Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Nazih N. Ayubi, Political Islam: Reli-

gion and Politics in the Arab World (London: Routledge, 

1991); Gilles Kepel, Muslim Extremism in Egypt: The 

Prophet and the Pharaoh. Translated by Jon Rothschild 

(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985); Richard 

P. Mitchell, The Society of the Muslim Brothers (Oxford: 

Oxford University Press, 1993 [1969]); John O. Voll, 

“Fundamentalism in the Sunni Arab World: Egypt and 

the Sudan.” In Fundamentalisms Observed, edited by 

Martin Marty and R. Scott Appleby, 345–402 (Chicago: 

University of Chicago Press, 1991).

Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj, Abu al-Husayn

  See

hadith

.

Muslim League

  See a

ll

-i

ndia

 m

uslim

 l

eague

.

Muslim Public Affairs Council

 

(MPAC)

Founded as the Political Action Committee of 

Southern California in 1986, the Muslim Public 

Affairs Council assumed its present name in 

1988. It is an American Muslim advocacy orga-

nization that works with city, state, and national 

officials to promote issues involving the civil 

and 

hUman

 

rights

 of Muslims and other minori-

ties in the U

nited

  s

tates

. Its early leadership 

developed from members of the Islamic Society 

of Southern California, one of the first 

mosqUe

s 

established in Los Angeles, California. This cen-

ter has played an active role in the public sphere 

and interfaith dialogue since the 1980s. One of 

MPAC’s founding members was Maher Hathout, 

an Egyptian physician who has become a lead-

ing spokesman for Muslims in the United States 

since he arrived in 1971. He is currently the 

senior adviser to the MPAC board of directors. 

MPAC’s executive director since about 1990 has 

been Salam al-Maryati (b. 1960), who was born 

in b

aghdad

, Iraq, and came to the United States 

with his family in 1964. He holds a bachelor’s 

degree in biochemistry from the University of 

California at Los Angeles and a master’s degree 

in business administration from the University 

of California at Irvine. His wife, Laila al-Mary-

K  508