Siraj Wahaj
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-->Siraj Wahhaj (né Jeffrey Kearse) is a well-known African-American Muslim convert speaker in North America, and a supporter of Islamic causes in America. He's currently the Imam of Masjid Al-Taqwa in Brooklyn, New York.
Born and raised in New York, he became a sunday school teacher as a teenager, then later went to New York University (NYU) where he studied Math Education. In the 1960's, he became attracted to the Nation of Islam, then later left it for Sunni Islam. He changed his name to Siraj Wahhaj, which means "Bright Light" in Arabic, and was chosen to receive Imam training at the Umm al-Qura university of Mecca in 1978. he also briefly taught a course in Islamic studies at Howard University.
He started his own mosque in 1981 in a friend's apartment in Brooklyn. Although it originally started out with only 25 people, today it is a well-known mosque in New York City.
Imam Siraj has been Vice President of ISNA (Islamic Society of North America) since 1997 and has served on the Majlis Ash-Shura, a consultative council of Islamic scholars, since 1987. He is also a member of the Board of Advisors for the American Muslim Council. He has appeared on several national television talk shows and interviews in America. Imam Siraj was the first person to give an Islamic invocation to the United States Congress. He led his Brooklyn community in an anti-drug patrol in Brooklyn, New York in 1988, which was a success and put a dent in the drug trade in Bedford-Stuyvesant, and received high praise from the NYPD for his efforts.
He once lead a community-based anti-drug campaign in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn, in which he staked out drug houses in the cold of winter for 40 days and nights, forcing the closure of 15 drug houses.
In 1991 Imam Siraj Wahhaj offered an invocation (opening prayer) to the United States House of Representatives. He was the first Muslim to do so.
On 2 February 1995, Wahaj was listed by the United States Department of Justice as one of several "unindicted persons who may be alleged as co-conspirators in the attempt to blow up New York City monuments," including the World Trade Center in 1993. He was a character witness during convicted Islamic terrorist Omar Abdel-Rahman's World Trade Center bombing trial.
He was the vice president of the Majlis as-Shura of New York. He has also served on the executive board of the Islamic Society of North America.
Imam Siraj is a fairly prolific speaker in America. He makes many appearances at the major North American Muslim conventions, and numerous forums and lectures in New England. His English audio lectures are fairly popular among the Muslim community, with titles like "Allah's Word is Supreme," "Are You Ready To Die?" "Confusion of the Ummah," "Control Your Anger," "Easy Way To Paradise," and "Good or Bad Company: How to Judge."
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