Welcome to Muslim Youth Camp!

Dr. Jamil Momand

Jamil is a Professor of Biochemistry at California State University, Los Angeles, and received his Ph.D. from UCLA in 1989. He has worked at City of Hope, a major cancer research center, and his current research focuses on suppressing tumors. He has served on the Board of the Islamic Center of Southern California and other Muslim organizations. He and his family have been a part of MYC since its earliest years.

Dr. Asifa Quraishi-Landes

Asifa is a Professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School, where she teachers courses in American constitutional law and Islamic law. She is a 2012 Guggenheim Fellow and a 2009 Carnegie Scholar, recognized in both academic and Muslim community circles for her expertise on Islamic law and comparative legal theory as well as women’s rights issues. She holds a doctorate from Harvard Law School and other degrees from Columbia Law School and the University of California (Berkeley and Davis). Asifa has been actively involved with the founding and leadership of a number of organizations, and she is the eldest daughter of Marghoob and Iffat Quraishi, the founders of the Muslim Youth Camp, and has attended every single MYC since she was born! These days, she is joined at MYC by her husband (Matthew Quraishi-Landes), son (Zekky) and daughter (Menna), and she is proud to be part of the team that keeps MYC a vibrant and inspirational part of the American Muslim experience.

Malek Al-Marayati

Malek is currently a student at Cal State Northridge, where he is majoring in English and Marine Biology. He also serves as a senator for student government and holds a position on the board of the Muslim Student Association at CSUN. He has been a part of the MYC family since he was in middle school and began serving as a counselor in 2010.

Tasneem Beig-Arain

Tasneem is an Educational Consultant and received her B.S. from Cal State University, Fresno. She is President of the Board of Education at the Islamic Society of Corona-Norco. Additionally, she is involved in Sunday School and interfaith activities. Presently, Tasneem is the MYC Registrar, and she has enjoyed being a camper at MYC since the early ’70s!

Faria Abedin

Faria grew up in Potomac, Maryland and lives in Princeton, NJ with her three children. She has a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland and a MS in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University. Faria now studies Islamic Art as a continuing education student at Princeton University. She also serves as a docent at the Princeton University Art Museum. In addition to being on the board of MYC she is on the leadership of the Mizaan Retreat which is sponsored by the Office of Muslim Life at Princeton University.

Fatima Wahab

Fatima is serving her second term on the MYC board. She has a Master’s in Marriage and Family therapy from Cal State Fullerton and is planning on working towards her licensure in the near future. She is currently working part time at a local Islamic school, as well as being at home with her three children. She and her family have been a part of MYC since the 80s.

Amira Quraishi

Amira attended her first MYC at age 8 months and has attended almost every camp since then. She learned how to manage MYC’s counseling program from her mom, MYC co-founder Iffat Quraishi, and has been running it for twenty years. The academic approach to Islamic intellectual history at MYC prompted Amira to get two Masters degrees: in Middle East Studies & Religious Studies. The easy approach to American Islam at MYC prompted her to love Islam as inspiration and contentment. She loves the feeling of community at MYC, the laughter and open discussions there. She continues to be involved because her two daughters now love it too!

Afaf Turjoman

Afaf is serving her second term on the MYC board. She has a Masters’s degree in English Literature from the University of California Santa Barbara. She is currently serving on the board of the Islamic Society of Santa Barbara and on the board of the Interfaith Initiative of Santa Barbara County. She is also the director of the newly formed Santa Barbara Islamic Speaker’s Bureau. Afaf and her family enjoy the outdoors and have been part of MYC since the early 80s.

Sahar Momand

Sahar is currently an AmeriCorps Massachusetts Promise Fellow at Girls Inc. of Lynn, MA where she coordinates college access and college mentoring programs for high school students. She graduated from Mills College in Oakland, CA in 2011 with a B.A. in International Relations. Sahar was the president of the Muslim Student Association at Mills and was the president of the Youth Group at the Islamic Center of Southern California while she was in high school. Sahar grew up going to the Muslim Youth Camp.

Rahima McCullough

Rahima has been the MYC Treasurer for 3 years and is serving her first term on the board. While she has attended camp only once, she is grateful to be able to contribute to the MYC program. She was raised in an evangelical Christian family but converted to Islam in 1996. She has two undergraduate degrees and a master’s degree. Rahima has had a varied career working in the corporate world, as a social worker, and teaching. She has served on the boards of several non-profits. Rahima lives in Madison, WI with her husband Ken, where they raised five sons. Currently semi-retired, she takes care of 2 of her 4 grandsons while their parents work, and volunteers at the state women’s prison working with the Muslim inmates.

Samia El-Moslimany

Samia is the daughter of two of Seattle’s pioneer Muslim activists, Ann and Mohammad El-Moslimany. She splits her time between her native Seattle and Saudi Arabia. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Film Making and Television Production and her Master’s Degree in Education from the University of Washington. Samia has photographed professionally for more than twenty years, and is the managing owner of one of Arabia’s leading photography studios, located in Jeddah. In addition to numerous Saudi publications, Samia has photographed for Business Week, Fortune, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Le Figaro, Saudi Aramco World, The Christian Science Monitor, the Associated Press, and most recently for a TIME Magazine cover. She has served as the Chair of the Board of Directors of CAIR-Seattle, as a founding member of the Jeddah Orphan Eid Gift Project, as a steering committee member of Together We Build, a Seattle interfaith coalition working with Habitat for Humanity, as a board member of the MYC, and as a volunteer and Carnival Chairperson at the Islamic School of Seattle. Samia is the mother of a daughter, Rilla, and two sons, Sulayman and Zakariya, and three foster sons, Hassan, Abdullahi and Farris. Samia traveled to camp for the first time with her parents and brothers as a four-year-old in 1967, and has attended most of the camps.

Dr. Omar Mahmood

Omar came to MYC in his youth as a camper and later returned as a counselor. He is a licensed psychologist and a neuroscience researcher. He is active in efforts to promote Islamic identity in Muslim youth through spirituality, counseling, recreation, and the arts.

Munir Shaikh

Munir grew up in southern California and is an academic, public educator and education technologist. He has an M.A. in Islamic Studies from UCLA, specializing in Muslim Spain, and has studied advanced Arabic in Fes and Cairo. He is a director of the Institute on Religion and Civic Values (IRCV), a non-profit that provides scholarly consulting on teaching about world history, cultures and religions in K-12 and public education. He periodically leads study tours to southern Spain and Morocco through IslamiCity. He is an Adjunct Professor of Religion at Orange Coast College, and at the new multi-faith Claremont Lincoln University. Munir attended MYC as a camper in the late 1970s and early 80s, served as a counselor in the late 80s and early 90s, and has since been involved in organizing the camp as a former board member and staff person.

Munir grew up in southern California and is an academic, public educator and education technologist. He has an M.A. in Islamic Studies from UCLA, specializing in Muslim Spain, and has studied advanced Arabic in Fes and Cairo. He is a director of the Institute on Religion and Civic Values (IRCV), a non-profit that provides scholarly consulting on teaching about world history, cultures and religions in K-12 and public education. He periodically leads study tours to southern Spain and Morocco through IslamiCity. He is an Adjunct Professor of Religion at Orange Coast College, and at the new multi-faith Claremont Lincoln University. Munir attended MYC as a camper in the late 1970s and early 80s, served as a counselor in the late 80s and early 90s, and has since been involved in organizing the camp as a former board member and staff person.