ASKIA 
MUHAMMAD
AQUIL

Askia Muhammad Aquil (fka Otha Leon Favors, Jr.), is a faith leader, human rights activist, and community organizer with over 45 years of professional experience as a manager, director, community organizer, and leader. Perhaps best known for his community activism as Otha Favors (1968-70), who challenged USF to diversify its faculty and to offer its first Africana Studies program, he later became also known for organizing the community around preserving black high schools, violence prevention, community policing, affordable housing, and other important social issues. 

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Currently, Imam Askia Aquil serves as a Muslim faith and community leader, most often called upon to lead interfaith activities, as well as to organize BIPOC communities around important social issues of today (Covid-19, and affordable housing, minority veteran services).  For example, as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Collective Empowerment Group of the Tampa Bay Area (CEGTBA), a multi-faith group established to address systemic financial and economic inequities throughout the greater Tampa Bay area, he managed the “I Took The Shot” COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign, funded by the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg. Askia serves faithfully on many community boards and is the President of his own non-profit, Dog Tag Heroes, Inc.