Muslim Bar Association of New York’s Post

✨Thank you to all those who attended MuBANY’s annual Iftar hosted by Jones Day! It was a great evening filled with warmth, gratitude, and togetherness. #Ramadan Mubarak! 🌙

MuBANY would like to wish you a wonderful Ramadan. May this Ramadan be filled with peace, joy, and spiritual growth for you and your loved ones!🌙 MuBANY is also proud to share MuBANY's Legal Employer's Guide to Ramadan in the Workplace (https://lnkd.in/dYXMmvr). We urge all members of our community to share this resource with supervisors and human resources departments at your law school or place of employment. Please feel free to reach out to MuBANY if you have any questions!

Join MuBANY and CAIR NY for a Know Your Rights Training on December 18th at 6:30 PM on Zoom! The training will focus on do’s and don’ts for speech, protest, rallies and navigating school and workplace discrimination in light of the ongoing situation in Palestine. Register at https://lnkd.in/gXKtAYeU. Hope to see you there!

Congratulations to Muhammad Faridi for his nomination to serve as president of the New York Bar Association! If elected, Mr. Faridi will be the youngest person and first-ever Muslim American to serve as president of the New York City Bar Association. Currently, Mr. Faridi is a partner in the litigation department of Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP. He focuses his practice on complex commercial matters involving claims related to breaches of contract and commercial torts, and maintains an active pro bono practice. He also serves as the independent civilian representative to the New York City Police Department’s Handschu Committee, which regulates the NYPD’s policies and practices regarding investigations of political activity in compliance with a consent decree. He formerly served on the New York City Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary. Previously, Mr Faridi held several leadership positions at the New York City Bar Association, including vice president, Chair of the Board, Chair of the Capital Punishment Committee, co-chair of the Committee on the Recruitment and Retention of Lawyers, and on numerous other committees within the Association. Mr. Faridi received his B.A., summa cum laude, from John Jay College of Criminal Justice and his J.D. from the City University of New York School of Law. He also taught commercial litigation as an adjunct professor at Fordham University School of Law for five years. We are incredibly proud of Mr. Faridi, and look forward to his election next spring. Congratulations!

✨SAVE THE DATE for our 2024 Gala and #Awards #Reception! This will be an opportunity for us to gather together again to celebrate our achievements and honor distinguished members of the profession. The event will be held on May 28, 2024 at Tribeca 360. We hope to see you there! 🎉✨

Thank you to all those who joined MuBANY and Allen & Overy for our Fireside Chat with U.S. Attorney Damian Williams!

Join us for an enlightening Fireside Chat with Damian Williams, US Attorney, SDNY, hosted in collaboration with Allen & Overy and moderated by MuBANY Director and Shearman & Sterling associate Fatoumata. We will take a deep dive into the recent advancements of US Attorney Williams’s office, including the establishment of a new #CivilRights Unit in the criminal division.   The discussion will be followed by a reception in NY featuring halal catering from Omar’s Mediterranean. This is a unique opportunity to gain insights from a titan in our community, as well as to network with other legal professionals. We look forward to seeing you there!   RSVP here: https://lnkd.in/e8JeUjjT

Congratulations to Adeel Mangi for his nomination by President Biden to serve on the U.S Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit in New Jersey! If confirmed, Mr. Mangi would be the first American Muslim judge on a federal appeals court. Mr. Mangi is currently a partner at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP in the Litigation Department. He has also previously served on the board of directors for MuBANY, the Legal Aid Society of New York, Muslims for Progressive Values, and as an ally board member for the National LGBT Bar Association. As a governing board member of MuBANY for six terms, Mr. Mangi led the organization to endorse marriage equality legislation— making MuBANY the only religious affiliated bar association to do so at the time. As a result of Mr. Mangi’s leadership, MuBANY was also lead amicus in briefs filed on behalf of a cross-faith coalition of religious entities opposing attempts to repeal the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and lead amicus in briefs opposing the federal government’s attempt to divert allocated funds to build a border wall. He is dedicated to pro bono efforts and ensuring that all people have access to justice. When the LGBTQ+ community was facing employment discrimination in violation of Title VII or when the Muslim community was impacted by the federal government’s travel ban, Mr. Mangi coalesced a group of Muslim organizations, including MuBANY, to file amicus briefs. Mr. Mangi has also litigated numerous high-profile civil rights cases. These included cases involving two different Muslim communities in New Jersey who were denied permission to build mosques in their towns. Both cases eventually resulted in settlements under which the mosques were approved and the municipalities involved paid significant compensation to the affected Islamic groups. We are proud of Mr. Mangi for all of his efforts thus far, and look forward to his confirmation!

MuBANY is proud to sign on to this letter from bar associations to law firm leaders, management, and DEI teams in the spirit of working together to combat Islamophobia, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian hate and bigotry, and anti-Semitism, and to promote more inclusive environments. For more information about how you can contribute to this important cause, contact AllianceforInclusionandJustice@gmail.com. The full letter can be read here: https://lnkd.in/gcaJyBVt To add your bar association as a signatory to the letter, please fill out this form: https://lnkd.in/g-49uJzY

MuBANY's Statement on Recent Events As a bar association with a history of standing against all acts of hate and violence, MuBANY condemns the killing of innocent civilians in Israel and hopes for the safe return of all hostages.  We also deeply mourn the killing of many innocent Palestinians since Hamas’s attack and pray for the end of indiscriminate violence in Gaza.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those who are affected. MuBANY recognizes that the dehumanization of Palestinians has led to a deafening silence on the escalating humanitarian crisis in Gaza.  By UN estimates, over 1.1 million Gazans have been displaced as of today, many of whom are being denied access to basic needs including water, food, and electricity.  We must not lose sight that these conditions have already worsened where hospitals cannot provide care and basic necessities and children are left without nourishment.  Respect for human rights, dignity, and international law is among the core values that we all share. MuBANY members have been impacted by this crisis in several ways, including at the workplace and in institutions of higher education.  We are compelled to address the stifling of voices in both contexts.  In workplaces, we have seen an alarming increase in intimidation and attempts to suppress views even remotely empathetic to Palestinians and the innocent civilians caught in the crossfire – an atmosphere of fear and ostracization that the Muslim-American community has not experienced since 9/11.  At institutions of higher education, which are meant to be bastions for the free exchange of ideas, law students and faculty have felt vilified and deeply uncomfortable following statements from their institutions which have supported exclusionary rhetoric.  Many feel silenced, fearing retaliation for exercising their First Amendment rights due to widespread bullying online and offline (including, doxxing, harassment, social media censorship, blacklisting, canceling, disciplinary action, or outright termination from employment).  More often than not, anti-Palestinian sentiment is laced with tacit anti-Muslim undertones.  This heightened atmosphere of fear has led to so many of our concerns being realized.  This past weekend, we witnessed a horrific anti-Muslim hate crime in Chicago. MuBANY expresses its deep sadness and horror over the brutal murder of Wadea Al-Fayoume, a 6-year-old Palestinian-American child, and the critical injuring of his mother by their landlord.  Before stabbing the child 26 times, the landlord purportedly yelled, “You Muslims must die!”  Soon after this attack, a Sikh teen was assaulted on a bus in New York City and allegedly told, “We don't wear that in this country,” referring to his turban. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Sikh community who are often targeted as the mistaken subjects of Islamophobia. Read the full statement here: