Having been in these discussions before, we could easily end up having a long drawn out debate. Without scholarly guidance, we tend to fumble and at times, make matters worse. I didn’t want to have this discussion leave everyone with a sour taste. I jumped in immediately and offered my perspective on how we should approach a different faith before we start lambasting a group that we don’t understand.

My adopted uncle and mentor, Uncle Zainul CC’ed me on this thread. I had to pipe in as it is very worrying to see how easy it is to be led like sheep with a veil over our minds. If you don’t feel like reading my back story, please skip to “LONG STORY SHORT” below.

I am a convert and I came into this religion of Islam voluntarily without coercion or worldly intentions (marriage, wealth, power, politics, etc.)

Before Islam, I was a Roman Catholic (baptism, confirmation, catechism, confession, just short of being an altar boy) and I wanted to explore other religions as I felt there was something out there, something I needed to find to have inner peace.

Now there were 2 ways I could have explored the other religions (I did look into the various Christian denominations, Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism, etc.).

1. Go to authentic sources, learn from the normative scholars and texts and read about why the followers are satisfied with their faith.

2. Go to haters, enemies of the faith, critics, people who like to cry a lot, moan & groan, dissatisfied with their faith and/or people who have an ulterior motive to degrade the faith.

Thinking logically, with common sense, which method do you think I chose and we should all choose before we make judgment about the faith of others? (Unless you can create water molecules at will, move clouds, stop the sun from rising, I think we should leave judgment to the One who can)

From this email thread, it looks like there are people from a variety of faiths. Would you want your faith to be analyzed with method #2 above? When has propaganda ever been a benchmark? Real facts, real sources, real discussions. Professor Google, Father Wikipedia, Imam Yahoo, Reverend Fox News, Rabbi CNN are not authentic, normative scholars.

LONG STORY SHORT
Don’t believe everything you read online, don’t be led astray without using your own analytical skills and realize that we have bigger problems to worry about.

Global poverty, shortage of potable water supply, easily prevented diseases in an areas that do not have enough medical supplies & treatment, putting ALL children through school, rapidly aging generation that needs medical supplies & care, Mother Earth annihilation. THIS AFFECTS ALL OF US. All faiths. All ethnic backgrounds. All wealth brackets (the rich can do their part). All ages. Work together. Commonalities will strengthen us. If we see each other in the Afterlife, just imagine the hugs and camaraderie we will be having.

With peace,
Mikael Pittam
http://about.me/mikaelpittam

You have to read from the bottom to the top and then click ‘Newer’ to see the proper sequence of tweets.

Read more about this on Sidi Mas’ud’s blog:

Live Twitter Notes from Habib Ali’s event at Friends’ House

After reading one of my tweets, his interest was piqued about IslamCrunch. Soon after, we got on Skype and began a new friendship.

Cameron says about IslamCrunch: “One of the most effective uses of the internet, is the ability to promote a movement with upright intentions.  IslamCrunch is an excellent example of a web-property that targets a deep and narrow niche and applies effective communication tools to build a loyal and vibrant traffic base.  It’s one of the most effective projects utilizing web tools to push a religious point of view online today. Read more here…

Jump into the social sharing circle:

Digg the article here.

Buzz up the article here.

Mixx up the article here.

View Cameron’s Twitter stream here: http://twitter.com/cameronperon

In 2008, Zaytuna Institute launched its first Summer Arabic Intensive, a rigorous 8-week program that would offer students much more than what similar programs at any other American university did.
Instead of offering a learning environment disconnected from what was
being taught, Zaytuna created a community of learning, where students
were immersed in an Arabic-speaking environment inside and outside the classroom.

Zaytuna is pleased to announce that applications are now open for the Summer 2009 Arabic Intensive. Please take a moment to explore our program through this website, and we look forward to seeing you this summer. We trust you’ll find our Summer Intensive as fulfilling as the graduates of Summer 2008 did.

http://arabicintensive.org/

arabic, learning, language, zaytuna, usama canon, hamza yusuf, zaid shakir, dawood yasin, abdullah hamid ali

One of the co-founders of Yamli, Habib Haddad, contacted us to share with you the latest feature of Yamli (see our previous post about Yamli here). Yamli has released an API that allows website owners to add a new feature to their site: allow users to type in Arabic text.

Here’s a link to their API: http://www.yamli.com/api/

Click here to read their informative press release.

Our Twitter buddy, Mohamed Marwen Meddah, also has a great post about the Yamli API on his blog: http://www.startuparabia.com/2008/10/yamli-officially-releases-free-api-allowing-easy-integration-of-arabic-transliteration-into-any-website/

Do you love IslamCrunch? Add our feed to your Twitter stream. Whenever we add a new post, it will get added as a tweet on your Twitter stream. Share your love for IslamCrunch with your Twitter friends.

1. Visit http://www.twitterfeed.com/ and login with your OpenID*

2. Create a new twitterfeed

3. Add our feed – http://feeds.feedburner.com/islamcrunch

Click the image to see a larger version to see the instructions in detail. Or click here: http://twitpic.com/68w5

See the original tweet here: http://twitter.com/islamcrunch/statuses/875512691

Add us on Twitter here: http://www.twitter.com/islamcrunch

Much thanks to Guy Kawasaki for the inspiration.

For bloggers using WordPress here is a FREE application to promote your blog:

* You can use your Yahoo! ID or MyOpenID if you don’t have and OpenID. You should get one.

Kitaba is a new website promoting the needs of visually impaired Muslims in their search of sacred knowledge. IslamCrunch is a big supporter of sacred knowledge and we would like to highlight the efforts of Kitaba. Check out their mission statement:

“We have established a social enterprise community project dedicated to empowering and promoting the growth and well-being of visually impaired Muslims and their communities through meeting their religious, educational and developmental needs, thereby advancing accessibility and awareness. Our primary focus is on providing accessibility to information and knowledge relevant to their Islamic needs. We also support families, teachers and other service providers who are supporting Muslims with a visual impairment.”

And about Kitaba:

“We at the Islamic Texts for the Blind believe that all people with visual impairments should be empowered and should be able to participate fully in cultural, community and religious activities. We recognise that Muslims with visual impairments have to overcome many barriers.”

To support Kitaba, become a member – it’s easy to do and it’s free. Membership is open to our service users, volunteers, network agencies, partners, voluntary organisations and mainstream service providers. As a member, you will be kept up to date with all the latest news and events and you will be invited to the Annual General Meeting.

To find out more about Kitaba, visit http://www.kitaba.org and add Sidi Adnan Tariq on Facebook (read his inspirational story here: http://www.kitaba.org/Stories/AdnanTariq.aspx). You can visit his personal blog here: http://www.adnant.wordpress.com/

Here are my notes of what transpired.

Muslim Unity & Leadership Meeting – May 24, 2008

MC: Brother Dawan Muhammad

Hosts: Imam Tahir Anwar & Imam Bilal Muhammad

After Brother Dawan welcomed the participants, Imam Tahir spoke briefly and outlined today’s goals and objectives. The main goal was about getting to know each other personally. Also, he hopes we can break barriers within organizations. He stressed that this is not a onetime event; he hopes to see regular meetings. Imam Tahir also mentioned that he does not want to form another organization.

Next, Imam Bilal greeted everyone and he did it with his well-known flair and style.

Thereafter, Brother Dawan informed us of today’s mission: To provide an opportunity and a forum for Muslim leaders to break bread and have a fellowship gatherin. Furthermore, to have free and open discussions with each other. To look at the cross-cultural perspective within our communities.

He also mentioned the agenda for today’s meeting. We would break into small groups to discuss the following: Discrimination between the different demographics within the Muslim community. The main topics for the discussion would be:

• Americanization of Islam
• Racism
• Islamic Scholarship

We were grouped with our dear friends: Sayyid Fouzi Husaini and Zakariyya Twist. In our group, we were blessed with Benjamin Ahmad from the Palo Alto community, Iftekhar Hai from United Muslims of America and Javed Ellahie (lawyer). Due to the short time, we were not able to cover the third topic. We each shared our thoughts on the first topics. As we ended our discussion, I suggested that everyone should read the Autobiography of Malcolm X, the American Muslim martyr. This is a must-read in order to consider yourself an American Muslim. Sayyid Fouzi half-jokingly said that it should be Fardu-’ain for every Muslim living in the US.

These are some points that each group shared with everyone:

Group 1: We need to be more educated so we can represent an Americanization of Islam. Wealth is the basis of racism. The wealthier are able to oppress the less fortunate. We should be willing to give what we are asking. If we are asking for justice, we should able to dispense justice.

Group 2: (Presented by Dr. Rajabally). The main issue of Americanization of Islam is the madhhab issue. There is tremendous pressure from our cultural baggage trying to correct what we think is right. Youth issue (trying to give our youth an Islamic identity while our youth were trying to be American), education issue (school system for Muslims). Living in America is like a Hajj everyday (seeing people of different nations everyday). Racism: we have to acknowledge racism if we want to eradicate it. Indigenous imams do not get the respect even though they have as much knowledge if not more than immigrant Muslims. We need to learn our history – Timbuktu, what were the contributions of African Muslims, do we know Mansa Musa? Culture is dominated by media.

Group 3: (Presented by Ahsen Syed) 1. Islam takes a little culture, takes a little color wherever it landed. 2. Aqeedah is our strength which unites us. 3. American ideals that we should strive for: punctuality, honesty, trust. 4. Be aware of the evils of society. We should detest the evils. Where are the Muslims when talking about homosexuality, alcoholism, family breakups? Racism: fact of life and exists in our communities and culture. We need to deal with it via education. Within the culture there is a form of racism. We should remember the diverse cultures that the early Muslims brought. The first companions: ar-Rumi, Bilal al-Habashi. They brought the strength to Islam. Request: have a dialogue between organizations like Muslim Community Association of the Bay Area and the African American Muslim communities. Islamic Scholarship: we see the different forms of Islam (for example: how we pray), we need to educate each other so we recognize the different variations.

Group 4: Americanization of Islam – local fusion. Global phenomena – it has always happened and will always happen. We need to socialize with different communities. We should not stick to our own communities. Usually the second generation does not have the baggage like the first generation. Racism: Evolves from convenience. Mostly, it is unintentional. Solutions: cross- promotion of events. Mutual learning and understanding. Create opportunities of interaction, not necessarily have to be religious event. Intentionally work towards improving the situation.

Group 5 (our group): Iftekhar Hai: America stands for equality and justice, we should endeavor for this. Faith has been corrupted, we need to revive it. We need to refine Islam. Racism: We need to remove racism from our hearts. [Author's note: we discussed more issues that were not presented: Muslim hip-hop, understanding Dr. Umar Faruq Abd-Allah's brilliant article: "Islam and the Cultural Imperative", excelling in our work and our interaction with society and so much more]

Group 6: Discrimination – on ethnic lines, nationality, race. Islamic Scholarship: too many rivalries. Leaders need to fix this problem. Set the expectation that we know discrimination exists, how do we address these issues?

Conclusion: Bring the message back to your own communities!

Challenge: Unity Eid Celebration

Organizations represented:

San Francisco Muslim Community Center, Yaseen Foundation, South Valley Islamic Community*, South Bay Islamic Association, All Muslims’ Islamic Communications Center, Masjid Waritheen, Muslim American Society, Muslim Community Association of San Francisco Bay Area, MeccaOne Radio, Islamic Networks Group, American Muslim Voice, San Ramon Valley Islamic Center, United Muslims of America, Rahima Foundation, World Business & Technology Television, ICNA Bay Area, Northern California Islamic Council, SEMAH, Zaytuna Institute*.

The Shia Muslim community were invited as well, however, they were unable to attend.

Notes taken by: Mikael Pittam

Photo credits: Susanah Pittam

* Represented by the Dynamic Duo.

We wanted to give Barakah Life a new Web 2.0 presence. As the administrators of the account, we will be posting updates, links and info surrounding the goodness of Barakah Life.

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