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W&L Law Symposium to Explore Discrimination Against Muslim Americans

This month, the W&L Law Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice, in partnership with the Frances Lewis Law Center, will host a symposium exploring the impact of 9/11 on the treatment of Muslims in America.

The symposium, titled “Discrimination Against Muslim Americans in a Post-9/11 World,” will take place on Feb. 15 in the Millhiser Moot Court Room, Sydney Lewis Hall on the grounds of Washington and Lee University School of Law in Lexington, Virginia. This event is free and open to the public. Registration is available online.

The keynote speaker for the symposium will be Nancy Hollander, an internationally recognized criminal defense lawyer who represents two prisoners at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. Her lunchtime lecture will discuss the case of the Holy Land Five, who were once the co-founders and chief staff of the Holy Land Foundation, then the largest Muslim charity in the United States, and are now serving prison terms up to 65 years under convictions for material support of terrorism.

The symposium will include two panel discussions with a variety of experts specializing in civil rights law and Muslim-American issues. The topics of the panels will be Muslims in America Today: Where We Are, Where We’ve Been, Where We’re Going” and “Sharia Law: What it is, what it isn’t, and what role it should have in the courts.” A complete schedule for the symposium is available online.

The mission of the Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice (JCRSJ) is to explore the intersection of majority and minority culture through discrete legal issues. To that end, the Journal seeks to provide a space for scholars of all persuasions to expand and develop a theoretical, critical, and socially relevant dialogue with the legal community. The Journal is excited to further this mission in hosting the 2013 Symposium.