Shaker Elsayed

Shaker Elsayed
Religion	Muslim
Alma mater	University of Houston
Personal
Nationality	Egyptian/American
Born	1951 (age 65–66) Cairo, Egypt
Senior posting
Title	Imam of Dar Al-Hijrah
Period in office	June 1, 2005 – present
Predecessor	Mohammed Adam El-Sheikh
Religious career
Previous post	Muslim American Society; Secretary General (2000–05)

Shaker Elsayed (born in Cairo, Egypt, in 1951) is a dual citizen of Egypt and the US, and has been the Imam of the Dar Al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Virginia, since June 1, 2005.

Elsayed has an undergraduate degree in Economics and Independent Islamic Studies from Cairo, and has done graduate work in Educational Administration and Psychology at the University of Houston in Texas. He has translated the Koran into English.

In 1990, he was the Principal of the Al-Ghazly Islamic School in Jersey City. The children of El Sayyid Nosair, who was convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the killing of Meir Kahane, attended the school until 1989. Elsayed said about Kahane's killing: "It was not a violation [of Islamic law], in the sense that Kahane adopted a position against all Arabs and Muslims. He put himself in that category."

Prior to becoming imam at the mosque, Elsayed was Secretary General of the Muslim American Society from 2000–05. While still at MAS, in 2004 Elsayed was also on the mosque's Executive Committee.

Elsayed described the 2002 hunt by federal agents for evidence against Sami Al-Arian as "a war on Muslim institutions." Al-Arian ultimately made a plea agreement, pleading guilty to conspiracy to help a "specially designated terrorist" organization, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

When three defendants who were part of the Virginia Jihad Network were convicted in March 2004 of conspiring to help wage violent jihad in Kashmir and possibly against American troops in Afghanistan, Elsayed said "It is evident that Muslims should not expect justice. Muslims are besieged after 9/11, for no fault of their own."

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Wikipedia