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Background info from Imam Tahir Anwar: A meeting was called to gather the leaders in the Bay Area Muslim community. The meeting was held in the downtown San Jose masjid location of the South Bay Islamic Association (SBIA). It is well-known that there are many ‘communities’ within our larger San Francisco Bay Area Muslim community. We are so busy with our own groups and activities, we tend to forget to reach out to other communities and groups. After sending and receiving many email messages from community leaders and activists, Imam Tahir was inspired and blessed by Allah to host a face to face meeting.
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:
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.
Not only is this an exclusive interview but also our first interview request via Twitter. We sent a direct tweet to the founder and VP of Marketing, Ashraf Mansoor asking for an exclusive interview. He was very gracious to participate and discuss Twffaha, a new job recruitment portal specifically for women in the Middle East. Twffaha is based in Sudan and has already been featured on several sites, check out this review from StartupArabia. This interview marks their first media article via a Western Muslim site. Ashraf is also very kind to offer our female readers looking for work in the Middle East a beta invite to their site. Read the interview for instructions.
IslamCrunch: What is your web application/service about?
Twffaha: We connect women who are looking for jobs to employers who are looking to recruit women for certain vacancies. Twffaha is the only portal specialized in recruiting women in the Middle East.
IslamCrunch: Why did you start this project?
Twffaha: We feel that the online recruitment market in the Middle East is already full with prominent players. However, as a job seeker or employer you will find it harder every time you look for a job or advertising a job in case
you were an employer. The market needs to be more organized, and that
can be achieved by exploiting niches and adding value for both parties, job seekers by offering them a portal that is only aimed at women, and employers by reducing their recruiting costs and offering them more focused job postings.
IslamCrunch: How does your project relate to Muslims? Or is your project geared towards a general audience?
Twffaha: Twffaha.com is geared toward a general audience, we do not ask for
information regarding your religion background. However, we do not allow
employers to post jobs related to activities we deem illegal in Islam. For example,
if an employer posted a related to Alcohol/Bars through our service we will remove the job posting and refund him/her.
IslamCrunch: How much time do you devote to its growth?
Twffaha: As a startup we devote a large chunk of our time in developing, marketing, and managing Twffaha.com in order to ensure it will keep growing organically. Working for 50 hours a week is our average.
IslamCrunch: How large is your team and what are your backgrounds?
Twffaha: The team behind the service comes from different cultures and background. We are well experienced with web development as Twffaha is actually our third project, although it is the first one we operate solely. Our team currently consists of two main members Ashraf Mansoor who is in charge of Development and Marketing and Ammar Mustafa who is responsible for Operations and Sales. We are looking to hire 3 more talented individuals to join our team in the following 2-3 months enshallah.
IslamCrunch: What is your design/service philosophy?
As the Muslim Twitter list grows, we wanted to start a list for Muslim Pownce users. You know the drill, if you are a Muslim user of Pownce, drop a comment with a link to your profile, please feel free to add your business if you use Pownce to promote your company.
First 5 valid comments will get an invite to SocialThing.
And if you are on FriendFeed (similar to SocialThing), please add us here: http://friendfeed.com/islamcrunch
On Pownce, check us out here: www.Pownce.com/IslamCrunch
Here is an earlier post about Pownce with a video review from CenterNetworks.
Our followers on Twitter have increased since being mentioned on a tweet conversation. We appreciate all the brothers & sisters & organizations who are following us. We wanted to expand the Muslim Twitter phenomena by asking all Muslim users of Twitter to drop a comment with a link to your Twitter profile. If you use Twitter to promote your business, please feel free to add a link to you site and/or blog. Also please add your favorite method of receiving and sending tweets: clients, IM, phone, web, etc.
First 5 Twitter users who add comments will get an invite to Ping.fm, currently in closed beta mode.
And follow us here: http://twitter.com/islamcrunch
