INDIANA — Faisal Kutty is a lawyer, academic, writer, public speaker and human rights activist.
The renowned Canadian Muslim figure is also regarded as outspoken on issues of human rights, Islamic thought, and anti-terror legislation.
Kutty also co-founded the Canadian Muslim Civil Liberties Association and served as its first legal counsel; he also served as the vice chair and legal counsel to the Canadian Council on American Islamic Relations (now renamed the National Council of Canadian Muslims).
The Muslim lawyer is also an associate Prof of law at Valparaiso University School of Law in Indiana, the US, and serves as an adjunct Prof of law at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto.
He’s a co-founder of KSM Law, a respected Toronto, Canada law firm with an international client base.
The son of the famous Indian Muslim Sheikh Ahmad Kutty was included in ‘the 500 Most Influential Muslims in the World’ in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016. The List is compiled by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Institute and is affiliated with the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought.
The activist of Indian origin has received many awards during his career, including iCair Civil Rights Award in 2012 from the Cleveland chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR).
That’s in addition to the 2007 Award of Maher Arar and Monia in Civil and Human Rights from Maher Arar/Monia Mazigh and the Canadian Muslim Network for his work in advancing civil and human rights in Canada.
In 2004, he won the Professional Excellence Award by the American Federation of Muslims from India. In 2003, he was also awarded the Community Service Award from the Toronto Community Resources Consultants for his work in advancing human rights in Toronto.
Kutty immigrated to Canada in the mid-1970s with his parents. He grew up in Kerala, India, and in the Canadian cities of Montreal and Toronto. He also spent some time in Ottawa.
The Muslim immigrant served as the first Islamic culture and practice content consultant for Little Mosque on the Prairie, a Canadian sitcom that aired on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
His several writings include a book review for ‘the Globe and Mail’ in 2009 about Islam, secularism and liberal democracy.
He also wrote another book review for the ‘24 Windsor’ about the constitution of law in 2006. In 2007 he penned the ‘Non-Western Societies Have Influenced Human Rights in Opposing Viewpoints: Human Rights 41’.
In Islamic topics, he wrote “the Shari`ah Factor in International Commercial Arbitration’ in 2006, as well as the ‘Islamic Law and Adoptions”, and “the Kutty Islamic Law Flowchart.”
Furthermore, he also wrote “The Myth and Reality of ‘Shari`ah’ Courts in Canada: A Delayed Opportunity for the Indigenization of Islamic Legal Rulings”, in addition to a legal studies research paper named ‘Islamic Law in U.S. Courts: Judicial Jihad or Constitutional Imperative.’