the 500 most influential muslims - The Royal Islamic Strategic ...

ARTS AND CULTURE
chappelle, dave
Dave Chapelle is a comedian who starred in a two-time Emmy Award-winning weekly television
program called 'Chappelle’s Show'. Since he ended the show, he has produced the documentary
'Dave Chappelle’s Block Party' in 2006. He is also producer of ‘Allah Made Me Funny—the Official
Muslim Comedy Tour’ film.
hammad, suheir
Suheir Hammad is a poet and writer whose work represents her Palestinian heritage and identity
as a Muslim woman. She was signed by Russell Simmons to Def Poetry Jam and subsequently went
on tour.
memon, javed
Javed Memon, also known as HijabMan, is a young social entrepreneur. With a website that gets
30,000 hits per day, Memon has globally launched an innovative business selling t-shirts with
catchy slogans (like ‘My name causes national security alerts. What does yours do?’) after being
featured on Comedy Central’s Colbert Report.
mos def
Mos Def—born Dante Terrell Smith—is a hip-hop artist who has recently become more popular
for his acting career, which garnered Emmy and Golden Globe nominations. He is noted for his
stance against the misinterpretation of the Qur’an.
sulaiman, amir
Amir Sulaiman is an acclaimed rapper who has performed on HBO’s Def Poetry showcase and
toured North America with spoken word performances that address social justice and issues of
everyday life. Sulaiman is considered a leading community activist.
usman, azhar
A prolific comedian and co-founder of ‘Allah Made me Funny’, featured in over 100 world media
outlets, Azhar Usman is star and creator of 'Tinku’s World' (an online comedy show) and is a
leading American Muslim on the international comedy scene.
zakariya, mohamed
An engineer by training, Mohamed Zakariya is now an award-winning Arabic calligrapher whose
work is displayed all over the United States. In 2001, he designed the ‘Eid holiday stamp for the
United States Postal Service and in 2002, he was featured in the PBS documentary ‘Muhammad:
Legacy of a Prophet’.
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