fmba membership
Join FMBA-Net
FMBA also maintains an active e-mail network for all of its members. If you would like to join FMBA-Net, please enter your e-mail address below.
Google Groups
Subscribe to Florida Muslim Bar Association Network
Email:
Visit this group
Search FMBA
Follow Us
twitter-50x50 fbook-50x50 rss-50x50

FMBA General Body Meeting and Networking Dinner - January 21st

FMBA General Body Meeting and Networking Dinner
Saturday, January 21, 2012 at 6:45 PM
Torange Restaurant
1831 Ponce De Leon Blvd
Coral Gables, FL 33134
$20 charge per person
Please RSVP at http://www.facebook.com/events/169633466469932 or to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
 

FMBA News

New FMBA Board of Directors

 

FMBA held its annual meeting on June 21, 2011 and elected its new officers. The new officers are:

President: Christopher Benjamin
Vice President: Carmen Vizcaino
Treasurer: Saman Movassaghi
Secretary: Open

The new officers have also appointed the following at-large Board members:

Taghrid Hassan
Rashad El-Amin

 

 
FMBA Among Recipients for Florida Bar Diversity Grants
Local Bars Apply for Diversity Grants
Source: Florida Bar News

A new Bar grant program to encourage local voluntary bars to have diversity programs has received 30 applications.

Board of Governors members Arnell Bryant-Willis and Dori Foster-Morales, co-chairs of the Special Committee on Diversity and Inclusion, reported at the board’s January meeting that the grant requests totaled $56,000. The Bar has budgeted $50,000 this year for grants to local bars for diversity-related programs.

Foster-Morales told the board that the committee would carefully evaluate the requests and hoped to be able to grant the entire $50,000.

Passing out the money is only the first step, she added. “We want the committee and the Bar to get out and go to the programs,” Foster-Morales said. “We want feedback. What was the program like? Was it effective?”

She added the committee hopes that at least one of its members and one board member can be at each funded local bar event.

At its February meeting, the committee reviewed the grant requests and approved most of them. For a few, the committee contacted the local bar sponsors for additional information. The committee now expects to spend the full $50,000 appropriation.

Among the programs tentatively approved:

• The Tampa Bay and Central Florida Bankruptcy Bar Associations will provide transportation for minority law students at FAMU’s College of Law to attend a panel discussion on insolvency law during the 2011 National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges 85th Annual Conference to be held in Florida.

• The Clearwater Bar Association is holding a two-hour CLE-diversity symposium following its monthly luncheon meeting. The seminar features the Pinellas County Human Rights director as moderator and panel/audience discussions on diversity and inclusion. With the grant funds, CBA members and judges will be able to attend the symposium free of charge.

• The Third Judicial Circuit Bar Association, its Young Lawyers Section, the Josiah T. Walls Bar Association, and the Third Circuit Association of Women Lawyers will co-sponsor the seven-county, North Florida area’s first diversity initiative, which will include a CLE with a panel discussion to increase knowledge and awareness of diversity and cultural competency.

• The Virgil Hawkins Florida Chapter of the National Bar Association’s Townhall Meeting during Black Caucus Week in Tallahassee will highlight the importance of a diverse judiciary and will explore ways to increase the numbers of minorities on the county, circuit, and federal benches.

• The Florida Muslim Bar Association will provide a continuing education seminar for judges in the 15th, 17th, and 11th circuits on the unique cultural and religious practices of Muslim lawyers and litigants with examples of actual problems attorneys and American Muslims have encountered in the court system.
 
New FMBA Board of Directors
FMBA held its annual meeting on January 5, 2011 and selected its new Board of Directors. The selected board members are listed below.
Officers

President: Khurrum Wahid
Vice President: Christopher Benjamin
Treasurer: Saman Movassaghi
Secretary: Mohammad Faruqui

At Large Members

Yasir Billoo
Rashad El-Amin
Bilal Faruqui
Carmen Vizcaino
Shahzad Ahmed
Tark Aouadi
 

In The News

  • More Florida Fouls
    Newt Gingrich falsely claimed he never favored a federal mandate requiring individuals to have health insurance. Romney repeated a false accusation that President Obama failed to denounce Hamas rocket attacks in a speech to the United Nations. And Santorum insisted that Muslim terrorists are seeking missile bases in Cuba — … More >>
  • Florida education news: School defibrillators, Advanced Placement testing, student uniforms and more
    THANKS, TAXPAYERS: Pasco mom Rhonda Smith thanks the School Board and county taxpayers for putting defibrillators in schools , which saved her life.  PAIRING UP: USF and Hillsborough Community College partner to offer bachelor's degree programs at HCC's Ruskin campus. SCALING BACK: USF Polytechnic's new interim president cuts $1 million in spending by eliminating several programs and positions ...
  • Hillsborough superintendent defends Muslim leader's school visit
    By Kim Wilmath, Times Staff Writer Tuesday, January 24, 2012 TAMPA — Allowing a Muslim leader to speak to high school students does not equate to supporting terrorism, Hillsborough County schools superintendent MaryEllen Elia said Tuesday. Rather, it's a good way to expose students to religions as part of a robust study of history, she said, eliciting boos from a crowd at a School Board meeting ...
  • Confrontation flared outside Monday's GOP debate
    While the public focused on the four GOP debaters on the University of South Florida stage, one of the most heated confrontations Monday night was on the lawn outside.
  • Friends: Tampa bomb plot suspect was radical, loner
    TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — The Kosovo-born American citizen accused of plotting bomb attacks around Tampa was a loner who had grown increasingly radical in his Muslim faith and publicly railed against Jews and Christians in videos he posted on the Internet, according to relatives and friends.