TMO 7-16-15

‘Eid Mubarak! 

Volume 17, Issue 29 The Muslim Observer — July 17 - 23, 2015 — Shawwal 1 - 7, 1436 

Volunteers fight 

hunger in Ramadan 

By Carissa D. Lamkahouan 

TMO contributing writer 

Canton, MI—For a food festival, 

running out of eats isn’t 

part of the plan. However, 

when that scenario played out 

last year during the first annual 

Halal Fest Michigan, festival 

Muslim Funny 

Fest 

Page 3 

organizer Mostansar Virk took 

it as a sign of success. 

“We were actually only expecting 

about 1,500 people but 

approximately 4,500 showed 

up,” said Virk, chief executive 

officer and founder of Halal Fest 

Michigan. “It was a huge hit. I 

was completely shocked at how 

many people showed up.” 

Photo credit: Facebook 

Last year’s Halal Fest 

an appetizer for 2015 

The festival was staged at 

Heritage Park Amphitheater 

Pavilion in Canton, Mich., an 

area which boasts one of the 

largest Muslim communities in 

the country. The 2015 event, 

which is set for Saturday, Aug. 

8 from noon-7 p.m., will be 

(Continued on page 22) 

Did you know these 

5 actors are Muslim? 

By Samina Saifee and M. 

Muhammad Ahmed 

Farmington Hills, MI - On 

July 11 in the heat of Ramadan, 

hundreds of volunteers gathered 

at a local department 

store in metro-Detroit to package 

food for those in need. 

This effort along with dozens 

over other events are part 

of the month long Ramadan 

Fight Against Hunger organized 

by the Michigan Muslim 

Community Council (MMCC). 

Over 30,000 people have been 

fed this month across Michigan 

through these organized efforts 

to help Muslim and non-Muslim 

neighbors in economically 

devastated areas. 

The Farmington Hills event 

was originally started 19 years 

ago by a group of Muslim engineers 

from GM, Ford and 

Chrysler, along with their 

families. This annual event has 

grown to an immense operation 

where several tons of food 

is packaged into over a thousand 

boxes and delivered by 7 

trucks to over 40 communities. 

Over $100,000 is raised from 

local Zakat (charity) funds and 

used for purchasing and distributing 

the food, according 

to one of the organizers, Asim 

Khan. 

“It is the culmination of 

all my worship as it brings together 

both serving humanity 

as well as fulfilling my spiritual 

obligations,” Asim Khan, said 

in a statement. “The food drive 

for me is putting my faith into 

action by serving the less fortunate 

to serve God.” 

The packaged boxes include 

canned goods, oil, rice, flour 

and other basic food items that 

can feed a family for several 

days. These boxes are distributed 

to a network of mosques, 

community centers and emergency 

shelters in places such as 

Detroit, Hamtramck, Ypsilanti, 

Dearborn and Flint. Many areas 

around Metro-Detroit have suffered 

greatly from the recession 

and have been slow to recover. 

The Southeast Michigan United 

Way estimates that 1 in 5 children 

in this area have experienced 

hunger due to poverty. 

The program, entirely volunteer-driven, 

brought the older 

generations together with 

the youth. The entire spectrum 

could be found working with 

one another, including moms, 

dads, children and grandparents. 

Volunteers were seen 

cheering after every big assignment 

had been completed, and 

some sang as they put the boxes 

together. 

Asim Khan further explains, 

“The Prophet Muhammad (S) 

once said, ‘a believer’s shade 

on the Day of Resurrection will 

be his charity,’ so we all strive 

to make the most of Ramadan, 


The imam crisis: 

a solution 

Page 4 

Prsrt std 

U. S. Postage 

PAID 

Royal Oak, MI 

48068 

Permit#792 

By Kimberly Winston 

Religion News Service 

Omar Sharif, the much 

beloved Egyptian-born 

Hollywood actor and co-star 

of “Lawrence of Arabia” and 

“Doctor Zhivago,” two of the 

most acclaimed films of all time, 

died Friday (July 10). Sharif, 

83, was one of a growing list of 

Muslim actors (he converted), 

and certainly one of the most 

famous. Here are some other 

actors who are also religiously 

or culturally Muslim. 

1. Shohreh Aghdashloo 

Her name may not trip off 

the tongue when trying to 

name a Muslim star, but this 

Iranian-born actress was nominated 

for an Academy Award 

for her work in the 2003 movie 


Omar Sharif. Photo credit: Eloy Alonso / Reuters 

A publication of Muslim Media Network, Inc. • Tel: 248-426-7777 • Fax: 248-476-8926 • info@muslimobserver.com • www.muslimobserver.com

2 —The Muslim Observer — July 17 - 23, 2015 — Shawwal 1 - 7, 1436 

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Do You Know About Zakat? 

• What is Zakat? 

• Why should I pay Zakat? 

• Who must pay Zakat? 

• When is Zakat Due? 

• What things require paying Zakat on them? 

• What about Zakat that I have not paid in the past? 

• Who should receive Zakat? 

• How do I calculate my Zakat? 

Detailed Answers, Videos, and a Zakat 

Calculator at: 

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The Muslim Observer — July 17 - 23 — Shawwal 1 - 7, 1436 — 3 

national 

Top Muslim comedians combat Islamophobia with 

humor at Muslim Funny Fest 

By Mahvish Irfan 

“I beat my pregnant wife – 

to the door, so I can open it for 

her. She’s a lovely woman.” 

Beware! The Muslims are 

coming. Their plan is to invade 

New York City ruthlessly 

with laughter in America’s first 

Muslim stand up comedy festival. 

The invasion will occur 

from July 21, 2015 – July 23, 

2015 in New York City at the 

Muslim Funny Fest. 

Leading the invasion are 

Co-Producers Maysoon Zayid 

and Dean Obeidallah. A total 

of 15 of the top Muslim comedians 

from the US, two from 

the Middle East and one from 

Canada will be featured. 

Comedians include Ali Al 

Sayed, Ali Hassan, Aman Ali, 

Azhar Usman, Dina Hashem, 

Gibran Saleem, Hisham 

Fageeh, Mo Amer, Negin 

Farsad, Preacher Moss, Ramy 

Youssef, Sana Khan, Zahra 

Noorbakhsh and more. 

From ISIS to Islamophobia, 

no topic will be off limits. 

Comedians will joke about everything 

in the book, including 

the touchy topics of religion 

and politics. 

“The United States is scared 

of two things: black people and 

Muslims,” African American 

comedian Preacher Moss explains 

in the Muslim Funny Fest 

trailer. “I’ve got the best of both 

worlds.” 

Though entertainers hail 

from all different ethnic backgrounds 

and will joke about a 

broad range of topics, there’s a 

unifying theme for the whole 

event: Using humor to change 

the negative perception of 

Muslims. 

While comedians find it unfortunate 

that the hatred they 

face for practicing their faith is 

a unifying link amongst them, 

they are confident that laughter 

is the best weapon to create 

change. 

After all, who doesn’t love to 

laugh? It’s an essential part of 

the universal human language. 

In fact, Obeidallah hopes to have 

a large audience consisting of all 

faiths to maximize impact. 

This is especially important 

considering that Muslims are 

viewed more negatively than 

any other religious group in 

the US, according to a 2014 

Pew Research Center poll. 

Contrastingly, Jews, Catholics 

and evangelical Christians are 

viewed most positively. 

But a simple thing like humor 

has the power to shift that negative 

perception. Everyone loves 

a good joke. It fosters an environment 

of positivity and helps 

everyone relate to one another. 

Schedule 

Here is the fun-filled, 3-day 

schedule for Muslim Funny 

Fest: 

July 21: The three stars of 

“The Allah Made Me Funny” 

tour, Azhar Usman, Preacher 

Moss and Mo Amer, reunite for 

this special show. 

July 22: “The Muslim 

Comedy All-Stars” featuring a 

hilarious line up of Muslim comedian 

from the U.S., Canada 

and Dubai including Maysoon 

Zayid, Dean Obeidallah, Ali Al 

Sayed, Gibran Saleem, Ramy 

Youssef and more. 

July 23: “America’s Funniest 

Muslims” with top Muslim comedians 

from across the United 

States together for one big show 

including Dean Obeidallah, 

Maysoon Zayid, Wali Collins, 

Aman Ali, Feraz Shere, Negin 

Farsad and more. 

Tickets are $20 in advance 

and $25 at the door. Age limit 

is 17 and older and content is 

PG-13. 

For full details about Muslim 

Funny Fest visit muslimfunnyfest.com. 

Stay updated on facebook.com/MuslimFunnyFest 

and @Muslimfunnyfest on 

Twitter. 

South Carolina 

takes down 

Confederate flag 

Nathaniel Cary 

and Doug Stanglin 

USA Today 

COLUMBIA, S.C. – The 

Confederate battle flag — a 

powerful symbol of slavery and 

the Old South that has roiled 

emotions in South Carolina 

for decades — was removed 

from the Statehouse grounds 

Friday (July 10) in a brief ceremony 

observed by thousands 

kept at a distance behind metal 

barriers. 

With little fanfare, a sevenman 

South Carolina Highway 

Patrol Honor Guard, that included 

two African-Americans, 

slowly lowered the banner 

from its perch alongside a 

Confederate memorial near the 

Capitol. 

The guard, marching in precision, 

approached the small 

iron fence housing the 30-foot 

flagpole, opened the gate and 

lowered the banner. 

The crowd erupted with 

shouts of “take it down!” 

One trooper smartly folded 

the flag, while another rolled it 

up. The entire process took less 

than 10 minutes. 

Some chanted, “USA! USA!” 

Then “Na na na na, hey hey, 

goodbye.” 

It was being retired “with 

dignity,” as Gov. Nikki Haley 

noted in signing the bill authorizing 

its removal. It was 

being taken to what Haley 

called its “rightful place” in the 

Confederate Relic room in the 

State Museum, down the road 

from the Capitol. 

Haley was on hand for the 

lowering of the flag. She was 

accompanied by former Govs. 

David Beasley and Jim Hodges, 

and Charleston’s Mayor Joe 

Riley. 

Even the pole itself is slated 

to come down. 

Emotions, however, continue 

to simmer over the longfestering 

issue. 

Charles Jones drove down 

from Greenville to witness 

what he called “a sad day.” 

Jones said his great grandfather 

Christopher Columbus 

Jones died in the Civil War. 

Jones said he’s never owned 

a flag, but he bought one this 

week to wrap himself in when 

the flag is lowered from the 

Statehouse. 

The city of Columbia issued 

an emergency order Thursday 

night to ban weapons from 

250 feet in any direction of 

the Statehouse grounds. Some 

people walking along Gervais 

Street toward the Statehouse 

greeted each other with: 

“Big day today. Flag’s coming 

down.” 

The ordinance will last for 30 

days. The city took the action 

both for Friday’s ceremony and 

because of social media posts 

that indicated members of 

hate groups who plan to demonstrate 

at the Statehouse in 

coming days — including a Ku 

Klux Klan rally scheduled July 

18 and a New Black Panther 

Party rally – had indicated they 

would be carrying weapons. 

The battle flag in one version 

or another has flown at the 

Statehouse for more than 50 

years, going up in 1961 to recognize 

the 100th anniversary 

of the Civil War and staying up 

the following year as a protest 

of the civil rights movement. 

A 2000 compromise relocated 

it from the Statehouse dome 

where it was flying for the final 

time on Friday. 

“No one should ever drive by 

the Statehouse and feel pain,” 

Representative Wendell Gilliard from Charleston holds a U.S. flag before a ceremony to remove 

the Confederate battle flag from the South Carolina statehouse grounds in Columbia, South 

Carolina, July 10, 2015. Jason Miczek / Reuters 

Haley said Friday morning 

on NBC’s “Today” show. “No 

one should ever drive by the 

Statehouse and feel like they 

don’t belong.” 

The symbol of the South’s 

lost cause of slavery and secession 

has been despised by 

African-Americans for 150 

years, while many whites honor 

it in tribute to their rebel 

ancestry. 

The issue came to a head 

in the wake of the killing of 

nine black worshippers at 

the Emanuel AME Church in 

Charleston last month by a 

young white supremacist. The 

21-year-old suspect, who is 

charged with nine counts of 

murder, had posted photos 

of himself online posing with 

Confederate flags. 

With nine pens that she gave 

the families of the “Emanuel 

Nine,” Haley signed the historic 

legislation that overwhelmingly 

passed the South Carolina 

House early Thursday. 

Some family members of the 

victims were on hand to watch 

the flag taken down. 

“This is a story of the history 

of South Carolina and how the 

action of nine individuals laid 

out this long chain of events 

that forever showed the state of 

South Carolina what love and 

forgiveness looks like,” Haley 

told the audience before the 

signing. “Twenty-two days ago, 

I didn’t know if I would ever be 

able to say this again. But today 

I am very proud to say it is 

a great day in South Carolina.” 

She cast the events as “a 

story of action,” beginning with 

the worshipers who welcomed 

and prayed with the suspect 

and ending with the legislative 

action to remove the flag the 

accused killer had embraced. 

“Nine people took in someone 

who did not look like them 

or act like them. And with true 

love and true faith and acceptance, 

they sat and prayed 

with him for an hour. That love 

and faith was so strong that it 

brought grace to them and the 

families,” Haley said. 

“We saw the families show 

the world what true forgiveness 

and grace looked like,” she continued. 

“That forgiveness and 

grace set off another action, an 

action of compassion by people 

all across South Carolina and 

all across this country.” 

Spurred by the example of 

the families, Haley said, lawmakers 

began to think differently 

about the issue. 

“We saw members start to 

see what it was like to be in 

each other’s shoes, start to see 

what it felt like,” she said. “We 

heard about the true honor of 

heritage and tradition, and we 

heard about the true pain that 

many had felt, and we took the 

time to understand it. 

”The actions that took place 

will go down in the history 

books,” the GOP governor said.


A Case for the 

Bivocational Imam 

By Imam Khalis Rashaad 

Unless you’re living under a 

rock somewhere, you’ve probably 

heard something of the 

numerous stories of Imams 

leaving their 

posts. These are 

not your normal 

run of the mill, 

unqualified religious 

preachers. 

These brothers are the 

cream of the crop. Furthermore 

they are relevant, speak well, 

look sharp and have broad 

support from the community. 

These brothers have big hearts 

and want to serve the American 

Muslim community and the 

broader community. They 

also want to provide a dignified 

existence for their family, 

have creative control, and not 

just be a token. I have to state 

a disclaimer here. This article 

may offend some. Although it is 

not my intention, some things 

may come off as crass. I’m writing 

for the Imams. This article 

won’t be all pretty, cleaned up 

and sanitized. These brothers 

are my colleagues in this critical 

work. I am an Imam as well. 

But I am free to speak my mind. 

I have complete creative control 

over programming and the direction 

of my community. I also 

have numerous ways of making 

a living outside of the masjid 

where I am the Imam. I am 

not beholden to wealthy and 

well connected board members 

who write the check for 

my salary. No slave master can 

whip me when I refuse to tow 

the line. I understand there are 

repercussions for thinking like 

this. I may never be the Imam 

of the biggest, prettiest masjid 

with golden chandeliers and a 

million dollar annual budget. 

However; what I do have is 

freedom and that’s priceless. 

A Case Study — the 

Imam W.D. Mohammed 

Community 

Imams please look at the 

model in the community associated 

with Imam W.D. 

Mohammed (R). I challenge 

you to find one Imam who is 

not bi-vocational. I would estimate 

that 20 percent work 

for corporations or public 

service and 80 percent of the 

Imams are entrepreneurs. Four 

Imams come to mind immediately. 

Imam Faheem Shuaibe 

in Oakland, California has over 

30 years of progressive leadership 

at Masjid Waritheen. He 

is also an entrepreneur. He 

has a robust media company 

and is successful with seminars. 

Imam Mansoor Sabree is 

in Atlanta, Georgia. He leads 

a congregation that is over 

3,000 members strong. He also 

leads the Clara Muhammad 

and WD Muhammad schools 

there, directs a nonprofit and 

from my last conversation with 

him he is also in real estate investing. 

The third one is Imam 

Makram El-Amin of Masjid Nur 

in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He 

also owns a construction company, 

invests in residential real 

estate and directs a nonprofit 

community organization. 

The fourth one is Imam Wazir 

Ali of Masjid Warithudeen 

Mohammed in Houston, Texas. 

Now hold your eyes for this 

one. He is the Imam of Masjid 

Warithuddeen Mohammed and 

Masjid Al –Quran. You read that 

correctly. That’s two mosques. 

He is also a certified nutritionist 

with more alphabets behind his 

name than the Arabic alphabet 

combined. He also owns a successful 

nutritional consulting 

company. But get this, he is also 

finishing up his PhD and teaches 

classes at a local university. 

He does all of this and none 

of the communities feel short 

changed. I have seen him officiate 

weddings and lead funeral 

prayers as well. Imams own all 

types of companies. They are 

in IT, landscaping, plumbing, 

finance, media, consulting and 

more. 

I also challenge you to 

find one Imam who doesn’t 

have complete creative control 

and who is enslaved to 

a board of directors. You see 

this was a model laid out by 

Imam W.D. Mohammed himself. 

He encouraged mosques 

to be totally independent and 

decentralized. 

He also encouraged Imams 

to be intellectually free and 

economically self-sufficient. 

He even encouraged Imams 

to disagree with him! I once 

heard him say; “I would rather 

you not follow me, than to hang 

on and regurgitate every word 

coming out of my mouth without 

thinking for yourself.” I am 

grateful for this. Intellectual, 

creative and spiritual freedom 

is priceless. When you look at 

every masjid or community 

space associated with Imam 

WDM, they are totally independent. 

There are no tight knit 

executive boards, regional or 

supreme leaders. 

I am also an entrepreneur. 

I have run my accounting and 

financial management practice 

since 2005. I also founded 

and direct a nonprofit that has 

relationships with inner-city 

schools to teach and promote 

entrepreneurship and finance. 

I used to own a barbershop and 

a carpet cleaning company at 

the same time. I was also working 

in corporate America in 

accounting and finance while 

I owned and ran these two 

businesses. During this time I 

was also working on my MBA, 

assisting with lecture rotation, 

teaching Arabic grammar and 

fiqh classes. There is another 

Imam in Houston that assists 

me at Ibrahim Islamic Center. 

Imam Kehlin Farooq is also an 

entrepreneur. He owns a beauty 

supply company and dry 

cleaners and is very heavily involved 

with grass roots community 

work as are all the Imams 

I mentioned. I don’t think any 

opinion 

of us are wealthy financially. 

However our families do live a 

dignified existence and none of 

us are afraid of being fired from 

our positions as Imams. 

As a bi- vocational Imam 

who is also an entrepreneur; 

I can come and go as I am 

pleased. I can represent my 

community and not feel like a 

token. I have seen numerous 

Imams that don’t know basic financial 

management, have zero 

hustle and as a result get taken 

advantage of. In 2015, there are 

Imams that are working without 

a contract. Unfortunately, 

many board members don’t 

value religious leadership. They 

only want you to teach cookie 

cutter Islamic programming, 

baby sit their children and stay 

in your lane. You will not make 

strategic and financial decisions 

and you will not get a seat on 

the board. They are always five 

moves ahead of you. You think 

you’re on the board playing 

chess with them but you’re not 

even on the board. You’re playing 

marbles and they’re playing 

chess. We need board members 

that act more like spiritual leaders 

rather than cut-throat business 

leaders. 

Insha Allah, one-day board 

members will wake up and see 

they are crippling our communities 

and the future of Islam in 

America. I’m not waiting around 

for them to come to their senses 

and you shouldn’t either. Never 

put yourself in a position as an 

Imam where someone can control 

you. Conduct your affairs by 

mutual consultation (Shura), 

but make sure the final decision 

is left to you. Let your community 

hold you accountable, not 

some board of directors. Go and 

get training in a skill set outside 

of teaching the religion. Get IT 

certifications, become a plumber 

or figure out a way to monetize 

what you already know. 

Make plenty of Duaa. Start with 

the prayer of making a decision 

(Istikhara) and just keep going. 

You’d be surprised what you can 

get done and how fast it could 

get done when you work directly 

with the community. Figure 

out how to start something on 

your own from the ground up 

and then find a core group who 

agree with you and run with it. 

Run fast enough that you don’t 

have time to let fear of failure 

overtake you. If you build it the 

people will come. Keep your intentions 

pure, keep the mission 

(Your Why) in front of you and 

don’t expect overnight success. 

In conclusion, I recall having 

a conversation with a 

board member of a masjid 

where I was a guest speaker. 

He was lamenting why they 

can’t keep an Imam. “We paid 

the brother $55,000 per year!” 

I nearly fell out of my chair 

and replied; “$55,000 per year 

is actually pretty light. Did 

you all provide 401K, medical 

and dental benefits, paid vacation, 

housing allowance etc?” 

Photo credit: Photodune 

He replied; “No we didn’t.” 

The conversation continued 

along the lines of me telling 

him that board members expect 

the Imam to be available 

for 5 daily prayers, perform 

weddings, counseling, teach 

Quran, tafseer, work with 

youth and more for that salary. 

I left feeling like he didn’t really 

get my point. And I don’t 

know that board members will 

get the point anytime soon. 

For Imams that are truly trying 

to make a difference, there 

are alternatives that are less 

stressful. Who wants to continue 

to put up with blatant 

racism, no creative control and 

low pay? Imams are rendering 

themselves as leaders with no 

authority. Being bi-vocational 

definitely has its drawbacks 

both for the community and 

the Imam. However, it’s still a 

much less expensive alternative 

than what we currently 

have. 

Editor’s note: Khalis Rashaad 

is the Imam of Ibrahim Islamic 

Center in Houston, Texas. 

Ibrahim Islamic Center is a 

mosque that focuses not only on 

the spiritual needs of its members, 

but also on the socio-economic 

issues in the urban community 

surrounding the center. 

You can connect with him on 

Twitter @khalisrashaad or contact 

him at khalisrashaad.com. 

This article originally appeared 

on Ummah Wide.

OPINION 


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Creating change easily 

By Sayeda Habib 

notes of what you need to do. Sit down with your diary and 

plan them in. Ensure that you keep your other commitments 

in mind and give them priority as well. When you take on 

things in a manageable way, you will have room to grow, and 

the change will feel like a pleasure and not a burden. 

Salam alaikum brothers and sisters! I hope that the blessed 

month of Ramadan has gone well for you. The month of 

Ramadan is centered on personal growth, not only for our 

own benefit, but also for the pleasure of Allah swt. This month 

is soon to end, but wouldn’t it be wonderful to create changes 

that will last? Making a change for a short while can be easy, 

but turning it into a habit will take consistent action over a 

period of time. If you revert to old habits, then the change will 

dissolve and there’s a danger that you may feel more de-motivated 

than before. All this can happen if we take on changes 

in a haphazard way. Let me give you sister Farwa’s* example. 

Farwa used to hold on to things from her past- hanging onto 

old clothes, papers, shoes, and everything else. She wanted to 

learn to let go of things, and wanted to organize and de-clutter 

her life. She would get very excited, take everything out, 

and then feel completely overwhelmed and stop. This had 

happened a few times before she came to coaching. Through 

coaching, Farwa learned to set smaller targets and organize 

herself over time. 

Choosing what habit you want to develop is the first step. 

Once you are clear about that, then comes the process of taking 

regular action in order to develop that behavior into a 

habit in your daily life. Each of us has a unique goal, so we 

won’t be focusing on the habit itself, instead we will focus on 

how you go about creating the habit once you know what you 

want. So let’s explore some ways in which you can build a new 

habit successfully. 

Create your motivation 

One of the biggest traps we can fall into is to aim for a 

change that someone else wants, or creating one from fear. 

For example, if you set a target to lose weight because your 

spouse or parent wants you to, but you don’t really want it 

yourself, then the chances for your success will be limited. 

You may achieve some short-term success, but to create a new 

lifestyle for healthy eating will be much harder if you aren’t 

motivated to do so for yourself. The most important aspect of 

creating change is having a powerful motivation to make the 

change. Once you have an idea of what you want, sit down 

and ask yourself the following questions: 

• Why do I want to make this change? 

• What will this new habit give me in my life? 

• Who will this change impact, and in what way? 

• Do I see myself implementing this new habit in the 

next six months? Five years? Ten years? Do I still want to 

make this change? 

The last question should make things clear for you. 

However, if you are still unsure then you may wish to reconsider 

taking on the goal. Ask yourself what it is that you really, 

really want, and then create a new goal from that awareness. 

Your chances of success will increase dramatically if you really 

want what you’re aiming for. 

Take it on piece by piece 

Have you ever taken on multiple things and then found it 

difficult to follow through? You may be excited and inclined 

to take on several different behaviors at once, but changes are 

more sustainable when taken on one at a time. Also, Ramadan 

is a time when we feel inspired to do more- but remember that 

you will go back to your normal routine very soon. Ensure 

that you break your plan down into manageable steps. Make 


Take actions consistently! 

It takes a minimum of 28 days at of action to begin turning 

a behavior into a habit. You will need to do the same behavior 

each day until your mind-body system gets used to the idea 

that you really want to have this habit. Plan out your actions, 

and then ensure that it can be carried out either daily, or as 

regularly as you need. If you find it difficult to add it into your 

schedule, then break the habit down into smaller chunks. For 

example, if you want to exercise 5 times a week, but it will 

be challenging to carve out that time, then commit to 2 or 3 

times a week for the first month. Each time you are successful 

in exercising for example, this will be a message to your mind 

that you intend on continuing this behavior. Each time you do 

it will also build your confidence. Remember that you are not 

stuck here; there is always room to build more in. However, 

do it in a sustainable way so that it fits in to your lifestyle. If 

you find that you are unable to be consistent, then reduce 

your commitment till you find a level that is sustainable and 

build from there. 

Be kind to yourself 

Being consistent is important, however, we may go off 

track now and again. How you handle this will make all the 

difference to your self-confidence and to your success. If you 

are accustomed to being hard on yourself, then stop. Being 

hard on yourself will encourage feelings of failure and lead 

to discouragement. If things go off plan, then ask yourself the 

following questions: 

• What happened that caused me to get off track? 

• What can I be accountable for here? 

• What lesson do I need to learn? 

• What will I now do differently? 

Once you can identify what caused the issue, then you can 

do something about it. Figure out what you need to do differently, 

and then get back on your new plan. Being compassionate 

with yourself will allow you to keep your confidence and 

motivation in place. 

Get the support you need 

Making changes can be challenging- and we all need support 

from time to time. Enlist the support you need to succeed. 

Tell family members or a close friend about what you 

are up to. Request their co-operation and support. What you 

do naturally impacts those close to you, so request them for 

their help in ensuring you succeed. Insha’Allah those who are 

close to you will become a valuable asset to you. 

Insha’Allah we will all succeed in creating productive 

changes for our lives after this holy month. Give these strategies 

a go and they will assist you in doing so with ease, insha- 

Allah. My very best wishes for you on the journey. 

Editor’s note: Sayeda Habib guides Muslims to empower them 

to change habits, enhance their self-confidence, and to find fulfilment 

in their lives. For further information on coaching, or to 

get in touch with Sayeda, log on to www.makelifehappen.com, 

or email her at Sayeda@makelifehappen.com. The views in her 

article are solely her own. 

The Muslim Observer ISSN 1531-1759 (USP.S. 018-739) is published weekly for $100 per year by Muslim Media Network, Inc., 29004 W. 8 Mile Rd., Farmington, MI 48336. 

Periodicals postage paid at Farmington Hills, MI, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Muslim Observer; 29004 W. 8 Mile Rd.; 

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6 — The Muslim Observer — July 17 - 23, 2015 — Shawwal 1 - 7, 1436 

sports 

Sports and 

Consequences 

Ibrahim Abdul-Matin 

I have a huge track 

meet: should I eat 

or should I fast? 

This is an excerpt of the 

piece, Touchdowns and Taqwa, 

published in All-American: 

45 American Men on Being 

Muslim, White Cloud Press, 

2012. 

Taqwa involves fulfilling 

obligations inwardly and outwardly 

and avoiding what is 

prohibited inwardly and outwardly. 

It requires struggle and 

sacrifice, focus and commitment, 

cooperation, physical 

health, eating healthy wholesome 

foods, prayer, and the 

right attitude. A lot of what 

it takes to attain that state is 

what it also takes to be a good 

athlete. 

Track and field was the setting 

for one of my greatest 

Islamic lessons on personal 

responsibility. I was a junior 

in high school and it was during 

Ramadan. I had missed 

dinner one Thursday night after 

breaking my fast because 

I was so tired from participating 

in indoor track and being 

on the basketball team at the 

same time – each day I was doing 

full practices for each sport 

while fasting. The next morning, 

Friday, I missed suhoor 

(the meal before sunrise that 

gives one some sustenance for 

the day of fasting ahead) and 

that night I also missed eating 

a proper dinner after breaking 

my fast. The next morning, 

Saturday, I also missed suhoor 

and woke up in time for fajr 

(morning prayer)- only this 

time I also had to prepare for 

a track meet. I had not eaten a 

proper meal in two days, and 

I did not know what to do. I 

was exhausted, hungry, and 

parched from thirst. I went to 

the kitchen and paced around 

looking into the cabinets and 

fridge. I even poured myself 

some water and stared at the 

glass. Eventually I went to my 

dad, who was preparing to take 

me to the track meet, and asked 

him what to do. 

“Daddy,” I said, “I have not 

eaten in two days and I have a 

HUGE track meet today. Should 

I eat? Or should I fast?” 

My dad shook his head and 

paused. If you know him, you 

know that he never rushes to 

judgment. His response was 

simple and profound. 

“That,” he said, “is between 

you and Allah.” 

Needless to say, I fasted. The 

best part of the story is that in 

Dates. Photo credit: Photodune 

all my events that day, I not 

only won but I also had personal 

bests in each event. I ran 

raster and jumped longer then I 

had ever done before. 

In the process I discovered 

the benefits of thikr (engaging 

in constant remembrance 

of Allah) that day. Thikr was 

what sustained me throughout 

the grueling track meet. I also 

understood through this experience 

that my status before 

Allah has everything to do with 

my own intentions, choices, 

and actions. 

At times I did not always fit 

into the culture of sports in the 

USA. If I could go back, I would 

have insisted on taking breaks 

to pray and I would have pulled 

my coaches aside when they 

were being insensitive to my 

race and my religion. However, 

in employing struggle and 

sacrifice, focus and commitment, 

cooperation, physical 

health, eating healthy wholesome 

food, prayer, and the 

right attitude I overcame those 

obstacles. 

People measure their athletic 

careers by how much they won 

or lost or how many points they 

scored. These are fair measurements, 

but I think it is easy to 

overlook some of the most important 

lessons that come embedded 

in the games and in our 

approach to them. We should 

measure our success also by 

what we learn about our own 

selves and our own souls. As 

an athlete and a member of the 

Muslim American community, I 

hope I can be an example of the 

fact that sports are a healthy 

outlet for our youth, and that 

sports can be an enriching part 

of the Muslim experience. I feel 

each one of us has untapped 

potential in our community to 

be ambassadors of our faiths, 

cultures, and families, as well 

as athletes who can power our 

local teams to championships. 

Editor’s Note: Ibrahim Abdul- 

Matin has worked in the civic, 

public, and private sectors and 

on several issues including sustainability, 

technology, community 

engagement, sports, and 

new media. He is the author of 

Green Deen: What Islam Teaches 

About Protecting the Planet and 

contributor to All-American: 45 

American Men On Being Muslim. 

From 2009 to 2011 Ibrahim was 

the regular Sports Contributor 

for WNYC’s nationally syndicated 

show The Takeaway. Follow 

him on twitter @IbrahimSalih. 

The views expressed here are his 

own. 

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opinion 

A year after Gaza war, no rebuilding 

and an uneasy future for all 

By Nidal al-Mughrabi 

BEIT HANOUN, Gaza 

(Reuters) - Ali Wahdan, a 

maths teacher from Gaza, lost 

his wife, 11 members of his 

family and a leg to Israeli bombardment 

of the town of Beit 

Hanoun, in the north of the 

Gaza Strip, during last year’s 

war between Israel and Hamas. 

Nearly 12 months on, doctors 

have decided to amputate 

his other leg. It is a cruel reminder 

of how little progress he 

has made since the 50-day war. 

In almost all respects, his life 

and prospects have crumbled. 

“The war ended, but my 

tragedy did not,” said the pale 

36-year-old, moving himself 

around in a motorized wheelchair. 

“I spent the past year 

going from one hospital to 

another. 

“A year ago I was a teacher 

standing before my students. 

Today I am helpless to serve 

even my children.” 

The war did come to an end. 

But on either side, those caught 

up in it are still struggling to 

deal with the fallout. Israel and 

Hamas too are trying to work 

out whether the truce they 

have is stable or if the next war 

is just around the corner. 

In Gaza, the impact of the 

conflict is everywhere. More 

than 12,000 homes destroyed 

and 100,000 damaged, with 

none so far rebuilt. Tens of 

thousands left homeless. Twothirds 

of the 1.8 million people 

recipients of U.N. aid in one 

form or another. 

More than 500 children were 

among the 2,100 Palestinians, 

the majority of them civilians, 

who were killed. Seventy-three 

Israelis, almost all soldiers, 

were killed. 

“The despair, destitution 

and denial of dignity resulting 

from last year’s war and the 

blockade are a fact of life for 

ordinary people in Gaza,” said 

Pierre Krahenbuhl, head of the 

U.N. Relief and Works Agency, 

Gaza’s main provider of aid. 

“This situation represents a 

time-bomb for the region.” 

Wahdan and what remains 

of his family are sheltering in a 

home built of wood, blue plastic 

sheeting and metal panels, 

a far cry from the four-story 

building they once occupied. 

They have a refrigerator but 

little to cook with. 

Across the frontier in Israel, 

where constant mortar and 

rocket fire from Gaza rained 

down ahead of and during the 

conflict, the impact is less visible 

but no less real. 

Gadi Yarkoni managed a collective 

farm near the border 

with Gaza. On the last day of 

the war he was hit by a mortar. 

Two friends were killed and he 

lost both his legs. About 500 

children in the area are still receiving 

post-war counseling. 

Yarkoni is now the head of 

the local council and channels 

his energy into trying to 

shore up the regional economy, 

which in his mind includes 

building up Gaza’s capabilities. 

“Let’s embark on a calm period 

on both sides, development 

in the Gaza Strip and development 

in Israel, and then we’ll 

see that it is much better than 

continued bloodshed,” he said. 

What future? 

Yet that depends on whether 

the truce that Egypt hammered 

out endures. Since the conflict 

ended last August, militants of 

smaller factions not allied with 

Hamas, the Islamist group that 

controls the Palestinian enclave, 

have continued to fire occasional 

rockets into Israel. 

In recent months, Salafists 

claiming allegiance to Islamic 

State have emerged in Gaza, 

carrying out attacks against 

Hamas, firing rockets at Israel 

and making wider threats. 

Egypt and Israel, which 

control access to Gaza, have 

taken steps that indirectly help 

Hamas, opening their borders 

to allow the freer flow of goods 

and people into the territory, a 

move that shores up Hamas’s 

popularity against the Salafis. 

There are reports of Israel 

and Hamas engaging in talks, 

with the Islamist group offering 

a long-term truce. While there 

has been no confirmation from 

either side, such contacts have 

happened in the past and there 

is a quiet acknowledgement 

that at some level both have to 

deal with ‘the devil they know’. 

Yet even if some progress 

can be made in such talks, internal 

Palestinian divisions are 

an ever present disruption. 

Mahmoud Abbas, the 

president of the Palestinian 

Authority and head of the 

Fatah party, remains at odds 

with Hamas, with whom he 

agreed a unity government in 

June 2014. 

That deal was supposed 

to allow the Palestinian 

Authority, based in the West 

Bank, to resume responsibility 

for borders and security in 

Gaza, but it hasn’t happened. 

Distrust between Hamas and 

Fatah has never been greater. 

If Palestinian elections were 

held tomorrow, polls suggest 

Hamas would probably win. 

In Gaza, Hamas appears 

dug in for the long-term. Its 

military wing promises to rebuild 

tunnels that were used 

to attack Israel during the war. 

Israel is developing technology 

to identify those tunnels 

before they are used. 

Gazans are trying to be 

positive. This week, a group 

of young men visited a public 

garden along the beach and 

painted bright cartoon murals 

on the walls and the terrace, 

part of a campaign they have 

dubbed “Colour of Hope,” 

which included repainting 

homes and walls in some 

streets. 

When the war ended, Israeli 

officials spoke openly about the 

likelihood of the next conflagration, 

saying it would be only 

a year or so before another conflict 

erupted. 

A year on, perhaps the best 

that can be said is that the timeframe 

has shifted. Another war 

may be inevitable - there have 

been three since 2008 - but it 

may be further off than initially 

feared. 

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opinion 


Why defeating ISIS with military 

might is starry eyed idealism 

By David Alpher 

Just this past weekend of 

July 4, US-led coalition aircraft 

targeted the ISIS stronghold 

of Raqqa in Syria. It was one 

of the “largest deliberate engagements 

to date,” said a coalition 

spokesman, and it was 

executed “to deny [ISIS] the 

ability to move military capabilities 

throughout Syria and 

into Iraq.” The scale of these 

responses gives a hint both to 

how concerned we are about 

such groups–and to how badly 

we misunderstand how to deal 

with them. 

ISIS–the self-proclaimed 

“Islamic State”–is the monster 

of our times, our Grendel. Every 

pundit, commentator, armchair 

warrior and presidential 

candidate, declared and otherwise, 

claims to have a strategy 

to defeat them. A steady stream 

of political statements offering 

answers to “what do we do 

about them?” have gotten progressively 

more hawkish. 

Would-be presidents have 

given us options ranging from 

bombing ISIS “back to the 7th 

Century” (Rick Santorum), 

increasing the number of 

American troops in the fight 

(Lindsey Graham), and “look 

for them, find them and kill 

them” (Marco Rubio, quoting 

an action movie). 

Bold words…and every one 

of them will fail, because they 

are far too idealistic to work in 

reality. If the candidates want 

realism, they’ll have to advocate 

something else: peacebuilding. 

“War as utopian idealism” 

and “peacebuilding as hardnosed 

realism” sounds like an 

absurd joke. 

Here’s why it isn’t. 

War is just politics by other 

means 

Carl Von Clausewitz, one 

of history’s foremost military 

strategists and right at the 

foundation of American strategic 

teaching, famously called 

warfare an “extension of politics 

by other means.” 

What he meant by that is 

that if military action is going 

to be successful, it cannot stand 

alone or direct itself. Unless it 

grows out of and complements 

a solid, sustainable political 

strategy, it will fail. 

That was true in his day of 

formalized warfare; in today’s 

world, it’s even more critical 

an insight, because what the 

world faces in ISIS isn’t a war 

among uniformed armies and 

sovereign nations. 

This conflict and others like 

it around the world are rooted 

in people, not states. It’s rooted 

in ideology and religion, in sectarian 

frictions, in political exclusion 

and social marginalization, 

in resources and access. 

That’s a long list of root 

causes and conditions that do 

not respond to force and cannot 

be bombed out of existence. 

In other words, if “defeat 

ISIS” isn’t couched within a 

clear, realistic plan to do the human, 

political, diplomatic and 

development work necessary 

to fix the problems that gave it 

rise, the mission will fail. 

In its failure, it will leave behind 

the seeds of a new threat 

in fertile soil, just as ISIS itself 

grew from the roots of al-Qaeda 

even after the bloom was cut 

off above. 

Peacebuilding, at its heart, 

means doing the hard work of 

correctly analyzing the causes 

and conditions that lead to violence 

and instability. It means 

identifying ways of breaking 

those causes down, and then 

doing the even harder work of 

helping to build healthy, resilient 

social and political structures 

in their place. 

It’s work that’s usually dismissed 

as an exercise in starryeyed, 

utopian idealism by a policy 

community dominated by 

the philosophy of nation states 

and Realpolitik. And yet over 

the last few years, the fallacy of 

that dismissal has become increasingly 

clear. 

General James Mattis told 

Congress flatly that “if you 

don’t fully fund the State 

Department, then I need to buy 

more ammunition.” General 

Phipps, former commander of 

the 101st Airborne Division in 

Afghanistan, when asked about 

peacebuilding outreach to men 

he’d fought not long before, replied 

“That’s how wars end… 

we can’t kill our way out of 

this.” 

The least effective tool 

against terrorism is war 

Serious research centers 

have arrived at the same conclusion: 

the RAND Corporation, as 

far back as 2008, advised that 

outside military intervention 

is bar none the least effective 

way to make terrorist groups 

go away. 

Ending the kind of conflicts 

we see most often today requires 

building inclusive governance 

and rule of law far more 

than it requires the defeat of a 

fighting force on the battlefield. 

“Peacebuilding” is a broad 

category of work, which seeks 

to address the root causes of 

conflict and instability within 

populations and systems of 

governance. In conflicts that involve 

people more than states, 

any answer other than this 

shows a lack of understanding. 

Beginning now rather than 

waiting for the battlefield victory 

is an imperative, because 

it’s only through this work that 

the next battle gets less likely. 

In fact the battlefield options 

- however satisfying they may 

seem in a tactical sense - often 

cause more trouble than they’re 

worth. The Saudis are discovering 

this in their campaign 

against the Houthis in Yemen, 

which is entirely military and 

has no parallel political component, 

and is having predictably 

destabilizing consequences. 

Members of Iraq’s Shi’ite paramilitaries launch a rocket toward Islamic State militants outskirting 

the city of Falluja in province of Anbar, Iraq, July 12. Stringer / Reuters 

Yes, building peace is a long 

process that will take years, 

perhaps generations; but those 

years will pass whether or not 

we recognize the need for a 

more realistic foreign policy, 

and the only question is whether 

in years to come progress has 

been made, or the war goes on. 

The discussion about ISIS, as 

with many others around the 

globe, has lost track of realism. 

Instead of looking at the military 

as an extension of politics, 

speakers across the board have 

begun to look at politics as secondary 

- something to worry 

about once the hard work of 

fighting’s done. 

Practical actions for 

peace-building 

What does this look like in 

practice? Here are four possible 

actions: 

One: The “real battle” here 

isn’t with ISIS, it’s for the populations 

they’re trying to sway. 

There is no understating the 

power of the following scenario: 

An American politician 

saying, in a public forum, “I 

speak now to all of the population 

caught up in this fight, be 

you Sunni, Shia, Yazidi, Kurd 

or otherwise, and I say, ‘It’s not 

just their destruction we have 

in mind - it’s your survival.” 

ISIS may prove impossible 

to talk with, but if we’re indiscriminate 

and also ignore the 

population who is looking to 

the outside world for engagement 

and help, we’re doing 

nothing but feeding into the vicious 

cycle. 

Two: Make it clear to the 

populations concerned that we 

strive to address the problems 

theyface, not just those symptoms 

of the problems that we 

face. 

Speaking to the current fight 

but not the problems that gave 

rise to it and which will still exist 

once the smoke clears just 

comes across as naive and disingenuous. 

Make a clear statement, 

for example, that we will 

not support repressive regimes 

in exchange for expedient stability, 

but are prepared for the 

long haul of achieving stability 

through unfailing support 

for the ideals of inclusive good 

governance that we ourselves 

hold dear. 

Three: My research and 

personal experience working 

for organizations in the region 

as well as many years spent in 

conflict-affected areas have 

shown me repeatedly that the 

real key to peace-building (as 

with development overall) isn’t 

“what you do,” it’s “how you do 

it.” 

The most effective “how” is 

to look past states to see people, 

and provide incentives to 

get the population and government 

alike involved in designing 

and negotiating their own 

inclusive way forward - with 

our support, but not with our 

direction. Helping to build 

connectivity between the two 

- defined through trust, partnership 

and locally negotiated 

outcomes - is a powerful programmatic 

outcome. 

It’s also a good working definition 

of “good governance,” 

and a more terrifying thought 

for ISIS than any weaponry can 

be. 

Four: Most of all, recognize 

that the military neither can 

nor should be the primary vehicle 

for American engagement 

overseas, and reprioritize funding 

accordingly. 

The military is not trained 

for the jobs that peace-building 

entails, but USAID, the State 

Department and most importantly 

non-governmental organizations, 

are. 

The message we send by 

prioritizing our own national 

security agenda while underfunding 

the agencies whose 

core mission and skillset is to 

work with good governance, 

justice, peace and livelihoods, 

is that we have no intention of 

doing more than eradicating 

symptoms while leaving the 

causes unchecked. 

The military does have its 

role to play in winning a battle, 

but if “war” is our only lens, we 

will see only battlefield solutions 

to a set of problems that 

can’t be solved with those. If 

we want to end the problem, 

we need to speak to the broad 

population with those tools 

that bring life, not death. 

At some point an American 

president will be forced to recognize 

that fixing problems like 

the ones in Iraq and Syria is 

too complicated to sum up in a 

campaign slogan or sound bite. 

That’s the hard truth. 

The only question is how 

much in blood, time and treasure 

will be wasted before this 

realization hits home. 

Getting rid of ISIS and 

groups like it certainly requires 

seriousness and a willingness to 

get hard work done — but that 

doesn’t just mean preparing to 

get bloody. It means we need to 

be realistic and unafraid to say, 

“Our strategy is to build peace.” 

Editor’s note: David Alpher is 

an adjunct professor at George 

Mason University’s School for 

Conflict Analysis and Resolution 

at George Mason University. His 

views are solely his own. This article 

originally appeared in The 

Conversation.


opinion / national 

Living 

Well 

Noor Salem 

Should you really 

avoid eating 

honey? 

I receive an incredible 

amount of questions regarding 

whether honey is a beneficial 

food to consume, or whether 

it’s something to stay away 

from. Many of my clients claim 

they are confused about whether 

or not honey is really a health 

optimizing food, due to contradicting 

statements they hear. 

I’ve realized many have come to 

believe it’s equal to the brownie 

on your plate, while at the opposite 

end of the spectrum, we 

have our holistic doctors who 

swear by its miraculous benefits. 

Many people claim that 

it’s not beneficial due to the 

high calorie and sugar content. 

They decide to buy zero calorie 

sweeteners instead. 

While some people may assert 

that sugar is sugar, many 

holistic healers, including myself, 

put honey in its own category 

due to its unique beneficial 

enzymes, anti-bacterial, 

anti-fungal, and anti-viral benefits. 

Of course, I’m talking 

about Organic Raw Honey, local 

if possible. Anything taken 

from the Sunnah of our Prophet 

(pbuh) should not be questioned, 

let alone the Quran! 

None knows what’s better for 

us than the One who created us 

to begin with. 

“Then eat from all the fruits 

and follow the ways of your 

Lord laid down [for you]. 

There emerges from their bellies 

a drink, varying in colors, 

in which there is healing for 

people. Indeed in that is a sign 

for a people who give thought.” 

[Quran 16:69] 

The benefits of truly pure 

honey are simply outrageous. 

Put aside swallowing capsules 

of antibiotics, and skip unnatural 

medicine that bandage our 

sicknesses instead of heal us 

from within. Honey has healing 

properties for ulcers, antibacterial 

and anti-viral properties, 

blood sugar control, 

cough suppressant, and it even 

boosts your immunity. Honey 

soothes the intestinal linings of 

your stomach. I always advise 

my clients with allergies and 

food intolerance issues to take 

a spoon of organic raw honey, 

local if possible, every morning. 

Even more exciting, some 

studies prove that doctors who 

used honey as healing for cuts 

and wounds healed faster and 

cleaner than those treated with 

alcohol and iodine. Eating a 

spoon of Organic Raw Honey 

every morning could do you 

wonders, and after a workout 

it helps with glycogen restoration 

in your system too. 

Let me emphasize a point 

though, if you’re referring to 

the cute looking teddy bear 

honey that’s on sale for 99 

cents at the supermarket, then 

yes, I’d definitely advise that 

you completely avoid eating it 

or feeding it to your kids. Not 

only is this honey heavily processed, 

it’s unnatural. Believe 

it or not, they add sugar in the 

majority of brands. Even honey 

that does not come in a teddy 

bear container may not be 

100% natural, and raw. Raw 

honey is unpasteurized and 

unfiltered, thus, contains optimum 

benefits for your overall 

health. 

An immense issue in our 

country today is that people 

are trying to eat sugar-free, 

low-fat, and carbohydrate 

free diets. Yet, people are unhealthier 

than ever before in 

history. Obviously, because 

these sugar-free sweeteners 

are chemically made to 

be sweet, in a scientist’s lab, 

not nature. They weren’t produced 

by bees and plants, 

and they are very unnatural. 

Putting these chemicals into 

your body could be toxic and 

harmful in the long run. Not to 

mention, these sweeteners are 

not satisfying, they chemically 

turn on your brain to crave for 

more. So enjoying that spoon 

of Organic Raw Honey daily 

is much more satisfying than 

pouring these artificially made 

sweeteners into your food. I always 

advise my clients to just 

stop the obsession of counting 

calories, but instead start 

counting chemicals. Stocking 

up on “sugar-free” and “lowcalorie” 

snacks full of 30+ 

Photo crediit: Photodune 

ingredients, hydrogenated oil, 

high fructose corn syrup, and 

plenty of chemicals we can’t 

pronounce is not a healthy 

diet. The spoon of honey may 

have sugar, but it is made of 

natural sugar with amazing 

benefits. 

With your enjoyment of eating 

it come numerous healing 

benefits too. What more can we 

ask for? 

Editor’s Note: Noor Salem is 

a Certified Integrative Nutrition 

Health Coach, and is CEO of her 

own wellness practice, Holistic 

Noortrition, LLC. Noor specialized 

in women’s health, weight 

loss, and food intolerance versus 

allergies. She offers individual 

and group health coaching programs, 

and is a speaker on the 

topic of holistic health at workshops 

and seminars. The views 

expressed here are her own. 

Community newsbriefs 

By Mohammad Ayub Khan 

TMO Contributing Writer 

Mohammed 

Ettouney to 

head EMI 

Committee 

NEW YORK,NY--Dr. 

Mohammed Ettouney, of 

Weidlinger Associates, Inc., has 

been named chairperson of the 

newly established Objective 

Resilience Committee (ORC) 

of the American Society 

of Civil Engineers’ (ASCE) 

Engineering Mechanics 

Institute (EMI). The committee 

will address resilience issues 

from a variety of objective 

viewpoints, with the goal 

of improving the resilience of 

major civil infrastructure assets 

and communities. 

Regarding the organization’s 

approval of Ettouney’s 

proposal to form the committee, 

EMI Director Dr. 

Amar Chaker remarked, “Dr. 

Ettouney was right to expect 

that the rigorous analytical 

approach needed to advance 

the very challenging field of 

objective resilience would be 

well received by the engineering 

mechanics community.” 

Dr. Mohammed Ettouney 

is a Distinguished Member of 

the American Society of Civil 

Engineers (ASCE) and a fellow 

and past president of its 

Architectural Engineering 

Institute (AEI). He is a recipient 

of the Homer Gage 

Balcom lifetime achievement 

award presented by the ASCE’s 

Metropolitan Section. He is the 

coauthor, with Dr. Sreenivas 

Alampalli of the New York State 

Department of Transportation, 

of Infrastructure Health in 

Civil Engineering, a twovolume 

technical treatise 

that defines the agenda for 

a holistic approach to infrastructure 

design, inspection, 

maintenance, repair, and decision-making. 

Ettouney is a 

licensed Professional Engineer 

and has been with Weidlinger 

Associates since 1984. 

Founded in 1852, the 

American Society of Civil 

Engineers represents more 

than 140,000 members of the 

civil engineering profession 

worldwide and is America’s 

oldest national engineering 

society. The ASCE defines itself 

as “a global network of civil engineers 

dedicated to improving 

society’s infrastructure.” 

New Imam 

names for 

Islamic Society 

of Boston 

BOSTON,MA--The Islamic 

Society of Boston Cultural 

Center has appointed a new 

Imam. Shaykh Yasir F. Fahmy, 

was born and raised in Clifton, 

N.J., and had a stint in the corporate 

world before devoting 

himself to Islamic studies and 

community leadership, according 

to the Boston Globe. 

The thirty two year old 

Shaykh Fahmy is a graduate 

of the prestigious Al Azhar 

University and also has an undergraduate 

from Rutgers. 

The Islamic Center’s leaders 

expressed hope that he 

will offer effective leadership 

to the community. “He has the 

ability and potential to really 

articulate the vision of Islam 

in America in a way that authentically 

engages the tradition, 

yet at the same time 

meaningfully engages the cultural 

realities of life in Boston 

and America,” said Yusufi Vali, 

the executive director of the 

mosque, which is in Roxbury. 

Muslims offer 

help to Utah 

tribe 

The humanitarian group 

Islamic Relief USA is offering 

much needed help to a 

Utah tribe this Ramadan. 

The Goshute Tribe in Tooele 

County face unemployment 

and lack of income and this 

has become generational according 

to news reports. 

In a press report Islamic 

Relief says: ““The Tribal 

Nations are the original inhabitants 

of North America, 

and their vibrant cultures have 

benefited all Americans. It 

is Islamic Relief USA’s honor 

to be a partner with various 

Native American organizations, 

assisting them to promote 

healthy and sustainable 

communities.” 

Islamic Relief will deliver 

3,000 food packages to families 

across the country. Each 

box holds 30 pounds of food, 

including rice, pasta, beans, 

oil, canned meat, cheese and 

dates. 

Plans for 

Muslim 

cemetery 

opposed 

FARMERSVILLE,TX--Plans 

by the Islamic Association of 

Collin County to develop a 

cemetery in Farmersville have 

attracted vocal opposition from 

residents. The proposal hasn’t 

even been discussed yet in the 

council as it isn’t ready for vote. 

But some residents are already 

venting their anger at the project 

with some threatening to 

spill pig’s blood on the land. 

Muslim leaders tried to dispel 

the fears. “They are fearful 

of what they don’t understand 

and hopefully it’s an opportunity 

for us to come together 

and learn a little bit more about 

each other and hopefully dispel 

some of those misconceptions,” 

said Alia Salem with the 

Council on American Islamic 

Relations of Dallas.

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The Muslim Observer — July 17 - 23 — Shawwal 1 - 7, 1436 — 11


international 

In Baghdad, end 

of a curfew brings 

Ramadan joy 

By Saif Hameed 

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - It’s 

1.30 a.m. and the Aroma Café in 

an affluent district of Baghdad 

is buzzing, packed with people 

enjoying a traditional pre-dawn 

Suhoor meal before starting 

their daily Ramadan fast. 

Smartly dressed waiters 

serve soup, tea and shisha 

pipes, while a constantly restocked 

buffet tempts customers 

with barbecued meats, salads, 

fruits and juices. 

The lifting of a night-time 

curfew in the Iraqi capital five 

months ago means that, for the 

first time since the 2003 U.S.- 

led invasion brought violence 

and turmoil, lavish Ramadan 

meals can stretch on until 

dawn. 

While the rest of the country 

fragments, hardline Islamic 

State fighters battle the army 

less than 50 km (30 miles) 

away, and car bombs still regularly 

inflict their deadly toll 

across the city, people seize 

gratefully at any chance to enjoy 

life. 

“This is the first year that we 

feel the joys of Ramadan in the 

way that we used to do in the 

80s and 70s,” said Fawziya at 

the Aroma Cafe, referring an 

era which many Baghdad residents 

now recall as a golden 

age. 

Untroubled by the prospect 

of a day’s work ahead, she sat 

with her relatives and in-laws, 

enjoying the spirit of togetherness 

which Ramadan is meant 

to foster. 

“You feel overjoyed to see 

this because all families have 

been through a lot. There is no 

fear,” she said. “We saw this in 

Turkey and Lebanon when we 

used to travel, but now it’s here 

as well.” 

Roads in the Tigris river 

neighborhood of Jadriya 

around the cafe were filled 

with cars. Pedestrians walked 

the well-lit, tree-lined streets, 

enjoying the relative post-midnight 

cool compared to daytime 

temperatures near 50 degrees 

Celsius. 

“Lifting the curfew had a 

huge impact... Life has sprung 

up suddenly,” says Abbas al- 

Taii, a 46-year-old father enjoying 

a meal with his family of 

six. 

“There is life now. Baghdad 

loves life... Going out at night 

in itself is a challenge to violence,” 

said the U.S. resident, 

who chose to bring his family 

back to his hometown to experience 

Ramadan in Iraq. 

Ramadan nights 

While the affluence of Jadriya 

doesn’t extend across the whole 

of Baghdad, Ramadan nights are 

special throughout the capital. 

In the impoverished Shi’ite 

quarter of Sadr City, children 

ride bikes after dark, youngsters 

kick footballs and men play 

Muhaibis, a traditional game 

where players have to work out 

which member of an opposing 

team is hiding a ring in their 

hand. 

Few families have the money 

to go out for Suhoor. Instead 

some raise funds to feed the 

poorest during the holy month. 

In a smart neighborhood 

west of the Tigris, shoppers fill 

the brightly lit Mansour mall 

and cinema complex. One film 

showing this Ramadan, Mad 

Max:Fury Road, portrays the 

mindless violence fueled by 

a revolt against a despot who 

hoards the resources of his desert 

wasteland.

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opinion / news 

Public school or Islamic school? 

By Khadijah Maimuna 

One of the biggest decisions 

all parents face: where and how 

to educate their children. For 

Muslim parents, this is a particularly 

difficult question with 

two common answers: Islamic 

school or public school. The 

advantages of an Islamic education 

should be evident, but it is 

important for Muslim parents to 

ask themselves the tough questions 

about such private schools 

before enrolling their children. 

Asking those questions might 

help parents reach the best decision 

for both themselves and 

their children. 

To that end, here are some 

of the issues to consider before 

sending your child to an Islamic 

school: 

1. Are you willing to drive 

your kids to and from islamic 

school every morning and every 

afternoon? Even if the school 

offers bus service, you will most 

likely still have to drive them to 

the bus stop. 

2. Are you willing to pay 

for textbooks in addition to 

tuition? 

3. Are you willing to pay 

even more money for extracurricular 

activities? Not because 

you really want them to become 

soccer stars or Tae Kwon Do 

masters, but because they need 

to learn to play and interact with 

kids that do not share their faith 

and ethnicity. One of the criticisms 

parents hear about sending 

their kids to Islamic school is 

that their children will not learn 

to interact in the real world-- 

that their children will be sheltered 

and then “go crazy” (with 

alcohol, drugs, the opposite sex, 

etc.) when they get older and 

have more freedom. There may 

be some truth to this, so children 

who are “sheltered” at Islamic 

school must have opportunities 

to interact and work with children 

of different backgrounds 

and faiths outside of school. 

4. Will you be able to handle 

any issues with your child’s 

teachers or administrators delicately? 

You may have personal 

relationships with some of the 

school staff. You may have to 

put some of these relationships 

at risk when raising a sensitive 

topic with a teacher. 

5. Do you understand that 

YOU are ultimately responsible 

for your child’s Islamic education? 

The teachers will impart 

Islamic information, but what 

your children end up actually 

practicing will depend on what 

happens at home. Your children 

will be steadfast in their prayers 

if you pray regularly at home. 

Your children will respect their 

elders if they see you respecting 

yours. Your children will refrain 

from swearing if you refrain at 

home. 

6. Are you okay with the 

school and teachers perhaps 

teaching more conservative interpretations 

of Islam than what 

you practice? You may not interpret 

some ideas exactly the way 

the teacher does, so you may 

have to explain various nuances 

to your child. For example, you 

may have to supplement at home 

with these: having Thanksgiving 

dinner is not haram and celebrating 

the Fourth of July does 

not make you a heathen. 

7. Are you prepared to 

respond to criticism from family 

and friends? You may hear 

“We went to public school, and 

we turned out okay. So why 

are you sending your kids to 

Islamic school?” It is a legitimate 

question that you should 

ask yourself. 

After reading these questions, 

you may ask yourself why 

anyone would possibly choose 

Islamic school. The answer is 

that the return on the investment 

is immense. 

When you overhear your 

young children debating Islamic 

issues, breaking into Quranic 

recitation out of the blue, receiving 

a cheerful greeting of 

“Asalamu’alaikum!” from their 

teachers, and know that your 

children have performed Dhur 

salat in jama’a at school - these 

things make Islamic school 

worth it. 

Both Islamic school and public 

school have their own advantages, 

but we have to remember 

that neither is fool-proof. Those 

advantages are never advantages 

on their own. They are only 

advantages when families take 

an active role in the lives of their 

children. 

Editor’s note: This article 

originally appeared on 

AtlantaMuslim.com. The author’s 

views are solely her own. 

The cover of Hend Hegazi’s ‘Normal Calm’ 

Hend Hegazi’s ‘Normal Calm’ 

discusses life after rape 

By Sonali Kudva 

Amina, the novel’s protagonist, 

is an Egyptian-American 

girl. She has normal dreams 

and aspirations like all young 

women. Her parents are conservative, 

but not stiflingly so. 

She goes away to college, and 

that’s where the novel really 

begins. 

Hend Hegazi, the author of 

“Normal Calm,” addresses issues 

of race and searching for 

a personal identity, while remaining 

true to oneself, and to 

the tenets of the Muslim faith. 

Amina is not preachy, but she 

remains firm and true to what 

she believes and feels. As I went 

through this journey with her, 

I realized I would like to know 

her and call her my friend. That 

is the highest compliment I 

could pay a fictional character. 

Amina is raped by someone 

she considers a friend and a 

brother. She deals with this 

trauma in a manner that caught 

me by surprise. She confides 

the details to her parents, her 

friends and then moves on with 

her life. She later meets a man, 

falls in love, and confides the 

details of her past to him, only 

to realize that a rape victim is 

unacceptable to him. 

In many eastern cultures, 

virginity is a prized possession, 

given by a woman to her husband 

on their wedding night. It 

is a sign of purity, and of loyalty 

to one man. But really, is virginity 

something worth rejecting 

the love of your life? Hegazi 

uses the novel to wrestle with 

this question, and others, dealing 

with them with sensitivity 

and faith. There is a very strong 

thread of hope and faith that 

binds this story together. 

Amina moves on from her 

failed engagement, to focus on 

her career. There are obstacles. 

She is a hijabi, and thus, encounters 

the prejudices against 

those who choose to veil, or display 

the tenets of their faith in 

dress and manner. But Hegazi 

does not dwell on this issue, 

or dig deep in this; it is not 

the focus of the novel after all. 

Instead, she uses devices like 

this to make Amina more real 

to the reader. 

Kayla, Amin’s best friend, believe 

it or not, is a white-American 

girl from a broken home. 

Kayla drifts from one man to 

another and has no steady faith 

to guide her. The two girls could 

not be more different. And yet, 

she is Amina’s loyal friend, 

who drops everything to drive 

three hours to console her after 

the rape. She also plays cupid 

to find Amina’s next romantic 

possibility. 

The new man is an Egyptian- 

American dentist with ties to 

the old country. Amina wrestles 

with the questions that so many 

young modern South Asian 

women encounter with romantic 

relationships: Do love and 

chemistry follow or precede 

marriage? Are you settling for 

stability? Should you? 

In the course of her journey, 

Amina comes face-to-face with 

her rapist again, who offers 

to marry her to make things 

“right.” This is an interesting 

plot device. However, more than 

that, it exposes how many rape 

victims in Eastern countries end 

up with their rapists, after being 

labelled “tainted” and “impure” 

in societies that prize virginity, 

and equate it with purity. 

While Hegazi doesn’t address 

or debate these issues, by 

lightly touching upon them, she 

creates awareness of the issues 

that pervade certain societies 

and cultures. And in the end, 

she provides hope for a better 

future for her characters, despite 

these obstacles, leaving 

the reader suffused with a sense 

of optimism. 

When I picked up “Normal 

Calm,” I wasn’t sure what to 

expect. I read the blurb, and I 

figured I would give it a chance. 

And, I’m glad I did. Hegazi’s 

story featuring Amina is an easy 

read. Fans of the religious romance 

genre will certainly appreciate 

it. 

Editor’s note: Sonali Kudva 

is a PhD candidate at the 

College of Communication 

and Information at Kent State 

University, Ohio, with research 

interests in Bollywood, 

Human-Information Interaction 

and Popular Culture. Her article 

originally appeared on 

BrownGirlMagazine.com. Her 

views are solely her own.

opinion 

The Muslim Observer — July 17 - 23 — Shawwal 1 - 7, 1436 — 15 

Raising 

Our Ummah 

Jennifer Zobair 

Raising sons 

to be feminists 

As parenting noises go, the 

sounds accompanying the Xbox 

Live are not my favorite. There 

is the game itself, the sudden 

outbursts of joy and/or despair, 

and the often mind-numbing, 

game-related conversation in 

between. At the same time, 

especially for a kid you moved 

from Boston to Washington 

D.C. the summer before his junior 

year of high school, playing 

an online video game can 

be a way for a child to keep in 

touch with old friends. 

For that reason, I tend to tolerate 

the Xbox situation better 

than some parents might, especially 

parents who are writers 

and whose desks are within 

earshot of the game console. 

Still, I have my moments. 

“Ask your friends if they’re 

feminists,” I said to my son the 

night edits were due on the 

anthology I’m co-editing—an 

anthology that happens to be 

about religion and feminism. 

“If you all say you’re feminists, 

you can keep playing.” 

He shot me one of those are 

you serious, Mom looks. I raised 

my eyebrows expectantly. 

While my son readily calls 

himself a feminist in our home 

in front of me, his very feminist 

mother, I wasn’t sure he’d say 

it to his friends. I was a lot less 

sure of what his friends would 

say. These were mostly football-playing 

sixteen-year-old 

boys. What did they even know 

about feminism? 

My son shrugged and posed 

the question. His friends all 

said that yes, they were feminists. 

My son said, “Me, too.” 

It was ridiculously matter of 

fact. They kept playing. I kept 

smiling. 

Of course, this was partly 

just mother-and-son joking 

around. But underlying the 

banter was a very serious sentiment: 

I want my son to embrace 

feminism. I think other 

people’s sons should embrace 

it, too. 

That may sound odd for 

a Muslim woman. Feminism 

is controversial in many segments 

of society, often misconstrued 

as a man-hating movement 

or as women somehow 

seeking more than equality, 

and it is particularly controversial 

in conservative religious 

communities. Among Muslims, 

there are generally two camps 

of anti-feminist thinkers: those 

who believe Islam prescribes 

rigid traditional gender roles 

and that feminism is a western 

bid’ah, or innovation, and 

those who claim that Islam already 

guarantees women’s full 

equality and therefore feminism 

is not needed. 

To fully answer those 

who embrace the first line of 

thought, those who are committed 

to strict gender roles 

based on sexist stereotypes, is 

beyond the scope of this column. 

There is, of course, the example 

of Khadija, the Prophet’s 

first wife, who was older than 

he, a successful businesswoman, 

his boss, and who proposed 

to him. (So much for traditional 

gender roles.) There is also the 

compelling and cogent work 

of scholars like Amina Wadud, 

Asma Barlas, Kecia Ali, Aysha 

Hidayatulla, and Riffat Hassan. 

I would suggest that those wedded 

to sexist interpretations of 

Islam should at least engage 

the work of pro-woman scholars 

who have so brilliantly engaged 

the work of anti-woman 

scholars. 

For those who say that Islam 

and the Qur’an have guaranteed 

women’s equal rights and 

therefore feminism is unnecessary, 

I will simply say that 

Islam may have guaranteed 

women’s rights, but Muslims 

have not always done so, and 

it’s important to understand 

the difference. 

What does this have to do 

with our sons? 

As the Muslim editor of 

Faithfully Feminist: Jewish, 

Christian, and Muslim 

Feminists on Why We Stay 

(forthcoming August 11th 

from White Cloud Press), I edited 

the work of fifteen thoughtful, 

courageous Muslim women 

who speak their truth about 

how they identify as feminists 

and remain within their faith 

tradition. These essays show 

that many of them either came 

to feminism—or became more 

firmly committed to it—because 

of the words and actions 

of Muslim men. The women in 

this collection write about enduring 

“benign” sexism from 

husbands who believe women 

are inherently unequal or untrustworthy, 

and about struggling 

with a culture that too often 

encourages women to make 

themselves smaller to avoid 

threatening their potential 

mates. One contributor spoke 

of how the arranged marriage 

process unduly favors men and 

treats women like commodities. 

I wrote about an imam 

who likened women to children 

in order to justify domestic violence. 

And one woman wrote 

about an abusive first marriage 

and the stigma in the Muslim 

community for divorced women 

who manage to escape. 

Embracing a feminist ethic 

means teaching our daughters 

not to tolerate such mistreatment. 

It also means teaching 

our sons not to inflict it. 

In order to do that, it is not 

enough to send children to 

Islamic school, or to encourage 

them to memorize the 

Qur’an. We cannot, as a community, 

stick our heads in the 

sand and think that religious 

education is a panacea for 

the belittling, mistreatment, 

or abuse of women. We are 

all too smart for that. Muslim 

women, like women from every 

religious background, suffer 


domestic violence, emotional 

abuse, rape, and harassment. 

Sometimes it is at the hands of 

Muslim men, and sometimes it 

is at the hands of Muslim men 

with supposedly impeccable religious 

training. 

That is not, of course, to say 

that only Muslim men do these 

things or that only Muslim boys 

need to be raised with feminist 

ideals; gender oppression is 

a human problem, not solely 

a Muslim one. But it is to say 

this: The boys who grow up to 

mistreat women are someone’s 

sons. Let them not be ours. 

Editor’s Note: Jennifer 

Zobair is a biological and adoptive 

mother, an attorney, and a 

writer. She is the author of the 

debut novel, Painted Hands (St. 

Martin’s Press, 2013) and the 

co-editor of Faithfully Feminist: 

Jewish, Christian, and Muslim 

Feminists on Why We Stay 

(forthcoming from I Speak 

For Myself/White Cloud Press, 

2015). She lives with her husband 

and three children in the 

DC area. Connect with Jennifer 

on twitter @jazobair or through 

her website at www.jennferzobair.com. 

The views expressed 

here are her own. 

Deadlines, red lines, bedtimes all lost at Iran talks 

By Arshad Mohammed 

and John Irish 

VIENNA (Reuters) - As any 

parent knows, setting limits is 

important, especially at bedtime. 

In the Iran nuclear negotiations, 

however, the normal 

rules of diet, discipline and decorum 

do not always apply. 

Diplomats describe the 

downsides of the talks, among 

them sleepless nights, separation 

from spouses and the difficulty 

of maintaining one’s diet, 

let alone waistline, amid the 

siren temptations of Vienna’s 

veal schnitzel and Sachertorte. 

The U.S. delegation to the 

talks, which aim to restrain the 

Iranian nuclear program in exchange 

for relief from economic 

sanctions against Iran, brings 

its own grub. 

Seeking to inject some levity 

into a briefing about the nuclear 

diplomacy, a senior U.S. official 

this week cataloged the 

U.S. delegation’s snack habits. 

Since the start of June, the 

team has gone through at least 

10 pounds (4.54 kg) of strawberry 

Twizzlers liquorice, 30 

pounds (13.61 kg) of mixed 

nuts and dried fruit, 20 pounds 

(9.07 kg) of string cheese, 200 

Rice Krispies treats (a mix of 

marshmallow, rice cereal and 

butter) and, on Monday alone, 

three liters of Zanoni & Zanoni 

gelato to celebrate a delegation 

birthday. 

“We have been here enough 

to celebrate virtually every 

member of the team’s birthday 

in Vienna at least once,” said 

the official, saying the delegation 

was in the Austrian capital 

11 times last year and at least 

half a dozen this year. 

The U.S. experts, who deal 

in the granular details of nuclear 

physics and economic 

sanctions, have flown across 

the Atlantic 69 times since they 

began seeking to reach a final 

nuclear agreement with Iran 

in February 2014, the official 

said. 

One calculates that he has 

flown 400,000 miles, roughly 

the equivalent of circumnavigating 

the earth 16 times. 

Getting some sleep, whether 

in the air or on the ground, is 

always a challenge. The U.S. 

and Iranian sanctions teams 

were up until 3 a.m. on Friday 

night negotiating. 

The next day, July 4, the U.S. 

delegation celebrated the U.S. 

Independence Day holiday in 

Vienna for the second year in 

a row, dining al fresco on hamburgers 

and a U.S. flag-shaped 

cake at the Coburg Palais hotel 

where the talks take place amid 

19th century splendor. 

Intense and monastic 

“It’s intense and monastic,” 

a diplomat from another delegation, 

looking gaunt and 

exhausted, said of walking the 

halls of the palace, built by 

aristocrat and cavalry general 

Prince Ferdinand von Sachsen- 

Coburg between 1840 and 

1845. 

Another bemoaned the long 

hours and the near impossibility 

of getting out for dinner, 

saying he managed to get to a 

restaurant at 10:30 one night 

only to find disappointment. 

“They let me in and then 15 

minutes later they were closing 

up. Vienna doesn’t do itself 

justice by closing at 11,” he 

said. 

One delegation opted to stay 

far from the Coburg this time. 

“I like the reporters, but I 

didn’t want them jumping into 

the swimming pool asking me 

about the number of centrifuges.” 

said a diplomat. Sadly, 

the distant hotel has drained 

its pool. 

By all accounts, the talks 

have entered their most difficult 

phase and, at times, turned 

testy. 

Western diplomats said 

U.S. Secretary of State John 

Kerry and Iranian Minister 

Mohammad Javad Zarif had a 

tense exchange about sanctions 

on Monday night. 

Iran’s official news agency 

IRNA went further, quoting 

unnamed Palais residents as 

saying the two could be heard 

shouting at each other during 

their one-on-one meeting.

16 —The Muslim Observer — July 17 - 23, 2015 — Shawwal 1 - 7, 1436 

opinion 

Mosques that leave congregations disillusioned are likely to be left increasingly empty. Photo credit: Photodune 

The Last 

Moghul 

Haroon Moghul 

Not that kind 

of Muslim 

By the time you read this, 

Ramadan may be over. 

Come the morning of Eid, 

you’ll find waking up that much 

harder, your limbs less supple. 

(We’re no longer soundproofed 

from Satan’s whispers.) We’ll 

head to the mosque, Islamic 

Center, giant outdoor field or 

repurposed activity space to 

pray in the unusually early 

hours of the morning, because 

of course if they woke up at 

this time in the 7th century, 

so must we. We’ll pray, listen 

to and possibly understand a 

sermon and feast to undo the 

fast. Stale croissants, bean pies, 

pakoras fried in Allah knows 

what, Dunkin munchkins, 

Entenmann’s marble loaf cake, 

whatever was on the remainder 

aisle at Shop Rite and Coke, 

from that permanently single 

guy. 

By the time you read this, 

Ramadan may be over. 

Here in New York it’s the dog 

days of summer. Surely many 

of us will ask: How did we get 

through this while fasting? 

Given the opportunity to try 

again, will I do better? Will we 

all do better? 

What follows is a concerned 

Muslim’s state of our disunion 

address, a cry of the qalb, a 

desire for us to reflect on some 

of our shortcomings with 

a hope for their resolution. 

Because what I see frightens 

me. For some reason, many of 

us seemed obsessed by putting 

each other down. There 

were so many examples of this 

throughout Ramadan that I 

will pick just one, culled from 

a social media post, describing 

the last ten nights: ‘Some of us 

go on the odd nights for the rewards. 

The rest of us go every 

night for God.’ 

We don’t worship God so 

much as we worship ourselves 

for worshipping Him. 

Who are we to determine 

the reasons people go to the 

mosque, or the value they get 

out of the mosque, or the quality 

of their piety? Not only was 

the message grossly offensive— 

and variations of it repeated 

throughout the month—but 

it entirely missed the point. 

You’re not knocking believers, 

you see. You’re knocking God. 

(Let me know how that works 

out for you.) God is the One encouraging 

us to go to Him, and 

incentivizing us for so doing. If 

He wanted us to come ‘only’ for 

Him, as if such abstract purity of 

intention is even explicable, let 

alone objectively determinable, 

why would He scatter so many 

rewards? It’s as if we are angry 

at God for offering people reasons 

to pray to Him. This makes 

no sense to me. 

If this seems a minor point 

to dwell upon, it is because I 

believe it representative of a far 

broader trend, or rather a cause 

of a far more threatening effect: 

We’ve chased so many talented, 

bright and sensitive folks out of 

our mosques and even out of 

our Islam. Some countries have 

brain drains. I fear our communities 

do. In fairness, some 

of us are too quick to leave 

mosques, or let ourselves be 

chased out of them rather than 

stand and resist, further unbalancing 

the community, and 

some of us expect communities 

to serve as echo chambers, and 

therefore create echo chambers 

or go looking for them. But that 

doesn’t change the fact that we, 

as an ummah, are facing a brain 

drain. You can tell a lot about 

the future of a religion from 

certain larger trends, extrapolating 

from their implications. 

We love to tell ourselves 

fine and misleading myths like 

‘Islam is the fastest-growing 

religion in the world,’ which is 

supposed to make everything 

okay, sloganeering in place of 

thinking. The only reason Islam 

is growing so fast is because of 

birth control. Or, rather, the 

absence of it. The places where 

Islam is ‘fastest-growing’ are 

usually places where there are 

high fertility rates and it’s not 

hard to know whether these exceptional 

birthrates are chosen 

by consent, or simply enforced 

by custom and lack of option. 

For the first time, perhaps in a 

very long time, there are few 

if any places where significant 

numbers of people are converting 

to Islam. 

While for every convert to 

Islam I find, I seem to meet at 

least several more people who 

no longer want anything to do 

with the religion. 

They’re exhausted by extremism, 

frustrated by angry 

imams, turned off by patriarchy, 

disgusted by racism, annoyed 

by sectarianism, actively 

harmed by sexism and dulled 

by the mindless way in which 

we practice our religion. Our 

local mosque, for example, 

had a simply delightful Qur’an 

reciter who turned, during 

taraweeh, into the fast-forward 

button on your remote. For 

the sake of five or ten minutes 

saved, he turned what could be 

a delightful immersion in the 

incontestably beautiful sound 

and experience of Qur’an into 

a chore that had to be muddled 

through. To say nothing of subpar 

spaces for women, if even 

there are any; the dearth of female 

leaders and voices. That’s 

why numbers are dwindling, 

and will continue to. 

Are we ready for this to 

happen? 

Doesn’t matter. Already is 

happening. 

From rising numbers of atheists 

in many Muslim countries 

and communities to disillusionment 

and distraction among 

those born in a West hostile to 

Islam and indifferent to faith, 

we have a problem. Large numbers 

of people shifting religion? 

That’s a mark of people’s widespread 

interest in the faith, of a 

sense that we are representing 

something desirable and right 

now, we are barely holding onto 

our own, and the faiths that are 

growing—by choice, not by 

birthrate—are secular humanism 

or moral therapeutic deism 

or no religion. Stories tell what 

individuals do. Statistics tell us 

what trends to point to. 

So this year, as Ramadan 

leaves us and Eid engorges us 

and the rest of the year beckons 

and tempts and threatens us, 

take time to reflect. What kind 

of Ramadan Muslim are you? 

The one who opens the 

doors of the mosque, or the one 

who is so busy congratulating 

himself on his superiority of 

intention, practice and piety, 

that he is in fact the farthest 

from the mosque? It’s called 

the place of prostration for a 

reason. It’s where people go 

to experience God, and where 

we make it easier for them to. 

It’s not where people go to feel 

worse about themselves and 

vow never to come back. What 

began as a trickle often turns 

into a flood. If you don’t think 

we have a problem, you think 

Muslim communities are doing 

as well as they can. Speaking 

only with reference to history, 

that’s an untruth if ever I met 

one. Our community needs us, 

just as much as we need our 

communities. 

Let us try to rise to the occasion. 

The need is great. The 

need for us. All of us. 

Editor’s Note: Haroon 

Moghul is the author of “The 

Order of Light” and “My First 

Police State.” His memoir, “How 

to be Muslim”, is due in 2016. 

He’s a doctoral candidate at 

Columbia University, formerly 

a Fellow at the New America 

Foundation and the Center on 

National Security at Fordham 

Law School, and a member 

of the Multicultural Audience 

Development Initiative at New 

York’s Metropolitan Museum of 

Art. Connect with Haroon on 

twitter @hsmoghul. The views 

expressed here are his own.

international 


French rabbi hits 

the road to build 

Jewish-Muslim ties 

A man reads the Koran during the last week of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan in Tunis, 

Tunisia, July 12. Zoubeir Souissi / Reuters 

International newsbriefs 

Saudi-backed 

forces seize 

Aden airport 

ADEN (Reuters) - Gulfbacked 

Yemeni forces recaptured 

Aden’s international 

airport from Houthi militia 

fighters on Tuesday as heavy 

combat took place across the 

port city following the collapse 

of a humanitarian truce, the exiled 

government said. 

IMF calls for 

Greece debt 

relief 

ATHENS/BRUSSELS 

(Reuters) - A secret 

International Monetary Fund 

study showed Greece needs far 

more debt relief than European 

governments have been willing 

to contemplate so far, as 

Germany heaped pressure on 

Athens on Tuesday to reform 

and win back its partners’ trust. 

China set to 

try jailed U.S. 

missionary 

BEIJING (Reuters) - China 

will begin the trial on July 28 

of a Korean-American missionary 

arrested last year over a 

non-profit school he ran near 

the sensitive border with North 

Korea, his lawyer said, in a case 

that sparked outcry from international 

Christian groups. 

UK announces 

‘secure zone’ to 

curb migrants 

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain 

plans to create a ‘secure zone’ 

at the French port of Calais 

to protect lorries heading for 

England from migrants trying 

to enter the country illegally, 

interior minister Theresa May 

said on Tuesday. 

Israeli court 

sentences 

rocket scientist 

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - 

An Israeli court sentenced 

a Palestinian engineer on 

Tuesday to 21 years in prison 

for helping Gaza’s Hamas militant 

group develop and improve 

their weapons capabilities. 

Iran deal 

reached, 

Obama hails 

VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran and 

six major world powers reached 

a nuclear deal on Tuesday, capping 

more than a decade of 

negotiations with an agreement 

that could transform the 

Middle East. 

Kenya set to reopen 

Westgate 

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya’s 

trendy Westgate shopping mall 

will reopen on Saturday, nearly 

two years after gunmen from 

the Somali militant group al 

Shabaab massacred at least 67 

people inside and held out for 

four days as security forces laid 

siege to the complex. 

Hong Kong 

student leaders 

charged 

HONG KONG (Reuters) - 

Two Hong Kong students who 

rose to fame during pro-democracy 

demonstrations that 

angered Beijing last year were 

charged on Tuesday with obstructing 

police during a protest 

earlier in the year. 

Idlib: suicide 

bombers kill 

Syrian rebel 

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Two suicide 

bombers killed a prominent 

figure from the Islamist 

insurgent group Ahrar al Sham 

when they blew up a local 

headquarters in Syria’s northwestern 

Idlib province, rebel 

sources and a monitor said on 

Monday. 

Guzman escape 

turns up heat 

on corruption 

The dramatic escape on 

Saturday of the world’s most 

notorious drug lord has raised 

pressure on Mexican President 

Enrique Pena Nieto to curb corruption 

and the drug gangs 

that play an outsized and violent 

role in his country. 

Elizabeth Bryant 

Religion News Service 

LA COURNEUVE, France - 

Drivers slow down to stare at 

the tall figure in a black bowler 

hat and snow-white beard. 

“Just the other day, I was called 

a dirty Jew,” Michel Serfaty is 

telling a Muslim man. “Now, 

you’re going to say it isn’t so.” 

The man indeed begins to 

protest — that the remarks are 

shameful but don’t reflect the 

sentiments of many Muslims. 

The two are standing near 

the glass-fronted headquarters 

of the Union of Islamic 

Organizations of France, or 

UOIF, a popular and conservative 

association with ties to 

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. 

Men are trickling in for prayer 

on a sunny afternoon. 

It’s a strange place to find a 

rabbi. But Serfaty is not your 

ordinary rabbi. 

For the past decade, 

Moroccan-born Serfaty has 

toured France in a beat-up 

minibus plastered with slogans 

such as “Solidarity between 

Jews and Muslims” and “We’re 

more alike than you think.” 

He’s met with Palestinians in 

Gaza and taken French imams 

to Auschwitz. But mostly he 

wades into tough French neighborhoods, 

striking up conversations 

with Muslim leaders, 

students and even drug dealers. 

Dialogue is what Serfaty’s 

Jewish-Muslim Friendship 

Association is all about. 

“When we go to some neighborhoods 

and hear the blackest 

things about Jews, we’re not 

there to correct them,” he said. 

“We’re there to listen and to get 

people to talk.” 

Since the Paris shootings in 

January — and the gruesome 

Islamist attack near Lyon on 

Friday (June 26) — the rabbi’s 

work has taken a new urgency. 

Fears of militant Islam have 

added new tensions to Jewish 

and Muslim relations in France, 

which are already strained by 

events in the Middle East and 

anti-Semitism at home. Indeed, 

the number of anti-Semitic acts 

recorded by Jewish authorities 

doubled to more than 850 in 

2014, compared with the previous 

year. Too often, experts say, 

the authors are young Muslims. 

“The state has done nothing 

for years to improve things,” 

Serfarty said. “During that 

time, I’ve gone to all the tinderboxes. 

I’ve heard the harshest 

things, but I’ve never had any 

incident. 

“Which means that even 

with delinquents, there is the 

possibility of dialogue, of a 

handshake and a smile.” 

The Star of David casts a 

neon glow on the rabbi as he 

speaks. Serfaty is seated in 

his synagogue, in the quiet 

Paris suburb of Ris-Orangis. 

A mosque and an evangelical 

church are just next door — a 

deliberate feat of urban planning 

to promote interfaith 

harmony. 

But the soldiers standing 

watch outside point to another 

reality. The rabbi has roundthe-clock 

protection since 

January’s terrorist attacks. In a 

twist of irony, Amedy Coulibaly, 

who gunned down four Jews at 

a kosher supermarket, grew up 

just a few miles away. 

But there is work to be 

done on both sides. Serfaty 

described meeting a group of 

Hasidic Jews in Paris. “One tells 

me, ‘Mr. Rabbi, you’re mistaken,’” 

Serfaty recounted. “‘Isaac 

and Ishmael (the two sons of 

Abraham) hated each other. 

And we Jews and Muslims will 

hate each other forever.’” 

Serfaty works with a small 

team to shift those hardened 

views. He wanted to hire an 

interfaith group, but no Jews 

applied. So for now, he travels 

the country with an imam and 

several young Muslims. 

“I’d never met a Jew, so 

it was a real discovery,” said 

24-year-old Mohammed 

Amine Boudebouz, who joined 

Serfaty’s staff two years ago. 

Like the rabbi, Boudebouz’s 

family comes from Morocco. 

“My parents are open,” he 

added. “They grew up with 

Jews in Morocco, so there’s no 

problem.” 

On a recent morning, Serfaty 

drives to the UOIF’s headquarters 

in La Courneuve, a bleak 

Paris suburb ringed by housing 

projects. As usual, he arrives 

unannounced. The organization’s 

president is away, but accountant 

Ghazi Wehbi invites 

him for coffee. 

The two exchange pleasantries 

and pose for photos. Wehbi 

said Serfaty reminds him of an 

uncle. 

Back outside, Serfaty begins 

to hand out fliers to the faithful. 

A few push them away. 

But soon, he’s struck up a vigorous 

exchange with 38-yearold 

Adel Bouafi. A small crowd 

gathers as the conversation 

switches from the “dirty Jew” 

remark to Bouafi’s complaints 

about Jewish clannishness. 

“They call Sarcelles ‘Little 

Jerusalem’ — that’s shocking in 

France,” said Bouafi, naming a 

nearby town. Serfaty laughed. 

“That’s an old story, dating back 

2,000 years,” he replied. “Every 

town where rabbis gather has 

been called ‘Little Jerusalem.’” 

“We need to act,” Serfaty 

continued. “We need to break 

down barriers.” The men gathered 

around began to nod. 

Later, Bouafi described the 

rabbi as courageous. “It’s a 

really good initiative to meet 

young people, to open doors,” 

he said. 

Will it make a difference? 

“Everything is possible,” he 

added.


opinion 

In His 

Love 

Hesham Hassaballa 

Attacks on black 

churches are an 

attack on all of us 

I risk exposing a terrible 

naiveté by expressing my utter 

shock at the recent rash of 

African-American church burnings. 

Although it has not been 

confirmed that all were a result 

of arson, it still sent chills down 

my spine. I know that there has 

been a very long history of attacks 

against African-American 

churches in America. Still, if 

even one was intentionally set, 

I can’t believe something like 

this can still happen in 2015. I 

thought we were behind such 

racist terror in America. Sadly, 

it is quite apparent that we are 

not. 

Being a member of a distinct 

minority, American Muslims, it 

is quite easy to get caught up in 

a silo of thinking. Quite naturally, 

news of attacks on mosques 

and the rash of “anti-Sharia” 

laws makes it easy to think that 

it is only mosques that are being 

attacked in America today; that 

it is only American Muslims 

who having their religious freedom 

attacked. The massacre in 

Charleston and the subsequent 

church burnings show quite the 

contrary. 

Yet, as heinous as any attack 

on any mosque is, an attack on a 

black church is just as heinous. 

When a black church is targeted 

by arson, American Muslims 

should be just as offended. 

While we may not agree with 

the theology of a black church, 

as American Muslims, it should 

disgust us to the core that anyone 

would attack it, either by 

gun violence or arson. 

The same goes for any other 

house of worship, no matter the 

faith. In the face of such hate, 

the American Muslim community 

must not sit back. We 

must stand together with our 

African-American Christian 

brothers and sisters in solidarity 

and support. 

Doing so is part of our faith. 

The Qur’an says: 

Behold, God enjoins justice, 

and the doing of good, and 

generosity towards [one’s] fellow 

humanity; and He forbids 

all that is shameful and all that 

runs counter to reason, as well 

as envy; [and] He exhorts you 

[repeatedly] so that you might 

bear [all this] in mind. (16:90) 

Now, while I would not ever 

(Your mosque can do it, but you can do it by yourself ! 

Today, the image of Muslims is under attack. However, we should not forget, that it is our responsibility to correct it collectively and 

individually: it is every Muslim's responsibility. YES, if we do it seriously we can see positive results emerging in a few years. 

Muslims, who are spread out across the United States, should place this ad. in their local newspapers and magazines. 

Below is a sample text for the ad. that you can use. 

Islam is a religion of inclusion. Muslims believe in all the Prophets of Old & 

New Testaments. Read Quran - The Original, unchanged word of God as His 

Last and Final testament to humankind. More information is available on 

following sites: www.peacetv.tv, www.theDeenShow.com, 

877whyIslam, www.Gainpeace.com www.twf.org 

Such ads are already running in many newspapers in the United States but may not be in your area of residence yet. Placing 

these ads can be a continuous reward (sadqa-e-jaria) for yourself, your children, your loved deceased ones and with the prayer 

for a sick person that Allah make life easy here and in the Hereafter. Please Google the list of newspapers in your state and 

contact their advertising departments. 

Such ads are not expensive. They range for around $20 to $50 per slot and are cheaper if run for a longer time. Call your local 

newspaper and ask how many print copies they distribute, and run it for a longer period of time to get cheaper rates. 

Don't forget that DAWAH works on the same principles as that of advertisement, BULK AND REPEATED EXPOSURE CREATES 

ACCEPTANCE. Printing continuously for a long period of time is better than printing one big AD for only once. Let your 

AD run for a longer time even if it is as small as a business card. 

NOTE: If you are living East of Chicago, Please call 877WHYISLAM and check if someone is already running an AD in the same 

news paper as yours. If that is the case chose another newspaper. And if you are living West of Chicago, please check with 

www.Gainpeace.com before putting your AD. Also, after the ad appears, please send a clipping to the respective organization. 

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— 

If you have any questions, or want copies of the ads that others have already placed in their area newspapers/ 

magazines, please contact me, Muhammad Khan at mjkhan11373@yahoo.com so that I can guide you better. 

You can also contact 1-877-why-Islam or Gainpeace.com 

Mt. Zion AME church burns after an attack. Clarendon County 

Fire department / Reuters 

advocate violence in responding 

to attacks on churches or 

mosques, the Qur’an does state 

that one reason for armed conflict 

is the protection of houses 

of worship: 

For, if God had not enabled 

people to defend themselves 

against one another, [all] monasteries 

and churches and synagogues 

and mosques - in [all of] 

which God’s name is abundantly 

extolled - would surely have 

been destroyed [before now]. 

(22:40) 

I only point this out to show 

that an attack on a black church 

is an attack on a mosque, plain 

and simple. We as Muslims 

have to see it that way. 

And when Muslims stand 

up against the burning of 

churches, not only do they 

fulfill their requirements as 

believers in Islam and citizens 

of decency, but it can go a long 

way to strengthen the ties between 

the African-American 

and American Muslim communities. 

Both can learn much 

from the other; both can draw 

on each other’s experiences 

and, together, they can be a 

force for a tremendous amount 

of good in our country. 

Moreover, it is my sincere 

hope that such ties can help 

strengthen the intrafaith relationships 

between African- 

American and immigrant 

Muslims. Sadly, in too many 

parts of our country, there is a 

huge barrier between African- 

American and immigrant 

Muslim communities. Both do 

not understand one another; 

both may not even know one 

another. This is unacceptable, 

and perhaps standing together 

with African-American 

Christians will help our community 

strengthen the bonds 

with the African-American 

Muslims - who comprise 20% 

of our community and are, after 

all, our brothers and sisters 

in faith. 

While I hate to admit it, the 

satanic scourge of racism will 

likely never go away completely. 

But their hate is not more 

powerful than God’s love. 

Their hate cannot make us - the 

vast majority of us - fall into 

despair. Whenever the ugly 

face of hate rears itself, people 

of faith and decency should 

always respond and show the 

world that love is more powerful, 

that love will win out every 

time. And when that hate 

manifests itself as a church on 

fire, American Muslims must 

be there to not only put out the 

flames, but then pray, hand 

in hand with their Christian 

brothers and sisters, that the 

church rises again. 

Editor’s Note: Hesham A. 

Hassaballa is a Chicago doctor 

and writer. He has written extensively 

on a freelance basis, 

being published in newspapers 

across the country and around 

the world. His articles have been 

distributed worldwide by Agence 

Global, and Dr. Hassaballa has 

appeared as a guest on WTTW 

(Channel 11) in Chicago, CNN, 

Fox News, BBC, and National 

Public Radio. The views expressed 

here are his own.

continuation 


To advertise here: 

Please call TMO 

248-426-7777 

Shaykh Mohamed Almasmari (right). 

Local mosques give 

Ramadan charity 

(Continued from page 1) 

we should be hyper-aware of 

our obligation to help those in 

need and events like this food 

drive provide the opportunity 

to do so.” 

According to the Michigan 

Muslim Community Council 

chairperson, Dr. Muzammil 

Ahmed, “Events like these are 

a great way to bring together 

our community from all races 

and ethnicity, to help neighbors 

who are disadvantaged. 

We also are proud that our local 

Shia and Sunni community 

members all work together for 

these projects, and that is a 

real example for our brothers 

and sisters overseas” 

Many Michigan non-profits 

participate in the Ramadan 

Fight Against Hunger 

(RFAH) campaign. Zaman 

International is a Michigan 

based charity that is also a 

sponsor of the campaign. 

Through its large warehouse in 

Inkster it packaged 1800 boxes 

of food for local families to be 

delivered in the beginning of 

Ramadan. Throughout the 

month, it has been distributing 

food, providing emergency relief 

to at risk women and children, 

and gave gift-wrapped 

Eid presents to almost 300 

children. 

Local mosques in Michigan 

have also been active participants 

in RFAH. There over a 

dozen food drop boxes in many 

mosques where approximately 

two tons of canned goods have 

been collected. In addition, 

hundreds of volunteers from 

local mosques have been visiting 

food pantries weekly such 

as Gleaners Food Pantry and 

the Forgotten Harvest to package 

thousands of pounds of 

food. Local Imams and youth 

groups have been actively encouraging 

their members to 

get involved. Osama Odeh, 

youth director at the Canton’s 

mosque, MCWS, said, “we really 

want the kids to get involved 

and get out there making 

a difference, not just sitting 

around in their homes fasting. 

We appreciate groups like 

the Michigan Muslim Council 

helping us coordinate all these 

opportunities to help others.” 

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Volume 17, Issue xx Month xx - xx, 143x n Month xx - xx, 201x $2.00 

8 Muslims on Forbes 

30 under 30 list 

Uzma Rawn 

Abe Othman 

Headline here for compelling 

story 

on an inside page 

Page PB 

Headline here for 

compelling story 

on an inside page 

Page PB 

Shama Hyder 

Minhaj Chowdhury 

Ali Khan 

Ali Zaidi 

Karim Abouelnaga 

Fiza Farhan 

Eight Muslims made Forbes 

Magazine’s renowned 30 under 30 

lists. Leaders in their respective 

fields, none of them has reached 

30-years-old yet. 

Abe Othman is the co-founder 

of Building Robotics, a company 

that helps buildings be more 

energy efficient. 

Ali Khan is one of two 

managers on Select Software 

and Computer Services Portfolio, 

worth more than $2 billion. 

Ali Zaidi works on strategies to 

help the US government increase 

American energy security and cut 

carbon emissions. 

Fiza Farhan runs a 

microfinance organization, the 

Buksh Foundation, to bring solar 

lighting to rural Pakistan. 

Karim Abouelnaga is working 

on building a network to redefine 

the summer learning experience 

for low-income children 

nationwide. 

Minhaj Chowdhury is cofounder 

and ceo of Drinkwell, 

which delivers clean drinking 

water through water filtration 

technology. 

Shama Hyder is CEO of the 

award-winning Marketing Zen 

Group, averaging 400% growth 

annually since its start in 2009. 

Uzma Rawn has brokered 

a number of high-level sports 

sponsorship agreements at 

Premier Partnerships. 

By MARIAM SOBH 

(Religion News Service) — A 

downtown Los Angeles interfaith 

center that once served 

as a synagogue was the site of 

a historic worship service last 

week, as dozens of women 

gathered for Friday Muslim 

prayers in what is 

being dubbed the 

first women’s-only 

mosque in the 

United States. 

M. Hasna 

Maznavi, founder 

and president 

of the Women’s 

Mosque of America, 

and co-president 

Sana Muttalib, 

said they 

are following the 

example of women 

pioneers at 

the forefront of Islamic education 

and spiritual practice. 

“Women lack access to 

things men have, professional 

or religious,” said Muttalib, a 

lawyer. “I think this is our contribution 

to help resolve that 

issue.” 

Maznavi, a filmmaker, said 

women-only spaces have been 

part of Islamic history for generations 

and still exist in China, 

Yemen and Syria. In the United 

States, nearly all mosques separate 

the sexes. Women pray in 

the rear of the prayer hall or 

in a separate room from male 

congregants. 

About 100 women attended 

the jumah or Friday prayer on 

Jan. 30 in a rented space at 

the Pico Union 

Project, just a few 

minutes from the 

Staples Center. 

Edina Lekovic, 

director of policy 

and programming 

at the Muslim 

Public Affairs 

Council, gave the 

sermon. 

Several women 

tweeted after 

the event, conveying 

their enthusiasm. 

But some questioned 

the propriety of women leading 

prayers that have traditionally 

been performed by men. 

Muslema Purmul, a chaplain 

for Muslim students at 

UCLA, wrote a post on her 

Facebook page that there isn’t 

such a thing as a womanled 

Friday prayer. 

“A women’s jumah is legally 

invalid according to all the 


Social media sensation sends $1 million to Africa 

By Carissa D. Lamkahouan in only a few months. 

A graduate student in science 

and social media at the 

In today’s world, no one can 

deny the power and ever-expanding 

reach of social media, fornia in Los Angeles, Diane 

University of Southern Cali- 

least of all Karim Diane, who’s is also an aspiring singer and 

online “singing in the shower” songwriter. Looking to gain exposure 

for his talents, he creat- 

bits not only gained him a 

large virtual following on Instagram 

and YouTube, it also profile in 2013 and began uped 

his “Team Karim” Instagram 

provided the means for him to loading short videos of himself 

raise enough funds to send $1 singing covers of popular songs 

million worth of medical supplies 

to the West African nation 

— from his shower. 

“I wanted a way to differentiate 

myself (from other sing- 

of Ivory Coast. 

ers), and this was a fun way to 

“It’s super cool,” Diane said 

do it,” said Diane, 24. 

of the recent campaign, which 

managed to secure the money (Continued on page 14) 

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Meet me in the 

middle path 

By Rana Moustafa 

Cancer took my grandmother 

when I was 17-years-old. 

Actually God did. At the time, 

I was a high school social butterfly, 

fully immersed in the 

world and 

all its distractions, 

but within 

a year of 

my grandmother’s 

death, I underwent a 

metamorphosis. 

My grandmother’s health 

began to fail in 2011 and within 

six months she was a husk of 

her former active, engaged self. 

As I watched her steep decline, 

I felt acutely aware of my own 

mortality. If I received a fatal 

diagnosis today, how would 

I feel about my 17 short years 

on this earth? The sadness of 

leaving my parents and siblings 

and of never sharing in 

their milestones and their trials 

aside, a more frightening question 

plagued me. If I died today, 

would I go to heaven or hell? 

I would toss in bed late at 

night, recounting all my various 

shortcomings; my sins flooded 

my mind like an angry body of 

water exploding through a collapsing 

dam. I thought about 

all the times I had argued with 

my parents, not even because I 

believed I was right but out of 

a stubborn desire to assert my 

independence. At times I had 

even lied to them. I felt embarrassed 

remembering the events 

I had gone to wearing clothes 

that revealed more than my religion 

allowed, but determined, 

nonetheless, to be seen as 

trendy and pretty. Most of all, I 

regretted all the times I had neglected 

my daily prayers. 

It was around that time that I 

decided to wear hijab. Anxious 

at the prospect of so dramatically 

changing my appearance 

and of wearing such an overt 

and contentious symbol of religiosity, 

I had prayed istikhara, 

the prayer of guidance, the 

night before. I awoke the next 

morning, quickly dressed, 

grabbed one of my mother’s hijabs 

from her closet, wrapped 

it around my head and walked 

out the door, all without a second 

thought. 

At this point I was a popular 

senior, active in several extracurricular 

activities and with 

a large cohort of friends. That 

day I also became one of two 

girls in my 2,000-student high 

school to don a headscarf. I 

remember hearing curious, 

confused whispers as I walked 

down the halls, and even catching 

a snide comment or two, but 

I felt like a queen. I experienced 

the sweet taste of faith that day. 

When I returned home in the 

afternoon, I prostrated on the 

prayer rug, and allowed the 

tears to fall. The water droplets 

hit the rug one after another, a 

salty rain of submission. 

A year later, my life had completely 

changed. I had pulled 

away from my typical teenage 

hobbies—T.V., music and coed 

parties— dismissing them 

as a waste of time, and reoriented 

my life towards Allah. 

My large group of friends had 

slowly scattered when they saw 

I was no longer the same person 

and I now spent time with 

four Muslim girls who made 

their faith their focus. We attended 

weekly halaqas (learning 

circles) at our little Iowa City 

mosque and prayed together. 

It was around that time that I 

decided to wear niqab, the face 

veil. I didn’t believe it was a religious 

obligation, but I felt that 

by reaching the highest level of 

modesty possible, I would also 

reach closer to Allah. 

I was content for some time. 

Until I was not. In fact, I began 

to feel deeply cloistered and unhappy. 

Fear, rather than hope, 

sat at the center of my faith. I 

was in constant dread of disobeying 

or displeasing God. I 

would wake up every morning 

relieved that Allah hadn’t taken 

my soul yet, because I wasn’t 

ready to face Him. No matter 

how much I prayed, how much 

Qur’an I memorized, how kind I 

was to my parents, or how much 

I covered my body, I never felt 

as though it was Heaven was in 

reach. Some nights my anxiety 

would manifest itself in uncontrollable 

shivers under my 

heavy blanket. 

A year passed. I slowly began 

to admit to myself that 

wearing a face veil wasn’t an 

appropriate measurement of 

my righteousness. It was simply 

a piece of cloth that fell over 

my features, leaving my heart 

and mind unchanged. For 

many women, the niqab does 

bring them closer to God, but 

for me, it backfired. It began 

to strangle me and caused me 

to fixate on Hell and sin, rather 

than trust in Allah’s mercy. So 

that’s what I did. I lifted the 

face veil, kept my hijab and began 

to trust my Creator. And I 

found my happy medium. 

Veronica Shofttall wrote 

in her poem “After a While”: 

“After a while you learn that 

even sunshine burns if you get 

too much, so plant your own 

garden and decorate your own 

soul, instead of waiting for 

someone to bring you flowers.” 

Trust. Supplication. 

Patience. These are my keys to 

happiness in Islam. 

Editor’s note: Rana Moustafa 

is an Egyptian-American journalist. 

She is a graduate student 

at Columbia University 

Graduate School of Journalism. 

She enjoys creative writing and 

health journalism. Her views are 

solely her own. 

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national 



international / continuations 

Actor Omar Sharif, star of 

‘Doctor Zhivago’, dead at 83 

By Michael Roddy 

CAIRO (Reuters) - Actor 

Omar Sharif, best known for 

his portrayal of Doctor Zhivago 

in the hit 1966 film and for his 

work in “Lawrence of Arabia”, 

died of a heart attack on Friday, 

his agent said. He was 83. 

Steve Kenis confirmed 

the death of one of the few 

Arab actors to make it big in 

Hollywood. “Omar Sharif died 

in Cairo of a heart attack sometime 

this afternoon,” Kenis said 

when reached by telephone. 

He also confirmed that 

Sharif, who played a wide 

range of dashing and dignified 

characters while building a 

reputation as an expert bridge 

player, had been suffering from 

Alzheimer’s disease. 

Tributes to Sharif were quick 

to flow on social media. 

Egyptian actor Khaled El 

Nabawy on his Twitter feed, 

@KhaledElNabawy, said: “RIP 

OMAR SHARIF,Good bye to 

a living legend,good bye to a 

source of inspiration for generations 

to come.” 

Sharif won international 

fame and an Oscar-nomination 

for best supporting actor for his 

role in “Lawrence of Arabia” 

with Peter O’Toole. He later 

became a huge star in his own 

right for his portrayal of the 

title character in the film based 

on Boris Pasternak’s novel 

“Doctor Zhivago”. 

Born Michel Shalhoub on 

April 10, 1932, to a wealthy 

family in Alexandria, Egypt, 

Sharif became interested in acting 

while studying mathematics 

and physics at university in 

Cairo. 

He worked in his father’s timber 

business for several years 

before realizing his dream with 

a role in an Egyptian movie, 

“The Blazing Sun,” in 1954 opposite 

the Middle East’s biggest 

female star, Faten Hamama. 

Raised as a Roman Catholic, 

Sharif converted to Islam and 

married Hamama in 1955, taking 

on his new name. They had a 

son, Tarek, who at age 9 played 

Yuri in “Doctor Zhivago”, but 

the couple divorced in 1974. 

Hamama died in January of 

this year. 

Despite Sharif’s image as a 

sex symbol and eligible bachelor, 

he did not remarry, saying 

he never fell in love with another 

woman. 

“I’ve always been extremely 

lucky in my life,” he told Al 

Jazeera television in 2007, 

while reflecting on how he 

“might have been happier” 

staying in Egypt where he had 

a contented family life and was 

already a star. 

“Even for ‘Lawrence of 

Arabia’ I didn’t ask to be an 

international actor,” he said. 

“When going to America and 

becoming famous, it gave me 

glory but it gave me loneliness 

also and a lot of missing my 

own land and my own people 

and my own family.” 

With more Egyptian movies 

to his credit, he was picked 

by director David Lean to play 

Sherif Ali in the epic “Lawrence 

of Arabia” alongside O’Toole, 

Alec Guinness and Anthony 

Quinn. 

His portrayal of Lawrence’s 

friend earned Sharif an 

Academy Award nomination 

for best supporting actor 

and a contract with Columbia 

Studios. It won him renewed 

admiration when the film was 

restored and re-released in 

1989. 

After “Lawrence of Arabia,” 

Sharif played Sophia Loren’s 

Armenian husband in “The Fall 

of the Roman Empire”, Ingrid 

Bergman’s Yugoslav lover in 

“The Yellow Rolls-Royce” and 

several other roles before landing 

the title role in “Doctor 

Actor Omar Sharif poses for photographers during “Al Mosafer” 

(The Traveller) photocall at the 66th Venice Film Festival, 

September 10, 2009. Tony Gentile/Reuters 

Zhivago”. 

Despite criticism, the film 

and Sharif’s portrayal of a physician 

and poet caught up in the 

Russian revolution were a hit. 

Confirming his flexibility, 

Sharif next played a Nazi officer 

in “The Night of the Generals”, 

a Jewish gambler in “Funny 

Girl” opposite Barbra Streisand 

and an Austrian prince in 

“Mayerling.” 

Only “Funny Girl” was a success 

and Sharif came under increasing 

criticism for stiff and 

uninspired performances. 

In later years, he appeared 

in TV mini-series and a steady 

string of films. For his 2003 role 

as an elderly Muslim shopkeeper 

in the French film “Monsieur 

Ibrahim”, he won the best actor 

award at the Venice Film 

Festival. 

Reportedly fluent in English, 

French and Greek, Sharif became 

known for his passion for 

bridge and thoroughbred race 

horses. He wrote many books 

and newspaper columns about 

bridge and licensed his name to 

a computer game called “Omar 

Sharif Bridge.” 

“I’d rather be playing bridge 

than making a bad movie,” he 

was once quoted as saying. 

But in 2006, Sharif said he 

had given it up. 

“I decided I didn’t want to be 

a slave to any passion any more 

except for my work,” he said. “I 

had too many passions - bridge, 

horses, gambling. I want to 

live a different kind of life, be 

with my family more because I 

didn’t give them enough time. 

Famous Muslim actors 


“House of Sand and Fog.” She 

has appeared since in “X Men” 

and “The Sisterhood of the 

Traveling Pants.” She narrates 

a ton of audiobooks and writes 

some of her own. Her most recent 

book, “The Alley of Love 

and Yellow Jasmines” was 

about her childhood in Iran. 

She told the Los Angeles Times, 

“That’s right, although if I’m 

asked what religion I am, I say 

I was born a Muslim. I don’t 

introduce myself as a Muslim 

woman.” 

Halal Fest Michigan 


held at the same venue. 

And now with this year’s 

event right around the corner 

and already buzzing with lots 

of online interest and robust 

advance tickets sales, Virk is 

making sure the upcoming festival 

doesn’t feature a repeat 

performance. 

“Last year we had around 

11 food vendors who came 

and we ended up running out 

of food around 6 p.m., but this 

year we have around 20 or so 

who will participate and we’ve 

asked all of them to make sure 

they make food for about 800 

people,” he said. “We want 

to make sure that we have 

enough food for everybody 

and that it’s amazing food, as 

2. Aasif Mandvi 

The Indian-American comedian 

best known for his 

stint as a correspondent on 

“The Daily Show with Jon 

Stewart” has a long acting 

resume. He’s got a degree 

in theater and appeared on 

Broadway in 2002’s popular 

revival of “Oklahoma!” directed 

by British director Trevor 

Nunn. He is currently appearing 

in HBO’s “The Brink” and 

the web series “Halal in the 

Family,” a project that skewers 

Muslim stereotypes. In 2015 

well. Nobody should go home 

hungry.” 

Virk, a Michigan-based entrepreneur, 

said he came up 

with idea to hold a halal food 

festival after hearing disparaging 

remarks about halal 

food on the news. 

“Two years ago there were 

people on TV speaking really 

awfully about halal food, 

saying that’s it’s foreign to 

America and something we 

shouldn’t have here,” he said. 

“I took that to heart because I 

eat halal food and I have children 

who eat halal food. In 

that moment I knew that if we 

have people speaking ill about 

halal food then I though I’ll 

have a halal food festival and 

be open with it and I’ll invite 

he told Religion News Service 

he is a “cultural Muslim.” 

3. Haaz Sleiman 

Some people were fussed 

that this Muslim actor originally 

from the United Arab Emirates 

and Lebanon was tapped to 

play Jesus Christ in “Killing 

Jesus.” Others said, “Hey, finally, 

a Middle Eastern dude playing 

a Middle Eastern dude.” In 

a Q&A with Christianity Today, 

Sleiman said, “it’s an honor 

for me, as someone who was 

raised Muslim, to play him. It’s 

beyond an honor.” 

everyone and we’ll see how it 

goes. And it was amazing.” 

In retrospect, Virk said the 

festival’s success shouldn’t 

have come as a complete surprise. 

Food has long been a 

way to bridge cultures and to 

bring people together, which 

are two important reasons Virk 

created Halal Fest Michigan in 

the first place. 

“I wanted to showcase 

Muslims and show people that 

we’re not all Arabs or Africans 

and we’re not all about war 

and terrorism. Muslims are 

everybody,” he said. “Food 

makes it sort of easy to have 

that conversation.” 

And while there is a religious 

aspect to the festival, it is halal 

food after all, Virk said the 

event welcomed non-Muslims 

and there was no pressure to 

discuss Islam. 

4. Ice Cube 

Born O’Shea Jackson, this 

American actor, rapper and 

record producer has at times 

identified himself as Muslim 

— though fans have sometimes 

been confused about whether 

he means Nation of Islam, an 

American sect. Ice Cube said 

in an interview, “Ah, when you 

say involved with the Nation, 

it’s tricky. I never was in the 

Nation of Islam … I mean, 

what I call myself is a natural 

Muslim, ’cause it’s just me and 

God. You know, going to the 

mosque, the ritual and the tradition, 

it’s just not in me to do. 

So I don’t do it.” 

5. Ellen Burstyn 

No, really. This Academy 

“You don’t have to have a 

conversation about Islam if 

you’re eating together, you 

can just enjoy the food,” he 

said. “I just wanted people to 

sit down together and have 

conversations they wouldn’t 

have had otherwise with people 

they might not have met 

otherwise.” 

And come they did, enjoying 

the wide variety of ethnic 

and American-style food till 

the last bite was gone. 

“Food is a huge aspect of 

our culture and we had so 

many varieties to choose from 

like Indian, African, Middle 

Eastern, Asian. We had halal 

American food, as well, like 

halal subs and chicken wings.” 

Though halal food was the 

festival’s star attraction, Virk 

said there were plenty of family-friendly 

activities to keep 

Award-winning American actress 

is a follower of Sufi Islam, 

the mystical branch of Islam. 

Her Sufi teacher even gave her 

a Sufi name — “Hadiya,” which 

means “she who is guided” 

in Arabic. In 2006, she told 

Beliefnet her current spirituality 

is a blend of Islam and 

Christianity. She was attracted 

to Sufism, she said, because of 

“the idea that we didn’t have to 

say, ‘I am a Christian’ or, ‘I am 

a Buddhist’ or, ‘I am a Muslim,’ 

but, ‘I am a spirit opening to the 

truth that lives in all of these religions.’” 

That, she continued, 

“brings you into a place where 

you see that the differences are 

in the dogma, and the essence 

is very, very similar.” 

the little ones busy when they 

weren’t sampling all the savory 

dishes. Children enjoyed 

carnival rides, face painting, 

henna art and more. 

Now, with his attention 

turned to Halal Fest Michigan 

2015, Virk promises a “bigger 

and better” event and encourages 

all those who can attend 

to make plans to come out 

and enjoy some delicious halal 

food. 

Tickets can be purchased online 

at www.halalfestmichigan. 

com. Tickets are $5 per person 

and children under 7 are free. 

A family of five entry fee is $15, 

however this discount is only 

available online. 

Full-price admission can be 

purchased at the door on the day 

of the event.

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