”Sexual Violence and the Necessity of Compassion with Justice” Khutbah by Sumaya Abubaker (4/24/15)

**Do you need help regarding sexual assault? Please visit this national list of resources to find an organization in your area: http://www.nsvrc.org/organizations Or, email info@womensmosque.com if you need assistance finding help. You are not alone.**

Khateebah Sumaya Abubaker delivers the 4th khutbah for The Women's Mosque of America on April 24th, 2015. In her sermon, Sumaya speaks to the centrality of compassion in Islam, its link to the concept of justice, and the insight and guidance it provides in meeting the challenges of addressing sexual assault and sexual abuse.

Bio:
Sumaya Abubaker serves as project manager for the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture. For over eight years, she has managed many of the Center’s civic engagement leadership institutes for minority faith communities including the American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute.

Prior to joining CRCC, she worked for Wells Fargo Bank, the Council for Islamic Education and The Minaret magazine. She spent many years on the board of ELEV8, a nonprofit designed to empower youth with the tools to engage in activism through the arts. Sumaya is a fellow of NewGround, a program that engages diverse groups of Muslim and Jewish Angelenos in an innovative community-building process of intra- and inter-faith education and reflection, leadership training and civic engagement.

Sumaya is also co-founder of the Rahma Network, an organization established to assist American Muslim communities in addressing sexual violence and abuse. She is a survivor herself and through her involvement in the Rahma Network, she works with survivors, builds resources and conducts speaking engagements on how to prevent and address sexual violence and abuse.

She received her BA from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she studied international development with a specialization in the Middle East/North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa.