Muslim Youth Leadership Symposium (MYLS)- Empower. Mobilize. Lead.
MYLS (Muslim Youth Leadership Symposium) is a program that CAIR Oklahoma adopted in the summer of 2009 as a way to train our Muslim youth to become the social and civil rights activists, community leaders, and religious liaisons of tomorrow. Over the course of five years, we have trained over 300 high school seniors, college students, and young professions through workshops, roundtables, panels, and activities. As we head into the sixth year of the program in 2014, CAIR Oklahoma has plans to expand the MYLS platform to include a program geared towards middle and high school-aged students that will prepare them for the next level of education, provide guidance on campus activism, and be a venue for career counseling and development.
The core mission of the Oklahoma Muslim Youth Leadership Symposium is to provide American Muslim youth with a proactive agenda for positive activism; empower them to lead their communities from the margins to the mainstream; and foster a healthy Oklahoma Muslim identity that fits comfortably within a pluralistic American society. We, at CAIR Oklahoma, are dedicated to fulfilling our MYLS mission by organizing a series of workshops, debates, and collaborations with community and interfaith leaders, local and state politicians, educators, and others that cover a wide range of topics affecting the Oklahoma Muslim community.
Former Speakers:
- Drew Edmondson, Former Oklahoma Attorneys General
- Nihad Awad, CAIR-National Executive Director and Co-Founder
- Imam Dr. Imad Encahssi, Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City
- Judge Robert H. Henry, President and CEO of Oklahoma City University
- Jari Askins, Former Oklahoma Lt. Governor
- Dawud Walid, Executive Director of CAIR-Michigan
- Tamya Cox, Deputy Director and Legislative Council for ACLU of Oklahoma
- Cyrus Ali Contractor, University of Oklahoma Political Science Professor
- Ryan Kiesel, Former Oklahoma State Representative, Executive Director of ACLU of Oklahoma
- Rep. Emily Virgin, Oklahoma State House of Representatives
- Reverend Lance Schmidt
- Reverend Chris Moore
- Mana Tahaei, YWCA Tulsa