WHAT WE ARE

The Qunoot Foundation is a community education organization that seeks to provide a platform for Muslim youth to articulate their political, ideological, socioeconomic, ethnic, and gender-related perspectives on both the Shi’a community and the Muslim community at large.

Our efforts currently focus on three primary areas:

1. Creating opportunities and scholarships for American Muslims
2. Organizing youth driven forums
3. Producing articles, podcasts, and research on issues relating to the American Shi'a Muslim community

WHO WE ARE

• Co-Director, The Qunoot Foundation: Fatema Abdul Rasul is a Political Science graduate of the University of Minnesota.  Her interest in the Shi'a Muslim community lead her to research the history of the East African Khoja Shi'a Ithna-Asheri community and analyze the effect of the Iranian Revolution on the "Shi'a" identity of the community and close relation to Iran.  She also analyzed how 9/11 and the current war in Iraq have reinvigorated a religious and political identity in the community.
  
  Her involvement with her community in Minnesota allowed her to foster political & social awareness and work closely with the women and youth in her community.  During the 2004 elections, she helped organize the first voter registration drive at her mosque.  Currently, she works as a Peace & Security Fellow at Citizens for Global Solutions in Washington, DC.
  
  Abdul Rasul oversees The Qunoot Foundation's conference series and general management operations.

• Co-Director, The Qunoot Foundation: Mohamed H. Sabur, a graduate of the University of Minnesota, has helped to develop various community- and campus-based organizations promoting awareness of, and dialogue within, the American Muslim community.
  
  He has helped to establish a Muslim Boy Scouts troop and youth organization as well as helped to found the Al-Madinah Cultural Center during his time at the University of Minnesota.  His articles, discussing issues related to American Muslim political participation, have appeared in The Minnesota Daily and The Wake.
  
  Sabur oversees The Qunoot Foundation’s fellowship series and manages the organization's communications operations.

• Director, Qunoot Media: Zahir Janmohamed, a graduate of UC Berkeley and UCLA, has worked with various NGOs focusing on human and individual rights since 1999.
  
  His articles have appeared in over thirty publications, including The Washington Post and Outlook India, and he is a regular contributor to altmuslim.  He also co-edited the student anthology of poems, Mahfouz: Our Right to Our Words, while he was a TA in June Jordan’s 'Poetry for the People' class at UC Berkeley.  He is currently working on his first film on calligraphy in Islam.
  
  Janmohamed oversees Qunoot's media projects including its podcast series and  upcoming film on sectarian violence in Pakistan.