ICNA 2009 Recap and Pics MuslimMatters.org

ICNA 2009 Recap and Pics

27. May, 2009 by Guests Islamic Events 16 comments

Written by Nihal Khan

Workshops, Basketball, Nasheeds, Skits, Lectures, Bazaar, and much more! This yearâ€™s ICNA-MAS Convention was great!

The speakers were of course very motivational and inspirational to the hoards of people while the topics were very interesting and eye-opening. Big names such as Zaid Shakir, Faraz Rabbani, Jamal Badawi, Mohammed Faqih, Altaf Husain, Chaplain James Yusuf Yee, and many more were present while Imam Siraj Wahhaj also made his first appearance since he was diagnosed with cancer.

For entertainment, ICNA was able to get Zain Bhika from South Africa to do a concert while Baba Ali from Ummah Films performed a skit. Sunday nightâ€™s session left the audience laughing, happy, enlightened, and even crying with these two wonderful performers.

The theme for this yearâ€™s conference was â€œGlobal Crisis.â€ The lectures focused mainly on contemporary matters which are affecting us as humans and Muslims. Some topics that weâ€™re covered ranged from the financial downfall, keeping our families together, all the way to the current situation of our Muslim brothers and sisters all throughout the world in places such as Palestine, Kashmir, Afghanistan, Iraq, and other countries.

There were many programs which were taking place at this yearâ€™s conference, but one which deserves attention is the parallel youth conference which was organized by YM whose theme was â€œReviving the Heart.â€ The material presented by the speakers was truly enlightening and â€œstriking at the heart.â€ YM even organized an Intensive class with Shaykh Mohammed Faqih, Shaykh Ahmed Kobeisy, and Shaykh Mokhtar Moghrauoi which took place at the convention and had almost 200 people in attendance, alhamdulillah.

Unfortunately, I wasnâ€™t able to attend many sessions because I was chauffeuring speakers back and forth from the airport, but some of the sessions I was able to attend were really touching. In my opinion, if Br. Altaf Husain is present at a conference, everyone should go and attend his sessions since he leavesÂ everyone on a verge of crying and re-evaluating ourselves.

If you get the chance to attend the ICNA-MAS Convention in 2010, then do your best to make it. It'll be an event which you'll be glad you attended.

ICNA 2009

ICNA's theme for this year

Panoramic of the Convention Center

Panoramic of the Bazaar (I went to an office at the top of the convention center and took about 3 pics and stitched them together)

IlmQuest Table

Panoramic of Imam Siraj Wahhaj @ the main session.

Imam Siraj Wahhaj's first appearance since he was diagnosed with cancer - www.HelpImamSiraj.com

Imam Zaid Shakir with Zubair Khan of SuhaibWebb.com

AlMaghrib Booth

Mohammed Faqih

Rizwan Bari (WhyIslam)

Ibn Wahhaj (Imam Siraj's oldest son)....Ibn is his real name

The intensive session with Mohammed Faqih, Ahmed Kobeisy, and Mokhtar Maghraoui

Main Hall (Left)

Main Hall (Right)

YM Booth

Baba Ali

Panoramic of the Youth Conference Hall

Tauqeer Zaidi and Altaf Husain (ie, New MSA and Old MSA)

Entertainment Session

The skit which was organized by Omar Shareef, Subhan Tariq, and Baba Ali...I was on the floor laughing

Some brothers after the entertainment session

Midnight Basketball Tournament

A challenge presented by YM

Imam Omer Suleiman, Louisiana

Main Session

Dunking in the bazaar

A Ferrari on the way home

Since the passenger window wasn't working, I had to stick my hand out the back window with the camera in my hand to take this picture...the guy seems annoyed

About MuslimMatters

Muslimmatters.org began in 2007 as a collaboration between various Bloggers and Shuyukh in order to bring attention to issues faced by Muslims, especially in the West. We have focused on issues of Religion, Society, Ethics, Sex Education, Politics, Civil Rights, Family, as well as the random issues that pop up from now and then, all with some ranting and humor mixed in.

We challenge ourselves and our readers to engage in discourses that touch our lives as citizens of the West, while maintaining our individual Islamic identities: Ultimately to cooperate, but not to compromise.

MR

I miss doing the skits.

You distracted the Ferrari driver. Not very safe.
AsiahK

my favorites were the youth conference lectures and Imam Omer Suleiman especially, may Allah reward him.

I had never been to ICNA before, only ISNA. i was impressed that they really were able to keep a nice separation of the larkas/larkis. Also because it’s smaller, theres a better chance to interact with the speakers and shaykhs. Def worth it for that alone. Inshallah I will go again next year.

http://nurulquran.com muslim

Assalamo alaykum.

I agree the lectures by imam omer were outstanding.

Aisha K, Can you send me the audio lectures by imam omer?

http://www.ilmseeker.net ilmseeker

Nice pics, alhumdulillah I had a great time at ICNA! :)
http://www.zubairkhan.net Zubair Khan

Nice pictures. How about having the pictures in a slideshow rather than all of them on the page?
Omar

Awesome pics, Nihal! I really like the panoramic ones.
http://nihalkhan.blogspot.com Nihal Khan

Jazakam Allahu Khayr.
Stranger

Nice pics! Where did the convention take place?
monkeynurse

nice pics.

good to see imam siraj, alhamdulillah.

go icna.
Asim

ICNA Convention/Youth Conference was in Hartford, CT memorial day weekend. http://www.icnaconvention.org and http://www.theyouthconference.com Look out for next year ia :P
AzamHussain

Assalamu Alaikum,

What was the attendence at the convention? I hope it was successful and may Allah help everyone out there working hard for the deen.

Wa alaikum as salam
QasYM

Attendance was up from last year, and we had 12k last year. That’s all I know for now. Alhamdulillah it was definitely the place to be. DO NOT MISS OUT next year. Imam Suhaib said he will be there in person next year inshaAllah. And this year was the first time in a long time we didn’t have Shaykh Yasir and Br. Nouman, so look out for their returns next year as well.

We also had a Qiraah competition with 30 participants and hundreds in the audience. And a Midnight Basketball Tournament for the youth with over 200 participating and another 200 in spectators.

Like I said do not miss out next year inshaAllah.
Abdallah

The convention was great but there were some annoyances which really disappointed me.

1. Like, all the programs I attended started late. It does not show us in a good light.
2. Some of the speakers prepared PPT slides but in most of the cases the technical guys were not around to fix the projector. So, the speaker had to go on sans visual aid.
3. The speech in the main hall where Amy Goodman was present was poorly planned. So many good speakers on one stage in the late hour of night. How the organizers expect the crowd to listen to Prof. Momtaz after Goodman and Yee !! So, Prof. Momtaz spoke for 2 mins and finished it.
4. The worst thing in the whole program was the interruption of the speech of Dr. Umer Chapra for four times in five minutes. Some folks were so serious to call others for prayer that they tied the mic of the prayer to the main hall as if Muslims who drove hundreds of miles to come to this convocation will miss the Salat?? It was annoying at best.
5. The fund raising session was a big mess with so many unplanned speakers talked at length and forced the next program to start late.
6. The eulogy of Dr. Esposito in the Main hall became boring with many repetitions. It should have been succinct. probably we take things a little too far than what is needed.
7. The overall organization of the convention was lose and verbose.
8. The presence of Desi folks in the ICNA executive committee was very much visible. They should think about not making it a Subcontinental Club by including more folks of different background.

InshAllah I hope that the future ICNA will be better than this year. But, one great thing I left with from this convention is the feelings of brotherhood among us and the way Muslims as a community is gaining foothold in the mainstream America.

AzamHussain

“The presence of Desi folks”

Let me start by saying that I am absolutely not a nationalist or anything like that, we are all Muslims first, second, third, you get the idea. I have heard this a lot about ICNA, ISNA, MSAs, and many other organizations. I really don’t feel like anyone is discouraging specifc ethnicities from working in these groups. If people decide to work in a group, they will be represented. Unfortunately, many of the non-desis have groups that specifically proclaim a certain ethnic affiliation and they tend to work within those groups instead.
ABC

I’ll also clarify on the “presence of Desi folks” because it’s a misunderstanding that’s leveled at certain organizations even thought it’s not really the organization’s fault.

Like Br. Azam said, no one is discouraging anyone of any ethnicity from working in these particular organization.

The thing you have to understand is, people will naturally tend to gravitate toward an organization that has people of a similar background as theirs, because they will feel more comfortable in the presence of people that are like them. For example, if perhaps you saw the MAS executive committee, you might complain about there being too many Arab folks. If perhaps you saw MANA’s committee, you might complain about there being too many African-American folks. However, with that said, yes, their are some Islamic groups out there that tend to cater only to people of a specific background. But most major organizations like ICNA, ISNA, MAS, etc. aren’t like that.

Most organizations of this nature (ISNA, ICNA, MANA, Al-Maghrib, etc.) try to include everyone they can, regardless of cultural background, but they can only do so much. People will make their own decision and go where they want.

The reason why I wrote this reply is because these accusations of cultural exclusivity are leveled at many organizations, and I wanted to clear that up. It’s inappropriate to refer to these organizations as “subcontinental clubs,” or “arab clubs,” or “african-american clubs,” or anything else, for that matter.

http://muslimmatters.org/author/ahmad-alfarsi/ Ahmad AlFarsi

Last year at ICNA, I remember that they unfortunately used musical instruments in their videos during the convention. I hope they stopped doing this inshaAllah…

Guests

About MuslimMatters

Awards

Social networks