Nihad Awad - Career

Career

After studying civil engineering at the University of Minnesota in the 1990s, he worked at the University of Minnesota Medical Center. After the Gulf War, he was Public Relations Director for the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP).

After the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, Awad flew to Oklahoma to aid in the relief effort. He personally met with Governor Frank Keating and gave the governor a sizable donation for the victims’ fund on behalf of the American Muslim community.

In 1997, Awad served on Vice President Al Gore’s Civil Rights Advisory Panel to the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security.

In his professional capacity, Awad has also personally met with former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell to discuss the needs of the American Muslim community.

In June 1994, IAP President Omar Ahmad and others founded the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), and Awad was hired as the Executive Director. In a March 1994 speech at Barry University, future CAIR Executive Director Awad said in response to an audience question about the various humanitarian efforts in the Palestinian Occupied Territories, "I am in support of the Hamas movement more than the PLO... there are some radicals, we are not interested in those people.”

Awad is a regular participant in the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program, which welcomes foreign dignitaries, journalists and academics who are currently visiting the President of the United States.

A few days after the September 11 attacks in 2001, Awad was one of a select group American Muslim leaders invited by the White House to join President Bush in a press conference condemning the attacks and acts of anti-Muslim intolerance that followed.

Awad is one of the signatories of A Common Word Between Us and You, an open letter by Islamic scholars to Christian leaders, calling for peace and understanding.

He is featured in "Silent No More" (ISBN 1590080017) by former United States Representative Paul Findley, a book chronicling the history of the American Muslim community.