the muslim link - september 9, 2011

IN GOLDEN YEARS, ISB SENIORS STILL WANT TO DO FOR THEMSELVES PG 10

CARRYING THE TORCH OF RAMADAN FORWARD PG 20

We Also Faced A National Tragedy“I remember my mother crying in the corner, I was sitting next to the sofa. I didn’t understand then because they didn’t tell us in school [the female student was in kindergarten at the time].” Now, the 15-year old high schooler says: “I think the Muslim and non-Muslim debate takes away from the tragedy of it. People died and instead of focusing on that primarily, we got caught up in discussing the “Muslim” issue. I wish we could’ve just stayed focused on the tragedy of it. We should have been treated like people who were facing a national tragedy instead of being cast the guilty.”

– A teenager from Montgomery County, MD_____________________________

Da’wa Is Not Just the Imam’s Job“I was in Saudi Arabia, having an espresso coffee on my way back to the offi ce for the afternoon shift. I watched in shock and in denial – we continued that denial for weeks and weeks.” He returned to the US two years later and settled in cosmopolitan Germantown, Maryland, not experiencing much of the prejudice he and his family feared. “It is clearly my motivation factor for continuing my da’wah work

here – someone has to stand up and defend Islam. I have been explaining to people where the truth lies -- not at either extreme, but in the middle. I have gone to synagogues, churches, masajids, communities meetings to share the true face of Islam. I have also tried to disseminating info via Facebook. Islamaphobia is on the rise and Muslims are losing the battle. There is a political agenda behind it all and I feel that AVERAGE Muslims have to mobilize and get involved in our society around us. This is happening to a great degree but I would like to see more people be involved and communicate the true message of Islam. Every average Muslim knows the basic tenants of Islam. You don’t have to be an Imam to do this.”

– Haytham Younis, an American Muslim architect living in Montgomery County, Maryland_______________________________

We Should Own the Values In the Constitution“I was working for [a large defense contractor], and it was my boss who asked me ‘did you hear about the kamikazes?’ We watched and became glued to the coverage on TV.” As the horror unfolded, “we had a truly open discussion about US foreign policy that I remember to this day. One of the program managers commented,

‘We really have to solve the Palestinian problem.’ In the fi rst wave of actions after the Patriot Act was passed, “my accounts were frozen.” Various national organizations including CAIR mobilized to address the situation. “I see this issue as being two fold: one is the response of the government and the second is denial within our own community. We have to take responsibility and in our own capacity and I urge our communities to reach out, get involved, put our money and support to our words. I am a Muslim American from Pakistan and I would like us to own the values [outlined in the Constitution] and work on making it real - build on what the founding fathers espoused as those principles don’t contradict Islamic principles.”

– Nadeem Ahmad, a Telecommunication Engineer in Clarksburg, Maryland_______________________________

Even With a Valid VISA, I Feared Being Denied Entry“I came to the US as a PhD student less than a month before the tragic event. The way I was affected was by the change in the procedure for issuing entry visas to the US and the special registration system which affected mainly citizens of Muslim countries. When my visa was not expired, entry through a US port took

an average of three hours waiting after everyone else was done. When it expired, I didn’t dare travel abroad for fear I wouldn’t be issued a new visa. I didn’t visit family for my last 4 years of study and I couldn’t travel to international conferences. I know Muslim students who were never able to renew their expired visas and were not able to pursue their studies. I even know a Muslim friend who was not allowed in the US even though he had a valid non-expired visa! He was returned back to his native country to re-apply for another visa. He was lucky to get one after three months of interruption in his studies. In all cases, inquiries about the reasons why your visa request is rejected or delayed go unanswered.”

– H. A., graduate student in Maryland from 2001-2009_______________________________

Muslims Must Respond to Islamophobes Exploiting 9/11 for Their Hate Filled Agenda“The tragedy of 9/11 still seems like a scene from a disaster movie, even though it took place ten years ago. The

time that’s past since that awful event seems to have been in a much shorter span of time.

“I was at work when the fi rst bit of news fi ltered down to us. My co-workers and I worked in the basement (that I jokingly refer to as “the dungeon”) of the Dept. of Energy (in Washington, D.C.) where there are no windows and where no radio wave or cell service signals dare travel. When we got word of the service fi rst plane hitting Tower 1, my initial thoughts were that it was a single engine plane or it was some type of “urban legend” rumor. If only it had been. I tried to access the Internet to see if there was any news about this occurring when we began to notice no one was gaining access to the Net....for any website!

“Later, we heard that another plane had hit the Tower in the World Trade Center. Again, knowing how slowly information travels to “the dungeon”, we all assumed that this person had just heard the news that we’d all heard early. Again, we could not verify anything, but we were getting spotty reports from government employees who worked on upper fl oors and could get TV and radio signals.

“When we heard of the plane hitting the Pentagon, the decision was quickly made to release all government and contract employees, not knowing the target of the fourth missing plane. It wasn’t until much later that day that we learned of the passengers who’d fought the terrorists on the

PG 28

The Muslim Link Coupons

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

Americans Uncomfortable With Muslims | pg 11

Woodbridge Man Arrested for Jihadist Video | pg 5

Ellicott City Teenager Arrested In Suspected Terror Plot | pg 5

WORLD PRESS: Palestinian Children Jailed | pg 17

11 S h a w w a l - 2 4 S h a w w a l , 1 4 3 2 A . H . | w w w. M u s l i m L i n k P a p e r. c o m

September 9th 2011 - September 22nd 2011 MD, VA, and DC Metropolitan Area Bi-Weekly Newspaper | FREE

Muharram|Safar|Rabi Al-Awaal |Rabi Al-Thani|Jumada Al-Awwal|Jumada Al-Akhir|Rajab|Shaban|Ramadan|11 SHAWWAL, 1432|Thul-Qedah|Thul-Hijjah

ICM Eid Fair a Celebration of Diversity | pg 4

ISLAM: Virtue of Fasting Six Days of Shawwal | pg 20

Obama’s Outreach Toward US Muslims Limited | pg 11

By Hernan GuadalupeMuslim Link Contributing Writer

Prior to 9/11, I had been searching for the “truth”, meaning the proper way to worship God. I grew up in a Catholic home, served as an alter-boy, attended Catholic school, and studied a good portion of the Bible in my youth. I always believed in God no matter what stage of

>> WHY Pg 14

REFLECTIONS ON 9/11

W h a t d o l o c a l Muslims feel about 9/11 as the 10th year anniversary approaches and how has that event woven our history here as Americans and shaped our lives and directions?

H e r e a r e s o m e r e c o l l e c t i o n s , re f l e c t ions , and perspectives that d idn ’ t ge t t he i r share of the major headl ines. These are the voices of your ne ighbors , co -workers , and friends. These are the voices of the Muslim community in the nation’s capital.

VOICES OF THE MUSLIMS IN MD, DC and VA>> PAGE 6

Hernan Guadalupe, second from left, poses with friends in front of the pre-9/11 New York skyline. On 9/11/2001, Guadalupe watched the same skyline crumble from his campus across the river. He became Muslim later that day. Photo courtesy of Hernan Guadalupe.

Why I Became Muslim On September 11, 2001

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26 Letter to the Editor

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ICM Eid Fair a Celebration of DiversityBy Nasreen Baten-Tschan Muslim Link Contributing Writer

On a Sunday afternoon, under the mid day sun, lie the usual sights of Eid at the Islamic Center of Maryland’s annual Eid Fair —unsupervised children, bright colors, shades of every ethnicity from Asia to Africa.

The soft-spoken Imam Jamil Dasti speaks of the blessings of Ramadan, the joys of Eid, the struggle of maintaining good habits in the year to come. Yet, when the Imam sits down, a pastor dressed in bright pink takes the microphone, inviting the entire community to an event at the next door church that is soon to come up. She speaks to the patrons of ICM, but the first row in her audience is made up of Congress members (some names that you can confirm) & other Maryland officials, here at the invitation of the ICM trustees. One of the many guests is Police Chief Thomas Manger, whose jurisdiction surrounds ICM. A tall man with a kind face, this isn’t his first time at ICM, and he doesn’t intend it to be his last. Dressed to the nines in his standard Police uniform,

he attests to the fact that Montgomery County is, “extremely diverse, and this is no different. It’s great to see all these different cultures here.” He has high hopes for the future as well, for both ICM and Muslims as a whole. Holding a flyer for an approaching summit on 9/11, he thinks, “The majority of people don’t see Muslims as the enemy. You can’t blame the actions of a few bad people, a few radicals on an entire group.”

Similarly, Sr. Fedila, a young Ethiopian immigrant, is glad to see the presence of many influential non-Muslims, who can, “see Muslims here under the umbrella of La’ilaha ila’Allah, as a peace loving community.” She and a group of smiling, beautiful women sit on a woven blanket, brewing tea and coffee straight from the cocoa beans to give to any passerby, a special Eid treat. You can hear the distant sounds of children jumping and yelling for their turn in the moon bounce, the variety of scents coming from the table where traditional Eid food along with BBQ hot dogs & hamburger floated in the air. This diversity is important to Sr. Fedila as a Muslim and as an immigrant—without

culture, she says, “the Muslim community is nothing. America has no culture, but we brought ours when we came here.”

Standing in the extensive and painfully slow line for snow cones, Asma Shabbir, 17, also sees the importance of culture, wisely stating that, “The Muslim Ummah

is diverse, [culture] helps us understand each other.” Young and excited, she is glad to see these events happen and so many races and age groups here. She points out all the hot spots—cotton

Kids jump for joy in the moon bounce at ICM’s Eid Fair. The event also served as outreach to local politicians and neighbors for Gaithersburg’s Muslims. Photo by the author.

>> EID Pg 16

Community News

| 5September 9th 2011 - September 22nd 2011 COMMUNITY NEWS

Ellicott City Teenager Arrested In Suspected Terror PlotBoy is accused of soliciting funds on behalf of ‘Jihad Jane’By Peter Hermann and Justin FentonThe Baltimore Sun, August 26, 2011

He was a 15-year-old high school honors student in Ellicott City when federal prosecutors say he went online to solicit money for a woman who called herself “Jihad Jane” and “Fatima LaRose.”

Authorities say that in Web postings two years ago, the youth “appealed for urgent funds” for the woman suspected of being a terrorist, whose real name is Colleen R. LaRose, 47, of Philadelphia. “I know the sister and by Allah, all money will be transferred to her,” he allegedly wrote in a posting.

The FBI arrested the youth, who is now 17, about a month ago and are detaining him in Pennsylvania on terrorism-related charges, according to law enforcement

sources and a published newspaper account. He had been accepted to the Johns Hopkins University this fall on a full scholarship. A school spokesman said he has withdrawn.

It is not clear whether the Howard County teenager collected any money for LaRose, who could be sentenced to life in prison

when sentenced. She pleaded guilty in February to providing material support to terrorists, including a plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist who had offended Muslims by drawing the Prophet Muhammad’s head on the body of a dog.

All records and files pertaining to the teen’s arrest have been sealed in U.S.

District Court. His name does not appear in any public court filing, and prosecutors and FBI spokesmen in Baltimore and in Philadelphia declined to comment. However, a law enforcement source in Baltimore who is familiar with the case confirmed that the Ellicott City juvenile had been arrested in connection with that case.

Federal authorities rarely arrest juveniles. Law enforcement officials in Baltimore who are familiar with federal prosecutions said they could recall only two juveniles who had been charged federally in Maryland. Both were suspected gang members.

“It is unusual for the federal courts to

>> TEENAGER Pg 16

The family complained that they had allowed their son to spend a lot of time with FBI agents because they thought it was part of a cooperative arrangement. Relatives, who were not identified by the newspaper, said they didn’t expect their son to be arrested.

Woodbridge Man Faces Terror Charges In Production Of Violent Jihadist VideoBy Justin JouvenalThe Washington Post, September 3, 2011

A Woodbridge resident is facing terrorism-related charges after he allegedly produced a violent jihadist video with the help of the son of a leader of a Pakistani group that the United States has deemed a terrorist organization.

Jubair Ahmad, 24, a native of Pakistan, was arraigned Friday in federal court in Alexandria on charges that he provided material support to the militant group known as Lashkar-i-Taiba and made false statements during a terrorism investigation.

The U.S. District Court has not yet assigned Ahmad an attorney. His family could not be reached for comment.

Federal authorities allege that Ahmad created the video in September 2010

on behalf of Lashkar-i-Taiba, which advocates jihad against enemies and is thought to be behind the high-profile 2008 attack in Mumbai, India, that left 166 dead.

The five-minute video, which was posted on YouTube, features images of group leader Hafiz Mohammed Saeed and jihadi martyrs, along with armored trucks exploding after being hit by makeshift bombs, according to the charges.vThe words “jihad” and “mujaheddin” can be heard throughout the clip; authorities believe that the video was intended to help recruit jihadists.

Authorities say Ahmad consulted with a man, who was later identified as Hafiz Mohammed Saeed’s son, Talha, on the concept for the video, including what photos, videos and music to use. Authorities did not disclose how those communications occurred.

In October 2010, Talha Saeed contacted Ahmad and told him to revise the video, giving him specific instructions, according to charges. Ahmad allegedly revised the video, adding a graphic montage of images of dead bodies, a detainee at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and a naked detainee in a defensive position before U.S. soldiers.

In a later interview with FBI agents, Ahmad allegedly falsely denied any involvement in producing the revised video.

As a teen in Pakistan, Ahmad received religious training from Lashkar-i-Taiba and attended one of the group’s basic camps, which included weapons training, according to charges.

Ahmad and other family members moved to the United States in 2007; they obtained a visa because Ahmad’s father was related

to a U.S. citizen, according to court documents.

The FBI began its investigation into Ahmad in 2009, after receiving information that Ahmad may have been associated with Lashkar-i-Taiba.

A bond hearing for Ahmad was set for Wednesday. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison on the charge of material support and eight years in prison on the charge of making false statements.

Staff writer Del Quentin Wilber contributed to this report.

------------------------------------------------In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.


9/11: LOCAL MUSLIM VOICES

What do local Muslims feel about 9/11 as the 10th year anniversary approaches and how has that event woven our history here as Americans and shaped our lives and directions?

Here are some recollections, reflections, and perspectives that didn’t get their share of the major headlines. These are the voices of your neighbors, co-workers, and friends. These are the voices of the Muslim community in the nation’s capital.

We Also Faced A National TragedyI remember my mother crying in the corner, I was sitting next to the sofa. I didn’t understand then because they didn’t tell us in school [the female student was in kindergarten at the time].” Now, the 15-year old high schooler says: “I think the Muslim and non-Muslim debate takes away from the tragedy of it. People died and instead of focusing on that primarily, we got caught up in discussing the “Muslim” issue. I wish we could’ve just stayed focused on the tragedy of it. We should have been treated like people who were facing a national tragedy instead of being cast the guilty.

– A teenager from Montgomery County, MD_______________________________

Da’wa Is Not Just the Imam’s JobI was in Saudi Arabia, having an espresso coffee on my way back to the office for the afternoon shift. I watched in shock and in denial – we continued that denial for weeks and weeks.” He returned to the US two years later and settled in cosmopolitan Germantown, Maryland, not experiencing much of the prejudice he and his family feared. “It is clearly my motivation factor for continuing my da’wah work here – someone has to stand up and defend Islam. I have been explaining to people where the truth lies -- not at either extreme, but in the middle. I have gone to synagogues, churches, masajids, communities meetings to share the true face of Islam. I have also tried to disseminating info via Facebook. Islamaphobia is on the rise and Muslims are losing the battle. There is a political agenda behind it all and I feel that AVERAGE Muslims have to mobilize and get involved in our society around us. This is happening to a great degree but I would like to see more people

be involved and communicate the true message of Islam. Every average Muslim knows the basic tenants of Islam. You don’t have to be an Imam to do this.

– Haytham Younis, an American Muslim architect living in Montgomery County, Maryland_______________________________

We Should Own the Values In the ConstitutionI was working for [a large defense contractor], and it was my boss who asked me ‘did you hear about the kamikazes?’ We watched and became glued to the coverage on TV.” As the horror unfolded, “we had a truly open discussion about US foreign policy that I remember to this day. One of the program managers commented, ‘We really have to solve the Palestinian problem.’ In the first wave of actions after the Patriot Act was passed, “my accounts were frozen.” Various national organizations including CAIR mobilized to address the situation. “I see this issue as being two fold: one is the response of the government and the second is denial within our own community. We have to take responsibility and in our own capacity and I urge our communities to reach out, get involved, put our money and support to our words. I am a Muslim American from Pakistan and I would like us to own the values [outlined in the Constitution] and work on making it real - build on what the founding fathers espoused as those principles don’t contradict Islamic principles.

– Nadeem Ahmad, a Telecommunication Engineer in Clarksburg, Maryland_______________________________

Even With a Valid VISA, I Feared Being Denied Entry

I came to the US as a PhD student less than a month before the tragic event. The way I was affected was by the change in the procedure for issuing entry visas to the US and the special registration system which affected mainly citizens of Muslim countries. When my visa was not expired, entry through a US port took an average of three hours waiting after everyone else was done. When it expired, I didn’t dare travel abroad for fear I wouldn’t be issued a new visa. I didn’t visit family for my last 4 years of study and I couldn’t travel to international conferences. I know Muslim students who were never able to renew their expired visas and were not able to pursue their studies. I even know a Muslim friend who was not allowed in the US even though he had a valid non-expired visa! He was returned back to his native country to re-apply for another visa. He was lucky to get one after three months of interruption in his studies. In all cases, inquiries about the reasons why your visa request is rejected or delayed go unanswered.

– H. A., graduate student in Maryland from 2001-2009_______________________________

Muslims Must Respond to Islamophobes Exploiting 9/11 for Their Hate Filled AgendaThe tragedy of 9/11 still seems like a scene from a disaster movie, even though it took place ten years ago. The time that’s past since that awful event seems to have been in a much shorter span of time.

I was at work when the first bit of news filtered down to us. My co-workers and I worked in the basement (that I jokingly

refer to as “the dungeon”) of the Dept. of Energy (in Washington, D.C.) where there are no windows and where no radio wave or cell service signals dare travel. When we got word of the service first plane hitting Tower 1, my initial thoughts were that it was a single engine plane or it was some type of “urban legend” rumor. If only it had been. I tried to access the Internet to see if there was any news about this occurring when we began to notice no one was gaining access to the Net....for any website!

Later, we heard that another plane had hit the Tower in the World Trade Center. Again, knowing how slowly information travels to “the dungeon”, we all assumed that this person had just heard the news that we’d all heard early. Again, we could not verify anything, but we were getting spotty reports from government employees who worked on upper floors and could get TV and radio signals.

When we heard of the plane hitting the Pentagon, the decision was quickly made to release all government and contract employees, not knowing the target of the fourth missing plane. It wasn’t until much later that day that we learned of the passengers who’d fought the terrorists on the fourth plane forcing it to crash-land in Pennsylvania.

In the meantime, people in my area of the building began to panic. Rumors were flying a mile a minute. “Metro’s shut down!!” “The (National) Mall’s on fire!!” As a sidebar, Metro (the DC metropolitan area’s bus and subway system) is the means of transportation to and from work for at least 75% of city and federal workers. Without it, most of us would have been stranded in DC several miles from our homes. I had to calm one lady down by reminding her that unlike Central Park (of New York City), there is mostly grass on the National Mall and the trees are in two rows. We later learned that the Metro system was not shut down, but the Pentagon Metro station was being

>> VOICES Pg 7


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bypassed without stopping the subway.

I left work and with spotty cell, I located my family and got them home safely. However, it wasn’t until approximately eleven o’clock that evening that we finally made contact with my brother in-law....who worked at the Pentagon! He was uninjured. However, it was nearly a year later that I learned that one of my schoolmates from Suitland Sr. High School was killed as she was in the Pentagon during that tragedy.

In the past ten years beginning on Sept. 12, 2001, many people have been reported as saying that this tragedy made them research Islam, because the terrorists who committed this act were allegedly Muslims. I know that it is up to Allah (God) to decide if a person is or isn’t a Muslim, but I say “allegedly” because if they had been practicing Islam that day, the date 9/11/01 would have just been another date on the calendar as nothing in Islam teaches Muslims to kill innocent people.

Some who say that they began studying Islam say that they found the teachings of Islam so compelling, that they converted to Islam. Alhumdillah! They read the Qur’an, read from Islamic scholars, both Muslim and non-Muslim. They did legitimate research. Overall, the positive behavior of a vast majority of the Muslim community, itself, was good dawa. I heard of no Muslims or Islamic organizations in the U.S. praising or condoning the attacks of 9/11 infamy.

However, there were others who did the exact opposite. While they did do research, every author they read was someone who had nothing but evil and ill-will in their hearts against Islam. Many of these people, to this day, use the misinformation that they acquired then to go on to join the Islamaphobic ranks that existed before 9/11/01.

While it is a Constitutional right for a private citizen to be an Islamaphobe and hold such bigoted views, it is truly despicable for elected officials to voice such a mindset, even if it is their own personal view. If an elected official has constituents in their district that they represent, that official should do their job and represent them and all of the people in their district, even if they disagree with that group’s religious preference. Unfortunately, many of these new politicians have been emboldened to do the exact opposite by following the will of the extreme right who claim support of the “Constitution” but speak against it by their desire to “ban Islam”.

I would like to see more of our imams and Islamic scholars debunk the Islamaphobic lies being propagated on the Internet. Silence or apparent silents gives a false appearance that the lies being promoted and propagated by the Islamaphobes are actually true. Of course, we are aware that the imams and Islamic scholars can’t log onto every Islamaphobic chat room or bulletin board, but that’s where regular, every-day Muslims and others of good conscience can fill-in the gaps. But the lack of showing the lies to be lies also makes it appear that the Muslim community is fearful.

We cannot wait and sit back and only allow our organizations to speak for Muslim, as a community. We must also use our own individual voices to speak out against injustices and evil.”

– Galen Muhammad, from Maryland. His blog is www.stopIslamaphobia.blogspot.com._______________________________

It Was Harder On My Kids[I was at work that day and my firm] was very supportive in letting me know that if I needed anything, to step forth. I was as impacted as were my kids … they experienced not so much outright discrimination but rather a stepping back by many who were their friends.

– Adileh Shareiff, a software engineer working in Germantown, Maryland_______________________________

Activists: What Will Become of Da’wa In America?How the events of 9/11 would effect da’wah was of great concern, not to mention the very safety of Muslims back in the United States … Just eight days after the events of 9/11 I wrote the following to two individuals whom I knew were working for Islam in the US. Some excerpts are as follows (and I have only done some minor editing for the sake of clarity):

I was depressed at one point thinking about all the implications and ramifications of this absolutely haraam and diabolical act. Regardless of the unjust policies, attitudes, actions or whatever that may have lead to this type of explosion of violence, there can be no excusing it. I found it so ironic that for the last two years running I have given the same series of lectures on extremism there in the US. I was talking to the wrong people…

After coming out of my depression I thought that after all this pain and suffering and hatred and animosity may actually come out a great chance to get the Islamic message to the American people. CAIR for example, has had more instances of anti-Muslim hate crimes reported, but it has also had the most interviews, maybe more than all combined previous interviews than ever before. I am sure there have been more calls to masaajid, Islamic centers, good or bad, than ever before. Muslims are being forced to assess their lack of contact with the outer community and the negative effects of that more than ever before, yet American Islam has never been more in focus and scrutinized than ever either. It is a huge chance to bring forth the correct message of Islam and counter the many years of nonsense and distortion and dehumanization that has gone on in the media ... It may all be for naught if this thing degenerates into a war, but we pray that reason will somehow prevail.


>> VOICES II Pg 8

VOICES >> continued from pg 6


…Although this stupid act has set back a lot of progress that Muslims have made among Americans if not destroyed it, it could also force Muslims to look at their failures within their own communities as well as towards the outside and take steps towards amending that. Secondly, not all Americans are stupid, rednecked, racists either and since this incident many of them have expressed a willingness to try to really look closely at the rest of the world and not make others into the caricatures … that have been fuel for resentment and hatred and distrust.

As duaat, this may be the chance to get the attention that normally you would not because of a negative event but turn it into a positive one. I pray for you brothers there in the trenches and ask Allah to protect you and to give you strength, ameen.

– A. Abdul-Khaaliq from Washington DC. In 2001 he was working in a Muslim country._______________________________

No More Free Speech for Islamic SpeakersOne of the most obvious effects of 9/11 on the Muslim community – although people only talk about it in whispers or behind closed doors – is that Imams and Islamic lecturers have to watch what they say very carefully or they could find portions of their speech on anti-Muslim “research” websites or even worse – playing in a courtroom. Gone are the days where Imams could freely extract lessons from the battles and military expeditions of the Prophet (peace be upon him). If you talk about these battles, you better insert plenty of disclaimers throughout your speech. At least one masjid in the region stopped live streaming the khutbahs and lectures in the belief that unfriendly groups were listening in. Unfortunately, they are right. Imams and board members are also very wary of newcomers to the masjid, feeling the need to give them a second and third look. Maybe they are informants. This is

the reality in our communities. Few are discussing it, probably due to fear.

– A.R, Maryland______________________________

I Converted to Islam, But Muslims Suspected MeI was impacted by the events of 9-11. In fact my whole family was impacted by 9-11. I am a convert to Islam (2008). I lost a family member on 9-11 on one of the airplanes. Although I didn’t know it at the time this would have far reaching consequences I could not have foreseen. Unlike many Americans I did not buy into the hysteria that followed 9-11 and kept an open mind. I saw the anti-Muslim bias unfold in the days and months after 9-11 and sensed that the discrimination against the Muslim community was to some extent being orchestrated, particularly by members of the “right” in the American press. The events of 9-11 played a part in me converting to Islam because I began a long quest for the truth. I was always sure that America’s foreign policy and capitalist “bullying” across the globe had a lot more to do with the events of 9-11 than any rogue terrorist group. The more I read the more I realized Islam was that the exact opposite of what was being portrayed in the press. Even though I absorbed this information as an outsider, I discovered that seeking the truth was an important tenet of Islam (quite the opposite of what the pundits were saying on Fox News). When I converted to Islam it was part of a long journey. I experienced many tribulations. Many members of my family considered me a disgrace and a disgrace to the memory of my dead relative -- and they still do.

“What’s important to note is that I also experienced a fear and mistrust from the within Muslim community itself. Through media manipulation, war propaganda and new Homeland Security laws, many Muslims were suspicious of my conversion. The media machinery had done a good job of sowing discontent in the Muslim community as well. I was often perceived as a potential spy, an FBI informant, or someone involved with law enforcement activities. This didn’t stain

Islam (it is without fault) but it did teach me a valuable lesson about the power of media and politics in this country. The very community I had hoped would embrace me often reacted to me in ways I would not have expected. I felt a sense of disappointment and sadness. So you see, the events of 9-11 didn’t just impact the larger non-Muslim population, it poisoned our own community as well. I have at times felt lost in my dual identity as a Muslim and as an American. May Allah (Subhanahu wa ta’ala) guide us down the straight path and always protect those who seek the truth.

– Abdul-Latif, Washington DC_______________________________

We Are All Victims It had been a year since I converted to Islam, Alhamdulillah. Many things had changed since then.

My family and I had moved from Georgia to North Carolina where my father, who is a high-ranking officer in the US ARMY, was stationed. Although my parents didn’t have major issues with my new religion, they were very adamant about my not wearing the hijab, the Muslim headscarf. But when I landed a job in a medical office run by two Muslim doctors, they began to ease up as I started wearing it to work. Their fear of harassment for me began to ease and as time went on, it became part of my routine to don my veil with my work attire.

Then the day came.

While I was working in my office, doing billing for the small medical practice, the two girls who worked in the lobby gasped while watching the TV overhead. I walked over and to my horror, saw the unthinkable: an airplane crashing into one of the Twin Towers in New York. Everything after that is a painful blur in my memories, because what I remember most vividly came afterwards. While sitting in my room later that day after the clinic had been closed early, I sat glued to the television screen in a trance while the images played again and again and allegations of Muslim involvement began to surface. The only things that moved constantly were the tears that streamed down my face and my heart

thumping with anger, fear, and anguish. The anger for the country that I called my own being under attack, the fear that this was only the beginning, and the anguish of knowing that it may have been caused by Muslims. The latter was the greatest emotion of all, and I prayed again and again, “Please don’t let it be a Muslim, please don’t let it be a Muslim.”

While the torment of that day continues to live on and it is remembered every year on September 11th, for Muslims that day marks the beginning of the alienation, hate, and fear that surrounds us today. Alhamdulillah, I did not lose a loved one on 9/11, but I lost support from my family, I lost respect from people, and I lost the security that comes from living in a country that boasts of freedom. I had to say bitter goodbyes to my brother, who is also in the ARMY, three times as he was sent to Iraq once and Afghanistan twice to fulfill his role in “the War on Terror” while leaving my infant nephew behind during the first years of his life. I have to live in fear, knowing that any day, my father or brother may be sent to a war zone, where they will have to fight against those whom I call my brothers in faith. I also worry about the future of my children, growing up in a society where many people have been conditioned to hate Islam and Muslims. I have been torn between a military family and an Islamic life, knowing in my heart that we can coexist, but failing at convincing those who are driven by the fear-mongering media. This is the reality of 9/11; not only non-Muslims were affected, not only Americans were affected; we have all been victims.

-- Wendy Diaz, Maryland_______________________________

9/11 Resulted in Stronger CommunitiesI remember I was in third grade at Washington Islamic Academy (WIA) in Virginia, when suddenly an elderly man came running into our classroom.

“The twin towers were bombed!”, he


>> VOICES III Pg 9

VOICES II>> continued from pg 7


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frantically told us. We were quickly evacuated and sent home early. The usual 20-minute ride took several hours due to the close proximity of the Pentagon to our school. It was also close to my Arlington home; my father heard the large explosion when the Pentagon was hit.

At home we watched the television. The repeated scenes of the planes crashing into the towers looked like a video game. A neighbor came by saying that she knew we would never do such terrible things and that it wasn’t our fault. I remember thinking at the time, “Who’s ‘we?’ Why would she think my family or friends would ever fly a plane into a building?” It was only later, when I saw my own mother being verbally assaulted by passing cars and local Masjids targeted by hate crimes that I realized that “we” meant Muslims.

In the following years, it pained and

angered me to see vengeful wars being carried out on whole countries, to learn about undercover agents within our communities, to hear psuedo-Islamic experts speaking on our behalf on television, to read about local Muslims being falsely detained, and to see terms such as ‘Islamists’ and ‘Muslim fundamentalists’ being ignorantly used by intellectuals.

It has been nice however to see the communities rallying closer together in the aftermath of 9/11. Our concentrations went from Masaajid to building schools and community centers, and our Imams now made it a point more than ever to stay relevant with the youth. There are now several professional niche Muslim companies and initiatives, all showing that we are quickly advancing as an Ummah in America. We are now only learning to stand on our own feet. Our communities are giving back and are strengthening the fabric of American society.

– Arif Kabir, Maryland

9/11: LOCAL MUSLIM VOICESVOICES III>> continued from pg 8

September 9th 2011 - September 22nd 2011 10 |COMMUNITY NEWS

By Muslim Link Staff

The Islamic Society of Baltimore is one of the region’s oldest masjid communities.

Established in 1969, a handful of families steadily became several dozen, and then several hundred, and then several thousand. Those early members spent their money, expertise, and energy to establish the masjid. And most importantly, they spent much of their most valuable asset: their time.

Now, those founders and early members are retired. Though in the twilight of their lives, they still want to be the ones to lay the foundations; this time, its for elders like themselves.

The ISB’s “Golden Age” Committee met for an Eid dinner and brain storming session on Saturday, September 3, 2011 in the ISB gymnasium. The meeting – which was the first in about four years and represented a sort of revitalization of the committee – was attended by about 50 seniors, mostly men.

As average life spans increase – in the US its about 80 years – and as birth rates decrease, a higher and higher percentage of the US population is composed of seniors. In 2000, about 12% of the US population was over 60; by 2030, seniors will account for about 20% of the US population.

Seniors face a wide range of age related challenges, and often need help to perform daily life tasks. For Muslim seniors, these

challenges can be greater due to religious needs like performing wudu, going to Friday prayers, and receiving care in a manner that doesn’t compromise Islamic modesty.

At the Golden Age Committee meeting, moderated by Zulfiqar Baig, committee head Tufail Chaudhury opened by emphasizing the need for elders to set-up a retirement environment for themselves. “If you think you can depend on your family and relatives, you might be living in a different world. They are very busy,” he said.

The main presenter was Dr. Anwar Khokhar. Using a power point presentation to describe some of the physical, mental, and emotional characteristics and challenges of aging, he said a culture oriented around youth, the shrinking family, and persistent stereotypes about seniors are some major reasons elders “must do what we can for ourselves”.

“We want to die with dignity. That is why we are here [this evening]. I’ve seen Muslims dying [in non-Muslim nursing homes] with the cross in front of them. I’ve seen Muslim women who never took off their hijab in their life, in their last moments, they are in front of men. Is this what we want at the end of our lives?” said Khokhar, describing why the Golden Age Committee is needed.

Dr. Khokhar suggested short-term and long-term initiatives the Golden Age Committee can undertake. Immediate needs include collecting data on all ISB

community members over 50 years old, providing transportation to and from juma and daily prayers for seniors, and engaging area nursing homes to convince them to be Muslim friendly with regards to things like gender issues, diet, and Imam chaplaincy.

Within the next two years, the Committee is considering converting some of ISB’s existing on-site houses to condos and assisted living for senior couples. Over the next five to ten years, the Committee aims to acquire land and build Muslim-run daycare and nursing home facilities using state and federal grant assistance.

The program closed with suggestions and comments from attendees and a dinner. The Golden Age Committee will consolidate all the suggestions and

arrange a schedule for regular planning meetings for its initiatives, Insha’Allah.

“This will be a great service to families who need to help their elders but are unable to do so. The grand vision is that our program will be a model and all other Muslim communities will follow and copy this program InshaAllah,” said Zulfiqar Baig.

ISB’s Golden Age Committee includes Tufail Chaudhry, Abbas Contractor, Habeeb Ashruf, Zulfiqar Baig, Furqan Siddiqi, Hossam Elboghdady, Iqbal Nasir, Tazmine Nawaz, Raisur Rahman, Hasan Jalisi, Mohommad Aslam, Anwar Khokhar, Wasima Sheikh, and Najla Abdurrahman.

In Golden Years, ISB Seniors Still Want To Do for Themselves

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Sheikh Manzoor listens intently to suggestions on how to incorporate elder care into the ISB community vision. Photo by Muslim Link.

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Poll: Many Americans Uncomfortable With MuslimsBy Eric MarrapodiCNN Belief Blog Co-Editor

Washington (CNN) – Ten years after 9/11, Americans are wrestling with their opinions of Muslims, a new survey found, and where Americans get their TV news is playing a role in those opinions.

Nearly half of Americans would be uncomfortable with a woman wearing a burqa, a mosque being built in their neighborhood or Muslim men praying at an airport. Forty-one percent would be uncomfortable if a teacher at the elementary school in their community were Muslim.

Forty-seven percent of survey respondents said the values of Islam are at odds with American values.

The Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institution conducted the survey and issued a report, “What it Means to be American: Attitudes in an Increasingly Diverse America 10 Years after 9/11.”

“Americans are wrestling with fear, but on the other hand they’re also wrestling with acceptance,” said Robert P. Jones, CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute.

The results of the survey were announced Tuesday at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

One issue that seemed to divide respondents was sharia law.

Overall, 61% of respondents disagreed that Muslims want to establish sharia law in the U.S.

“2011 has been an enormously active year for this question,” Jones said. “Forty-nine bills have been introduced in 29 states to ban sharia law. We asked the same question back in February, and only 23% of Americans agreed Muslims want to establish sharia as the law of the land. That number has gone up to 30%, so still a minority, but the minority has grown.”

The numbers were also showed a correlation with where people went for their news.

Of Americans who say they trust Fox News the most for their television news, 52% believe that Muslims are trying to establish sharia law in the United States. Sixty-eight percent of Fox viewers believed the values of Islam were at odds with American values.

The report says fewer than one-third of Americans who most trust broadcast news, CNN (20%) and public television (23%) believe that Muslims are trying to establish sharia.

“It’s an emotional roller coaster,” said Dr. Muqtedar Khan, a professor of political science at the University of Delaware. “I looked at this survey, and I’m really depressed.”

Khan, a practicing Muslim, was particularly disturbed by the attitudes toward Muslims and what he called a misunderstanding of sharia law. “Sharia is just a prop, an attempt to say, ‘we just don’t know and like Muslims.’ “

The survey also found strong support of

religious liberty and tolerance.

Eighty-eight percent of those contacted by pollsters agreed that “America was founded on the idea of religious freedom for everyone, including religious groups that are unpopular.”

One year after a Florida pastor burned a copy of the Quran, 95% of people polled said religious books should be treated with respect.

And two-thirds of those polled said there should be strict separation between church and state.

According to Jones, 2,450 Americans were reached by phone for the survey, and it had a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.


Obama’s Outreach Toward Muslims Is Limited At HomeBy Scott WilsonThe Washington Post, 9/5/2011

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a leading Muslim civil rights organization, occupies one floor of a red-brick office building on Capitol Hill. Visitors must use an elevator pass code to reach the suite, the only one in a building of tenants that is secured against attack.

On the wall of its conference room hangs a framed front page of a newspaper showing a U.S. president, standing shoeless in a mosque and reaching out in dramatic fashion to Muslim Americans.

It’s not Barack Obama, who pledged early in his presidency to combat negative stereotypes of Islam “wherever they appear.”

The clipping depicts George W. Bush.

Within a week of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Bush visited the Islamic Center of Washington to remind an angry and frightened nation that “the face of terror is not the true faith of Islam.”

“That was huge,” said Nihad Awad, CAIR’s executive director, who accompanied Bush on his visit. “His statement and his visit made a big impact at home and in the world.”

By contrast, Obama has not visited a mosque in the United States since taking office, although he has done so in Egypt, Turkey and Indonesia as part of his project to repair U.S. relations with the Muslim world. Bold abroad, Obama’s outreach has been largely invisible at home as Muslim Americans confront enduring suspicion and, in some cases, outright hatred a decade after the attacks.

The president’s approach has worked to a degree internationally. Polls show that in some important Islamic countries, Muslim perceptions of the United States improved the year Obama took office, although they have dipped since then.

And it has paid off politically: Two recent surveys show that Obama has the support of more than three-quarters of Muslim Americans, a diverse mix of about 3 million people, most of them immigrants and many of them African Americans disinclined to back Republican policies.

But Obama’s tepid efforts to beat back the public’s negative impressions of the nation’s Muslim citizens in a post-9/11 nation have disappointed Muslim American leaders, who expected more from a president whose rhetoric promised so much. He has not held a single event with Muslim Americans outside the White

House, favoring the relative privacy of his annual iftar dinner — the meal that breaks the fast during Ramadan — to speak about issues that are important to the group.

Polls show that a large plurality of Americans continues to hold an unfavorable view of Muslims. According to a Pew Research Center poll released late last month, a majority of Muslim Americans said it has become “more difficult” to be a Muslim in the United States since the 2001 attacks — the same proportion who gave that response in the year before Obama was elected.

Another survey makes clear the political risks the president faces in strengthening his connections with Muslim Americans. The son of a Kenyan Muslim who left

>> OUTREACH Pg 12


Obama when he was 2, the president has repeatedly professed his Christian faith. But a poll this summer found that more Americans think Obama is a Muslim than when he was elected.

“Every time he has to say ‘I’m a Christian,’ it makes Muslims feel like he’s saying ‘Muslims are bad,’ ” said a senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal thinking. “Muslims are always asking us about this — why does he have to say it?”

‘Part of America’s story’

Within days of his election, Obama listened during a meeting at his transition headquarters as the FBI and CIA chiefs and the director of national intelligence, among others, briefed him on counterterrorism efforts.

“Okay,” he said, according to senior advisers present, “tell me what you think we’re not doing well.”

For the next few minutes, Obama heard arguments for new programs and more funding. Speaking last, Michael E. Leiter, then director of the National Counterterrorism Center, told the president, “We’re doing a bad job of telling our story.”

“Al-Qaeda is telling lies about us, mischaracterizing our polices, and we need to challenge that,” Leiter said, according to one adviser. “People need to know about us.”

Leiter’s argument cast Muslim Americans as central characters in the message Obama should carry abroad: that the United States, contrary to al-Qaeda’s propaganda, accepted Islam and even celebrated it.

“Islam has always been a part of America’s story,” Obama said seven months later when he asked the Muslim world for “a new beginning” in a speech at Cairo University. “And since our founding, American Muslims have enriched the United States.”

In the address, Obama identified himself far more closely with Islam than he ever

has at home.

He recalled the Muslim tradition of his father’s family in Kenya, hearing the “azaan” — the call to prayer — “at the break of dawn and at the fall of dusk” as a child in Indonesia, and working with Muslim Americans as a community organizer in Chicago.

“That experience guides my conviction that partnership between America and Islam must be based on what Islam is, not what it isn’t,” Obama said. “And I consider it part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.”

In November 2009, 10 months into his term, events at Fort Hood, Tex., galvanized the White House and offered new reasons why the task Obama set for himself would be hard to carry out.

Maj. Nidal M. Hasan — a Muslim, an immigrant of Palestinian heritage and an Army psychiatrist — allegedly opened fire at a medical center, killing 13 people and wounding dozens more, police later said. He had been communicating via the Internet with the anti-American cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi, a native-born U.S. citizen living in Yemen.

The evening of the shootings, Obama summoned his senior military and national security staff members to the Oval Office, challenging them to explain how his Islamic outreach was being handled in the United States.

“You guys have to prove to me that you are moving the needle on this issue,” the president told them, according to Denis McDonough, his deputy national security adviser. “This is an issue here at home, and we have to stay on top of it.”

Five days later, at a memorial service for the victims, Obama acknowledged that “it may be hard to comprehend the twisted logic that led to this tragedy.” He never explicitly mentioned Islam.

‘We will not stigmatize’

Over the next few months, McDonough ran an internal group, drawing from national security, law enforcement and other agencies, to study al-Qaeda’s increasing effort to radicalize Muslim Americans, a consequence of U.S.

military success in shrinking terrorist sanctuaries overseas.

McDonough, a practicing Catholic, was joined in the effort by Quintan Wiktorowicz, who had previously worked out of the U.S. Embassy in London, studying the United Kingdom’s effort to confront radicalization within its Muslim enclaves.

Obama has few advisers who are Muslim. The most senior is Rashad Hussain, his envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, who helps carry out Obama’s outreach.

In March, on the eve of congressional h e a r i n g s o n M u s l i m A m e r i c a n radicalization, Hussain accompanied McDonough to the All Dulles Area Muslim Society in Sterling to present the administration’s strategy.

The approach relies on many of the principles that law enforcement agencies have used for years to combat gangs, whose leaders also seek to exploit disenfranchisement among young people and inspire an “us versus them” sense of belonging.

“We must resolve that, in our determination to protect our nation, we will not stigmatize or demonize entire communities because of the actions of a few,” McDonough told the small audience seated in folding chairs.

But civil rights activists say the government has stepped up its monitoring of Muslim American communities. Those include FBI home visits, heavy-handed efforts to recruit government informants, agents in mosques to observe Friday sermons, and a growing watch list that affects Muslim Americans when they travel.

“The Muslim American community has been defined through the national security prism,” said Awad, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “That hasn’t changed. Law enforcement continues to be our gateway to this administration and government.”

The organization has faced a federal investigation for allegedly supporting Hamas, an armed Palestinian movement that the United States classifies as a terrorist organization. Neither the Bush nor the Obama Justice Departments have presented indictments, and CAIR officials

have dismissed the allegations as fear-mongering.

Awad wrote a letter to Obama soon after his election, outlining what he calls the “minimum level” of support — set by the Bush administration — that he should show Muslim Americans, including continuing the White House iftar, visiting a mosque and meeting with Muslim American leaders. Obama has not done the last two.

“I suspect there is sensitivity about the Jewish vote that’s driving his reticence more than anything else, more than the illegitimate criticism left over about his birth,” said Ari Fleischer, who was White House press secretary under George W. Bush. “It’s a [Muslim American] community that for whatever reason he is partly dodging, and politics has a lot to do with it. And I’d also like to add that I think a lot of what he’s facing is unfair.”

Obama holds two White House events each year for Jewish Americans, a powerful political constituency, and this year he spoke at the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

Current and former White House officials say Obama has not softened his Muslim outreach in deference to the Jewish community.

‘Politically risky’

The 2010 midterm election year tested Obama’s approach, and for many Muslim American leaders, revealed his political timidity.

Independent voters were key to his 2008 election, and a Washington Post-ABC News poll released two months before last year’s elections showed that nearly half of independents held an unfavorable view of Muslims, who over the past decade have been giving more money to political candidates and campaigns.

“An alliance with the Muslim community is seen to be politically risky,” said Daisy Khan, one of the organizers behind the effort to build a mosque complex near the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan. “It holds true with President Obama and it holds true with others.”

OUTREACH>> continued from pg 11

>> OUTREACH II Pg 13


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The debate over the project, known formally as Park51, typified what Khan and other Muslim American call rising “Islamophobia,” a backdrop of the 2010 midterm campaigns.

In the shorthand of the opponents, including national political figures Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich, the project was labeled the “Ground Zero Mosque.”

For months, Obama avoided the issue. His aides initially called it a local land-use decision, but the bitterness of the debate made it for many Muslim Americans an illustration of their uncertain place in the post-9/11 nation.

Robert Gibbs, Obama’s press secretary at the time, said calling the project a local issue served as “a place holder” until Obama was ready to address it publicly.

Current and former White House officials familiar with the internal debate recall that some of Obama’s political advisers, led by then-Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, cautioned him against weighing in on an issue that held more risk than reward. A Post-ABC News poll conducted at the time showed that two-thirds of the country opposed the project.

David Axelrod, a senior Obama political adviser at the time, said “there was a political argument being made that it was controversial, and why would we want to jump into that hornet’s nest?”

“There were people who were worried about the [midterm] elections and how his speaking out would affect those elections,” said Axelrod, now an outside adviser to the White House.

But Axelrod, who has a long personal relationship with the president, said he knew Obama wanted to add his voice to the debate and did not stand in his way. Other advisers say Valerie Jarrett, the senior adviser who is perhaps closest to Obama, also urged him to speak out on what she and some others considered a civil rights issue.

Said Gibbs: “We’d flown all the way to Cairo to reset our relationship with Muslims, and not speaking out on this would have done pretty serious damage to those efforts. But it was not something we took lightly or casually, given the sheer tragedy and anguish surrounding those events” on 9/11.

After New York Mayor Michael R.

Bloomberg (I) endorsed the project, Obama offered his opinion. He chose the annual iftar, held on the eve of the 9/11 anniversary last year.

“I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country,” Obama told the appreciative gathering. “And that includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in Lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances.”

But Obama made a point the next day of clarifying his remarks, saying he did not intend them to serve as an endorsement of the project, only the planners’ right to build it. The project is proceeding slowly.

“He’s done all he can, given that his own name is still raising questions from the professional Islamophobes in this country,” said Khan, the project organizer. “He’s taking baby steps.”

Nearly a month ago, at this year’s White House iftar, waiters passed trays of dried dates and fresh fruit juice to guests gathered in the Grand Foyer to end their day of fasting. The guest list included members of Congress, diplomats, NFL players and scholars.

Obama used the occasion of this year’s iftar to emphasize Muslim sacrifice on Sept. 11, 2001, and in the American wars in Islamic countries that followed, telling the audience that “Muslim Americans help to keep us safe.”

Mansura Shahjahan, her head covered in accordance with pious Islamic tradition, wept quietly. Her husband, Mohammed, died in the North Tower of the World Trade Center, as did other Muslim Americans. The president watched as she wiped away tears.

“They were workers in the twin towers — Americans by birth and Americans by choice, immigrants who crossed the oceans to give their children a better life,” Obama said, urging the country to go “forward as one family, like generations before us, pulling together in times of trial, staying true to our core values and emerging even stronger.”

“This is who we are,” he said, “and this is who we must always be.”


OUTREACH II>> continued from pg 12


my life I was in; be it my Catholic school boy years, my brief dabble at Christianity, my quest for knowledge of Buddhism, Hinduism, and other “isms”, or my research of Darwinism and the Theory of Evolution.

Throughout my days prior to 9/11, I felt like I experienced enough of all faiths and ideologies and came to a conclusion that there was a God or a Supreme-Being, but the question that I always asked myself was how do I come closer to Him, how do I worship Him, and how to do I make sense of all the faiths that exist in the world. This was my state-of-mind prior to 9/11. Up to this point I never heard about Islam. It amazes me, when I reflect on my youth, that I did have Muslim friends growing up like Hasan, Mahmood, or Tamir, but I never knew they were Muslim or what Islam was.

It wasn’t until 1999 when I first started to learn about Islam and Muslims during my college years at Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey. I met a Muslim by the name of Ahmer Siddique who is one of my greatest friends to this day. In the hallway right before we were supposed to take a Chemistry exam I panicked because I felt unprepared and wondered, “how I will get out of this one?” I suddenly overheard Ahmer talking about how he knew what was on the test, so I asked him to help me even though he never met me. Not only did he have the answers to the test that day, but he also had the answers to life, as well.

I befriended Ahmer and we became very close that semester. We’d hang out with other common friends and discuss current events, political issues, social issues, and of course religious issues. Being that I had a Catholic background, I challenged him with questions on the trinity, the belief of Jesus as God and the son of God, the belief in Mary, signs of the Day of Judgment, along with other controversial

topics. They were questions common to me from asking priests and ministers years before only to realize they didn’t have a clear answer, rather their answers increased my confusion and decreased my desire to affiliate myself to any religion.

However, the answers I received from this 18 year old young man were answers I never heard before. The explanations to the topics at hand were ones I never considered nor were they ever presented to me in that fashion. For the first time things made sense and were not only easy to mentally accept, but also spiritually. I recalled a night at the age of 15 or 16 years old, looking up at the sky, my face and shirt wet from tears that ran from my eyes, pleading to God to guide me. After meeting Ahmer and learning about Islam, I felt that cry was answered.

During the spring of 2000 my relationship with Ahmer was put on hold as I focused on pledging to a Latino fraternity. Later that summer, I became a tutor-counselor for a high school program on campus. It

was during this program where I met two bright, young ladies who were different from the rest. Instead of being loud, obnoxious, and fashionable according to society’s standards, they were quiet, mature, and extremely modest in their dress and character. This was the first time I ever came across girls wearing hijab. I felt drawn to them, curious to learn why they did what they did. The funny thing was I don’t recall ever learning about Muslim women in my discussions with Ahmer so I never knew what they looked like or how they dressed. When I think about it now, as I write this, it astonishes me how Allah put people in my life to expose me to Islam bit by bit. I learned a great deal from them, such as the concept of hijab, the concept of modesty and Islam, the history of the Qu’ran and how it has never been changed since it was revealed, as well as how to become a Muslim by saying the declaration of faith or Shahadah.

I appreciated everything they taught me even though I was technically the

teacher’s assistant and they were my students. However, when it came to learning about Islam, I was their humble student. My admiration for Islam grew more and more, but I didn’t think about accepting Islam yet.

Fall of 2000 and spring of 2001 came and went. I continued to learn about Islam from conversations with Ahmer, however, I was caught up in the college lifestyle, and didn’t desire to leave my old ways behind in exchange for a devoted life to Allah. I was busy partying, dancing, listening to hip-hop and rap, and hanging out with my fraternity brothers.

One big milestone that I do remember, however, was asking Ahmer for a copy of the Qur’an before the summer break. That summer as I worked in New York City,

I would take it everywhere I went -- on the subway and on the bus. I’d read as much as I could whenever and wherever I could. I remember sitting next to one of the engineers on the bus and pulling out the copy of the Qur’an. He asked me,

“Are you Muslim?” I kindly responded, “No, but I am learning.” He told me he was Muslim and he could answer any questions I might have. Sometimes I wish I could run into that brother now and tell him, “I am Muslim now”. I’m sure he would be so happy. I stuck to this routine for the entire summer, reading the Qur’an on the way to and from work in New York City.

After a while I felt overwhelmed with the information. I became more and more scared with every verse that I read. I understood what Islam desired from me, but I was not ready mentally or spiritually to jump into it wholeheartedly. I decided, shortly after that, to stop reading the Qur’an and just focus on other aspects of my life.

Soon after, I found myself on campus

again starting my 3rd year of college in the fall of 2001. To me it was the same old thing; freshman mixers, social events,

WHY>> continued from pg 1

>> WHY II Pg 15

It astonishes me how Allah put people in my life to expose me to Islam bit by bit.

This decade that has passed has been the pinnacle of my life and Allah knows best what awaits me.

Hernan Guadalupe reads a children’s Islamic book to his two sons in March 2011. The book is the first in a series of books for Spanish speaking Muslim children authored by his wife. Photo courtesy of Hernan Guadalupe.


parties, orientations, hanging out, and road trips for the first week or two of school.

On September 11th, 2001, I woke up and got ready to go to my lab at 8am or so. I walked over to the chemistry lab only to find out that class was canceled. I remember being elated because I now had the opportunity to go hang out or get some extra sleep. I walked back to my dorm room through campus and I remember glancing at the New York City skyline. My campus was just across the river and the skyline view was a popular feature Stevens offered their students. It was always a beautiful sight and this day wasn’t any different. The sun was out, the sky was clear, and the temperature was awesome, and of course the view to the city was impressive even to someone who’s seen it all his life.

I walked into my room and immediately got a call from a friend who told me to turn on the news. She sounded freaked out as I turned on the television only to see that the buildings I just finished glancing at were on fire. I immediately ran upstairs to Ahmer’s room to inform him of the news. He had been sleeping so I rudely awakened him with this devastating information.

We turned on the television and watched the news while he got ready so we could go outside and see what was happening. As the news broke stating that a plane crashed into the towers, Ahmer kept saying, “I hope it’s not Muslims.” I didn’t understand why Muslims would have anything to do with this.

We went outside to a chaotic, frightened, nervous, and concerned student body. Everyone was outside looking out from Castle Point towards downtown Manhattan. We stayed there for hours, getting updates on the radio or from people. I kept thinking to myself, I hope people are getting out, I hope that help is on the way. I was also scared about the possibility of another plane striking the huge skyscraper we were standing next to that served as the administrative building.

After a few hours of tears, cries, concern, and fear, the towers collapsed. It wasn’t

until then that reality really hit me. It became clear, at that point, that whoever was in that building was not making it out. There was no way people could survive that. I remember looking at my watch, watching the seconds pass by as if in slow motion. I also remember my conscience talking to me, reminding me how much I have learned about Islam, what my purpose in life should be, how I should be leading my life, and the reality of life and death. I thought to myself all those times

that I read in the Qur’an the promise for those who do deeds of righteousness, the rewards with their Lord for worshiping Him alone and living a life according to His guidelines and standards, as well as the promise for those who disobey Him and His commands. I thought during those seconds about Heaven and Hell, the punishments of the grave, and how I arrogantly kept pushing off the idea of accepting my role as a creation of Allah in order to party, chill, have fun, dance, drink, and “live life.”

I remember reflecting about those times where I told myself how Islam is such a beautiful religion, but if I am to accept it, it will be later on in life when I’m old. However, this time, as death stood across the river, I told myself, “Well what if that day never comes?”

The people in the towers thought September 11, 2001 was just another ordinary day. They probably thought they were going to have lunch, make it home for dinner, and reunite with their families, children, or significant other. However, Allah had a different plan for them. This day was their last day and they did not have a chance to argue or plea their case. If this was their situation, then what should I think mine will be? Why should I think that I will live a long life, how can I be so sure that I will grow old, how can I be so sure that I will accept Islam once I am “done” having fun. The answer was, I wasn’t sure.

These thoughts rushed through my mind in such a brief lapse of time. I was snapped out of this state of deep reflection by Ahmer who tapped me on my shoulder to tell me, “Man, I can’t take this, I need to go pray.” Without hesitation, without even thinking it twice I said, “I’m coming with you.”

I followed him to his room and I told him I want to be a Muslim. His eyes filled with joy as he heard this. He taught me how

to say Shahadah, how to make wudhu (ablution) and I followed him in my first prayer. I became a Muslim on that day, September 11th, 2001. It was the day my entire life changed. I have not looked back since.

The challenges that awaited me from my decision, I confronted with confidence and courage. The backlashes due to the events of 9/11 were difficult, but I had faith that no matter what or who was responsible, Islam had nothing to do with it and Allah would not allow His religion to be degraded regardless how hard people tried.

From that day forth, I have lived my life as a Muslim, learning how to worship and be thankful for the countless blessings that I have been granted in my years of life.

Since that time, I’ve been blessed with my younger brother and mother embracing Islam, a wonderful wife who devotes her life to worshiping and pleasing Allah, and with two beautiful sons who are born Muslims. This decade that has passed has been the pinnacle of my life and Allah knows best what awaits me.

While some people become saddened by the events that occurred on 9/11, I see it as the day that I realized my purpose in life and had the courage to accept it. I am saddened about the tragedies of that day, without a doubt, however, I believe that Allah is the best of Planners and the wisdom for this event occurring goes beyond the scope of our understanding. One thing is certain to me though; it opened the door for millions of people to learn about Islam and even opened the door for millions to embrace Islam as their way of life, including me. For that, I will always be grateful to Allah.

I don’t know what 20 or 30 years down the road has in store for us, but I am confident that I will continue to ask Allah to guide me and keep me on this blessed path. I am certain that I will strive to teach my children about Islam and the events that occurred so that they grow up knowing the history of how Islam went from 20,000 Americans accepting Islam a year to over 100,000 Americans accepting Islam. Allah knows best what awaits us all; all I ask is for Allah to keep my family and I firm upon His path.

Hernan Guadalupe lives in Maryland where he works in rea l e s ta t e development.

WHY II>> continued from pg 14

While some people become saddened by the events that occurred on 9/11, I see it as the day that I realized my purpose in life and had the courage to accept it.


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prosecute juveniles,” said Steve Levin, a defense attorney and former federal prosecutor. “It’s a serious allegation, so it’s not surprising that federal prosecutors would consider bringing a charge against a juvenile suspected of participating in a terrorist plot.”

The teen’s family spoke to The Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper, which published an article Friday. In it, the family complained that they had allowed their son to spend a lot of time with FBI

agents because they thought it was part of a cooperative arrangement. Relatives, who were not identified by the newspaper, said they didn’t expect their son to be arrested.

They agreed to talk to the Inquirer reporter on the condition that the youth be identified only by his first name and first initial of his last name — Mohammed K. The Baltimore Sun confirmed the youth’s identity but does not generally name juveniles charged with crimes.

The teen graduated from Mount Hebron High School in the Class of 2011. His name repeatedly shows up on the honor roll, and last year he received an honorable mention in a writing contest sponsored by the CityLit Project. His essay was titled: “Voices Around the World.”

His high school principal and teachers declined to comment. The spokeswoman for the Howard County school system, Patti Caplan, said the teen was a “very

hardworking student” who pursued several scholarships with universities.

“He was extremely strong academically,” Caplan said.


candy, snow cones, a petting zoo, and the playground swings. There is even a line where children who have completed their first fasts can receive a gift of sorts. But still, she feels frustrated, as “The younger people want to be involved, but there’s nothing for us… I know that maybe a bazaar for teenage girls would be nice.” However, she plans to stay involved with the masjid as she gets older, and hopefully more opportunities will come around.

Just looking at the massive set up for this lovely Eid event, it’s impossible not to feel hope and love for our brothers and sisters in Islam. Seeing the faces that came every night to taraweh and iftar, now happily rejoicing, eating and chatting with others, is a sight to see indeed. And to those who both could and could not make it to this charming affair - Eid Mubarak!

TEENAGER>> continued from pg 5

EID>> continued from pg 4

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| 17September 9th 2011 - September 22nd 2011 WORLD PRESS

By Catrina StewartThe Independent UK, August 27, 2011

The boy, small and frail, is struggling to stay awake. His head lolls to the side, at one point slumping on to his chest. “Lift up your head! Lift it up!” shouts one of his interrogators, slapping him. But the boy by now is past caring, for he has been awake for at least 12 hours since he was separated at gunpoint from his parents at two that morning. “I wish you’d let me go,” the boy whimpers, “just so I can get some sleep.”

During the nearly six-hour video, 14-year-old Palestinian Islam Tamimi, exhausted and scared, is steadily broken to the point where he starts to incriminate men from his village and weave fantastic tales that he believes his tormentors want to hear.

This rarely seen footage seen by The Independent offers a glimpse into an Israeli interrogation, almost a rite of passage that hundreds of Palestinian children accused of throwing stones undergo every year.

Israel has robustly defended its record, arguing that the treatment of minors has vastly improved with the creation of a military juvenile court two years ago. But the children who have faced the rough justice of the occupation tell a very different story.

“The problems start long before the child is brought to court, it starts with their arrest,” says Naomi Lalo, an activist with No Legal Frontiers, an Israeli group that monitors the military courts. It is during their interrogation where their “fate is doomed”, she says.

Sameer Shilu, 12, was asleep when the soldiers smashed in the front door of his house one night. He and his older brother emerged bleary-eyed from their bedroom

to find six masked soldiers in their living room.

Checking the boy’s name on his father’s identity card, the officer looked “shocked” when he saw he had to arrest a boy, says Sameer’s father, Saher. “I said, ‘He’s too young; why do you want him?’ ‘I don’t know,’ he said”. Blindfolded, and his hands tied painfully behind his back with plastic cords, Sameer was bundled into a Jeep, his father calling out to him not to be afraid. “We cried, all of us,” his father says. “I know my sons; they don’t throw stones.”

In the hours before his interrogation, Sameer was kept blindfolded and handcuffed, and prevented from sleeping. Eventually taken for interrogation without a lawyer or parent present, a man accused him of being in a demonstration, and showed him footage of a boy throwing stones, claiming it was him.

“He said, ‘This is you’, and I said it wasn’t me. Then he asked me, ‘Who are they?’ And I said that I didn’t know,” Sameer says. “At one point, the man started shouting at me, and grabbed me by the collar, and said, ‘I’ll throw you out of the window and beat you with a stick if you don’t confess’.”

Sameer, who protested his innocence, was fortunate; he was released a few hours later. But most children are frightened into signing a confession, cowed by threats of physical violence, or threats against their families, such as the withdrawal of work permits.

When a confession is signed, lawyers usually advise children to accept a plea bargain and serve a fixed jail sentence even if not guilty. Pleading innocent is to invite lengthy court proceedings, during which the child is almost always remanded in prison. Acquittals are rare.

“In a military court, you have to know that you’re not looking for justice,” says Gabi Lasky, an Israeli lawyer who has represented many children.

There are many Palestinian children in the West Bank villages in the shadow of Israel’s separation wall and Jewish settlements on Palestinian lands. Where largely non-violent protests have sprung up as a form of resistance, there are children who throw stones, and raids by Israel are common. But lawyers and human rights groups have decried Israel’s arrest policy of targeting children in villages that resist the occupation.

In most cases, children as young as 12 are hauled from their beds at night, handcuffed and blindfolded, deprived of sleep and food, subjected to lengthy interrogations, then forced to sign a confession in Hebrew, a language few of them read.

Israeli rights group B’Tselem concluded that, “the rights of minors are severely violated, that the law almost completely fails to protect their rights, and that the few rights granted by the law are not implemented”.

Israel claims to treat Palestinian minors in the spirit of its own law for juveniles but, in practice, it is rarely the case. For instance, children should not be arrested at night, lawyers and parents should be present during interrogations, and the children must be read their rights. But these are treated as guidelines, rather than a legal requirement, and are frequently flouted. And Israel regards Israeli youngsters as children until 18, while Palestinians are viewed as adults from 16.

Lawyers and activists say more than 200

World Press

>> STONES Pg 24

How Israel Takes Its Revenge on Children Suspected of Throwing Stones CHILD DETENTION

FIGURES 7,000

The estimated number of Palestinian children detained

and prosecuted in Israeli military courts since 2000, shows a report by Defense for Children International

Palestine (DCIP).

87 The percentage of children subjected to some form of physical violence while in

custody. About 91 per cent are also believed to be

blindfolded at some point during their detention.

12 The minimum age of criminal responsibility, as stipulated in

the Military Order 1651.

62 The percentage of children

arrested between 12am and 5am.

September 9th 2011 - September 22nd 2011 18 | CIVIL RIGHTS

Civil RightsCivil RightsCivil RightsDocs: NYPD Eyed 250-Plus Mosques, Student GroupsBy Matt Apuzzo and Adam GoldmanAssociated Press, September 06, 2011

The New York Police Department collected intelligence on more than 250 mosques and Muslim student groups in and around New York, often using undercover officers and informants to canvas the Islamic population of America’s largest city, according to officials and confidential, internal documents obtained by The Associated Press.

The documents, many marked “secret,’’ highlight how the past decade’s hunt for terrorists also put huge numbers of innocent people under scrutiny as they went about their daily lives in mosques, businesses and social groups.

An Associated Press investigation last month revealed that a secret squad known as the Demographics Unit sent teams of undercover officers to help key tabs on the area’s Muslim communities. The recent documents are the first to quantify that effort.

Since the 2001 attacks, the police department has built one of the nation’s most aggressive domestic intelligence agencies, one that operates far outside the city limits and maintains a list of “ancestries of interest’’ that it uses to focus its clandestine efforts. That effort has benefited from federal money and an unusually close relationship with the CIA, one that at times blurred the lines between domestic and foreign intelligence-gathering.

After identifying more than 250 area mosques, police officials determined the “ethnic orientation, leadership and group affiliations,’’ according to the 2006 police documents. Police also used informants and teams of plainclothes officers, known as rakers, to identify mosques requiring further scrutiny, according to an official involved in that effort, who spoke on

condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the program.

Armed with that information, police then identified 53 “mosques of concern’’ and placed undercover officers and informants there, the documents show.

Many of those mosques were flagged for allegations of criminal activity, such as alien smuggling, financing Hamas or money laundering. Others were identified for having ties to Salafism, a hardline movement preaching a strict version of Islamic law. Still others were identified for what the documents refer to as “rhetoric.’’

Other reasons are less clear.

Two mosques, for instance, were flagged for having ties to Al-Azhar, the 1,000-year-old Egyptian mosque that is the pre-eminent institute of Islamic learning in the Sunni Muslim world. Al-Azhar was one of the first religious institutions to condemn the 2001 terrorist attacks.

President George W. Bush’s close adviser, Karen Hughes, visited Al-Azhar in 2005 and applauded its courage.

Al-Azhar was also a sponsor of President Barack Obama’s 2009 speech reaching out to the Muslim world.

The list of mosques where undercover agents or informants operated includes ones that Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has visited and that area officials have mentioned as part of the region’s strong ties to the Muslim community. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has stood beside leaders of some mosques on the list as allies in fighting terrorism.

The documents are a series of internal presentations, including one prepared for Kelly. Following the AP’s reporting, they were provided to the AP and veteran New York police reporter Leonard Levitt, who runs the website NYPDConfidential.com. Because the list of mosques is so long and explanation for the surveillance is so limited, the AP is not identifying

the individual mosques that were under surveillance.

An NYPD spokesman and spokeswoman did not immediately return messages seeking comment Monday, a holiday. The police department has said it follows leads and does not trawl entire neighborhoods.

New York Police identified 263 “hot spots’’ throughout the city, the documents show. Like the mosques, the examples of hot spots ranged from businesses that sold untaxed cigarettes and where inflammatory rhetoric was overheard to those with less obvious criminal connections.

At one Bangladeshi restaurant, for instance, police identified a “devout crowd’’ from a nearby mosque — which was not among the listed mosques of concern. The restaurant’s list of “alleged activities’’ also included being a “popular meeting location for political activities.’’

It is another example undercutting Bloomberg’s claim that the NYPD does not take religion into account in its policing. Last week the AP revealed that the NYPD maintained a list of “ancestries of interest’’ that included “American Black Muslim,’’ which is a religion, not an ancestry.

Police also kept tabs on seven of the area’s Muslim student associations, defined in the documents as “a university-based student group, with an Islamic focus, involved with religious and political activities.’’ Two were flagged for having Salafi speakers. One was cited for having students who are “politically active and are radicalizing.’’

The documents appear at times at odds with the White House’s newly released

Muslims from New York’s Masjid Taqwa community on their way to the Eid prayer are likely being monitored by the New York Police Department. An AP investigation showed the NYPD has hundreds of informants embedded in New York’s Muslim community. Photo courtesy of Mark Ovaska.

>> NYPD Pg 24

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September 9th 2011 - September 22nd 2011 20 | ISLAM

By Abdul Sattar AhmedVia SuhaibWebb.com

“There is nothing that has gentleness in it except that it is beautified, and there is nothing that has harshness in it except that it makes it ugly. So be calm, O Aisha!”

The above words were spoken by our beloved Messenger (peace be upon him) to his wife, À’isha radi allahu ànha (may Allah be please with her). A group of people had passed by the Prophet and our Mother À’isha, and said to him: “As-sa’amu àlaykum” (death be upon

you).” It was a wordplay on “As-salaamu àlaykum (peace be upon you)”, with the intent of ridiculing the Prophet . À’isha (ra) became so angry that she rose up and began yelling at them that death should be upon them, and the curse of God, and so on.

At this, the Prophet turned towards her, and spoke these words, telling her to calm down, and not to lose her composure, even in the face of personal insult. This man, our Messenger , was the pillar of tranquility in an ocean of chaos. Our

mother Aisha (Allah be pleased with her), did this out of a pure, sincere, and unyielding love for the Prophet (peace be upon him). Not out of any arrogance or pride. For her it was an anger rooted in love, a desire to protect her Prophet from those who hated him. May Allah be pleased with her.

Unfortunately however, many of us react with harshness when faced with religious differences, especially WITHIN our own ummah – not out of love, but out of

By Yasmin MogahedVia SuhaibWebb.com

Ramadan has passed. Our Qur’ans have shut. Our masajid have emptied. And our hearts have once again filled with the love of life, the hatred of death, and the desires that consume us. The Shaytan that was once banned has again taken his place in our minds, our homes, at our front, and at our back. Once again he has kept his vow of assault:

“[Satan] said, ‘Because You have put me in error, I will surely sit in wait for them on Your straight path. Then I will come to them from before them and from behind them and on their right and on their left, and You will not find most of them grateful [to You].’” (Qur’an, 7:16-17)

And so while we find ourselves again vulnerable to the very same struggles that plagued us before Ramadan, let us not forget the very purpose of our efforts during that blessed month. Let us not allow the fruits of Ramadan to be

lost. And let us not miss out on the very purpose of our fasting.

When commanding mankind to fast, Allah says: “O you who have believed, decreed upon you is fasting as it was decreed upon those before you that you may become righteous.” (Qur’an, 2:183)

It is that consciousness of Allah which is essential for the fulfillment of our purpose in this life. It is that fear of Allah which provides the muscle for our struggle to remain on the straight path. And if taqwa

(God consciousness) is the muscle, Ramadan was our personal trainer.

If, during Ramadan, we were able to keep ourselves from an essential physical need (of eating and drinking) out of fear of Allah, are we not able to keep ourselves from haram (forbidden in Shari’a) after Ramadan, out of that same fear? None of us would dare sneak a glass of water

Islam

>> RAMADAN Pg 22

>> JERK Pg 23

Carrying the Torch of Ramadan Forward

Being Religious Without Being a JerkIt is time we examine our deeper motives and feelings when we criticize and put forth negativity.

The Great Virtue of Fasting Six Days in ShawwalBy Sheikh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjidwww.islamqa.com

Praise be to Allaah.

Fasting six days of Shawwaal after the obligatory fast of Ramadaan is Sunnah Mustahabbah, not waajib (obligatory). It is recommended for the Muslim to fast six days of Shawwaal, and in this there is

great virtue and an immense reward.

Whoever fasts these six days will have recorded for him a reward as if he had fasted a whole year, as was reported in a saheeh hadeeth from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). Abu Ayyoob (may Allaah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Whoever fasts Ramadaan and follows it with six days of Shawwaal,

it will be as if he fasted for a lifetime.” (Narrated by Muslim, Abu Dawood, al-Tirmidhi, al-Nisaa’i and Ibn Maajah).

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) explained this when he said: “Whoever fasts for six days after (Eid) al-Fitr has completed the year: (whoever does a good deed (hasanah) will have ten hasanah like it).” According to another report: “Allaah has made for each hasanah ten like it, so

a month is like fasting ten months, and fasting six days completes the year.” (al-Nisaa’i and Ibn Maajah. See also Saheeh al-Targheeb wa’l-Tarheeb, 1/421). It was also narrated by Ibn Khuzaymah with the wording: “Fasting for the month of Ramadaan brings the reward of ten like it, and fasting for six days brings the reward

>> FASTING Pg 23

| 21September 9th 2011 - September 22nd 2011 ADVERTISEMENT

September 9th 2011 - September 22nd 2011 22 | ISLAM

while we are fasting. And yet, the very same Lord who could see us sneak in that drink during Ramadan can see us commit haram outside of Ramadan.

During Ramadan, we could wake up before sunrise to feed our bodies. But after Ramadan we sleep through fajr and starve our souls. Let us not allow ourselves to be conquered. Yes, the shaytan can call us again. But all he can do is call. The power and choice is ours. Allah tells us in the Qur’an:

“And Satan will say when the matter has been concluded, ‘Indeed, Allah had promised you the promise of truth. And I promised you, but I betrayed you. But I had no authority over you except that I invited you, and you responded to me. So do not blame me; but blame yourselves. I cannot be called to your aid, nor can you

be called to my aid. Indeed, I deny your association of me [with Allah ] before. Indeed, for the wrongdoers is a painful punishment.’” (Qur’an, 14:22)

And so there are some who will allow Shaytaan to reign over them. But there are others over which Shaytaan has no power. Addressing Shaytaan, Allah says:

“Indeed, My servants – no authority will you have over them, except those who follow you of the deviators.” (Qur’an, 15:42)

But how do we become among Allah’s servants, over which Shaytaan has no authority? How do we continue the spirit of Ramadan for the entire year, and throughout our lives?

The following are some ways:

1. Guard your prayers. During Ramadan, many of us make sure to pray every prayer

on time — often at the masjid. Continue to guard your prayers, because surely they will guard you. Allah says in the Qur’an: “Indeed, prayer prohibits immorality and wrongdoing, and the remembrance of Allah is greater. And Allah knows that which you do” (29:45).

2. Remember Allah by staying close to the Qur’an. During Ramadan, many of us spend our nights and days reading Qur’an. Remembering Allah by staying close to the Qur’an everyday will protect you from Shaytaan and keep your heart polished. Allah’s Messenger said: “There is a polish for everything that takes away rust; and the polish for the heart is the remembrance of Allah” (Bukhari). The Prophet has also said: “Read the Qur’an, for verily it will come on the Day of Judgment as an intercessor for its companions” (Muslim).

3. Think more and talk less. The Prophet said: “Sometimes a person says a thing which pleases Allah, and in return Allah raises his status; and sometimes a person

says something which displeases Allah, and it takes him to hell” (Bukhari). Ibrâhîm an-Nakhâ‘î, a pious predecessor, once said: “Whoever reflects will find that the noblest and most dignified person of every gathering is the one who is most silent, because silence beautifies the scholar and conceals the faults of the ignorant.”

4. Repent often. Many of us seek forgiveness from Allah during Ramadan, but abandon this practice once Ramadan is over. Keep in mind that the Prophet Muhammad used to repent to Allah a hundred times every single day. Repenting often keeps our hearts clean and always connected to Allah.

A dear colleague of mine said that with the passing of Ramadan one feels as though they have lost a relative. Indeed. But in our grief, let its passing not be in vain.

RAMADAN>> continued from pg 20

| 23September 9th 2011 - September 22nd 2011 ISLAM

arrogance. When we examine ourselves today, especially those among us who are students of religious knowledge or believers striving to better ourselves, a tragic observation can often be made: Religiosity often turns people into jerks.

Many have witnessed this story: A young man or woman who used to be friendly, well-mannered, who treated people well, sadly turns into someone who shows mild annoyance upon meeting people who follow a different religious opinion. He shows anger when presented with arguments against his or her own point of view. Finally, he or she begins to pronounce judgment against others—pronouncing minor differences in opinion as proofs of disbelief.

When told to calm down, to stop being judgmental—the response comes in one of many flavors:

“Brother, I am enjoining the good and forbidding the evil!”“We are defending the Sunnah!”“When people are harsh against the Sunnah, we will be harsh in defending it!”And so on.

Over what kinds of issues? Not the serious lack of counseling services in the community. Not the difficulty that our youth are having in protecting their faith from intellectual attack. Not the issues of domestic abuse, poverty, family breakups or homelessness afflicting non-Muslims

and Muslims around us.

But the length of our pants and whether or not they are above our ankles, the lengths of our beards, etc. Perhaps one’s adherence or lack thereof to a group or organization. What we think about pseudo-philosophical concepts about the essence of God’s attributes. Such meanness and harshness occurs not over what is physically affecting people, but over a disagreement between opinions in our minds. Over varying textual interpretations that result in different legal opinions or a creedal points unknown to the majority of the world’s Muslims.

Why does this happen to us when almost nothing is more important in our religion than the subjugation of our egos to the Power and Oneness of God?

The Remedy

“Islam takes us and throws us so we fall totally in love with The Creator. Yet, somehow some of us turn it into a way to look down upon the creation.”

This happens because somewhere along the line in striving to love God, the ego—the innermost part of our soul which continuously wishes to be glorified and exalted over others—made our religiosity a means of doing just that. The religion exists to crush the ego, and enslave it towards the worship of its Creator.

When we say AllahuAkbar (God is the Greatest), the true meaning of this, when one explores Arabic grammar, is “God is the Greatest Above All Things”—including our loves, our hates, our

desires, our weaknesses, our dreams, our hopes, our very essences. Success in reaching our desires is only through His permission, and the power to overcome our weaknesses is only through His Mercy. This phrase is formulated to remind us of Allah’s greatness over ourselves and over every element of our lives. It acknowledges the overwhelming power that is Allah subhanahu wa ta`ala (exalted is He).

On the ego’s path to enslavement and the realization of recognizing Allah alone as the sole object of adoration and love, our ego sought a way out so it would not have to undergo such tribulation and destruction; so that it would not have to give up its position as the one that is praised and feels valued.

That ego essentially hijacks the religiosity of the individual and takes it on a detour. What is that detour? Rather than letting Islam be Islam and allowing the soul to get lost in the wonders of Allah’s power, the limitless nature of His love, the magnanimous breadth of His Mercy, the immeasurable depth of His knowledge, the care and affection that He showers upon His creation—the ego detours the soul into LOVING ITSELF.

When the soul begins to love itself, it becomes dissatisfied with not only God, but with God’s creation. It sees its own knowledge, opinion, and worldview as superior to all others. In order to maintain its false notion of being humble, it will even fake humility to those on the outside: “I’m nobody, I’m not knowledgeable”—while secretly harboring contempt for all those who follow different opinions or

ideas about Islam. It is easy to recognize this tendency in ourselves. It happens when our religious discourse, our religious speech, and our religious vocabulary become less about loving God, adoring his Messenger, bettering ourselves and more about creedal disagreements, legal fine points, and how one group is bad or another is good.

When religion becomes more about how one person does not practice the way that pleases us (even if we are correct in expressing the opinion of orthodox Islam) than about how we can please God, the religion has essentially turned into a tool to make us feel better about ourselves.

This does not mean we should turn off legitimate criticism in religious discourse. Enjoining the good and forbidding evil means that we must take an active interest in our communities, and in striving to develop our communities and our religious practices in a way that is healthy, natural, and allows Muslims from all backgrounds to be included and non-Muslims to feel welcome.

Rather, it is time we examine our deeper motives and feelings when we criticize and put forth negativity: “Am I criticizing and putting forth negativity because my criticism and the way I am putting it forth will actively help to prevent harm and bring benefit? Or am I criticizing to ridicule, make myself feel better, and make others see me as superior?”

Answering this question correctly and being sincere is the difference between the religious jerk and a servant of God.

JERK>> continued from pg 20

of two months, and that is the fasting of the whole year.”

The Hanbali and Shaafa’i fuqaha’ explained that fasting six days of Shawwaal after fasting Ramadaan makes it as if one has fasted for an entire year of obligatory

fasts, because the multiplication of the reward applies even to naafil fasts, because each hasanah brings the reward of ten like it.

Another of the important benefits of fasting six days of Shawwaal is that is makes up for any shortfall in a person’s obligatory Ramadaan fasts, because no one is free of shortcomings or sins that have a negative effect on his fasting. On the Day of Resurrection, some of his

naafil deeds will be taken to make up the shortcomings in his obligatory deeds, as the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “The first thing for which people will be brought to account on the Day of Resurrection will be their salaah (prayer). Our Lord, may He be glorified and exalted, will say to His angels – although He knows best – ‘Look at the salaah of My slave, whether it is complete or incomplete.’ If it is perfect, it will be recorded as perfect,

and if something is lacking, He will say, ‘Look and see whether My slave did any voluntary (naafil) prayers.’ If he did some voluntary prayers, [Allaah] will say, Complete the obligatory actions of My slave from his voluntary actions.’ Then all his actions will be dealt with in a similar manner.” (Narrated by Abu Dawood).

And Allaah knows best.

FASTING>> continued from pg 20

September 9th 2011 - September 22nd 2011 24 | SALAAH TIMES

Palestinian children are in Israeli jails. “You want to arrest these kids, you want to try them,” Ms Lalo says. “Fine, but do it according to Israeli law. Give them their rights.”

In the case of Islam, the boy in the video, his lawyer, Ms Lasky, believes the video provides the fi rst hard proof of serious irregularities in interrogation.

In particular, the interrogator failed to inform Islam of his right to remain silent, even as his lawyer begged to no avail to

see him. Instead, the interrogator urged Islam to tell him and his colleagues everything, hinting that if he did so, he would be released. One interrogator suggestively smacked a balled fi st into the palm of his hand.

By the end of the interrogation Islam, breaking down in sobs, has succumbed to his interrogators, appearing to give them what they want to hear. Shown a page of photographs, his hand moves dully over it, identifying men from his village, all of whom will be arrested for protesting.

Ms Lasky hopes this footage will change the way children are treated in the occupied territories, in particular, getting them to incriminate others, which lawyers

claim is the primary aim of interrogations. The video helped gain Islam’s release from jail into house arrest, and may even lead to a full acquittal of charges of throwing stones. But right now, a hunched and silent Islam doesn’t feel lucky. Yards from his house in Nabi Saleh is the home of his cousin, whose husband is in jail awaiting trial along with a dozen others on the strength of Islam’s confession.

The cousin is magnanimous. “He is a victim, he is just a child,” says Nariman Tamimi, 35, whose husband, Bassem, 45, is in jail. “We shouldn’t blame him for what happened. He was under enormous pressure.”

Israel’s policy has been successful

in one sense, sowing fear among children and deterring them from future demonstrations. But the children are left traumatised, prone to nightmares and bed-wetting. Most have to miss a year of school, or even drop out.

Israel’s critics say its policy is creating a generation of new activists with hearts fi lled with hatred against Israel. Others say it is staining the country’s character. “Israel has no business arresting these children, trying them, oppressing them,” Ms Lalo says, her eyes glistening. “They’re not our children. My country is doing so many wrongs and justifying them. We should be an example, but we have become an oppressive state.”

Salaah times for September 9th -September 22nd, 2011If a person had a stream outside his door and he bathed in it fi ve times a day, do you

think he would have any fi lth left on him?” The people said, “No filth would remain on him whatsoever.” The Prophet (peace be upon him) then said, “That is like the fi ve daily prayers: Allah wipes away the sins by them.”

---Hadith in Sahih al Bukhari and Muslim

Day Date Hijri Fajr Sunrise Dhuhr Asr Maghrib IshaFri 9 11/10 5:30 6:43 1:06 4:41 7:27 8:42Sat 10 12/10 5:31 6:44 1:06 4:40 7:25 8:40Sun 11 13/10 5:32 6:45 1:05 4:39 7:24 8:38Mon 12 14/10 5:33 6:46 1:05 4:38 7:22 8:36Tue 13 15/10 5:34 6:47 1:05 4:37 7:21 8:35Wed 14 16/10 5:35 6:48 1:04 4:36 7:19 8:33Thu 15 17/10 5:36 6:49 1:04 4:35 7:17 8:31Fri 16 18/10 5:37 6:50 1:03 4:34 7:16 8:30Sat 17 19/10 5:38 6:50 1:03 4:33 7:14 8:28Sun 18 20/10 5:39 6:51 1:03 4:32 7:12 8:26Mon 19 21/10 5:40 6:52 1:02 4:31 7:11 8:24Tue 20 22/10 5:41 6:53 1:02 4:30 7:09 8:23Wed 21 23/10 5:42 6:54 1:02 4:29 7:08 8:21Thu 22 24/10 5:43 6:55 1:01 4:28 7:06 8:19

Prayer times generated from www.islamicfi nder.com for the

WASHINGTON, DC area.

STONES>> continued from pg 17

policy on combatting violent extremism. That document discourages authorities from casting suspicion on communities or confl ating strong religious views with violent extremism. The White House has declined to comment on the NYPD’s clandestine programs but has applauded its counterterrorism efforts.

Since the AP reports, several Muslim civil rights groups and a New York

congresswoman have urged the Justice Department to investigate the NYPD for what critics see as racial profi ling. Under Attorney General Eric Holder, the Justice Department has stepped up investigations of local police departments for possible civil rights violations, but none involves national security cases.

------------------------------------------------In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profi t to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

NYPD>> continued from pg 18

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| 25September 9th 2011 - September 22nd 2011 OBITS & UPCOMING EVENTS

Upcoming Events In Your Area

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Discussion on Islam in America: Q & A with Yasir QadhiFriday, September 09 2011, 4:00pm - 6:00pmTen Years After 9/11: An Important Discussion on Islam in America. Please join the University of Maryland’s MSA for A Q&A with Yasir Qadhi. YQ will be sharing his understanding of Islam in America and answering questions regarding everything from jihad to shariah law. Primary audience is non-Muslims, so please bring as many of your neighbors, friends, and family as possible. Location: Atrium of the Stamp Student Union, University of Maryland-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Exhibition of Islamic Art/Calligraphy at Dar AlnoorFriday, September 09 2011, 6:00pm - 8:00pmPlease join us for an exhibition of Islamic Art & Calligraphy. Event Sponsored By: Greater Washington Muslim Council and Muslim Association of Virginia Manassas Mosque. Admission is Free.Location: Dar Alnoor Islamic Community Center, 5404 Hoadly Road, Manassas, Virginia 20112 Contact: For more information, please contact Sr. Taalibah Hassan at (703) 717-3086-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------10fwd Movie Premier: Islam in AmericaMonday, September 12 2011, 7:30pm - 9:30pm10fwd Movie Premier. UMCP will be premiering this documentary about Islam in America, 10 years after 9/11. Admission is Free! All Are Invited!Location: Stamp Student Union, Prince George’s Room, University of Maryland-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Somali American Communities Town Hall ForumSaturday, September 17 2011Town Hall Forum on the Somali American Communities’ Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in the Homeland Security eff ort. Starts at 3PM. Location: Courtyard Marriott Pentagon South, 4641 Kenmore Ave, Alexandria, VA 22304-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2nd Annual Sisters Luncheon/Spa DaySaturday, September 17 2011, 12:00pm - 8:00pmAs Salaamu Alaykunna You are all invited to the 2nd Annual Sisters Luncheon/Spa Day on Saturday, September 17th, 2011. InshaAllah there will be all kinds of beauty services such as Henna, Manicures & Pedicures, Facials, and Massages. Vending and Much More!! Come out for a day of relaxation and sisterhood. There is an entry fee to get in, that includes a meal. All beauty services are separate. Children under the age of 10 are $5, includes a meal. There is also vending available for those who may want to vend, and the vending fee is $50 (includes entry ticket/meal). For further information, contact Samirah @ 240-354-9594 or email [email protected] . For general information or questions concerning this event, contact Umm Jaabir @ 202-510-4718. Tickets may be purchased now @ http://2ndlunchspaday.eventbrite.com/ This is a fundraiser, and proceeds will be going to the Masjid :) Umm Jaabir & SamirahLocation: Quality Inn Laurel 1 Second Street Laurel, MD 20707 Contact: UmmJaabir 202 510 4718-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Muslim Family Day 2011 @ Six FlagsSunday, September 18 2011, 11:30am - 7:00pmInsha Allah, Muslim Family Day will be held for the greater Baltimore/Washington DC area at Six Flags America. This year we have reserved the entire park for this event so the Muslim families can enjoy the Eid festivities together. Location: Six Flags America, 13710 Central Avenue, Bowie/Mitchellville, MD 20721 Contact: For more information and how to buy tickets, please visit our website: www.MuslimFamilyDay.com or call 1-866-DIAL-MFD-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Request For Dua’sRequest For Dua’s{ To A l lah We Be long , and to Him i s Our Return }

“Everyone is going to taste death, and We shall make a trial of you with evil and good, and to Us you will be returned.” (Surah Al-Anbiya:35)”

8-28-11 It is with great sadness that we inform you of the passing of Imam Javid Bhaiyat’s Mother. We ask Allah SWT to forgive her, have mercy on her and grant her Jannat ul-Firdous. We also ask Allah SWT to give patience to Imam’s family during this diffi cult time. (Source: ICCL)

9-6-11 It is with great sadness that we inform you of the passing of our dear elder and Mother of Br. Rahat Chaudhry. Janazah Prayers was on September 6, 2011 in Laurel, Maryland. We ask Allah SWT to forgive her, have mercy on her and give her Jannat ul-Firdous. We also ask Allah SWT to give patience to her family during these diffi cult times. Allahumma Aameen. (Source: ICCL)

9-6-11 Br. Shabeer Hareef, the son of Engineer Hareef, has passed away. May Allah forgive him, and increase the rewards of his family. The Janaazah Prayer was on September 6, 2011 in Manassas, Virginia. (Source: M. Nassimi)

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September 9th 2011 - September 22nd 2011 26 | LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Editor-in-Chief:Minhaj Hasan

Offi ce Manager:Stephanie Benmoha

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Staff Writers:Fatimah WaseemFarha MarfaniRashad Mulla

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The Muslim Link (TML) is published every other week on Fridays and distributed throughout the Washington, Baltimore, and Northern Virginia Metropolitan Areas. TML is a non-profi t publication and is based at Dar-us-Salaam in College Park, Maryland, USA. Staff and contributors are not necessarily affi liated with Dar-us-Salaam.

The views expressed in The Muslim Link do not necessarily refl ect those of Dar-us-Salaam or TML management or their underwriters. Dar-us-Salaam and TML are not responsible for the accuracy of information presented by advertisers, or for the religious compliance of events, products, or services published in TML.

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LETTER TO THE EDITOREarthquake:TML Sent the Wrong MessageI am disappointed that Muslim Link decided to give front page prominence to a khutbah which sends a message we don’t need. The thrust of the khutbah is that earthquakes (and, I suppose, disasters in general) are a punishment from Allah and we should mend our ways to prevent them from happening. Of course Allah has given us examples of how in human history He has caused disasters to overtake disobeying populations. He punishes whom He Wills and rewards whom He Wills. He is Allah. However, to imply that we as humans have the ability to determine whom Allah will punish or has punished because a specific disaster has struck them is arrogance, to put it mildly. From Indonesia to Haiti to Pakistan to Japan, how are we to determine what crimes people are being punished for? Are the people of California more sinful because

California is more prone to earthquakes than the people of Ohio because Ohio is less prone to earthquakes?

What the recent earthquake does remind us of are two facts: one, that human life is fragile, so we should live our lives with full readiness to answer for our deeds; two, Allah has created a complex and mighty creation and we should live in it with humility and with respect for the physical world around us. To wed ourselves to the subtle message of this khutbah will lead us to shun our responsibility to ask the questions that we should really ask. Why is Haiti so poor and corrupt that shoddy construction caused such tremendous loss of life? How can technologically advanced Japan learn more to make its people safer?

Messages such as those embedded in this khutbah incline us to excuse the unresponsiveness and incapacity of those responsible for managing our affairs. Such messages ignore the fact that Allah has made nature subservient to man and that man has a God-given responsibility

to continuously strive to manage it in a manner that benefits and not hurts humankind.

Iqbal UnusHerndon, Virginia--------------------------------

Assalamu’alykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh Brother Iqbal and thanks for your letter. We re-read the piece after reading your letter. While the khutbah does say persistent sins and wrongdoing leads to punishment from Allah that could come in the form of earthquakes, hurricanes, etc, the imam also says earthquakes come as a sign for people of the power of Allah , and as a reminder of the Day of Judgment. We don’t think the message is that we can use earthquakes to ascertain the reason a particular natural disaster affl icted a particular people. All we know about the wisdom of what Allah does is in the Qur’an and Sunnah, and it is mostly general, and Allah Knows Best. – TML

| 27September 9th 2011 - September 22nd 2011

--------------------------------------------------------------------------- NORTHERN VIRGINIA

---------------------------------------------------------------------------All Muslim Brothers Association3900 King Street, Alexandria, VA 22302Tel: 703-647-0515Jumma Prayer Only - 1:15 P.m---------------------------------------------------------------------------ICNA VA Center:2913 Woodlawn Trail, Alexandria, VA 22306.Tel: 703-660-1255---------------------------------------------------------------------------Idara Dawat-o-irshad:4803 VAlley St, Alexandria, VA 22312Tel: 703-256-8622ww.irshad.org---------------------------------------------------------------------------Mustafa Center:6844 Braddock Rd., Annandale, VA 22003Tel: 703-658-7134 www.mustafacenter.orgE-mail: Mustafacenter@gmail.com---------------------------------------------------------------------------Baitul Mukarram:2116 S Nelson St., Arlington, VA, 22204,Tel: 703-778-1550---------------------------------------------------------------------------Zakaria Islamic Academy:Galesbury Lane, Chantilly, VA 20151Tel: 571-969-2123www.ziacademy.orgE-mail: Contact@ziacademy.org---------------------------------------------------------------------------Badr Community Center Of Dumfries:17794 Main Street, Dumfries, VA 22026Tel: 703-585-1689/703-554-7983 www.bccd.orgE-mail: Info@bccd.org---------------------------------------------------------------------------Dar Ul-ghuraba (Masjid Ur Rahmah):155 Baker St., Emporia, VA 23487---------------------------------------------------------------------------Dar Al Hijrah:3159 Rowe St., Falls Church, VA 22044,Tel: 703-536-1030www.hijrah.org---------------------------------------------------------------------------Islamic Center Of NorthernVA Trust (Icnvt):4420 Shirley Gate Road, Fairfax, VA, 22030Tel: 703-591-0999www.icnvt.orgE-mail: Info@icnvt.org---------------------------------------------------------------------------Dar Al-noor (Muslim Assoc. Of VA):5404 Hoadly Rd., Manassas, VA 20112,Tel: 703-580-0808Fax: 703-221-8513www.daralnoor.org---------------------------------------------------------------------------Manassas Mosque:12950 Center Entrance Ct, Manassas, VATel: 703-257-5537---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Islamic Center Of Virginia:1241 Buford Rd., Richmond, VA 23235Tel: 804-320-7333www.icVA1.com---------------------------------------------------------------------------Islamic Society Of GreaterRichmond (ISGR):6324 Rigsby Road, Richmond, VA 23226Tel: 804-673-4177www.isgr.org---------------------------------------------------------------------------Masjid Al Rahman:1305 Hull St., Richmond, VA 23224Tel: 804-232-7640---------------------------------------------------------------------------Masjidullah Of Richmond:211 North Ave., Richmond, VA 23222Tel: 804-321-8864/804-647-4297---------------------------------------------------------------------------Dar-ul Huda:6666 Commerce St., Springfield, VA 22150,Tel: 703-922-0111www.darulhuda.org---------------------------------------------------------------------------Islamic Foundation of America:6606 Electronic Drive, Springfield, VA 22151Tel: 703-914-4982---------------------------------------------------------------------------Masjid Noor:8608 Pohick Rd, Springfield, VA 22153Tel: 703-451-7615---------------------------------------------------------------------------Adams Center:46903 Sugarland Rd, Sterling,VA 20164,Tel: 703-433-1325www.adamscenter.org---------------------------------------------------------------------------Islamic Heritage Center (IHC):262 A-3 Cedar Ln., Vienna, VA 22180Tel: 703-206-9056---------------------------------------------------------------------------

WASHINGTON D.C.---------------------------------------------------------------------------First Hijra Muslim Comm. Center:4324 Georgia Ave, NW Washington, D.C. 20011www.firsthijrah.org---------------------------------------------------------------------------Ivy City Masjid:2001 Galludet St. NE, Washington, D.C. 20002Tel: 202-529-3100---------------------------------------------------------------------------Masjid Al-islam:4603 Benning Rd., SE, Washington, D.C. 20019E-mail: Imammusa@hotmail.com---------------------------------------------------------------------------Masjid Muhammad:1519 4th St. NW, Washington D.C. 20001Tel: 202-483-8832 | www.masjidmuhammad.com---------------------------------------------------------------------------Muslim Society Of Washington, D.c. (MSWDC):Howard Center, Room 805 (Above Hu Bookstore)

Tel: 202-328-3236---------------------------------------------------------------------------The Islamic Center:2551 Massachusetts Avenue NW Washington D.C. 20008Tel: 202-332-8343www.theislamiccenter.com---------------------------------------------------------------------------

MARYLAND--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Islamic Society Of Annapolis (ISA):2635 Riva Rd. Suite 110, Annapolis, MD 21401Tel: 410-266-6660www.isamd.orgEmail: Info@islamannapolis.org---------------------------------------------------------------------------Bait-Allah Masjid of Baltimore Inc1935 Frederick AveBaltimore, MD 21223Imam’s cell: 571-721-9938email: baitallahmasjid@yahoo.com---------------------------------------------------------------------------Bilal Dawah Center, Inc:1910 Frederick Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21223Tel: 410-945-1515---------------------------------------------------------------------------Dar ul Uloom:6334 Dogwoood Rd, Baltimore, MD 21207,Tel: 410-493-0785Email: Darululoommd@aol.com---------------------------------------------------------------------------Masjid Ul-haq:514 Islamic Way (Wilson St. ), Baltimore, MD 21217Tel: 410-728-1363---------------------------------------------------------------------------Masjid Al-mumineen:2642 Harford Rd., Baltimore, MD 21218Tel: 410-467-8798---------------------------------------------------------------------------Masjid Jamaat Al-Muslimeen:4624 York Rd., Baltimore, MD 21212Tel: 410-891-8451---------------------------------------------------------------------------Masjid Al-rahmah/ISB:6631 Johnnycake Rd., Baltimore, MD 21244Tel: 410-747-4869 | www.isb.org---------------------------------------------------------------------------Masjid As Saffat:1335 W. North Ave., Baltimore, MD 21217Tel: 410-669-0655---------------------------------------------------------------------------IRHSCA (Islamic Research And Hum. Services Center Of America):1 Chambers Ave, Capitol Heights, MDTel: 301-324-5040www.irhsca.org---------------------------------------------------------------------------Islamic Society Of Southern Pg County (ISSPGC):P O Box 99, Clinton, MD 207355410 Indian Head Hwy, Oxon Hill, MD 20745Tel: 240 603 4618---------------------------------------------------------------------------Dar-us-Salaam:5301 Edgewood Rd.,

College Park, MD 20740,Tel: 301-982-9848www.duscommunity.org---------------------------------------------------------------------------Masjid Zamzam1510 Lynch Road, Dundalk, MD 21222Tel: 410-284-2840www.masjidzamzam.com---------------------------------------------------------------------------Dar al-Taqwa:10740 Rte. 108, Ellicott City, MD 21042,Tel: 410-997-5711www.taqwa.net---------------------------------------------------------------------------Masjid Al-Hikmah:11064 Livingston Road Unit L (101) Ft. Washington, MD 20744,Tel: 301 292-9009---------------------------------------------------------------------------Islamic Society Of Frederick (ISF):1250 Key Parkway, Frederick,md 21702Tel: 301-682-6090www.isfmd.org---------------------------------------------------------------------------Islamic Center Of Maryland (ICM):19411 Woodfield Rd. Gaithersburg,md 20879Tel:301-840-9440www.icomd.org---------------------------------------------------------------------------Makkah Learning Center (MLC):814 Brandy Farms Ln., Gambrills, MD 21054Tel: 410-721-5880www.isamd.orgEmail: Info@mlcmd.org---------------------------------------------------------------------------Islamic Society Of Germantown (ISG):19900 Brandermill Rd., Germantown, MD 20876Tel: (240)-277-7758www.isgtown.org---------------------------------------------------------------------------Masjid Ibn Taymiyyah:8000 Mlk Highway, Glenarden MDTel: 301-461-9325 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------Islamic Society of Western Maryland:2036 Day Rd., Hagerstown, MD 21740Tel: 301-797-0922---------------------------------------------------------------------------Southern Maryland Islamic Center (SMIC):1046 Solomons Island Rd, Huntingtown, MD, 20639Tel: 410-535-0000---------------------------------------------------------------------------Avondale Islamic Center:4637 Eastern Ave., Hyattsville, MD, 20782Tel: 301-779-9292---------------------------------------------------------------------------Prince Georges Muslim Assoc.(PGMA):9150 Lanham Severn Rd., Lanham, MD, 20706,Tel: 301-459-4942www.pgmamd.orgImam’s Office: 301-459-1441

E-mail: Imam@pgmamd.org.---------------------------------------------------------------------------Turkish American Community Center9704 Good Luck Rd, Lanham, MD 20706Tel: 301-459-9589www.taccenter.org---------------------------------------------------------------------------La Plata Masjid:111 Howard Street,La Plata, MD 20646Tel: 301-609-8769---------------------------------------------------------------------------Islamic Com. Center Of Laurel (ICCL):7306 Contee Rd.,Laurel, MD 20707Tel: 301-317-4584www.icclmd.org---------------------------------------------------------------------------Masjid Al-Ghurabaa:8220 Washington St., South Laurel, MD 20724.Tel: 301-604-3295---------------------------------------------------------------------------Islamic Center Of Lexington Park22583 Three Notch Road, Lexington Park, MD 20619Tel: 240-538-7839 or 561-414-0994 www.iclpmd.org---------------------------------------------------------------------------Medina Center:11600 Falls Road, Potomac MD 20854www.medinacenter.netE-mail: Admin@medinacenter.net---------------------------------------------------------------------------Randallstown Islamic Center9019 Marcella Ave. Randallstown, MD 21133Tel: 410-971-4018www.ricbaltimore.orgE-mail: Info@ricbaltimore.org---------------------------------------------------------------------------Islamic Society Of The Washington Area (ISWA):2701 Briggs Chaney Rd., Silver Spring, MD 20904Tel: 301-879-0930www.iswamd.org---------------------------------------------------------------------------Muslim Community Center (MCC):15200 New Hampshire Ave. Silver Spring, MD 20905Tel: 301-384-3454 www.mccmd.org---------------------------------------------------------------------------Imaam: (Jumuah Only)Jumuah: 12:50pm3201 Randolph Rd, Wheaton, MD 20906www.imaam.orgEmail: Fridayprayer@imaam.org---------------------------------------------------------------------------Masjid An-nur:5418 Ebenezer Road, White Marsh, MD 21162Tel: 410-663-9637Fax: 410-663-9817---------------------------------------------------------------------------Masjid Al-inshirah:7832 Fairbrook Road, Windsor Mill, MD 21244Tel: 410-298-2977

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THE PRESIDENT IS A MUSLIM? A Novel By Hakim Muhammad Rashid By

Mark Holloway was born in Chicago to Bosnian parents. Left in an orphanage when his parents were killed in an auto accident, Mark was adopted by an American CIA agent and his wife. While spending his high school years in Khartoum, Sudan, he meets Zayd Abdullah, the son of a Muslim African American professor. Zayd helps Mark reconnect with his Islamic roots. Their lives become interwoven for over three decades amidst growing geo-political turmoil. Constantly struggling with his identity, Mark chooses a career in politics and ultimately runs for President of the United States. Zayd becomes the Chief Political Advisor to the Amir (Leader) of the newly formed United States of Islam. As sinister forces push the two nations toward all out war, can their friendship avert a confl ict that seems inevitable? More-over, is the United States ready for its fi rst Muslim President?

Hakim Muhammad Rashid teaches at Howard University in Washington, DC. A former Vis-iting Professor at Khartoum University in Sudan, he was also a Fulbright Scholar at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia.

Synopsis

About The Author

I love the way that the writer wove the religion of Islam into a fantastic page-turning plot. I would defi nitely recommend this book to Muslims and Non-Muslims alike.”

“The reader is carefully guided along an exciting journey ...linking diverse social values and compelling geopolitical interests into a powerful conclusion.”

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AFTERBEFORE

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Every Muslim has read that the Prophet Sallallahu ‘alyhi wa sallam told his ummah about the wonderful nature of honey. In the Qur’an in Surah An-Nahl, Allah described honey as a “drink of varying color wherein is healing for men”.

Its no wonder that scientists are spending more and more resources examining, testing, and developing honey-based medical treatments. As early as December 26, 2007, the Associated Press ran a story titled “Honey makes medical comeback”.

One company that has believed in the restorative power of honey for a long time is HoneyDerm, Inc., a Lansing, Michigan based company that spent years bringing the healing power of honey to people suffering from hair loss, dandruff, and skin disease.

Their most famous product line is Hairback Lotion and Hairtonix Shampoo, that “helps stimulate new hair growth and thicken existing hair”. Honeyderm, Inc also claims the products solve dandruff and scalp psoriasis.

The Muslim Link requested access to some of Honeyderm’s customers, and Brother Mahmoud from Honeyderm gladly offered us some phone numbers.

Brother Hasan, in his late 30’s is from Maryland and suffers from the common skin disease eczema. “I’ve had eczema

since high school, and it got worse as the years went on. I went to a dermatologist and he recommended a cortisone-type prescription cream. It did stop the itch, but my skin was still dry and tight. I’ve tried lotions and shampoos from Aveeno, Lubiderm, Vaseline, and others. Alhumdulillah, I found Honeyderm’s Dermatonic-P, and it is really, really a blessing for people with Eczema or other skin illnesses. I no longer wake up sweating at night! Allahu-Akbar!.”

We called Abdurihman Khalil from Chicago. He did not know we were going to call. Abdurihman started losing his hair when he was about 28. He discovered the Hairback product line at a convention and decided to test its claims. “The hair loss stopped completely,” said Abdurihman. “It’s excellent, and I’ve been using it now for 6 years.”

We also called Brother Mustafa Al-Omary in Sterling Heights, Michigan. He decided to do something about his thinning hair at age 40 and tried the Hairback treatment. Asked how long it took for him to see results, he told us “Oh gosh, less than a month. My thin spots filled in within 3 months,.” He said he would “absolutely” recommend the product to anyone. “It’s not a fly-by-night product, its awesome,” said Mustafa.

We also called Najeebudheen Appat, a 30-year old living in

Los Angeles, CA. He’s had a severe dandruff

problem for a long-time, and had been searching for a solution. “I tried so many different products like tonics and shampoos, I can’t even remember them all, until I found this product around 2002. My problem was solved completely, the entire thing is taken care of. I even called [Honeyderm] with the great feedback,” recalled Najeebudheen. He told us that Allah creates shifa in many things, and Honeyderm’s products are a part of that. “For dandruff problems, this is the total solution,” he told us from his mobile phone.

On Honeyderm’s website, there are many more testimonials from Muslims and non-Muslims from around the nation and the world. There is also a gallery of “before and after” pictures of both hair loss treatments as well as skin treatments. And best of all, for those of us who’ve “tried it all”, there is a full money back guarantee.

Allah said honey heals. The Prophet Sallallahu’alyhi wa sallam said honey heals. The people we called said honey heals. With a money back guarantee, there is absolutely nothing to lose, and everything to gain – your hair and skin!

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CHILDCARE EXCHANGE

BABY SITTING FACILITY AVAILABLEBaby Sitting managed by Muslim trained Montessori teacher at her home. Closer to Al Rehma Mosque. Available with effect from September. Please contact Mrs. Malik at 443-636-5215 after 6 PM on working days, Saturday 11-2 PM and Sunday All Day. ------------------------------------------------LOVELY HOME DAYCARELovely Home Daycare. Licensed. Care Infant and up. Call me at 301-593-4769.------------------------------------------------NANNY NEEDEDDo you like loving and taking care of small children? Do you have good experience with children? Are you reliable? Would you do light house cleaning? If you answered yes to ALL the questions, please call 484-222-1245.

EMPLOYMENT

DRIVER P/TDriver P/T for Muslim Seniors Mobility Van in Baltimore County. Fax/Email Resume & License to (410) 558-6618 or info@mcss-usa.org.------------------------------------------------CAREGIVER NEEDEDSeeking experienced caregiver to help with elderly parents in their home. Flexible hours, live-in desirable. Driving

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EXPORT CAR FOR WHOLESALE PRICEAre you looking a car to export at a wholesale price ? Call Mian wholesale dealer #301 906 0099.------------------------------------------------AFRICAN/ASIAN DRESSAre you looking any African/Asian Muslim culture dress for self and children? Call Zohra or Ajala (240)435-1681 & (240)423-0227 (MD)------------------------------------------------

MATRIMONIAL

SEEKING GOOD BROTHERA 37 year old, Pakistani (female-US citizen) looking for a Muslim brother with a good heart and who practices Islam in his daily life. Prefer ages between 37 to 43 and Pakistani. You can respond to [email protected] with serious inquires only. ------------------------------------------------SEEKING MUSLIMAMuslim Brother, African-American, seeks an honest muslim sister for marriage. I weigh 165lbs, 5’7”, OK looks, very honest, athletic body built and most important I make my salats

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SERVICES HOME SERVICESLicensed contractor. Home Improvement work, interior/exterior painting, drywall install/repair, brick/concrete repair. License #30385946 Estimates done. Contact Br. Allen Scott at 410-467-1259 or 443-538-7643(cell) ------------------------------------------------HANDYMAN AVAILABLEAssalamu’alaykum! My name is Varga Syahroni. I am an experienced technician in D.C. and Maryland. I offer service and repair for cooling, heating, plumbing, refrigerator, dish washers, dryer machines and much more. Call me for reliable service! Free estimates (301) 792-1004 or email [email protected]

------------------------------------------------LICENSED PLUMBERReduce Major Plumbing Bills. Give Twirl-A-Drain a call at 410-963-5807 for sewer and water pipe replacement underground. Free estimates given, Michael D. Shahid.------------------------------------------------BUYERS/SELLERSFor our valuable Buyers we give credit 25% off our fee of service on Settlement as closing cost. Also we give for short sale listing 1% credit back towards sellers. New programs for more closing help for 1st time Buyers. please contact Nancy Afifi, Real estate architect, Evergreen Properties, 301-503-9262.------------------------------------------------PERSONAL CAREGIVERWe are muslims, male & female personal caregivers to care for the elderly with their daily needs. Available as PT/FT/live-in/nite shift. Call ENA 703-975-6095.------------------------------------------------Get NoticedPlace a Classified ad in the Muslim Link Newspaper Today. Classifieds in the print edition of the Muslim Link newspaper are only $1 for every 3 words. All classifieds run for 3 issues in the Marketplace section. Get started by emailing your exact text to [email protected] and then call in your credit card payment to 301-982-1020 or send a check or money order payable to: The Muslim Link, 5301 Edgewood Rd, College Park MD 20740.

Place a personal classified ad. Call us at 301-982-1020. [email protected] invite you to place a classified on the web FREE of charge at www.muslimlinkpaper.com. Classifieds in the print edition of the Muslim Link newspaper are only $1 for every 3 words. All classifieds run for 3 issues in the Marketplace section. Get started by emailing your exact text to [email protected] and then call in your credit card payment to 301-982-1020 or send a check or money order payable to: The Muslim Link, 5301 Edgewood Rd, College Park MD 20740.

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VOLUNTEER TO DISTRIBUTE THE MUSLIM LINK IN YOUR AREAIf you would like to earn blessings from Allah and help the Muslim Link, consider helping us with our distribution. To learn more, email

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the muslim link - september 9, 2011

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