Meet Muslema Purmul

Muslema Purmul was born in Raleigh, North Carolina and raised in San Diego, California. She graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a double major in Religious Studies and Middle Eastern Studies. During these years she served a number of different roles at her local MSA at UCSD as well as MSA West. After graduating she left to study in Egypt where she spent the better part of the next 7 years. She completed the Bachelors program in Sharia from al-Azhar University in Cairo and also completed almost two years of graduate work at the American University in Cairo in Islamic Studies.

Upon her return to America, she served the Southern California community in various capacities including religious instruction, directing youth and young adult programs, university chaplaincy, and offering community pastoral care at and with local masjids and organizations. She has taught classes and spoken nationally and internationally about issues related to Islamic law and ethics in an array of educational settings including conferences, retreats, universities, libraries, and mosques.

Currently she serves as Assistant Religious Director at The Majlis, a community organization she and her husband co-founded together seeking to nurture safe community spaces where people can learn and live Islam, based on the traditional sources of understanding the faith, while acknowledging the particular challenges of the American context.  Muselema recently graduated from Bayan.

Meet Cesar Domiguez

César Domínguez works in Administration and Student Services at Bayan Islamic Graduate School, where he obtained his Master’s Degree in Islamic Studies and Leadership in 2015. He studied classical Arabic at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt. He is a Mexican convert to Islam, born in California, and currently serves as imam and teacher for LALMA, the Los Angeles Latino Muslim Association and is also co-chair of the Christian-Muslim Consultative Group. Since 2006, he has been actively involved in the Muslim community of Southern California through his work with local mosques and several Muslim organizations, taking part in interreligious activities and text-study groups and leading sessions on Islam at churches and schools to foster understanding between people of different faiths and to promote an unbiased and honest image of Muslims in North America, especially within the Spanish-speaking population. He is a Spanish-language translator of Islamic books and a stage actor.

Meet Jihad Saafir