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MAI eNews Brief
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
| State Muslims converge in 'a
coming of age" |
A Muslim film
festival will feature titles like "Little Mosque on the
Prairie."
Muslim comics will
seek laughs with jokes about being confronted by bigots
and airport security
checks.
And a local band,
Sonz of the Crescent, will bring a little Muslim hip-hop
to the house.
But beyond its
lively entertainment, the first statewide convention of
Indiana Muslims taking place this weekend is seen by
some as a milestone. For a diverse community under great
scrutiny since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks,
they say it represents a sign of staying power and their
desire to become fuller participants in their state's
future.
"I would say this is a coming of
age," said Louay Safi, a Plainfield resident and staffer
with the Plainfield-based Islamic Society of North
America. "This is a very significant
threshold."
The weekend's agenda includes
serious discussions about the need for greater Muslim
political activism, epitomized by a scheduled speech
from Democratic presidential candidate and former U.S.
Sen. Mike Gravel of Alaska, who wants to end the Iraq
war immediately.
There will be sessions
for Muslim youths, including one on how to balance the
faith's strict rules on gender relations in a modern
society.
The three-day event,
which began Friday, is the product of a relatively new
organization called the Muslim Alliance of Indiana. The
group's greatest previous efforts were landing an
invitation for Muslims to stage Ramadan suppers in the
governor's residence and "Muslim Days" with legislators
in the Statehouse.
It also comes on the heels of the
debut of a quarterly magazine, The Muslim Hoosier, and
the establishment of a Muslim chamber of commerce. "It
is the idea that Muslims are realizing themselves as
being Hoosiers just like any other individual or group,"
said Shehzad Qazi, a 19-year-old student at Indiana
University-Purdue University Indianapolis who manages
the magazine.
In some ways, these are
the next steps for a Muslim community that has
established 50 religious institutions around the state,
including Islamic centers, mosques and student
associations -- most of them within the past 30
years.
The convention at the
Adam's Mark near the airport is expected to draw about
300 people, which is modest compared with the 30,000 who
attend the Islamic Society of North America's gathering
in Chicago. The Indianapolis event opened with an
interfaith luncheon that drew participants from the
Christian and Jewish communities -- symbolic, organizers
said, of the need for Muslims to be fully engaged with
the broader society.
Also in attendance were a lawyer
from the U.S. attorney's office and two agents from the
FBI, which has tried to build allies in the Muslim
community and occasionally recruits Arabic speakers to
its ranks.
A vendor selling head scarves
made in Kuwait and Dubai set up shop in the bazaar. And
more than 70 early arrivals held Friday prayers in a
conference room emptied of chairs and tables but covered
with white floor sheets. In one corner of the windowless
room, a paper sign read "Qibla," denoting the direction
toward Mecca, where Muslim prayers must be
directed.
Some say the conference
may also unite Muslim Hoosiers in the issues they
commonly face.
Both immigrant Muslims
from countries around the world and American-born
believers, particularly black Muslims, could stand to
learn more about their brothers and sisters in the
faith, said Michael Saahir, an imam with the Nur-Allah
Islamic Center in Indianapolis.
"Though we are all Muslims
following the Quran and the traditions of Muhammad, the
cultural diversities have to be worked through," Saahir
said. The convention, he said, "is a
good demonstration of what could be or what should
be." |
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Brightening state's spirit with rainbow of
believers - Indianapolis Star
Editorial |
Our
position:
Myths must give way to acceptance of Indiana's
Muslims.
Doctor. Lawyer.
Judge. Firefighter.
Student.
Foreign-born.
Native.
Conservative.
Liberal.
Black. White.
Yellow. Brown. Red.
Common denominator:
Hoosier Muslim.
That's a pairing
that still rings odd to many, if not most, of those who
have seen followers of Islam become their neighbors in
increasing numbers and degrees of
conspicuousness.
As The Star's Robert King
elucidated Saturday in his coverage of their first-ever
statewide convention, Indiana's Muslims prize their
religious identity but have neither the desire nor the
realistic possibility of living locally or nationally as
a people apart.
From pop music to presidential
politics, Muslims are weaving themselves inexorably into
an American tapestry that is far from new to their
threads. In Indianapolis as in the rest of the country,
a practitioner of the world's fastest growing faith is
less likely to be a newcomer from Asia or the Middle
East than he or she is to be an African-American with
centuries of lineage in this
land.
In any incarnation, he or she is
overwhelmingly likely to be a taxpayer intent on keeping
a household in peace and prosperity. That simple fact
has taken a battering since Sept. 11, 2001, as
government has exercised its broadened anti-subversive
powers especially upon Muslims while demagogues in the
media and political realm have fomented
fears.
Muslim civic and religious
associations in America have been as forthright and
persistent in denouncing terrorism around the world as
they have been in standing up for their own civil rights
here. Yet myths persist: that Islam is not a religion of
peace, that American mosques harbor evildoers, that
Muslims aren't passing the test of citizenship by
speaking out against violence committed in the name of a
religion with more than a billion adherents across the
globe.
Time will erode prejudice, as it
has with other minority religions over the past century
or so. Already, leaders of the Islamic Society of North
America, which chose to locate in salt-of-the-earth
Plainfield, Ind., more than two decades ago, have
encouraging stories to
tell.
In the immediate aftermath of
9/11, for instance, the organization experienced, not
the wrath of its small-town neighbors, but an outpouring
of sympathy and support.
Last year, this largest
organization of Muslims on the continent elected a new
president -- Ingrid Mattson, who is white, female,
Canadian-born, raised Catholic . .
.
. . . and a Hoosier
Muslim.
May the stereotypes, rather than
the facts, continue to take a
beating.
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| Pakistan Earthquake Rebuilding
Efforts Committee Second Annual
Fundraiser |
Planting Seeds for a Better
Future
The Pakistan Earthquake Rebuilding
Committee and PAFA proudly present the 2nd Annual
Fundraising Dinner.
Saturday, September 8, 2007
6:00
- 10:30 p.m.
$40 per person
Held at the beautiful Clowes Common
at Park Tudor School
If you would like to make a
donation to this cause, please visit http://www.tcfusa.org/.
FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT
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MUSLIM
ALLIANCE OF INDIANA is dedicated to empower Muslims
through social engagement and developing awareness of
public issues among Muslims and connecting 280,000
Muslim Hoosiers with the
leadership.
To learn more about past activities
and accomplishments, please visit at www.muslimalliancein.com
To be involved with MAI mission, please contact
maiexecdir@gmail.com
To strengthen and disseminate the
vision, please forward this message to others in Indiana
or send email list to maiexecdir@gmail.com
This is
intended for Muslim Hoosiers and friends promoting peace
and harmony, mutual respect and making Indiana strong.
If you want to be off this list, please
advise. Shariq Siddiqui
Executive Director
Muslim Alliance of Indiana
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| Featured
Article |
| MAI EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
ADDRESSES ISNA CONVENTION ON PREVENTING DOMESTIC
VIOLENCE |
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MAI Executive Director, Shariq Siddiqui,
spoke at the ISNA Convention about the problems related
to domestic violence within the Muslim community in
America. He urged Imams and community leaders to
fight against this threat to family harmony.
Siddiqui was invited by ISNA to serve on this panel that
was moderated by MAI Associate Executive Director,
Rafiyah Zakaria.
"This clearly shows how ISNA values the
role MAI is playing at the grassroots level on issues of
importance," stated Dr Ansari, President of
MAI |
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