Mr. Awad is the Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Washington DC-based grassroots membership organization which seeks to empower the North American Muslim community through political and social activism.
Mr. Awad helped found CAIR in June 1994, which has grown rapidly in the United States and Canada. CAIR’s experts are frequently interviewed on national and international media such as CNN, BBC World Service, the New York Times and Washington Post while its trademark Action Alerts go nationwide by fax and worldwide on the Internet.
In 1997, Mr. Awad joined the Civil Rights Advisory Panel to the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security.
Mr. Awad conducts media seminars across the country to train Muslim communities in communication techniques. CAIR’s publications on the status of Muslim civil rights in the United States have been featured on several talk shows and distributed to every member of Congress.
He helped CAIR carry out successful campaigns against major corporations, including Nike, and Simon and Schuster, resulting in the recall of products offensive to Muslims.
On civil rights, he has been very active in helping Muslims claim their rights in the workplace, in well-known companies such as JC Penney, McDonald’s, Sears, Office Depot, and many others. CAIR has also distributed an “Employer’s Guide” and an “Educator’s Guide to Islamic Religious Practices,” which are designed to prevent acts of discrimination, and more such guides are forthcoming.
CAIR publishes many useful materials including a “Media Relations Handbook” and something every Muslim should carry, the “Know Your Rights Pocket Guide,” all of which are available by contacting the CAIR office.
Ismail Royer
Ismail Royer is Communications Specialist for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, where he has worked in research and civil rights since 1997. He served as Washington Bureau Chief for the on-line news site iviews.com, where he wrote investigative pieces on anti-Muslim organizations. One of Mr. Royer’s stories was designated one of the “Most Censored Press Releases of 1999” by Timothy McSweeney’s, a literary journal. He currently writes news releases, speaks with journalists, conducts research, and monitors the media as part of CAIR’s media relations effort.