The eighth annual Reviving the Islamic Spirit (RIS) convention, held in Toronto December 25-27, attracted 17,000 attendees from across North America. The convention featured singer Yusuf Islam (formerly known as Cat Stevens); Hamza Yusuf, founder of Zaytuna College, the first Muslim college in the U.S.; Oxford professor Tariq Ramadan, named by Time magazine as one of the world’s 100 most influential people; Abdal Hakim Jackson, University of Michigan law professor and author of Islam and the Blackamerican; Zaid Shakir, scholar and anti-drug campaigner; Zainab Alwani, researcher on female Islamic scholarship and author on domestic violence; Aisha Al Adawiya, executive director of the human rights group Women in Islam; Jamal Badawi, management professor at St. Mary’s University in Nova Scotia; Liberal MP John McCallum; the comedy group Allah Made Me Funny; and the Muslim hip-hop group Outlandish.
