Faizan Syed is the Executive Director of the Missouri chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MO), the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization.
Faizan was born in Lahore, Pakistan and moved to St. Louis, Missouri in 1992. He attended Kirkwood High School and was the Vice-President of his senior class. He then studied at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where he earned his degree in Political Science. During his sophomore year, he witnessed the Iowa Caucus which helped him decide to pursue political science. Upon graduation, he returned back to St. Louis and was offered the position of Executive Director for CAIR-Missouri, becoming one of the youngest Executive Directors of CAIR.
Hi, my name is Ishak Hossain and I am the newest hire at CAIR-MO as Development and Programs Coordinator! I recently graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree from Washington University in St. Louis and I’m excited to begin working. I joined CAIR-MO because I want to continue advocating for the Muslim community. I thoroughly enjoyed my time as President of the WashU Muslim Students Association, and I couldn’t see a better way to connect advocacy on campus to advocacy in the Missouri community. I hope to empower the Islamic community, encourage Muslims to participate in civic engagement, and promote the common understanding of Islam as a faith and Muslims as individuals. I will be working with CAIR-MO’s staff to increase visibility of the work we do and continue building bigger and better programs and campaigns to give our community an abundance of support in our daily lives. If you would like to get in contact with me for any reason, my email is