ADC Legal Scholarship competition available

ADC to Host Second Annual Ibn Rushd Moot Court Competition

Washington, DC | July 24, 2009 | www.adc.org | On Tuesday July 28, 2009, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) will host the Second Annual Ibn Rushd Moot Court Competition. The event, which concludes the legal advocacy component of the ADC summer legal internship program, will be held at the ADC National Headquarters and Heritage Center in Washington, DC.

Each year, ADC receives hundreds of applications from highly qualified law students from across the United States for the Summer Legal Associate positions. This summer, ADC welcomed four law students who have spent 10 weeks addressing all aspects of ADC's legal work. This year's class of legal associates included: Ms. Salua V. Baida from the American University Washington College of Law; Ms. Jordan Lane from the University of Virginia School of Law; Mr. Fadil Mamoun Bayyari from Washington and Lee University School of Law; and Mr. David Moreno from the University of Baltimore School of Law.

In addition to oral arguments, each student is required to write an appellate brief with a minimum of 15-pages on the Moot Court problem. The fact pattern for this year's competition, which includes written briefs and oral arguments, addresses the First Amendment and the level of constitutional protections afforded a Muslim woman wearing the Hijab; the religious veil of modesty, in a court of law.

This year's competition will be judged by Tefft Smith, Esq., Senior Litigation Partner with Kirkland & Ellis, LLP; Eric Treene, Esq., Special Counsel for Religious Discrimination at the US Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division; and Timothy Edgar, Esq., Deputy Civil Liberties Protection Officer at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

The competition was named after the renowned jurist Ibn Rushd better known as Averroes. Ibn Rushd was a Muslim Andalusian philosopher, jurist, and physician born in 1126 in Cordoba, Spain. He came from a family of legal scholars and was judge in Seville and later served in many court appointments in Cordoba and Morocco. His most famous work, The Decisive Treatise, which spans three decades, stresses the importance of analytical thinking in contrast to the more orthodox theological approach where the emphasis on extensive knowledge of sources. He is often labeled as the father of modern secularism.

Hebrew translations of his work also had a lasting impact on Jewish philosophy. In the Christian world, his ideas were assimilated by Thomas Aquinas and others, especially at the University of Paris, which valued Aristotelian logic. Famous scholastics such as Aquinas believed him to be so important they did not refer to him by name, simply calling him "The Commentator" and calling Aristotle "The Philosopher."

What: ADC Second Annual Ibn Rushd Moot Court Competition.

Where: ADC National Headquarters and Heritage Center, 1728 Wisconsin Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20007.

When: 4:00 pm ET, Tuesday July 28, 2009.

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NOTE TO EDITORS: The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), which is non sectarian and non partisan, is the largest Arab-American civil rights organization in the United States. It was founded in 1980, by former Senator James Abourezk to protect the civil rights of people of Arab descent in the United States and to promote the cultural heritage of the Arabs. ADC has 38 chapters nationwide, including chapters in every major city in the country, and members in all 50 states.

The ADC Research Institute (ADC-RI), which was founded in 1981, is a Section 501(c)(3) educational organization that sponsors a wide range of programs on behalf of Arab Americans and of importance to all Americans. ADC-RI programs include research studies, seminars, conferences and publications that document and analyze the discrimination faced by Arab Americans in the workplace, schools, media, and governmental agencies and institutions. ADC-RI also celebrates the rich cultural heritage of the Arabs.
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Contact: Yousef Munayyer

American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee | www.adc.org
1732 Wisconsin Ave., NW | Washington, DC | 20007
Tel: 202-244-2990 | Fax: 202-244-7968 | E-mail: media@adc.org