IN THIS ISSUE
The Muslim Alliance of Indiana today joined with national Muslim American organizations in commending federal law enforcement officials for foiling an alleged terror plot targeting Fort Dix in New Jersey and awaits the full facts in the case, which will be revealed during the course of the judicial process.
SEE: "6 Arrested in Plot to Attack Fort Dix" (New York Times, 5/8/07)
During a conference call earlier today initiated by Muslim organizations, FBI Assistant Director John Miller stressed that this is a case against a group of individuals, not against a specific religious or ethnic community. Miller also thanked the communities for their outreach efforts and continued engagement. Dialogue with government agencies and law enforcement is a crucial component of ongoing Muslim American efforts to protect the nation and preserve the rights of all citizens.
Working with law enforcement on the local level yields effective partnerships between the Muslim American community and law enforcement. MAI has worked with the Indiana field office to insure the safety of all Americans. FBI officials indicated that the plot was discovered as a result of a tip they received from a local store clerk who had received a disturbing video for duplication from one of the suspects. This type of community cooperation will continue to positively affect law enforcement officials. Additionally, the two key cooperating witnesses who made information available for the indictment against the individuals came from the local Muslim community.
MAI is outraged by the religious justifications used by suspects, as revealed in the court documents issued yesterday. Their false and sinister understanding of "jihad" in no way justifies their alleged plot. At the same time, it is crucial that public officials and federal law enforcement are strategic with their characterizations of the suspects. Any affirmation of the suspects so-called Islamic motivations serves to isolate the majority of the Muslim American community rather than the criminal elements who mask their heinous and terrorist acts with Islam.
Founded in 2001, the Muslim Alliance of Indiana is an American-Hoosier institution which informs and shapes public opinion and policy by serving as a trusted resource to decision makers in government, media and policy institutions. MAI is also committed to developing leaders with the purpose of enhancing the political and civic participation of Muslim Americans. MAI seeks to connect over 280,000 Muslim Hoosiers with each other and their public leadership.
The discrimination suit filed against Whiteco by Muslim employees at a hotel in Louisville is significant to Indianapolis residents because Whiteco is seeking $48 million in support from the city for construction of a Downtown hotel.
While I do not oppose the hotel and have always been an advocate for Downtown growth and revitalization in our neighborhoods, I remain steadfast against supporting companies and institutions that openly discriminate against our citizens. The discrimination by Whiteco is not a Muslim issue. It is an issue that challenges the very tenets of our society.
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." His words of caution ring true today here in Indianapolis.
In his Peterson Plan, Mayor Peterson says he "will champion the goals of diversity and help foster an environment where all individuals have the opportunities to thrive." I trust that the mayor will join with me and my colleagues on the City-County Council by ensuring that city funds are used only to support those who advance diversity through their actions in the workplace.
Patrice Abduallah
Member, City-County Council
Indianapolis
INDIANAPOLIS - Herald-Times staff members took home a number of awards at the Indiana chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists' Best in Indiana Journalism contest.
Competing in a category for daily Indiana newspapers with circulations of less than 40,000, Herald-Times staff members and contributors were honored for:
Best coverage of minority issues - "Local Muslims Still Living in Fear," Dann Denny (first place)...
Local Muslims still living in fear Hate crimes, mistaken media reports have concerned Muslims
By Dann Denny Hoosier Times
September 10, 2006
Bloomington's Muslim community is more fearful today than it was immediately following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
"Immediately after 9/11, local Muslims were afraid of hate crimes," said Nancy Anderson, spokeswoman for the Bloomington mosque. "Now, they're much more fearful of federal law enforcement officials watching them and possibly detaining them."
In March 2003, Bloomington's Muslim community became the object of an FBI investigation that came to light during a two-week airplane surveillance of the city in late February of that year.
During that time, FBI officials interrogated a number of international students at Indiana University.
Anderson said that between 2001 and 2003, "every single Saudi student" at IU was questioned, as well as most leaders in the local Muslim community.
Then in 2003, Channel 13 did a three-part series about the possibility of terrorists living in Bloomington.
The station reported that an alleged al-Qaida operative, Juma Al Dosari, apparently had ties to the Bloomington Islamic Center.
The report said Al Dosari had recruited six young American men for a terrorist camp in Afghanistan, and that in 2001 he spent several months as a paid employee of the mosque - working as a prayer leader.
"That series was sensationalized journalism, and it was devastating to our Muslim community," Anderson said. "Juma's attorney told me the FBI later found he did not recruit those six young men. The FBI will not comment on this because it's classified."
The fallout from that TV report - and the FBI interrogations - is still being felt among Bloomington Muslims.
Numerous attempts to persuade local Muslims to talk about how their lives have changed since Sept. 11 were unsuccessful.
Phone calls and e-mails to Bloomington Muslims - most of whom have spoken freely to the newspaper in the past - went unanswered.
One Muslim did speak, saying he'd received death threats in the past and feared being quoted in the paper might jeopardize the lives of himself and his family.
Anderson sent an e-mail to a list of several hundred local Muslims, asking them to speak to the newspaper.
No one replied.
Fear of federal investigations
Anderson is not Muslim but is married to an Arab Muslim man. The couple has three Muslim children.
She remembers just weeks after the 2001 terrorist attacks, an FBI agent showed up at their home to interrogate their 17-year-old son.
"My son had just gotten his FAA student pilot license, so his name was red flagged," she said. "I was appalled and afraid that our son was being looked upon as a potential terrorist."
Anderson was shocked by the nature of the questions the agent asked.
"I thought he would have some knowledge about Muslims and terrorist organizations and ideologies, and would ask some political or religious questions," she said. "But I quickly realized he didn't have the knowledge to differentiate between one Muslim and another to eliminate innocent Muslims as terror suspects."
Two weeks later, she read that the same FBI agent who had interrogated her son had detained an apparently innocent group of Egyptian Americans in Evansville, alleging they may have been plotting an attack in Chicago.
"That's when my heart dropped, and when I became more concerned about law enforcement than hate crimes," she said. "I never thought I'd see the day when I would fear my government, but their power combined with their ignorance scared me."
Anderson said that in recent years some Bloomington Muslims have been stopped by federal marshals at airport doorways and whisked away for questioning. Others have been questioned for hours at the Canadian border.
"There were some IU international students who went home in 2003 to visit their families and were not allowed to re-enter the U.S. to complete their degrees," she said. "No explanations were ever given."
These types of incidents, she said, have created a cloud of fear that hangs over the Muslim community.
"Muslims here are worried about being under surveillance, wondering if their phone calls and e-mails are being monitored," she said. "And they're afraid if they speak up or say anything political, they will be questioned or unfairly detained or have their visas denied."
Anti-Muslim feelings rising
Making matters worse for local Muslims, said Anderson, is a growing mistrust of Muslims across the U.S.
"Fear mongering from the media and politicians just makes it worse," she said. "There is a general weariness in the Muslim community about being exposed to prejudice and stereotyping by the media and public."
Anderson cited a July 2006 Gallup poll showing that 39 percent of Americans say they have anti-Muslin feelings, 34 percent think Muslims are sympathetic to al-Qaida, and 22 percent would not like to have a Muslim neighbor.
"It's painful to think there might be someone on our street who doesn't want us as neighbors," she said. "And it hurts to think people believe Islam teaches hatred and violence."
Whenever a Muslim group does something violent somewhere in the world, Anderson said, Bloomington Muslims do two things - condemn the violence and be on the lookout for local hate crimes.
Beverly Calender-Anderson, director of the Safe and Civil City Program, said she was saddened to hear that so many local Muslims live in fear.
"I don't want anyone to feel Bloomington is not a safe place to live," she said. "We are willing and eager to do whatever we can to help them feel more comfortable and safe in this community."
Barb McKinney, director of the city's Human Rights Commission, agreed, saying, "Maybe it's time for the community to do something else to show our solidarity and support for the Muslims who live in Bloomington."
Local 'hate' incidents
Anderson said anti-Muslim sentiments surface in Bloomington from time to time, taking the form of hurtful comments or even death threats.
She said a Saudi couple was recently shopping at a local supermarket with their four children. The wife was wearing a scarf and face veil.
"A man came up to her husband and began shouting in his face, saying, 'This is America; why are you making your wife dress like that?'"
Anderson said the woman was too frightened to tell the man she was wearing the garb not because of her husband's demands, but as an expression of modesty and humility before God.
Other local hate incidents have been well reported - the July 2005 firebombing of the Bloomington Islamic Center, the January 2006 spotting of a white male rappelling from the roof of the Islamic center with a hacksaw, and the writing of the word "terrorist" on the wall outside the IU dorm room of a Middle Eastern student last June.
Please send him a quick note of congratulations to Dann Denny on his award and thanks for his thoughtful coverage of the local Muslim community. He can be contacted at ddenny@heraldt.com.
As the nationwide debate about comprehensive healthcare reform continues, the University Muslim Medical Association (UMMA) Community Clinic has been asked to appear before an ad-hoc Congressional hearing on Tuesday April 24, 2007 chaired by House Judiciary Chairman Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D, MI-14).
This is the first time that a Muslim-American healthcare institution is asked to weigh in on one of the crucial issues of our time: the need to ensure universal access to affordable healthcare.
The UMMA Clinic is among a handful of community leaders and grassroots activists invited to participate in a special Congressional hearing that will discuss the current crisis and future of the nation's healthcare system. Congress is seeking UMMA's unique insight as a medical provider to thousands of uninsured residents in Los Angeles, the nation's second largest city.
While in the Nation's capital, UMMA's President and CEO, Yasser Aman will also meet with legislators and policy advocates in hopes of coordinating efforts aimed at improving health care for all. These meetings underscore the urgency for developing sensible wide-reaching reform that establishes access to affordable high-quality healthcare as a right for all people.
Founded in 1996, UMMA is the first charitable health center in the U.S. founded by Muslim-Americans.
UMMA's mission to promote the well-being of the underserved by providing access to high-quality healthcare for all regardless of ability to pay.
For all media inquiries, please contact:
Sharif A. Rosen
Community Relations Coordinator
University Muslim Medical Association
(UMMA) Community Clinic
"Healing Our Community"
711 W. Florence Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90044
323.967.0375 ext.29
www.ummaclinic.org
sharif@ummaclinic.org
Representative Maxine Waters, Los Angeles (D-California) speaking about UMMA (University Muslim Medical Associates):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7AXl4kvbOI
About UMMA:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_p9dU5s3vg
Washington - American Muslims are as diverse in outlook and views as any other group in the United States, but they continue to struggle under the burden of frequent stereotypes and misunderstanding, according to a distinguished panel of religious scholars and journalists who participated in a symposium at Georgetown University in Washington April 19.
Panel member Hadia Mubarak, the first woman to head the National Muslim Student Association, observed that her identity includes the Jordanian and Syrian heritage of her parents as well as her childhood in Panama City, Florida.
"My appreciation for the ideals [of this country] is reinforced by my religion. Islam has been central in shaping my identity as an American," she said.
The one-day symposium was co-sponsored by Georgetown's Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding and "On Faith," an interactive, electronic discussion of religious issues being hosted by Newsweek and Washington Post around the world.
Mubarak was joined by other panelists who together provided a diverse cross-section of American Muslims, including:
- Ingrid Mattson, the first woman to head the Islamic Society of North America;
- Imam Yahya Hendi, the Muslim chaplain for Georgetown University and the U.S. National Naval Medical Center, and the imam of the Islamic Society in Frederick, Maryland (just outside Washington);
- Salman Ahmad, a Pakistani-American medical doctor, and the lead guitarist for the popular South Asian rock band, Junoon; and
- Sherman Jackson, an African American convert to Islam and a professor of both Arabic studies and law at the University of Michigan.
The symposium moderator was John Esposito, a professor of religion and international studies at Georgetown, and the founding director of the university's Talal Center.
Several media representatives participated as well, including the founders of the "On Faith" initiative -- Newsweek editor Jon Meacham, former Washington Post writer Sally Quinn and Newsweek religion editor Lisa Miller.
DIVERSITY AND IDENTITY
Several panelists expressed concern about misperceptions of Muslims held by their fellow Americans.
"They tend to view us as a stereotype, a collective, rather than as unique individuals," Mattson said, "especially those who choose to wear the hijab [head scarf]." Like any other woman, she added, ''Each Muslim woman has a different issue ... we want to be able to define ourselves." (See related article)
The issue of identity in the larger American culture "shouldn't be an issue any more than it is for African-American Christians," according to Jackson. "The meaning of the civil rights movement is that each of us can live the life we see fit for ourselves," he said.
"Muslims are Americans like everyone else," Jackson said. (See related article)
Rock musician Salman Ahmad, who was born in Pakistan but grew up in New York, recalled that his first band included both Catholic and Jewish members.
Islam has a long history of embracing people of different cultures and religions, according to Ahmad. "Pluralism has always been like oxygen for Islam, historically," he said.
In his remarks, Imam Yahya Hendi referred to his international travels to promote religious dialogue and understanding.
American Muslims "are using their knowledge of America and their experiences here to build a bridge between Islam and other faiths," Hendi said. "We care about both worlds because we know both worlds."
VIEWS OF THE NEWS MEDIA
A number of comments reflected frustration with how the news media has depicted American Muslims.
Muslims in the United States often feel a need to apologize or explain the actions of Muslims everywhere, according to Jackson, which is not the case with other racial and religious groups.
As an example, he said that Muslim Americans "are very at home" with the concept of the separation of church and state - and shouldn't be linked to cultures and nations that don't value that separation.
Imam Hendi expressed frustration at the perception that American Muslims haven't spoken out strongly against terrorism when, in fact, they have issued repeated pronouncements, or fatwas, condemning acts of terrorism. (See related article)
In response, journalists Meacham and Quinn stressed that the news media is not necessarily biased, but will always be drawn to stories involving conflict. "You cover what the story is," said Quinn, "and since 9/11 the story has been about Muslims not in this country."
On the other hand, according to Miller, journalism has made huge strides in understanding and covering religion generally in the past six years, Christianity as well as Islam.
After September 11, 2001, "we have learned a lot about Islam," Miller said. "The Muslim community is as diverse as Catholics, as concerned about assimilation as Jews .... We're paying more attention to nuance and complexity."
In an online blog a day after the symposium, Ingrid Mattson said, "With freedom from clerical authority [for American Muslims] comes the responsibility to engage in the debate over the true meaning of Islam."
Despite the "oppressive weight of stereotyping," she wrote, "Hope lies in the goodness of ordinary Americans who try to overcome their prejudices and reach out to their Muslim neighbors. ... Hope lies in the extraordinary moral leadership shown by many American religious leaders to guide their congregations to the path of understanding and compassion."
For more information, see Muslim Life in America and Democracy Dialogues: Freedom of Religion.
More information about "On Faith" is available on a Newsweek/Washington Post Web site.
(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
SVALBARD (Norway): Polar explorer Datin Paduka Sharifah Mazlina Syed Abdul Kadir has made it to the "top of the world."
She reached her destination at 90 degrees North at 2.45pm (8.25pm Malaysian time) in a day of clear sunny skies, according to a report posted on her website last night.
"I am here. Thank you everyone for your prayers and support; this is for all of us Malaysians. Greetings from the North Pole!'' she said in remarks carried on her website www.sharifahpole2pole.com.
It was the culmination of the 42-year-old lecturer's one-and-a-half years of preparation and hard work to reach the top of the North Pole.
Despite enduring bad weather over the last 10 days and having to cross difficult terrain, Sharifah Mazlina surmounted the odds to put the country on the polar map.
Several of her fans posted congratulatory messages on her website.
Sharifah Mazlina, who is the first Asian woman to complete the Pole-to-Pole mission, left for Norway on April 3.
In April 2004, she was the first Asian woman to reach the South Pole.
Earlier reports on her website yesterday stated that good weather and a smooth surface provided her with an easy trek.
"I plan to start early and hope to reach the finishing line during midday so that I can proceed to go back to the Borneo Base camp," she had said earlier.
"Today's (yesterday's) journey was full of ice cracks but I managed to pull it through by walking 13km without any drifting and not pressurising both my feet," she added.
Sharifah Mazlina had been using a Global Positioning System device to record her movement and location, and carried a revolver for safety reasons.
The explorer's achievement also caps a proud moment for Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, who is the patron of the North Pole Expedition Pole-to-Pole Mission 2006/07.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Mounting pressures from Muslim parents in the region have prompted the Muslim Educational Trust to open the new coeducational Oregon Islamic Academy - the first high school in the Northwest geared to Muslim students.
Syed Ahmad was one of those parents. He told Wajdi Said, the trust's executive director, that he moved his family from Texas to Oregon for work and they lived in Tigard to be close to the Muslim Educational Trust's prekindergarten to eighth grade Islamic School. But he told Wajdi that he'd take his family back to Texas to attend an Islamic high school unless one opened here.
The academy's mission is "to shape the minds and hearts of its students according to the teachings of the Holy Quran and the traditions of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH)," the parenthetical phrase an abbreviation for "Praise Be Unto Him."
Said explained that will come in rigorous classes of math, science, history, language arts, Arabic and other courses to prepare students to excel in college as inquisitive learners, and caring and moral adults who are proud of their Islamic beliefs.
"Hopefully they will be part of the success of America in the 21st century," he said.
The educational trust's school has 20 preschoolers. There are 89 K-8 students and a waiting list of 260.
Projections, according to Said, show the high school will open with six freshmen in September. School officials plan to grow to a ninth-12th grade program and add three buildings, including a computer science laboratory. Boys and girls will attend class together, and girls will have the option of wearing the hijab head covering.
The school will be open to students of any faith, Said explained, and all will study comparative religions so they can be leaders in the nation's pluralistic society.
"In this day and age of extremists and fundamentalists, it's wonderful they're wanting to learn about others," said Sister Mollie Reavis, a mathematics and comparative religion teacher and former interim principal at St. Mary's Academy.
Reavis, who served on the Islamic academy's formation committee and reviewed its parent-student handbook and curricula, has seen zealotry across faiths. She welcomes the addition of another Portland-area school that she thinks will prepare youth well for their roles as college students and as citizens.
The Catholic girls high school has had nine students come from the Islamic K-8 school, and they've all done well, Reavis said. But she understands that some Muslim parents might want a high school of their own.
"They want for their children a place where their religion and values are supported and not ridiculed," she said, "and that's what most parents want."
Karen Keyworth, co-founder of the Islamic Schools League of America and its director of education, said by phone from Michigan that she knows of no other Islamic high school in the Northwest.
The league, a nonprofit organization supporting Islamic schools, is about to embark on an extensive study of Islamic K-12 education in the United States. But the league has about 235 schools, serving about 32,000 students, on its reference list. Of those, about 20 percent offer high school education to about 3,200 to 6,400 students, she said.
Many parents with students in Islamic schools face a quandary when their children finish eighth grade. Most opt for public school, she said, others go for a secular or non-Muslim religious private school, and a few home-school their children.
Ahmad and his wife feel strongly that their children need to spend their teen years in a school they believe will reinforce their religious faith and cultural values, such as a respect for elders.
"It's the American private school experience," Keyworth said, as many religious schools add grades once they've reached a sizable demand from parents and a maturity to provide it.
High schools are more expensive to start and operate, she said. Some run like a one-room schoolhouse, with one or two high schoolers busy with independent learning projects. But some are full-scale, stand-alone campuses with all the offerings of large public schools.
"The better the school, the greater the pressure from parents to move up to high school," Keyworth said, but added, "the bottom line is that they have to educate the child well. If they can't, they won't continue." (Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
On May 26, more than 600 Muslim athletes will assemble to compete in the Annual Islamic Games presented by the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) at Crossroads South, South Brunswick.
The annual Islamic Games under the theme "Strong Inside … Strong Outside" will feature action in track and field, basketball, volleyball, soccer, cricket for males and females of all ages.
Many other fun activities, sports and games will be on hand for kids and grown-ups.
The Islamic Games is being launched in response to the growing needs of the Muslim communities. The purpose of the Islamic Games 2007 is to promote athletic skills and serious participation in sports and athletics among Muslims.
Many Muslims, male and female, participate in sports and athletics at all levels, the Islamic Games allows such athletes to meet, network and compete with each other.
The Islamic Games also seeks to provide the forum for Muslim Schools to participate in and compete with each other especially since there is no athletic program for them.
Medals and trophies will be awarded for first and second place in the team sports while medals up to sixth place will be awarded for track and field.
Registration can be done online or by mail-ins. Forms are available at Muslim Schools, local Mosques and Islamic Centers or can be downloaded from www.islamic-games.com. Registration fee is $10., deadline is May 22.
For more information, contact S. Nausrudeen at (718) 554-7620 or visit www.islamic-games.com
For years, few advertisers in the United States have dared to reach out to Muslims.
Either they did not see much potential for sales or they feared a political backlash. And there were practical reasons: American Muslims come from so many ethnic backgrounds that their only common ground is their religion, a subject most marketers avoid.
That is beginning to change. Consumer companies and advertising executives are focusing on ways to use the cultural aspects of the Muslim religion to help sell their products.
Grocers and consumer product companies are considering ways to adapt their goods to Muslim rules, which forbid among other things, gelatin and pig fat, which is often used in cosmetics and cleaning products. Retailers are looking into providing more conservative skirts, even during the summer months, and mainstream advertisers are planning to place some commercials on the satellite channels that Muslims often watch.
Marketing to Muslims carries some risks. But advertising executives, used to dividing American consumers into every sort of category, say that ignoring this group - estimated to be about five million to eight million people, and growing fast - would be like missing the Hispanic market in the 1990s.
"I think Muslims have had to draw into themselves," said Marian Salzman, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of JWT, a large advertising agency in the WPP Group that plans to encourage clients like Johnson & Johnson and Unilever to market to American Muslims. "It puts an increased burden on a marketer post-9/11 to say, 'Look, we understand.' "
Companies in the Detroit area, where there is a dense population of Muslims, are leading the change. A McDonald's there serves halal Chicken McNuggets; Walgreens has Arabic signs in its aisles. And now, Ikea, which recently opened a store in the suburb of Canton, Mich., that has had trouble attracting as many Muslim customers as it had hoped, has been touring local homes and talking to Muslims to figure out their needs.
The store there plans to sell decorations for Ramadan next fall and is adding halal meat to its restaurant menu, or meat that is prepared according to Islamic law. Catalogs in Arabic are being planned, and female Muslim employees are expected to be given an Ikea-branded hijab, to wear over their head if they wish.
Marketing to Muslims is, of course, mostly intended to increase sales, but advertising has also long been a mirror of changes in society.
Ms. Salzman pointed to ads in the 1960s that featured Jewish products like Levy's rye bread, which, she said, helped bring that group more into mainstream advertising. She also noted that ads from companies like McDonald's in the early 1990s portrayed busy mothers who admitted that they did not cook every night like their mothers did.
"Marketers have actually helped us to rewrite the rules about what we're comfortable with," she said.
Because the Census Bureau does not ask about religion, there is no authoritative count of Muslims in America. Some Muslim organizations provide estimates as high as 10 million. Others say it could be as low as three million.
Whatever the number, many Muslims have clustered in areas that include Orange County, Calif.; Houston; the state of Georgia; northern Virginia; New York City and Long Island; and the Detroit area.
Over the last few months, JWT conducted a large study of Muslims in the United States and Britain to determine whether they would be receptive to specialized advertising. There were 835 people in the United States study. Muslim Americans spend about $170 billion on consumer products, JWT estimates; this figure is expected to grow rapidly as the population expands and younger Muslims build careers.
Ms. Salzman said the study found that Muslims were buying many standard products but that they felt excluded from mainstream advertising. In particular, she said, they wanted companies to recognize their holidays.
Ms. Salzman said JWT had little trouble surveying Muslims in Britain, but found it had to clarify at the start of each phone call in the United States that it was not calling from a government agency.
Over the next few weeks, JWT plans to reach out to the chief executives of all of its major clients, including JetBlue, the Ford Motor Company and HSBC, to encourage them to market to Muslims in the United States and Britain.
"These advertisers have been in the Middle East and in the Far East Muslim countries for decades, so they're already dealing with the Muslim market," said Tayyibah Taylor, publisher and editor in chief of Azizah magazine, a Muslim-focused magazine in Atlanta. "They just haven't been dealing with the Muslim marketer here at home."
Almas Abbasi, a radiologist in Long Island who was one of the people interviewed by JWT, said she would be grateful for advertising that included Muslims.
"If Ramadan starts, and you see an ad in the newspaper saying, 'Happy Ramadan, here's a special in our store,' everyone will run to that store," she said.
Her daughter, Shaheen Magsi, a senior at the New York Institute of Technology in Old Westbury, N.Y., said her family turned off their cable television three years ago after seeing too many negative stereotypes about Muslims. She said she quickly grew tired of telling people at school that, no, she did not agree with Osama bin Laden.
"It'd be really good to say, 'Oh, there's a Muslim on TV, and they're portraying something good other than Muslims killing people,' " she said.
Just what approach companies should take to reach Muslims is far from clear. The market is diverse, including African-Americans, South Asians, Caucasians and people from the Middle East, as well as people who are more or less conservative in their religious views. American Muslims disagree about whether the Muslim women in ads should wear the hijab, for instance.
Nationwide Financial Services has already been advertising to people from Pakistan and India, who are often Muslim. But it prefers to focus on their country of origin, said Tariq Khan, Nationwide's vice president of market development and diversity.
Still, religion is culturally relevant at times, he said, and Nationwide may run ads in print publications in June that feature Hindu and Muslim weddings.
Rizwan Jamil, director of beverages at Unilever in Pakistan, said Unilever often ran promotions there for Lipton tea and custard powders during Muslim holidays, using bright and festive packaging, and discounts. These sorts of gestures would appeal to a broad swath of Muslims in the United States, he said, without setting off discussions about religion.
"It's just like when you're advertising something for Christmas," Mr. Jamil said. "You're not talking about Christians or Christianity. You're talking about Christmas, the event. I would be careful - to the extent that I used religion. I wouldn't shout it out. I wouldn't shout out to the world that 'I'm talking to Muslims.' "
There is a genuine fear about how to market to Muslims - and whether to do so - at many big companies, executives at Muslim-focused media outlets and organizations said.
"United States companies don't want to risk alienating their domestic consumers," said Nasser Beydoun, chairman of the American Arab Chamber of Commerce in Dearborn, Mich., which is working with Ikea, Wal-Mart and Comcast to develop strategies to reach Muslim consumers. Other companies like Frito-Lay and Kodak have recently considered marketing to Muslims.
Publishers of Muslim women's magazines, like Azizah and Muslim Girl Magazine, said they had to dispel advertisers' concerns that they would feature articles that were radical or political.
Bridges TV, a cable and satellite network, has changed its sales pitch to make advertisers more comfortable. When it was introduced in 2004, Bridges TV presented itself as a Muslim television network, but lately the network has been having better luck labeling itself as "bridging the West and East," said Mohamed Numan-Ali, the network's advertising manager. Brands like Ford, Lunesta and Lincoln have signed on as advertisers, he said.
On the other hand, some Muslim-focused media companies that are courting advertisers highlight religion as their strength. Executives at QTV, a new satellite network centered around the Koran, tell advertisers that the focus on religion is what keeps its viewers tuning in, often five times a day for prayer calls.
Companies that advertise on QTV should not worry about backlash, said Mahmood Ahmad, president of Digital Broadcasting Network Inc., which produces QTV, because "Fox News viewers are not watching QTV anyway." He added, "QTV is the safest place to be because they won't know."
Advertising on satellite channels popular with Muslims and in the publications that focus on them would be inexpensive compared with mainstream media and might be highly effective because so few companies reach out to this group.
"People would flock to it," said Daisy Khan, executive director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement, a nonprofit group based in New York. "They would say 'I can't believe I'm being validated by Macy's. I can't believe I'm being validated by Whole Foods.' "
Even in mainstream advertising, companies may win over customers by including Muslims in some ads, said Razaq Baloch, a partner in Spicy Banana, an ad agency specializing in reaching customers from India and Pakistan.
Alia Fouz, a Palestinian-American who lives near the Ikea in Canton, said she never felt that ads were addressing her as a Muslim when she was growing up in Virginia. Sitting in the Ikea snack bar with her young son, she said ads that included American Muslims would grab her - and her son's - attention.
"We should be included," Ms. Fouz said. "We live here."
Islamic home lending is a thriving business at the few U.S. banks offering Shariah-compliant, no-interest financing.
Meanwhile, the big banks are still hanging back, wary of the high costs of entry.
As word gets out to Muslim customers and more banks work out the regulatory kinks, the market is getting smoother and more profitable, according to those involved.
Two years ago, only three banks offered Islamic financial services: Devon Bank in Chicago, University Bank in Ann Arbor, Mich., and HSBC in New York. The two community banks are still in the business, but HSBC dropped out of the market in December. A company statement said volumes "were not large enough to warrant continuation of the product at this time."
"Large institutions aren't moving into the market in the United States as much as they have been abroad," said Shirley Chiu, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
Meanwhile, Broadway Bank in Chicago and United Trust Bank in Bridgeview, a West suburb, have both started offering Islamic finance products.
Devon Bank started offering Islamic services in response to requests from Muslim customers. Nazir Gurukambal, Devon's vice president of Islamic finance international services, said the bank started offering Islamic home financing in June 2003, and now this makes up more than half of the bank's mortgage portfolio.
Devon offers two different forms of Shariah-compliant home loans. With Ijara financing, the bank sets up a trust, which costs about$500,to purchase the house on the customer's behalf. The customer gradually pays off the purchase price and at the same time pays rent, based on interest rates. With Murabaha financing, the bank buys the house and sells it to the client over time at a mark-up. In both methods the total cost to the borrower is about the same as for a conventional mortgage loan.
Chiu said Muslims are an attractive target for banks because they tend to be well-educated and in professions with stable salaries. "They are technically ideal homeowners, and they're basically in a market that has been untapped because these commercial products did not meet their religious tenets," Chiu said.
There are about 400,000 Muslims in the Chicago area, according to the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Gurukambal said about one-third of Muslims refuse to use financing that is not Shariah-compliant, about a third would prefer Shariah-compliant financing but will use conventional banking, and about a third don't care and will use whatever offers the best rate.
Developing a system that works can take a year or more, with banks and their lawyers having to go back and forth between the Shariah scholars and bank regulators to make sure both groups are satisfied.
Gurukambal said Devon Bank has been looking into auto financing, but it's even more difficult.
"One of the main issues is you don't want someone driving a car that is owned by the bank - that's a liability there."
Devon Bank offers Islamic home financing in more than 30 states, but it can be difficult as regulations vary from state to state. Gurukambal said the bank has been waiting for more than two years for approval to offer its products in New Jersey and Maryland.
But programs like Devon's have demonstrated that there is a market, and Gurukambal predicted bigger banks will start taking advantage of this within the next few years.
"It's only a matter of time," he said.
Washington - Muslim women living in the United States are finding that religious and cultural differences are tolerated and respected widely, says Tayyibah Taylor, the editor of Azizah magazine, a glossy quarterly written by and for Muslim women in North America.
"I think America is the most religiously diverse country in the world," said Taylor, who was born in Trinidad of Barbadian parents. "You learn how to get along with people who are very different from you. Your differences don't really become an issue."
Speaking during a State Department-sponsored webchat April 23, Taylor said Muslim women are "well-integrated into the workplace" and are "in every professional field, engineering, medicine, business." Many have been profiled in the magazine, she noted.
"Usually there is no problem in terms of the way you dress or stopping to pray or any small issues like that," she said. More and more Americans "are getting used to seeing Muslim women in hijabs (traditional headscarfs)." Some Muslim women in America don't wear the hijab, and that is part of the freedom they have, Taylor said.
Compared with a Muslim majority country, it becomes "a definite conscious choice" to practice one's Muslim faith in America, she said, "so actually what happens is that your faith can become stronger, and your practice can become more conscious."
Taylor said she feels that "Muslims in America are really in a very privileged position." America has a legacy of freedom of speech and movement and support for critical thinking -- things that "are not always present in all Muslim majority countries," she said. "And you have Islamic legacy of spiritual agency, and autonomy, intellectual autonomy, and the combination really goes to enhance your spiritual potential."
During the webchat, 47 people from 15 countries asked questions about the magazine and life in America for Muslim women.
Taylor, who published the first issue of Azizah in 2000, told webchat participants that she wanted to create "a place where people can hear the voice of Muslim women, without filters." All articles are written by Muslim women, she said.
"It shatters misconceptions about Muslim women, both inside and outside the Muslim community," she said. Often when Muslim women read Azizah for the first time "it is usually their first experience of seeing positive images and stories of Muslim women."
She pointed out that violations of women's rights often stem from cultural practices "and not Islam itself. So helping to kind of differentiate between culture and religion also is a way that we help to undo those misconceptions."
"By depicting women who are living a full life, without compromising Islam, we're really showing that Muslim women have autonomy, and have full human rights," Taylor said.
The magazine depicts "all kinds of Muslim women, not just one ethnic group or one school of thought," she said. Its name was chosen because "Azizah" is a common name throughout the Muslim world, and "we wanted to use that as a statement of diversity in Islam."
Americans sometimes ask Muslim women why they wear the hijab, Taylor said, but "usually it is a very friendly conversation out of curiosity, [they're] being inquisitive." This doesn't happen often, because everybody is usually busy with their own concerns, but when it does "you have an opportunity to explain who you are and what your beliefs are."
"When you can speak freely about who you are," she said, "I think it brings a sense of empowerment."
Taylor recently participated in a U.S. Department of State traveling speaker program in which she spoke of her experiences as a Muslim woman in America to audiences in Thailand, Malaysia and Pakistan.
A transcript of Taylor's webchat and information on upcoming webchats are available on USINFO's Webchat Station. Information about Azizah magazine is available on its Web site.
See also "Muslim Women in America a Diverse Group, Scholar Says" and Muslim Life in America.
For more stories on U.S. society, see Population and Diversity.
(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
You are Invited to Attend
Date: June 30-July 7, 2007
Registration: (for Counselors and Participants)
Deadline: May 30, 2007
Register NOW…Only 140 participants will be accepted.
Online Application can be found at: https://www.instantreg.com/registration/register.jspx?id=46
To download the application form, click on the following link:
http://www.isna.net/fileadmin/Youth/RegistrationFormv2.0.pdf
Print the form, fill it out and then fax it or mail it to one of the contact information provided in the form.
Promotional Video can be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsxmWre5qJU
Location : Camp Y-Noah- Clinton, Ohio
http://www.akronymca.org/camp/ynoah/
Description: Qualified youth activists (age 12-18) and advisors from throughout the United States and Canada will gather to participate in MYNA's Annual National Youth Training Retreat. The retreat will be held at Camp Y-Noah: Clinton, Ohio- in an environment of spirituality, excitement, and adventure.
Participants will take part in spectacular state-of-the-art leadership and skill-developing workshops, sports, team-building activities, and great entertainment programs- all led by nationally renowned scholars and highly successful activists and role-models.
Be one of the first to enjoy this one-of-its kind experience.
All applications will be reviewed by MYNA National advisors after receiving the recommendation letters and the essays.
(Note: finance should not hinder participation)
Invited Guest Speakers and Performers:
Dr. Jamal Badawi
Dr. Muneer Fareed
Imam Siraj Wahhaj
Dr. Sherman Jackson
Imam Mohammad Magid
Sheikh Abdalla Idris Ali
Br. Altaf Husain
Dr. Jawad Shah
Kareem Salama
Dawud Wharnsby Ali
Native Deen
Questions? Email: camp@myna.org Phone: 317.838.8126
http://msu.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2262272147
Iyad Alnachef (iyad@isna.net)
Youth Programming & Services Department
Director
Islamic Society of North America
This week all cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies and you will start to receive sales calls.
YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS.
To prevent this, call 888-382-1222 from your cell phone:
It is the National DO NOT CALL list. It blocks your number for five (5) years.
You may also register on line at www.donotcall.gov
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 muslimalliancein@yahoo.com
To strengthen and disseminate the vision, please forward this message to others in Indiana or send email list to muslimalliancein@yahoo.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.
Thank you.
