American Muslim Bar Association (AMBA)

AMBA was founded by Salmah Rizvi, a lawyer and former official in the administration of President Barack Obama who guaranteed the bail of a lawyer who firebombed a police car in New York City during the 2020 riots, whom Rizvi described as her “best friend.” ³

Background

The American Muslim Bar Association was founded in 2020 to provide a voice for Muslims in the legal profession to engage in advocacy on social and political issues. ⁴ It became tax-exempt in 2022. ⁵

Issue Positions

Israel-Hamas War

American Muslim Bar Association includes opposing Israel’s war against the U.S.-designated terrorist group Hamas in response to Hamas’s terrorist attacks against Israel on October 7, 2023. AMBA endorsed the March on Washington for Gaza. ⁶

AMBA has joined other Muslim legal groups in accusing law firms of engaging in Islamophobia when not hiring law students who espouse anti-Semitic viewpoints. ⁷ AMBA also accused the Biden administration of potentially engaging in censorship of pro-Hamas viewpoints and said the Federal Bureau of Investigation engaged in “intimidation” of Muslims. ⁸

Abortion

AMBA has declared abortion to be a “human right,” and says opposition is based on “colonialism” and “white Christian nationalism.” A paper on the issue also described women who carry babies as “pregnant persons” and was signed by Muslim legal groups, abortion advocacy groups like Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, and left-wing faith-based advocacy groups like Faith in Public Life. ²

Defunding Police

In 2020, AMBA urged elected officials across the country to defund local and federal law enforcement agencies. ⁹

Leadership

American Muslim Bar Association’s founding president was Salmah Rizvi, whose parents came to the U.S. when she was a child. As of May 2024, Rizvi sits on AMBA’s board and was named executive director of Hawaii’s ACLU chapter in 2024. ^{10 11} Rizvi was a human rights activist in her youth, worked in several significant roles during the Obama administration, and was named a 2014 fellow by the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans. ¹²

In 2020, she defended two friends who were accused of bombing an empty police car amid rioting after the death of George Floyd. Rizvi told CNN that her friends “are not a threat” and are “really kind-hearted.” ¹³ She also told National Public Radio that one of the attorneys, her “best friend” Urooj Rahman, was “not a radical,” and took on bail responsibilities so Rahman could return home while awaiting trial. ^{14 15} Rahman was eventually sentenced to 15 months in prison after being convicted for throwing a Molotov cocktail. ¹⁶

The president of AMBA’s 2024 executive committee is Bilal Ezzeddine, a corporate attorney. ^{17 18}