The Ummah’s Moment: Leading the AI Revolution

// Keynote Panel

Location: FIVE-TWO-A

Time: 4:45 PM – 5:15 PM

Moderator: Ramy Noaman

Speakers: Amany Killawy, Dr. James Faghmous, Dr. Waleed Kadous, Junaid Kapadia

Abstract:

The AI revolution is reshaping nations and industries—will the Ummah seize this historic moment? This high-profile discussion calls on Muslim leaders to recognize their responsibility in steering AI for global good, not only through policy and entrepreneurship but also through Islamic Fiqh as our lens into what is right and wrong. The Maqasid, or higher objectives of Shariah, provide a reference point for navigating emerging technologies, while fiqh itself must engage with global expertise to remain relevant to contemporary times. The session will also highlight how the normative “ethics of AI” often diverge from Islamic values—for example, large language models that deliver advice shaped by biased data and corporate fine-tuning. True Muslim leadership in the ethics of AI means presence at every level of the supply chain: from the training data and model design, to the fine-tuning and regulation, to the applications and products that reach society.

Speaker Biographies:

Ramy Noaman — Ramy Noaman is the founder of New York Strategy and Habibi Tech, leading AI implementation for startups, Fortune 500s, and governments. A Harvard alumnus and the world’s youngest negotiator on the UN Sustainable Development Goals, he brings over a decade of expertise in advancing AI strategy, execution, and Muslim tech leadership.

Amany Killawy — Social worker turned social entrepreneur, Amany is the Co-Founder & former COO at LaunchGood.com: A fundraising platform to support Muslims launching good all over the world by helping them raise funds for their projects, campaigns, and creative ideas. Since its inception, LaunchGood has raised over 800 million for over 100,000 projects impacting 130 countries.

Dr. James Faghmous — James H. Faghmous, Ph.D. is a trusted advisor to world-class Muslim executives and public figures, and author of the upcoming book "Spiritual Intelligence: How to Thrive in the AI Age." James began his AI career in 2004 and has since built AI systems for three billion-dollar companies. In 2014, he co-founded a $30M startup at the intersection of AI and global health, with funding from Bill and Melinda Gates. Over the past decade, he has taught AI to thousands of students globally at MIT, Columbia, Stanford, and USC. James earned his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, where he received the Best Ph.D. Dissertation Award for his innovative work in AI and climate change. He completed his undergraduate studies at the City College of New York, where he was nominated for both Rhodes and Gates scholarships. He was recognized as one of the top 50 most influential Muslims by EquityX in both 2023 and 2024.

Dr. Waleed Kadous — Dr. Waleed Kadous, PhD (UNSW), Chief Scientist at StockApp, is a leading voice in AI. Former engineering leader at Canva, Anyscale, Uber, and Google, he has also been at the forefront of Islam and AI, including leading the Ansari Project, devoted to Islamic applications of AI. Their flagship project, ansari.chat, answers more than 30,000 questions about Islam every month.

Junaid Kapadia — Junaid Kapadia is a Software Development Manager at Amazon, where he supports and oversees multiple enterprise scale ML and Gen-AI applications. At Amazon, he has led Engineering, Science and Product teams across Alexa, AWS - transitioning from statistical models to deep neural networks and contributing to the launch of internal AWS services and Amazon Verified Access. Prior to Amazon, he held engineering roles in healthcare, cloud-based Wi-Fi startups and IBM, with early career work in software-defined networking and DevOps. Additionally, he has led the engineering team at Yaqeen Research Institute since its inception.