University of Southern California

People

Executive Committee


Dafer M. Dakhil
Dafer M. Dakhil is the Director of the Omar Ibn Al Khattab Foundation and President of the affiliated Omar Center for the Study of Civilization. Mr. Dakhil is active on issues affecting education reform and through his work, builds bridges of understanding and cooperation amongst the diverse communities of Los Angeles. Furthermore, he is responsible for initiating various programs to help the American Muslim community transition into active engagement in all aspects of American civic life. Mr. Dakhil believes that the Muslim community should contribute to and benefit from all that a pluralistic democracy has to offer its citizens. He is responsible for directing young adults into civic programs and occupations which allows them to transition and participate in all levels of mainstream community and civic life. Mr. Dakhil serves on the USC Community Advisory Council and is a Member of the Los Angeles Interfaith Environmental Council, the Figueroa Corridor Partnership, and the Christian Muslim Consultation Group. He is the chairperson of the Task Force on Islamic Cultural and Educational Concerns, the Director of “Islam in the Curriculum,” the Chairperson of the “Parent Collaborative," an LAUSD umbrella for all parent-related organizations, and has served on the California School Board’s Parent Involvement Task Force. He has also served on the Board of Education City, County and Communities Relations Committee, Board of Education Citizens Committee on Superintendent Selection Process, Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education Task Force for the Creation of the District’s Human Relations Commission, LAUSD Superintendent’s Task Force on Accountability, and The Los Angeles Unified School District Multi Cultural Curriculum Committee. He is a member of the FBI Multi Cultural Advisory Committee, the Department of Homeland Security Roundtable (Los Angeles), the State Terrorism Threat Assessment Advisory Group, and a Board Member of the Muslim-American Homeland Security Congress. In addition, Mr. Dakhil is a member of the Board of Education's Human Relations Education Council and the California Science Center’s Ethics Advisory Committee.

Hebah Farrag
Hebah Farrag is a Project Specialist at the Center for Religion and Civic Culture, and the Associate Director of the Center for Muslim and Jewish Engagement. She is a graduate from the American University in Cairo (AUC) receiving a Masters in Middle East Studies. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and International Relations from the University of Southern California and a Graduate Diploma in Forced Migration and Refugee Studies from the AUC. Hebah is interested in issues concerning religion, the politics of identity, nationalism, and migration and has worked for and with organizations such as the Levantine Cultural Center, the Youth Policy Institute, Human Rights Watch, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Global Exchange, and Casa Del Pueblo, traveling on delegations to conduct research in places such as Cuba, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Chiapas, Mexico. Hebah is also an 2008-09 alumni of the American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute (AMCLI), a six-month program for emerging Muslim civic leaders, housed at the University of Southern California’s Center for Religion and Civic Culture and working in partnership with Georgetown University’s Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim Christian Understanding.

Reuven Firestone
Reuven Firestone is Professor of Medieval Judaism and Islam at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles and senior fellow at the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture. An ordained rabbi (HUC 1982), he received the Ph.D. in Arabic and Islamic studies from New York University in 1988. From 1987 to 1992, he taught Hebrew literature and directed the Hebrew and Arabic language programs at Boston University, and has taught at HUC-JIR in Los Angeles since 1993. Firestone is the author of Journeys in Holy Lands: The Evolution of the Abraham-Ishmael Legends in Islamic Exegesis (SUNY Press, 1990), Jihad: The Origin of Holy War in Islam (Oxford University Press, 1999), Children of Abraham: An Introduction to Judaism for Muslims (Ktav, 2000), Jews, Christians, Muslims in Dialogue: A Practical Handbook, with Leonard Swidler and Khalid Duran (Twenty-Third Publications, 2007), and Introduction to Islam for Jews (Jewish Publication Society, 2008). He is currently completing a book tracing the revival of holy war in modern Judaism, and a study of the religious notion of chosenness ("election") in monotheistic religions. He has been awarded major grants from the Yad Hanadiv Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute for Advanced Jewish Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Fulbright Foundation. His articles appear in numerous journals, including The Journal of Semitic Studies, The Journal of Near Eastern Studies, The Journal of Religious Ethics, The Journal of the American Academy of Religion, The Journal of Jewish Studies, Jewish Quarterly Review, Judaism, Studia Islamica, The Muslim World, The Journal of Ecumenical Studies, The Encyclopedia of Islam, The Encyclopedia of the Qur’an, and the Encyclopedia of Religion. In addition to traveling extensively in the Middle East, Firestone served on the international "Voice of Peace" radio project and has been involved in a variety of committees and commissions exploring Jewish-Muslim and Jewish-Arab relations.

Brie Loskota
Brie Loskota is Managing Director of the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at University of Southern California in Los Angeles. She has conducted research on young adult religious identity in the United States, on Jewish-Muslim relations, faith-based organizations, and on the role of community in organizing to bring awareness about Darfur. She is a co-curator of the Orphans of the Rwanda Genocide photo exhibit. Currently, she serves on a Los Angeles City Human Relations Committee Task Force, is on the advisory board for the New Ground Muslim-Jewish Community Building Project in Los Angeles, on the executive committee for the USC Passing the Mantle: African American Clergy Leadership Institute, and the American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute. She is an active member of the Pacific Council on International Policy. Prior to joining CRCC, she was a consultant, conducting research and managing special projects for business and non-profit groups. She also directed the Face to Face/Faith to Faith summer intensive in New York that brings high school students together from South Africa, Northern Ireland, the Middle East and the U.S. to learn conflict resolution and inter-religious dialogue. In addition, she taught high school at a Jewish Orthodox day school and, as a graduate student, was a teaching assistant for the USC course on the Holocaust. She received her Master of Arts in Jewish Studies from Hebrew Union College, studied at Hebrew University in Jersusalem, and received her Bachelor of Arts in History and Religion from the University of Southern California.

Donald Miller
Donald E. Miller is Firestone Professor of Religion at the University of Southern California, executive director of the Center for Religion and Civic Culture, and director of the School of Religion. He received the Ph.D. degree in Religion (Social Ethics) from USC in 1975. He is the author, co-author or editor of nine books, including Finding Faith: The Spiritual Quest of the Post-Boomer Generation, with Richard Flory, Global Pentecostalism: The New Face of Christian Social Engagement (September 2007), Armenia: Portraits of Survival and Hope (University of California Press, 2003), GenX Religion (Routledge, 2000), Reinventing American Protestantism (University of California Press, 1997), Survivors: An Oral History of the Armenian Genocide (University of California Press, 1993), Homeless Families: The Struggle for Dignity (University of Illinois Press, 1993), Writing and Research in Religious Studies (Prentice Hall, 1992), and The Case for Liberal Christianity (Harper & Row, 1981). He is completing a co-authored book on immigrant religion in Southern California.

The emerging focus of his research is on international faith-based NGOs, and involves work in Rwanda, Tanzania, and Armenia. His work with the Association of Orphan Heads of Households contributed to the organization's receipt of The World's Children's Prize for the Rights of the Child given by HRM Queen Silvia of Sweden. He has received major grants from the John Templeton Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts, the Lilly Endowment, Inc., The James Irvine Foundation, the John Randolph and Dora Haynes Foundation, the California Endowment, California Council for the Humanities, the Tides Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and Fieldstead & Company.

Staff

Sarah Bassin

A native of Overland Park, Kansas, Sarah Bassin graduated summa cum laude with a BA in religion and history from Lafayette College. While her interest in interfaith relations began through facilitating interfaith programming in her university community, a fellowship focusing on Jewish/Catholic relations through the American Jewish Committee encouraged her to pursue interreligious understanding professionally. Upon graduation, Sarah worked at Princeton University's Hillel before entering the rabbinic program at Hebrew Union College. During the program's first year in Israel, Sarah became both a participant and a facilitator for Encounters, helping future Jewish leaders better understand Palestinians and their collective concerns. In November of 2008, Sarah traveled to Iran as part of a civilian diplomacy delegation through the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Having served as student rabbi of Congregation Bamidbar Shel Ma'alah in Victorville, CA, and as rabbinic intern at the Board of Rabbis of Southern California, Sarah is currently in her fourth year at HUC Los Angeles and excited to be a part of the team at the Center for Muslim/Jewish Engagement.