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OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY: Mahdi Bray
Date Posted: Monday, April 06, 2009
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| Mahdi Bray, MAS Freedom Executive Director |
Imam Mahdi Bray is a long time civil and human rights activist currently serving as the Executive Director of MAS Freedom (MASF), the Washington, D.C.-based civic and human rights advocacy entity of the Muslim American Society (MAS). Bray also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice and is a national board member of Religions for Peace USA. He has formerly served as both President of the Coordinating Council of Muslim Organizations (CCMO) and as a board member of the Interfaith Alliance, Americas largest interfaith organization with over 150,000 members.
Bray also serves the community as a host of the Washington, D.C.-based television program, Islamic Perspectives, and hosts The Crescent Report on New World Radio (WUST-1120AM), the Multicultural Voice of the Metropolitan Area.
Additionally, Bray previously served as a consultant and political advisor to Bonner & Associates, Washington D.C.'s largest grassroots lobbying firm; served with the National Center for Housing Management; the Alexandria City Redevelopment and Housing Authority, Community Relations Department; the City of Norfolk, and Virginia's Department of Community Improvement; with the Independent Voter League, and as Political Advisor and Strategist to several national, state, and local political campaigns.
In service of his community Bray has also served as an organizer of the "No War on Iraq" movement, and as a liaison between the Bush administration's White House Faith-Based Initiative Program (which he subsequently opposed), and as a congressional affairs representative on behalf of the Muslim community.
Below is a supplemental listing of additional civil and human rights projects Bray has participated in or been a member of over the past 5 decades:
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Member of the 1963 Youth NAACP New Central Baptist Church and participant in the March on Washington referenced in the 1963 edition of the African American Weekly Journal Guide; |
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Member of the Youth Contingency of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee; |
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Participant in demonstrations opposing segregated public accommodations in Norfolk Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida; |
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Member of Youth of the Independent Voter's League (IVL) and the Bel Diamond Civic League; |
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Member of the Black Student Union, Florida A&M; |
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Employed by the Unitarian Universalists Association Service Committee as an advocate for the National Moratorium on Prison Construction with a focus on civil liberties and sentencing reform; |
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Member of People Against Rascism and the Klan (PARK) an ad-hoc committee working against attempts to Organize clan activities in the District of Columbia; co-chaired by Brian Becker; |
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Member of the Free South Africa Movement at the All Souls Unitarian Church and participant, together with mentor and Former Congressman, civil rights leader, and Chief Lieutenant to Dr. Martin Luther King, Reverend Walter Fauntroy, in demonstrations in front of the South African Embassy |
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Organizer for the 30th Anniversary March on Washington; and, |
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Leader of peace and human rights delegations to Bosnia, Slovenia, Croatia, Sudan (Darfur), East Africa, Egypt and Australia. |
Bray is also author of The Masjid Voter's Guide and The Political Guide for Masjid Activists.
Contrary to the claims of Islamophobes and right-wing groups attempting to characterize Bray, and an entire audience of rally attendees, as supporters of Hamas (based on the a video-clip from a pro-Palestinian rally that has been grossly and negligently taken out of context), Bray is not now, nor has he ever been, a supporter of Hamas. However, Bray does unequivocally embrace the right of Palestinians for a home land and self-determination.
The above information is submitted for citation and as a challenge to assertions made by an unidentified author at Wikipedia alleging that prior to his involvement with MAS, Bray had no prior history as a civil and human rights activist, and in further response to allegations purported by said author at Wikipedia, alleging Mr. Bray to be a supporter of Hamas which, again, HE IS NOT.
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