IAT MISSION STATEMENT

IAT is a non-profit  television production company specializing in programs that educate and enlighten people about the faith and cultures of Islam, provide a public platform for interfaith and multi-cultural cooperation and dialogue, and serve as a vehicle for social justice and environmental change.

• Educating the general population about the faith and cultures of Islam and the burgeoning Muslim communities throughout America is our main priority.  This focus will help serve to create an environment of understanding, dialogue and interfaith cooperation.  The effects from Muslims being under represented within the mainstream media and the absence of balanced and thoughtful discourses about Islam and Muslims are painfully obvious. 
• Informing Muslims about issues & trends that are relevant to them falls within the scope of what IAT does. In the same vein, we will address the intolerance and extremism that exists within the Muslim community.
• Supporting Muslim women with the opportunity to be heard and seen, enabling them to tell their stories, aspirations and triumphs, will always be a priority of IAT. 

IAT Board Members

Professor Amir Al-Islam is IAT’s Chairman if the board. Among his rich and diverse roster of experience, far too expansive to list here, are: Prof. Al-Islam is a distinguished Lecturer of African American History, and World Civilization at Medgar Evers College (CUNY) in Brooklyn, New York. Professor Al-Islam is the Secretary General of the World Council of Muslims for Interfaith Relations, U.S.A., a non-profit organization that promotes communication, cooperation and collaboration between people of various religious, ethnic and culturally diverse backgrounds. He presently serves as a member of the Leadership Council of the Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA), a national Islamic Organization of Indigenous American Muslims. For over 13 years, Professor Al-Islam was the Director of Indigenous Muslim Affairs of the Muslim World League Office to the United Nations, an NGO serving Muslims throughout the world. He is the former Secretary General of the World Conference on Religion and Peace, USA, an international interfaith organization affiliated with the United Nations.

Rafiah T. Jones is a former host of Islamic Perspectives. She is an advocate of Muslims in the media and has been highly engaged in the Islamic educational system here in the U.S. for nearly 30 years (20 years in Seattle, WA). She has held various positions at the Clara Muhammad School (CMS) in Washington, D.C., including her last position as Principal. Presently she is the lead sales associate for a thriving business in the Metro area with entrepreneurial plans of her own. She is an active community networker and member of Masjid Muhammad in Washington, D.C.

Hassanah Thomas-Tauhidi is the Founder and Executive Director of IAT. She holds a B.S. degree in Mass Communications from Emerson College (Boston, MA) and a MA in Producing for Film & Video from American University (Washington, DC). From 1996 – 2004, Hassanah produced, Islamic Perspectives, Washington, DC’s first award-winning Islamic television series, and in that time produced 116 episodes. Under her leadership, Islamic Perspectives evolved from a simple community television program that educated people about Islam, to a sophisticated television series that tackled national and global issues and was distributed to eight markets throughout the Washington, DC metropolitan area, including Southern Virginia and Baltimore, MD.

Salahuddin Tauhidi holds the position of Secretary for IAT. Salahuddin is an International Trade Specialist for North Africa and Middle Countries. He has over 20 years of consolidated experience and professional training in international trade, business development, and export promotions. He holds a B.A. in Middle East and African Studies from the University of Massachusetts and an M.A. in International Transactions from George Mason University.

IAT ADVISORY BOARD

Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr was born in 1933 in Tehran, Iran in a family of educators and scholars, his father having been one of the founders of the Persian educational system.  Consequently, he received the best classical Persian and Islamic education during his early years in Tehran.  He later came to the West to finish his secondary education at the Peddie School in New Jersey and after graduating as the valedictorian of his class, he went to MIT where he studied physics and mathematics and graduated with honors in 1954.  Meanwhile, his interest turned to an ever greater degree to philosophy and the history of science and he transferred to Harvard University to pursue graduate studies first in the field of geology and geophysics in order to acquaint himself with a descriptive as well as a mathematical science, and finally in the field of the history of science and philosophy in which he received his doctorate from Harvard University in 1958 with specialization in Islamic cosmology and science.  From 1958 until 1979, he was professor of the history of science and philosophy at Tehran University and for several years the dean of the Faculty of Letters and for sometime the vice chancellor of the University.  He also served for several years as president of Aryamehr University in Iran.  In 1962 and 1965 he was visiting professor at Harvard University and in 1964-65 the first Aga Khan professor of Islamic studies at the American University of Beirut.  He was also the founder and first president of the Iranian Academy of Philosophy and is president of the Foundation for Traditional studies.

In 1979 Dr. Nasr migrated to the United States where he became first the distinguished professor of Islamic studies at the University of Utah, then from 1979 to 1984 professor of Islamic studies at Temple University.  Since 1984 he has been University Professor of Islamic studies at the George Washington University.