, language and power, Persian literature in Afghanistan, the Kabuli dialect, Shīʿī - Sunni polemics, and religious thought in Afghanistan. His dissertation is titled: The Harmony of Hayrat: Words, Wonder, and Worlds in Persian Mystical Poetry and Poetics. Salim is also the founder of Aleff Institute, a premier online instruction program for the Persian language, with a special emphasis on the Kabuli dialect. He is the author of Islam Explained, a best-selling book utilized in a number of university courses throughout the United States. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Science with a focus on Islamic studies, and was awarded a master’s degree by the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Berkeley.