Dr. Micah Ben David Naziri is a prolific author, scholar, educator, community activist, martial arts instructor, and spiritual leader. He has penned numerous academic articles.
He has served as an editor for works on Martial Arts and Eastern Medicine, transcribing and creating numerous titles for some of his teachers and authoring several martial treatises of his own.
Originally in school for Art Education, Micah switched to a religious studies and history background at the urgings of his Islamic Studies professor, who would later go on to chair the committee for his first master’s thesis: People of the Book: What the Religions Named in the Qur'an Can Tell Us About the Earliest Understanding of "Islam” (2012).
As the founder of the non-profit organization, the Hashlamah Project Foundation, Micah uses his education in Near Eastern Languages, Religions and historical models of building bridges between Jewish and Muslim communities, to help reconcile and unite Jews and Palestinian Muslims in face-to-face study and dialogue groups. He is currently training for Rabbinical s’mikhah ordination under Rabbi Yehudah Mosheh Benlewi.
The son of a multitude of peoples – Ashkenazi, Sefardic, Melungeon, Native American and others – Micah has often described himself as having “one foot in the masjid and the other in shul.” He considers his understanding of Judaism to be “Judeo-Sufi,” or “Istislam” as described by Rabbeinu Bachya ibn Paqudah (c. 1050–1120 CE), who was the subject of his undergraduate honors thesis (2009).
Micah was awarded his second master’s degree for his pilot study in Jerusalem, The New Constitution of Medina: An Equilateral Constitutional Federation, Based Upon Shared Principles of Judaism and Islam (2015). His doctoral dissertation, Persistence of Jewish-Muslim Reconciliatory Activism in the Face of Threats and “Terrorism” (Real and Perceived) From All Sides (2019), was an outgrowth of this study and the interdisciplinary culmination of his research, in concert with his activism and journalism with Political Blind Spot and Counter Current News.
In addition to his academic work and activism, Micah has been a martial arts instructor for the past two decades. Having first begun his martial journey in 1994, he obtained Black Sash Instructor rank in multiple systems, beginning with Yang Family Taiji in 2005; formal Daojiao “Taoist” discipleship and lineage in 2006; instructorship in Cheng style Baguazhang and Chen, Pan-Ling style Tajiquan in 2008 (no belt ranking system); Black Sash Instructorship in both Northern Shaolin Kuo Shu “Kung Fu” and Xingyiquan in 2009 (from separate schools, trained in concurrently); Chen Village Taijiquan in 2010; Krav Maga in 2017; fifth degree instructor level in Kali/Escrima in 2023 and Pencak Silat in 2025.
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