We just received notice that the well-known North American company, Al-Safa Halal, that specializes in frozen packaged halal food will be sold to a Muslim company. Formerly owned by non-Muslims, there has been a lot of controversy regarding the ‘halalness’ of their products. Hopefully this announcement will dispel any concerns that Muslims tend to panic over instead of worrying about more important issues.

We are not overlooking the importance of consuming zabihah products (we fully support the Zabihah movement and do not subscribe to any ‘convenient’ non-zabihah fatwas). We only hope that more concern and efforts would be directed to issues that are detrimental to the growth of Islam.

We would like to hear your comments on Al-Safa, the state of halal or zabihah food in North America and/or Europe. Please add them in the comments section.

Announcement Regarding the Sale of AL SAFA HALAL

Mr. Adnan Durrani and American Halal Company, which is wholly owned by him, has signed a binding agreement to purchase AL SAFA, North America’s leading HALAL brand. Mr. Durrani will be the new Owner, Chairman and Chief Halal Officer (CHO) upon the closing date, which is anticipated to be early next year. Directly reporting to Mr. Durrani will be Steve Hahn (S.VP & COO) who co-founded AL SAFA HALAL in 1999. Mr. Durrani is a prominent member of the Muslim community and a charter member of the American Institute of Islamic and Arabic Studies, as well as being a highly successful food entrepreneur and venture capitalist.

Mr. Durrani will be managing AL SAFA HALAL on a full time basis, bringing together two decades of experience in building niche food brands into major household brand names. He was also a founding partner of Stonyfield Farms yogurt, now the largest organic yogurt brand in the world with over $350 million in sales. Mr. Durrani commented, “I am extremely excited about buying AL SAFA. I have always felt it is the only true halal brand, especially since it is hand slaughtered which I am dedicated to. Just as I did for organic foods, I intend to build AL SAFA and American Halal into the most recognized and trusted Shariah compliant halal food company in North America.”

Following this brief announcement will be an official press release from Mr. Durrani’s office as the closing nears.

Note: this announcement was received via email from Al-Safa.

It is with great honor to announce that our designer was featured on Khadija O’Connell’s Barakah Life Blog yesterday. Since our designer did not want any announcements, we would like to request everyone to visit Khadija’s blog to read about Zaytuna’s prestigious Alexander Russell Webb Award, how the physical award was designed and developed and a bio on Brother Mohammed Webb.

Zaytuna Institute presents the Alexander Russell Webb award

“in recognition of an individual’s service to the greater American society in helping its citizens better understand Islam.”

 

Visit Zaytuna’s site to read about this year’s award presentation event. The award has been presented to the following individuals:

• Dr. Sulayman Nyang, of Howard University
• Dr. Waheed Rana of St. Louis
• Ms. Gray Henry-Blakemore, director of Fons Vitae Book Publishing of Louisville, Kentucky

Handshake Productions is a new venture of world famous comedians Preacher Moss and Azhar Usman. Outside of the Allah Made Me Funny domain, Preacher Moss is well known for his motivational, educational lectures. A natural born teacher, Preacher Moss excels in the media arena and in the academic circles. Azhar Usman, legal eagle extraordinaire, is also well known for Tinku’s World, an innovative web multimedia show.

We are blessed to be working with Handshake Productions to promote their events. Their inaugural event takes place in Toronto on December 22, 2007. Click the image above to visit see the full, hyperlinked image. Please watch this space for news and press releases about Handshake Productions.  With the creative minds of Preacher Moss and Azhar Usman, expect big things, insha’Allah.

The steadfast team behind of Hikma Foundation have been working hard to expand their educational scope for young Muslims and young-at-heart Muslims. We communicated with Faisal Qazi and Adam Motiwala to ask them for some background information on Hikma Foundation and their upcoming programs throughout the remainder of 2007 and through 2008. We are honored that IslamCrunch was chosen as the platform to preview the upcoming events with Dr. Sherman Jackson, Dawood Wharnsby Ali, Dr. Ingrid Mattson, Dr. Umar Faruq Abd-Allah, Dr. Muneer Fareed, Sidi Hakim Archuletta and many more, insha’Allah.

Background info: Hikma started in 2005 with the aim of educating young professional Muslims on the lost avenue of Islamic thought. Hikma’s vision is to provide individuals with the intellectual tools that will enhance their understanding of Islamic tradition in the context of contemporary and enduring issues. Our vision embodies much of Dr. Sherman Jackson’s pursuit of spreading Islamic Literacy to the Muslim Community. We have taken this concept and created our own vision that has been manifested in our 2007/2008 programs.   

In our attempt to provide the Muslim Community with the tools needed to enhance their understanding of Islamic Thought, we featured Dr. Sherman Jackson when we sponsored his trip to Southern California for a 2-day Seerah intensive.  In the Summer of 2007 we had our summer discourse initiative that we plan to replicate this summer due to the communities response and need. We showcased local scholars such as Dr Aslam Abdallah of the Islamic Center of Las Vegas in discussing the enduring issue of Ethics: Trying to understand this concept from a Muslim perspective. We featured a local masters students research on Muslim Divorces in the West on our Divorce in Muslim the Community panel.

Currently, our Hikma team is preparing for our 2008 programs. More details of the programs will be listed on www.Hikma.org (which is currently being developed). A list of programs after the jump >>>

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The Lighthouse Mosque is a new organization initiated by Imam Zaid Shakir. When the former Masjid Al-Iman in Oakland, California relocated to Berkeley, Imam Zaid had the foresight to keep and maintain the property. Thus, the Lighthouse Mosque began.

From the Facebook Lighthouse Mosque Group page:

“The Lighthouse Mosque is a community-based, grassroots Islamic effort to create a space for the unencumbered worship of Allah. It is not affiliated with any organization, nor is it reserved to advance the program of any specific group. It is funded by members of the local community and is dedicated to facilitating the basic teaching of Islam, the Arabic language, and a program of services that will benefit the people of the local community. Our desire is to create a space where people can come together to reinforce their faith, share the love, sisterhood and brotherhood of Islam, and work together to find creative solutions to problems plaguing both the Muslim and the greater community. At the Lighthouse Mosque we say that all are welcome, your insights, input, and income (a small fraction).”

The photo above shows Imam Zaid with Sidi Yusuf OConnell holding up the new sign for the mosque.

Photo credit: Khadija OConnell / Barakah Life

(Disclaimer: Lighthouse Mosque Logo designed by Susanah Ishak, IslamCrunch Creative Director)

UPDATE: We have received a lot of traffic from people searching ‘lighthouse mosque’ on various search engines. If you are looking for the address: 4606 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland, CA.

Fajr prayers are held regularly and more services (like classes, etc.) will be added as the Lighthouse Mosque evolves.