Hassaan Shahawy (JD’22) has recently been elected as the 135th and first Muslim president of the prestigious Harvard Law Review. Shahawy, a Los Angeles-born Egyptian-American, stated that his election evidenced “legal academia’s growing recognition of the importance of diversity, and perhaps its growing respect for other legal traditions.”
When contacted by the Islamic Law Blog to comment on this momentous achievement, Shahawy stated:
I’ve never aspired to being the “first Muslim” to do anything. I’ve always just cared more about how I’m actually helping people. But seeing the funny tweets about how my election heralds the impending “Harvard Sharia Review” (and appreciating the irony that they’re saying this just because I’m Muslim rather than because of my academic background in Islamic law), I understand that Muslim-Americans really are still the prodigal outsiders of American public discourse, so I hope that these small symbolic moments can do at least some good.
As the Islamic Law Blog, we congratulate Hassaan on this achievement and wish him continued success!