Keith Ellison - Keith Ellison is a father, husband, lawyer, state legislator and community advocate.
Originally from Detroit, Michigan, he moved to Minnesota in 1987 to attend University of Minnesota Law School, where he graduated with a Juris Doctor degree in 1990. Ellison and spouse Kim, a high school mathematics teacher, have lived on the Minneapolis Northside for the past 17 years. They have four children ages 17, 15, 10, and 9.
Ellison represents House District 58B in the Minnesota State Legislature, one of the most economically, racially, and demographically diverse districts in the State. He is a member of the Legislature's Public Safety, Policy and Finance Committees, and Election and Civil Law Committee.
J. Douglas Holladay - J. Douglas Holladay is general partner and co-founder of Park Avenue Equity Partners, with offices in New York City and Washington, D.C. Previously, he was a senior officer with the international investment banking firm Goldman, Sachs & Company and held senior positions in the White House and State Department.
He recently completed the four-part PBS documentary The Question of God with Harvard psychiatrist and friend Dr. Armand Nicholi. He holds degrees from the University of North Carolina, Princeton and Oxford University. He serves as co-chairman of the Buxton Initiative.
Hamza Yusuf Hanson - Hamza Yusuf was born in Washington State and raised in Northern California. In 1977, he became Muslim and subsequently traveled to the Muslim world and studied for ten years in the U. A. E., Saudi Arabia, as well as North and West Africa. He received teaching licenses in various Islamic subjects from several well-known scholars in various countries.
After ten years of studies abroad, he returned to the USA and took degrees in Religious Studies and Health Care. He has traveled all over the world giving talks on Islam. He also founded Zaytuna Institute which has established an international reputation for presenting a classical picture of Islam in the West and which is dedicated to the revival of traditional study methods and the sciences of Islam. Shaykh Hamza is the first American lecturer to teach in Morocco's prestigious and oldest University, the Karaouine in Fes.
In addition, he has translated into modern English several classical Arabic traditional texts and poems. Shaykh Hamza currently resides in Northern California with his wife and five children.
Islam and the Western World: An Interfaith Dialogue featuring Shaikh Hamza Yusuf Hanson of the Zaytuna Institute, and Ambassador J. Douglas Holladay of the Buxton Initiative. Congressman Keith Ellison moderates this interfaith discussion with particular focus on issues related to the Christian, Muslim, Jewish and other faith communities living in the U.S. and Europe.