July/August 2023

Mark “Issa” David Smith, a social activist, passed away on May 22 in Northern Virginia.

Imam Saffet Catovic, director of UN Operations for Justice For All, recalls, “I had the honor to know and work closely with him on the Bosnian struggle in the early 1990s (and before this in other justice work).

He was a longtime community activist, organizer, and a pillar of the Muslim community in the Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia area.  Issa advocated for and provided assistance to Muslims in need all over the world through organizations like the Bosnia Task Force and Americans for Soviet Muslim Rights. In 1983 he wrote about the case of the imprisonment of Bosnian Muslim leaders in then-Communist Yugoslavia including, possibly, the first mention of Ali Izetbegovic and Mladi Muslimani (Young Muslims), the Islamic movement in Bosnia. 

Izetbegovic would become the President of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1990 and the founding father of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992. Issa was also involved in the American Muslim press and the American Muslim Council. 

Dr. Sayyid Muhammad Syeed, then secretary general of the Institute of Islamic Thought, recalls that when he came back after a long trip to the Soviet Union and established ASMR, he was looking for someone to lead it. He found Issa to be the only one who had taken courses on Central Asian Muslims. He took the responsibility and started the ASMR Newsletter. This is the only organization that had to fold after a few years because of the collapse of the USSR and the emergence of independent Muslim republics.

Issa was a member of the ADAMS community since 1987. His involvement included serving as an amir and khateeb in the community as well as a Sunday School teacher.  

CAIR executive director Nihad Awad said, “Issa was a pioneer of activism in the Muslim American community and will be fondly remembered for his humor, his hard work, and his defense of human rights in this nation and worldwide.” 

Issa was a prominent advocate for helping refugees of Bosnia and Kosovo, as Washington, D.C. coordinator of the Bosnia Task Force which later became Justice For All (www.justiceforall.org).

He spent many years in support of Imam Jamil Al Amin and was a member of leadership of the National Community of Imam Jamil Al- Amin. He was also a strong supporter of African American and Native American causes.

His career also included years working as a geospatial analyst.

His wife Khadija, his children Tazkiya, Tauhid, and Taslim as well as his grandchildren, Myiesha, Mujahid, Zayna Lyn, Majeed, Layton, Emmeline, and Amira, and siblings Craig, Scott, and Lisa survive him.

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