BOSTON: The Harvard Law Review has named a Los Angeles-born Egyptian-American as what it believes is its first Muslim president in its 134-year history, elevating him to the top of one of the most prestigious US law journals.
Harvard Law School student Hassaan Shahawy said he hoped his election represented “legal academia’s growing recognition of the importance of diversity, and perhaps its growing respect for other legal traditions.”
Among the legal and political luminaries who have worked at the Harvard Law Review was former US President Barack Obama, named the journal’s first Black president in 1990. Three serving members of the US Supreme Court were editors of the Harvard Law Review, as were the late Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia.
“Coming from a community routinely demonized in American public discourse, I hope this represents some progress, even if small and symbolic,” Shahawy, 26, told Reuters in an email.
Law reviews are staffed by the top students at US law schools, who are often recruited for judicial clerkships and other prestigious jobs in the profession.
The review’s first female president, Susan Estrich, was elected in 1977. Other presidents have been Latino and openly gay. The first Black woman was elected president in 2017.
Shahawy graduated Harvard as an undergraduate in 2016 with a degree in History and Near Eastern Studies. He then attended the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar to pursue a doctorate in Oriental Studies and studied Islamic law.
Shahawy said he has been active working with refugee populations and on criminal justice reform. His future plans are unclear, though he cited the possibility of becoming a public interest lawyer or working in academia.
Harvard Law Review elects first Muslim president
https://arab.news/82jb6
Harvard Law Review elects first Muslim president
- Shahawy said he hoped his election represented “legal academia’s growing recognition of the importance of diversity”
- Coming from a community routinely demonized in American public discourse, I hope this represents some progress: Shahawy
British navy says it tracked Russian sub for three days in Channel
- The Russian ships had arrived from the North Sea and entered the Channel.
- “Expert aircrew were prepared to pivot to anti-submarine operations if Krasnodar had dived below the surface,” the statement said
LONDON: The British navy said Thursday it tracked a Russian submarine navigating through the Channel for three days, as it steps up efforts to police its seas against such threats.
A British naval supply ship with an on-board helicopter was deployed to track the stealthy Kilo-class submarine Krasnodar and the tug Altay, the Royal Navy said in a statement.
The Russian ships had arrived from the North Sea and entered the Channel.
“Expert aircrew were prepared to pivot to anti-submarine operations if Krasnodar had dived below the surface,” the statement said.
But it sailed on the surface throughout the operation, despite unfavorable weather conditions.
Near the island of Ouessant, off northwest France, the British said they handed over monitoring of the vessels to a NATO ally, without saying which one.
The British military carried out a similar shadowing operation in July, after spotting the Russian sub Novorossiysk in its territorial waters.
Defense minister John Healey announced on Monday the launch of a multi-million pound program to improve the Royal Navy’s capabilities in the face of Moscow’s “underwater threats.”
According to London, Russian submarine activity in British waters has increased by about a third over the past two years.
In early December, the UK and Norway signed a cooperation agreement to jointly operate a fleet of frigates to “hunt down” these submarines in the North Atlantic.
