Hakeem Muhammad is an African-American Muslim from Chicago’s Southside. Witnessing friends of his die from gang-violence at early ages influenced him to establish the Black Dawah Network in order to promote Islamic virtues and ethics in inner-city Black communities. He is the president of Black Dawah Network and responsible for the management and oversight of the daily operations of the organization and execution of the mission.

Hakeem Muhammad is a Public Interest Law Scholar. He has assisted litigation to hold Police Departments accountable for acts of police brutality against Black Men and to secure access to halal for African-American Muslim prisoners. He has also done human rights law work to hold multinational corporations accountable for environmental destruction in West Africa. He was a recipient of the prestigious National Association For Criminal Defense Lawyers fellowship that pairs law students to study under top criminal defense practitioners in the country. Prior to Law School at only 22 years of age, Muhammad was a lecturer in debate and argumentation at prestigious institutes at Harvard University, U.C Berkeley, and Michigan State.

His responsibilities as President of Black Dawah Network includes :

• * *Organizing Dawah events in inner-city Black Communities.
• * *Overseeing and managing Black Dawah Network’s think tank.
• * *Ensuring the organization’s activities are compliant and in furtherance of its mission and vision.

Professor Shareef Muhammad has taught Islamic Studies and African-American studies at Spelman University. Shareef holds a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences in History from Central State University and a Masters degree in History from Kent State University where his thesis entitled The Cultural Jihad in the Antebellum South which details how enslaved African Muslims preserved their religious and cultural identity in bondage.

Shareef believes that Islam is a force for change as well as spiritually transforming and that the religion can serve as the bulwark for ameliorating the social conditions of African-Americans. In 2015, Shareef was chosen to be a chief consultant on the After Malcolm Project which is a digital oral history archive that conducted interviews with African-American Muslims from the Civil Rights Era and collected artifacts.

Professor Shareef Muhammad’s responsibilities include :

• * *Ensuring Black Dawah Network’s think-tank provides high-quality research articulating Islam’s relevancy of Black people.
• * *Speaking on behalf of Black Dawah Network at events.
• * *Designing Black Dawah Network’s online courses.

Brother Hameed is an activist, youth mentor, husband, father, and entrepreneur who started the world’s first Muslim led Capoeira Angola school (Brazilian Martial Arts). He has a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Memphis). Brother Hameed is an author intent on catalyzing the "Third Resurrection" by seeking to return Islam to the transformative effect it once had on Black life by engendering the revival, renewal, and restoration of Islam in the Black American community. As Community Research Director,

Hameed Abdul Salaam will be tasked with :

• * *Conducting studies and providing proposals for how Mosques can better engage and serve the Black community.
• * *Conducting research and providing proposals for strengthening of Black Muslim community.

Ismael Bilal Saleem is a lecturer for Black Dawah Network. He is the author of several books including God the Irresistible, The Most Important Thing in the World, Does God Hate Black People, What God said about Jesus, FAQs about Islam, and 50 Myths about Islam. Ismael Bilal Saleem sees the importance of Dawah in the African American community because he believes every solution that we are searching for or in need of is in Islam. As a lecturer for Black Dawah Network, he will be speaking at venues in various African-American communities articulating what Islam is and its relevancy to the African-American community.

Shadid Lewis is a lecturer with Black Dawah Network. Shadid Lewis is the former president of The Islamic Research and Propagation Center in Comparative Religious Studies. He has studied and completed courses in Sciences of Quran, Islamic Family Law, and Studies of Understanding Hadith at the American Open Islamic University of Fairfax, Virginia.