Director of Muslim Life

Afraz Khan is a faith leader with a deep passion for community organizing and racial justice. He led constituent outreach efforts in the Lower East Side and Chinatown neighborhoods while working in NYC government. At the ACLU, he managed legislative advocacy campaigns to build legal protections for immigrant communities. After completing graduate school at UC Berkeley in 2023, Afraz served as a social impact consultant at Bridgespan advising nonprofits and foundations. His focus on tackling systemic issues of inequity is deeply informed by his commitment to faith. 

Born and raised in Southern California, Afraz completed his memorization of the Qur’an under his teacher Bilal Lakhani. Since moving to New York for college, he’s had the honor of being continuously mentored for 10+ years by Imam Khalid Latif, Dr. Amina Darwish and Shaykh Faiyaz Jaffer on working with and supporting university populations and local communities. Afraz completed a range of coursework from Zaytuna College’s Quranic Arabic Intensive to the American Learning Institute for Muslim (ALIM)’s summer program. He continues to seek knowledge through Kitaab Academy and The Majlis Seminary, currently learning from Shaykh Jamaal Diwaan, Shaykha Muslema Purmul and Shaykh Fouad Elgohari. 

In the college context, Afraz served as a Religious Life Advisor at Columbia University, collaborating with university staff to build out resources for their Muslim community. In the Bay Area, he has provided faith-based counseling to students and facilitated a range of student programming across UC Berkeley, Los Medanos, SJSU and Stanford. He has provided pastoral care to dozens of students, staff and faculty. 

While studying at UC Berkeley, Afraz served as a Board Member of Urban Compassion Project, a local organization supporting unhoused populations in the Bay Area. He was a Lead Canvasser at the Haas School of Business, mobilizing dozens of fellow Graduate Student Instructors (GSIs) to participate in what is still considered the largest worker strike in U.S. higher education history. In May 2023, he co-authored an op-ed with classmates on their travels to the West Bank and the proliferation of propagandized trips across MBA programs which erased the Palestinian narrative. 

In the community, Afraz has been teaching at the Lighthouse Mosque in Oakland for the past three years, conducting weekly classes on Qur’anic engagement and spiritual development. He volunteers as a jail chaplain under the guidance of Shaykh Hassan Maseeh and Chaplain Bilal Mustafa serving incarcerated populations at Santa Rita and Richmond facilities. Afraz has had the privilege of leading the nightly prayers in Ramadan (taraweeh) for 14 years and has officiated over 100 weddings. 

In his free time, Afraz loves to play basketball, spend time in the great outdoors and refine his freestyle rap game.

Connect with Afraz: afraz@berkeleymuslimlife.org