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The Center for the Study of Islam & Democracy (CSID) is organizing a public lecture/debate on Thursday, March 17, 2016, 12-2 pm at the National Press Club (NPC) on:
The Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act of 2015?
Implications for Egypt and the Region
Thursday March 17, 2016
12:00 Noon - 2:00 pm
National Press Club - The Holeman Lounge
529 14th Street NW
Washington DC
Light boxed lunch will be provided between 12 and 12:30, on a first come first served basis.
Amb. Ibrahim Rasool (former Amb. of South Africa), Prof. Nader Hashemi (Univ. of Denver), Neil Hicks of Human Rights First, and Dr. Radwan Masmoudi, President of CSID, will make three short presentations, followed by Q&A, on the dangers and implications of this bill on the democratization process in Egypt and in the region. As you know, this bill is moving forward very quietly, but quickly, in congress, and has already been approved by the House Judiciary Committee (in a 17-10 vote along partisan lines). The Congressional hearing was extraordinarily brief. As two members of the committee pointed out, it completely ignored the usual process of expert testimony from the State Department, intelligence agencies and Middle East and terrorism experts. We, as scholars and strong believers and activists for democracy in the region, think that this bill - if adopted - will have extremely bad repercussions on stability and democracy in the region, on relations between the US and the Muslim World, and will further radicalize millions of young Muslims, in Egypt and in the region, who are seeking to have a role and a voice in shaping the future of their country.
We sincerely hope you can join us for this important event.
Biographies:
 Ebrahim Rasool - was South Africa's Ambassador to the United States. His most recent positions have included Member of Parliament in the National Assembly, Special Advisor to the State President of the Republic of South Africa and Premier (governor) of the Western Cape Province. Ebrahim Rasool has a long history of involvement in the anti-apartheid struggle, including leadership in the United Democratic Front (UDF) and the African National Congress (ANC). He spent time in prison and was under house arrest. He has been involved in both the Islamic Movement and the Interfaith Movement. He has been active in mobilizing Muslims and the broader faith communities toward a deeper understanding of Islam and faith under conditions of oppression (under apartheid) and currently under conditions of globalization. For his contribution to South Africa, Ambassador Rasool has been the recipient of a number of leadership awards. He is founder of the World for All Foundation that rethinks the intellectual tools available to Muslims and faith communities, and creates co-operative relations between faiths, cultures and communities at a global level.
 Nader Hashemi - is the Director of the Center for Middle East Studies and an Associate Professor of Middle East and Islamic Politics at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. He obtained his doctorate from the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto and previously was an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University and a Visiting Assistant Professor at the UCLA Global Institute. He is the author of Islam, Secularism and Liberal Democracy: Toward a Democratic Theory for Muslim Societies (Oxford University Press, 2009) and co-editor of The People Reloaded: The Green Movement and the Struggle for Iran's Future (Melville House, 2011), The Syria Dilemma (MIT Press, 2013) and Sectarianization: Mapping the New Politics of the Middle East (Hurst, forthcoming). He is frequently interviewed by PBS, NPR, CNN, Al Jazeera, Pacifica Radio and the BBC and his writings have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Globe and Mail (Toronto), CNN.com among other media outlets.
 Neil Hicks - is the Director, Human Rights Promotion at Human Rights First. Neil also writes and conducts advocacy on issues relating to human rights promotion in the Muslim world, and on the impact of counterterrorism measures on human rights. Between 2002 - 2007, Neil was the director of the Human Rights Defenders Program. Neil is a member of the Egypt Working Group, a bi-partisan group of policy experts that has been advocating for democratic change in Egypt since prior to the popular uprising that overthrew President Mubarak in February 2011. Before joining Human Rights First, Neil worked as a researcher for the Middle East Department of Amnesty International in London, where he worked between 1985 and 1991. He has also served as human rights project officer of Birzeit University in the West Bank. Neil has taught Human Rights in the Middle East at Fordham Law School. Neil has published articles on human rights in such publications as The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Times, The Christian Science Monitor, and Al-Ahram Weekly.
 Radwan Masmoudi - is the Founder and President of the Center of the Study of Islam & Democracy (CSID), a Washington-based non-profit think tank dedicated to promoting dialogue about democracy in the Muslim world. He is also the Editor of the Center's quarterly publication, Muslim Democrat. He has written and published several articles and papers on the topics of democracy, diversity, human rights, and tolerance in Islam. He is active with local Muslim organizations, and was elected as member of the Board of Director of the Muslim Community Center, in Silver Spring, Maryland. He is Chairman of the Network of Democrats in the Arab World (NDAW), the Tunisian Scientific Society (TSS), and a member of the board of the American Council for the Study of Islamic Societies (ACSIS) and the International Forum for Islamic Dialogue (IFID). In April 2012, he was elected as a member of the Steering Committee of the World Movement for Democracy. Radwan has organized and spoken at over 200 seminars, conferences, and workshops about democracy, freedom, and human rights in Islam, at speaks often at major public policy think tanks, such as the Brookings Institute, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Cato Institute, etc. He hold an MS and PhD Degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
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