Statement from Senator Florence Shapiro

Imam Dr. Yusuf Kavakci was born and raised in Turkey. He is a Turkish-licensed attorney and has been a law professor at Istanbul University and Ataturk University in Turkey.

He is currently the resident Islamic scholar for the Dallas Central Mosque, in Richardson and is the spiritual leader for the Islamic Association of North Texas, serving more than 150,000 Muslims in the Dallas area. Together with the Houston area, this makes up nearly 90 percent of the 400,000-500,000 Muslims in the State of Texas.

He serves on the Peace Institute Advisory Board at Richland Community College in Richardson, and is a member of the Richardson ISD Religious Practices Advisory Board, as well as the Religious Community Task Force of Dallas Independent School District.

He is also involved in numerous inter-faith activities in the Dallas area, including the Muslim-Christian Dialogue Group, Greater Dallas Community of Churches, the Richardson Interfaith Alliance, Interfaith Trialogue Group of Bishops, Rabbis, and Muslim Scholars of DFW, and the Greater Dallas Community of Churches.

He is in Austin today as part of the third Texas Muslim Legislative Day, organized by the Freedom and Justice Foundation. Their schedule includes several workshops, including one on Interfaith Relations, featuring Rev. Dr. George Bithos of the Texas Conference on Churches and Ms. Suzii Paynter of the Baptist General Convention. They will also hold a session on Homeland Security & Immigration, with speakers from the Texas Human Rights Commission and Texas Interfaith Power and Light.

The Freedom and Justice Foundation contacted me with the request for Dr. Kavakci to follow the protocol set 2 years ago during their legislative day, when Imam Moujahed Bakhach of the Islamic Association of Tarrant County opened the Texas House with a blessing. Having worked with Dr. Kavakci on legislation, and seeing his resume and extensive inter-faith experience, I honored his request. He represents a substantial constituency of Texans who deserve to be represented.

Our country prides itself on freedoms, the most relevant today is freedom of religion. In our blessed country, everyone is free to pray according to their religion; and allowing a Muslim to express his freedom demonstrates what we all have in common in the United States… we are all AMERICANS!