Dr. Sayyid M. Syeed
Dr. Sayyid M. Syeed is the National Director of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), heading up its Office for Interfaith and Community Alliances in Washington, DC. He served for 12 years (1994-2006) as Secretary General of the Indiana-based national umbrella organization, which has more than 300 affiliates all over the U.S. and Canada.
Dr. Syeed was born in India and migrated to the United States in the mid-1970s. From 1980-1983, he served as President of the Muslim Students Association (MSA) of USA & Canada and pioneered its transformation into the modern day Islamic Society of North America. From 1984-1988, he was Secretary General of the International Islamic Federation of Student Organizations (IIFSO) and traveled widely in this capacity through the former Soviet Union, Europe, Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and South America. Dr. Syeed has also been General Secretary of the Association of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS), a national professional organization founded in 1972.
Dr. Syeed was one of the founders of the American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences (AJISS) and served as Editor and then Editor-in-Chief (1984-1994). During his tenure there, AJISS grew into a quarterly publication, and today AJISS has acquired a respectable niche in academia and is quoted with recognition in professional and scholarly research. Dr. Syeed was also Chairman of the Editorial Board of Islamic Horizons, the flagship magazine of ISNA, from 1982 to 1984 and 1994 to 2006.He has been actively involved in fostering understanding among world religions and has participated in interfaith dialogues from local to international levels in the U.S.A. and Canada. A frequent speaker at interfaith dialogues, he has served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions. In 2000, he was invited to a dialogue in the Vatican by the late Pope John Paul, and in 2008, he led the American Muslim leadership delegation to meet with Pope Benedict in Washington, DC.
Dr. Syeed has pioneered major initiatives to promote understanding between the American Muslim community and American Jewish community. He cosponsored the first National Summit of Imams and Rabbis in the U.S. in 2007. That same year he was also instrumental in inviting the President of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) to address the annual convention of ISNA and coordinating a delegation from ISNA to address the annual convention of URJ. Other initiatives included bringing together 100 Muslim organizations and 100 Jewish organizations to hold annual joint events condemning Islamophobia and anti-Semitism. Additionally, many other joint projects to educate the two communities about one another have sprung up from these initiatives.
Dr. Syeed also led an interfaith delegation to Israel and Palestine and was part of the first group of Muslim leaders to visit the Holocaust sites in Auschwitz and Dachau. In addition, Dr. Syeed had the opportunity to address the First International Conference of Imams and Rabbis in Brussels in 2005.
In recognition of his contribution to inter-religious understanding and harmony, Dr. Syeed was awarded an honorary doctorate of letters by the Graduate Theological Foundation in South Bend, Indiana, and he has also received the 2001 Lifetime Achievement Award for distinguished service in furthering the Islamic tradition in North America and for promoting inter-religious understanding and harmony from the Catholic Heritage Foundation in Louisville, Kentucky. In 2010 the Interfaith Alliance presented him with its President's award.
On January 5, 2002, Mr. Frank O'Bannon, the Governor of Indiana, recognized Dr. Syeed in his State of the State Address by saying that his "work to educate Americans about the Muslim faith in the wake of the September 11 terror attacks, along with [his] life's work to encourage tolerance and racial healing has marked [him] as a great leader in Indiana."
Dr. Syeed has been invited to speak on Muslim and Islamic issues on national TV including NBC, CBS, CBN, and ABC. He was interviewed on PBS on the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour and has appeared on the Today Show, CNN's Crossfire, and on national television stations in Turkey, Malaysia, Sudan, India, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia to discuss matters related to Islam and Muslims in America. Of his many honors, he was listed by Ms. Magazine in 1982 as one of the "40 male heroes of the past decade, men who took chances and made a difference." His other books include: Moral Absolutes and the Magisterium; The Moral Choice; A New American Justice: Ending the White Male Monopolies; The New Subversives: Anti-Americanism of the Religious Right; The Moral Revolution; On Moral Grounds: The Art/Science of Ethics; The Moral Core of Judaism and Christianity; and What Men Owe Women.