Atlanta
2012 Director’s Community Leadership Awards
| Atlanta | Soumaya Khalifa |
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The Atlanta Division is pleased to honor Soumaya Khalifa, founder and executive director of the Islamic Speakers Bureau of Atlanta (ISB), as a recipient of the 2012 Director’s Community Leadership Award. Ms. Khalifa, born in Egypt and raised in the United States, realized a need to educate and inform others unfamiliar with the Islamic faith. She founded the ISB, which offers interactive workshops and seminars to thousands of people in the Atlanta area to provide insight into how American Muslims live their daily lives. Annually, the ISB holds a Building Bridges awards dinner to recognize Atlanta-area individuals and organizations that have worked toward interfaith and multicultural understanding. To further this effort, Ms. Khalifa co-founded an interfaith women’s baking group with the purpose of bringing women of different faiths together to connect. Ms. Khalifa discusses common Muslim community stereotypes during lunch learning sessions held with students, company executives, and military and law enforcement personnel. She is a graduate of the FBI Citizens Academy and has added valuable insight into issues surrounding her community and other communities in the Atlanta area. Ms. Khalifa is committed to upholding the right of freedom of expression and unconditionally condemns any use of violence as a means to protest offensive or hateful speech. |