Meet the HalalFest Team

Azfar Khan 

Content & Brand Lead

Azfar Khan is a 19 year-old first generation Pakistani-American. Azfar is  based out of the Bay Area and enjoys creating content pertaining to the Islamic faith, and now specializes in merging Halal Food awareness & @HalalFest with his content. Azfar would like to inspire a broad audience with his platform and show them that we all start somewhere, but our journey and trajectory lands us too being the greatest version of our future self!

Aziz Poonawala

Regional Coordinator

Aziz Poonawalla has 15+ years of experience in writing, doing research, and data analysis. He has a PhD in Medical Physics and is registered as a Patent Agent before the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Aziz also wrote about Islam and culture st the City of Brass blog, first at Beliefnet.com and later at Patheos.com. He currently tweets as azizhp and blogs about sci-fi and other geeky stuff at haibane.info.

Abbas Mohamed

Creative Coordinator

A social entrepreneur, biotech professional, and SERIOUS foodie. He coordinates the entertainment, cooking demos, and eating competitions at Halalfest, so be sure to swing by the stage and say hello! He is also the director of GAMA, a non-profit dedicated to supporting and empowering artists in the Muslim community. Abbas co-hosts The Artistic Foodies Podcast with Irfan Rydhan. You can see a lot of his food adventures documented on our Instagram @halalfest

Nizar Ahmed

A native to the San Francisco Bay Area and has volunteered with many non-profits such as Medina Education Center, Rahima Foundation and the North American Islamic Shelter for the Abused (NISA). From calamari to cocoa Nizar is always up to taste where the next hot spot would be to recommend to all with the affinity for delicious food

Atif Qureshi

Long time American Muslim Community Activist. He was one of the Past Directors of Bay Area based AMILA.org (American Muslims Intent on Learning and Activism), as well as zabihah.com – the World’s largest database of Halal Restaurants and Businesses and also The ICCF (Islamic Cultural Center of Fresno). His quest for finding the best gyros has taken him to locales all over the country

Meriam Salem

Videographer & Digital Media