National Association of Muslim Lawyers
Legal organization of the United States
National Association of Muslim Lawyers (NAML) is an organization of Muslim lawyers founded in 1996 as 'Muslim JD'. In 2000, it was renamed to its current name. NAML conducts an annual conference with several hundred legal professionals participating in it, including Muslim attorneys federal judges, law professors, and law students. It is a 501(c)(6) organization according to the IRS in the year 2001. In a brief before the Supreme Court, NAML describes itself as the largest professional organization for American Muslim lawyers and its "activities include organizing educational programs on current legal topics of interest, supporting regional Muslim bar associations, and serving the law-related needs of the general public through community service efforts."
NAML's board of directors includes representatives of the National Muslim Law Students Association and 15 local Muslim bar associations, including the Bay Area Association of Muslim Lawyers (BAMBA), Muslim Bar Association of Southern California (MBASC), Capital Area Muslim Bar Association (CAMBA), Florida Muslim Bar Association, Georgia Association of Muslim Lawyers (GAML), Muslim Bar Association of Chicago (MBAC), New England Muslim Bar Association (NEMBA), Michigan Muslim Bar Association (MMBA), Association of Muslim American Lawyers (NYC Area) (AMAL), Philadelphia Muslim Lawyers, Dallas-Fort Worth Muslim Bar Association (DFWMBA), Muslim Bar Association of Houston (MBAH), Muslim Bar Association of New York (MuBANY), New Jersey Muslim Lawyers Association (NJMLA), and Oregon Muslim Bar Association (OMBA).
In 2005, the organization Muslim Advocates was founded as extension of NAML. In 2007, Shari'ah expert and president emeritus of NAML, Mohammad Fadel, who teaches law at the University of Toronto, quoted a Muslim jurist as saying that in Islamic law, when spouses disagree as to whether the husband has exercised lawful discipline or used excessive violence, it is presumed that the wife is telling the truth unless the husband is known for his piety. In 2017, the president of NAML, Asifa Quraishi-Landes criticised the law proposal American Laws for American Courts banning Sharia in Wisconsin spearheaded by Tom Weatherston stating "They see any acknowledgment of Sharia in American Muslim life as a first step to the Trojan Horse." In the murder case of Nabra Hassanen, NAML expected the criminal to receive a life sentence without parole.
In 2016, a new NAML was relaunched, with a new board of directors composed of representatives of eleven Muslim lawyer associations from San Francisco to New York City as well as the National Muslim Law Students Association.
After its reboot in 2016, NAML restarted its now-annual conferences, beginning with Chicago, Illinois for the first national conference since 2007, with the theme "Advancing Justice; Serving Communities."
In 2018, under the leadership of Gadeir Abbas as president, NAML filed an amicus brief in Trump v. Hawaii, with the assistance of Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP. NAML's 2018 national conference, with the theme "Lawyers as Leaders", was in Dallas, Texas.
The public source identifies “National Association of Muslim Lawyers” as legal organization of the United States. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around National, Association and Muslim.
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