Founder, Kamal Nawash
Kamal Nawash began life as a Palestinian refugee. One of six children born in Bethlehem, Kamal was nine years old when his family arrived in New Orleans in 1979.
Upon completing his education in 1997, he became the Legal Director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), Today Kamal is a successful attorney with degrees in business and law and international legal studies. An active member in his community, as well as in his voting district, Kamal ran as a Republican candidate for Virginia State Senate in 2003.

After 9-11 Kamal was dismayed to see the nearly mute reaction of American Muslims to the tragedy waged by Islamic extremists. As time progressed and President Bush launched the War on Terrorism, American Muslims did very little to show their support for the President’s initiative and often actually criticized his efforts to fight Islamic terror. Kamal saw the need for Muslims to speak out against terror and he founded the Free Muslims Coalition.

Kamal is committed to fighting terrorism because it threatens the United States and the rest of the world, including the Muslim and Arab world. Kamal has studied the causes of terrorism for a decade. He is the author of several articles on Islamic terrorism, political Islam, the Arab/Israeli conflict, the spread of Muslim extremism, terrorist financing, and on the economic implications of globalization for the Middle East and North Africa. With the Coalition he wants to expose and root out terrorism at every level, from the sympathizers, to the financial supporters of terrorism, to imams and community leaders preaching a message of hate, to Islamic terrorists themselves.

Kamal strength comes not only from having expertise on the Middle East and the Muslim world, but he also has a detailed understanding of American Muslim organizations.

Kamal is proud to be a Muslim and is not afraid to challenge the shortcomings of other Muslims. The Coalition promotes a modern secular interpretation of Islam which is peace-loving, democracy-loving and compatible with other faiths and beliefs. Kamal’s efforts are unique; he is one of the only Muslims willing to attack terrorism- unfortunately most other Muslim leaders hold the belief that in terrorist organizations, the end justify the means. Kamal encourages other Muslims to be proud of their faith and at the same time critical. The community of the faithful must now take steps to bring Islam into the 21st century. As he recently said, “The only way that we as a people can make a profound difference and improve the quality of life for all Muslims is if all of us make a difference individually.”

Other Americans have spoken up against terrorism, but never before has this message come with such clarity from Muslims and Arabs. Muslims are the only ones who can resolve the problem of terror in Islam.

Kamal is prepared to speak about terrorists, terrorist sympathizers, Islam, Arab-Israeli conflict, women’s rights, the Middle East, the economics of terrorism, terrorist organizations, Muslim community and organizations in the United States, the Patriot Act, Iraq, Islamic states, Jihad, hijab, and anti-Semitism.

http://www.freemuslims.org/about/nawash.php