We were truly humbled that they were selected among the top 40 under 40 influential people.

Once again, we are humbled that Muslimmatters got yet another opportunity to have their staff nominated for another MBMuslima magazine competition.

Continuing MuslimMatters' writers recognition, now one of our founders, Amad Shaikh, and his wife, Umm Reem, a specialist are up for nomination in MBMuslima's “Extraordinary Muslim Couple Awards”. All nominations can be seen here.

The nomination letter is written by Haleh Banani:
“It gives me great pleasure to recommend a very exceptional and masha'Allah inspiring couple: Amad Shaikh and Umm Reem. My husband and I have known them for over 20 years. As early as the college years, while many people were just starting to search for their religious identities, Amad and Umm Reem were masha'Allah in full gear leading their peers by being the president of the male and female sides of the Muslim Student Association at the University of Houston…” You can continue reading the rest of the letter here.

If you believe, like we do, that this MM couple should receive your vote, then please join us in voting here before June 15th.

By Shaahima Fahim- MM Correspondent covering Sri Lanka and the GCC

The city of Dambulla in Sri Lanka, more known for its representation in tourism brochures as a registered heritage destination for culturally-inclined tourists to the island, made headlines of a less-idyllic nature on the afternoon of Friday the 20^th of April – when Buddhist monks led a 2000-strong protest against a local mosque. Intimidation in the form of marching picket-wielders, fire-bombs being hurled and emotionally-driven chants demanding the demolition of Masjidul Khaira led to the cancellation of Jumaah prayers at the masjid, the evacuation of worshipers and effective cordoning off of the premises.

Said protestors claim that the land on which the mosque is built is of reverential value and sacred to their faith, the reason for which the 'illegal structure' must go.  The Muslim community of Dambulla has countered the allegations stating that the mosque has in fact been lawfully registered and operational for the past 50 years.

Muslims in Sri Lanka make up roughly 8% of the 21.5 million-strong population, a percentage tying them in third place with their Christian counterparts, after Buddhism and Hinduism. A statistic that also has them tagged a 'minority' in the Sinhala Buddhist dominated (70% of population) nation.

Surprisingly (as is not usually the norm with these type of targeted attacks) the majority of immediate public reaction exchanged over social media and online forums was not of reactionary animosity directed towards Buddhism and the Buddhist community as an entity, but rather a collectively-acknowledged finger of disapproval pointing in the direction of another sort of minority  – the minority of radical trouble-makers representing  the very anathema of what Buddhism entails.

Aside from a negligible faction of ideological individuals out to instill and fester strained Muslim-Buddhist relations, true Buddhists embarrassed at this misrepresentation sympathized with the Muslim community, and the Muslims though understandably upset at being targeted in such a fashion, in turn acknowledged that the attacks were not definitive of general public sentiment.

All ears however were directed to the then-silent government, at the time yet to take a stand on the issue.

On Sunday the 22^nd of April, the Prime Minister's office released a statement ordering for the mosque's closure, but 'assuring ' the Muslim community that they would be provided with the necessary facilities to facilitate the relocation of Masjidul Khairah to a safer location. The decision claimed to have been collectively made with the consent of the country's Muslim leaders, but the ministers in question have denied having had any say at the time.

This portrays the Sri Lankan government in a very negative light both internally and across international waters, especially to the Muslim countries who voted in support of Sri Lanka in the recent US-backed UNHRC resolution last month.

Despite a history in the island dating as far back as the 8^th century, Sri Lankan Muslims feel they've been plated an unfair share of occasions to feel targeted, especially over the last couple of years. What with a similar incident in September 2011, and when earlier this year more than a hundred visiting Islamic preachers were asked to leave on grounds relating to flouting Sri Lanka's immigration laws – this sentiment is not without argument.

The nationalization and politicization of Buddhism as a state religion has always been a cause for concern among the religious minorities, having the potential to hinder any balanced decision making that can serve to suitably placate all parties concerned.

The ethnic minorities have however proven their mettle in tolerance (not mere complacence) in light of recent events, but the minority in question that needs to be dealt with more pressingly, is this new surge of religious radicals set out to widen the divide on peaceful co-existence.

At the point of this going to print, the repercussions of this ordered move was only just getting started with a volley of words exchanged between the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka and the so-called 'Buddhists' behind the attacks.

The Muslim community of Sri Lanka seems to have now resorted to placing greater expectancies on the well-positioned Muslim parliamentarians (a considerably large representation in the current regime) than in the government as a whole. That in exercising their rights as MPs and leaders they will be dutifully positioning the well-being of the Muslim community before personal fears of potentially risking their political footing on the boards they represent.

If there is anything productive to come out of all of this, it is the exposition of the not-so-lesser-evil of the religious extremist. For like the hate-driven Breivik murders in Norway earlier this year, the exhibitionist tendencies of these misfits in question are being broadcast (and received) for what they truly are. A pandemic not just for the governments of Asia, Europe or America to learn to quash effectively long-term, but also a pressure test for the targeted groups to come out of it better represented than when they went in.

Image Courtesy: Associated Press

Translated by Ramy Noaman

Sheikh Muhammad Ibn Saalih Al‐`Uthaymeen was asked about the creed of the Muslims with respect to Jesus, son of Mary, peace be upon him.

He replied:

“The creed of the Muslims concerning Jesus, son of Mary, peace and blessings be upon him, is that he is one of the noble messengers. In fact, he was among those of Great Determination, and they were: Muhammad, Abraham, Noah, Moses, and Jesus, peace and blessings be upon them. Allah mentioned them in two places in His Book.

In Surat Al‐Ahzab (Chapter of the Confederates):

ِن ٱبۡ َسى ِعي َو َسىٰ ُمو َو َم ِهي َرٲ َوِٕابۡ ٍ۟ح ُّ نو ِمن َو َك ِمن َو ُهمۡ ِميَثـَٰق َن ٱلَّ نِبِّ يـۧ َن ِم َخذَۡنا َٔاَوِٕاذۡ ًظ ي ِل َغ ا ًق ٰ ـ َث ي ِّ م م ُه ۡ ن ِم ا َن ۡذ َخ َٔا َو َۖم َي ۡرَم

And [mention, O Muhammad], when We took from the prophets their covenant and from you and from Noah and Abraham and Moses and Jesus, the son of Mary; and We took from them a solemn covenant. [Qur'an ]33:7

In Surat Ash‐Shura (Chapter of Mutual Consultation):

ِهۦۤ ِب َّ صيَۡنا َو َما َو َك ِٕاَليۡ َحيَۡنآ َٔاوۡ ٓى ِذ َوٱَّ ل ً۟حا ُنو ِهۦ ِب َّ صىٰ َو َما ِن ِّ دي ٱل َن ِّ م ُكم َل َع َرَش َعَلى َٓاُبَر َوَلاَتَتَفَّ رُقواِْفيِۚه ۡنَٔاِقيُمواْٱلِّ ديَن ۖٓىَٰٔا َوِعيَس َوُموَسىِٰٕاۡبَرٲِهيَم ُب ي ِن ُي ن َم ِه ۡ ي َل ِٕا ىٓ ِد ۡ ہ َي َو ُء آ َش َي ن َم ِه ۡ ي َل ِٕا ىٓ ِب َت ۡج َي ُه َّ ل ل ٱ ِۚه ۡي َل ِٕا ۡ م ُه و ُع ۡد َت ا َم َن ي ِٓا ِر ۡ ش ُم ۡلٱ

He has ordained for you of religion what He enjoined upon Noah and that which We have revealed to you, [O Muhammad], and what We enjoined upon Abraham and Moses and Jesus ‐ to establish the religion and not be divided therein. [Qur'an :42]13

The Muslims believe that Jesus, peace and blessings be upon him, was a human being, from among the progeny of Adam. He was created from a mother, with no father. The Muslims believe that he is the slave of Allah and His Messenger; for he is a worshiper, not one who is worshiped; and a Messenger who does not lie.

They believe that he does not have any attributes of lordship, whatsoever. Indeed, he is as Allah said:

َل ِءي َرٲٓ ِٕاسۡ ِّ لَبِنىٓ ً۟ال َمَث ُه َعلَۡنـٰ َج َو ِه َعَليۡ َعمَۡنا َٔانۡ َعبۡدٌ ِٕاَّ لا َو ُهِٕانۡ

Jesus was not but a servant upon whom We bestowed favor and We made him an example for the Children of Israel. [Qur'an ]43:59

And they believe that he did not command his people to take him and his mother as deities besides Allah. Rather, he said to them what Allah commanded him with:

ۚمۡ ُك َرَّ ب َو َرِّ بى َه ٱلَّ ل ُدواْ ۡعُب ٱ ِن َٔا ۤۦ ِه ِب َمرَۡتِنى َٔا َمآ ِٕاَّ لا ۡم ُه َل ُت ُقلَۡما

By Nur Kose

In November 2011, a group of kids, including myself, decided to work together to raise funds for building a well.  When we heard that the Zakat Foundation of America would be able to build a well in Somalia if we could raise $2,500, we couldn't wait to get started.  It was tremendously exciting to think that we could help out in providing clean water for people halfway across the world.

Despite our excitement and eagerness, however, we had no clue how we would be able to raise so much money.  'After all, we're only kids,' we thought to ourselves.  We didn't realize at the time that the fact that we are kids would help us a lot.

Our main team consisted of about seven to eight kids and our parents who helped us get started.  We put our brains together and came up with ways to raise money.  One tactic we used was to ask our friends, family members, and classmates for money. We had pretty pashminas to give to people who donated.  Pretty soon, we had given away most of the pashminas to our friends at the masjid, classmates and teachers at school, and our neighbors.  Many wanted more than one color.

Each of us had our own circle of friends and family who helped us raise money.  We went to different schools so we could reach out to different people.  There was an Eid party and a friend raised a lot there. I sent out an email to different email lists and that brought a lot of money.  Facebook friends helped us in our last $500.

Then we had our bake sale in which we baked many treats to sell at the Zakat Foundation Delaware Center.  The bake sale was lots of fun – even for me who does not not like to cook.  Each member of our well team came up with something to bake including brownies, cupcakes, cheese breads, and lots more. When we counted the money after the bake sale was over, we were so surprised to see how much we had raised.  We got over $250 in the bake sale.

My mother gave us the good news… we had raised more than $4000!

After our bake sale, my mother gave us the good news.  Our goal was to raise $2,500 but we had raised more than $4,000 – and in such little time!  With Allah's help, we were able to reach our goal and get more than was necessary.  This inspired and encouraged us to continue raising money to build more wells in Somalia.

We have already finished raising money for our second well and have started our third well. We feel great to be able to help others and hope others will join us in our efforts to help people around the world.

If you would like to help us out in our project, please visit www.usayouthwellproject.blogspot.com

Update from Nur Kose:

Alhamdulillah, we are on our 6th well right now! :)  Our goal is 100 wells by the end of 2012 Insha'Allah. The Delaware Youth Well Project Team would love for youth in other states to join in. You can find us on our website/blog at www.usayouthwellproject.blogspot.com.

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BFTF : Welcome to the show Yaseen! To start off, could you give a small clue about what Emmanuel House is and the project that Karimia has been involved in.

MY : Well, I first came across Emmanuel House when I was working for the local authority. I used to work at Carlton Street for the Youth Service. I used to run the “Youth Shop”. Carlton Street is the street that runs directly behind Nottingham City Council building in the square and it you go over the top of the hill and drop down as though you were heading towards the Victoria Market, you come across EH right at the bottom of the hill where the traffic lights are…

It's an old fifties-sixties kind of building and I remember always seeing people who looked homeless in fact. You could tell that some of them were alcoholics, some of them would have been just very shabbily dressed and they would be hovering outside this building.

Having said that, I think there may be some listeners out there that might be able to reflect on the principle of helping people who are homeless, people who are poor, people who are needy. We come across this all the time. When I was last in Pakistan, people would go to a darbar(shrine), they would give, they would volunteer, donate money, a goat or something. So I don't think it is an alien concept to look after people who are hungry, who are poor. But to do it in this country, that is a departure.The reason I got to know about this project at least 10-15 years ago, was because every time we used to do events at our premises in the Youth Shop for young people, we would have food and other things left behind at the end of the event. Some of the volunteers used to say “shall we just take this stuff down to Emmanuel House?”. Well, it did occur to me one time to say “Well, I'll take it down with you” just to find out what this place was and when I went down I realised that it was essentially an advice and support type service for people who were homeless and then I realised who all these people were that were standing outside waiting to go into this building. They obviously had a timetable for when they had to go in. And essentially, that was my first introduction to Emmanuel House. But I didn't know what the service was, in terms of who it was organised by, why there were volunteers there. And it wasn't until Dr. Musharraf called me and said that through the Christian-Muslim Forum, a request has come to see if the Muslim community might support this organization which is meeting the needs of people who are homeless in the city of Nottingham, that I realised that there was a connection on the other side with the churches. So I think their church is supportive of the work that they are doing. This is slight departure from the type of routine work that Muslims would tend to get involved with.

What's happened with Emmanuel House is that with these current financial cutbacks that the local authority has decided that it was going to make some cuts to Emmanuel House's budget – and these were really significant, they were to the bone to be honest. There was some sense that the whole of the operation helping homeless in Nottingham might collapse and their Chief Executive decided that she would start a local campaign to see if she could generate community support for it. Their (the community's) initial responses were that people would come in with tins of money, children would come in with piggy banks and that's when they realised that actually the community is very supportive of supporting people who are really vulnerable and likely to get into even more trouble, at worst, die on the streets of Nottingham City. So they approached Karimia Institute and said “Do you think the Muslim community would support this?”. I think that is a really big challenge. On the one hand I thought it was quite cheeky that the churches, who are so wealthy, would have the gall to ask the Muslim community “Would you like to support something that we are supporting?”.

But after I had thought about it, you know, who are the beneficiaries? Is the church the beneficiary here, or is it the people? And whom are we supporting? Are we supporting the church or are we supporting the people? It wasn't very difficult for me to conclude that our intention is the most important thing. So what is our intention? It is to help people to safeguard themselves, to help them get out of poverty, to get a roof over their heads and to feed people as well. So when I met with their marketing manager, she asked me how the Muslim community would view supporting a charity like theirs. I said that frankly, we have a very great spirit of feeding people who are hungry and that would be a really excellent mission and something that I think Muslims would feel empathy for. And if there was anything we would want to support. So I kinda narrowed it down a bit because I thought that I wouldn't feel comfortable about seeing my donation propping up the churches work, as it were, and there mission. I wouldn't want it to be seen in that way, if I was going to help people I would want to help people who are really in need.

To help your neighbour is important, They have rights over us so we have a responsibility to them and, in the same way, people who are living in Nottingham on the streets, they are our neighbours. We walk past them, drive past them, sometimes taxi drivers will see them lying in the street. These people are our neighbours. We have a responsibility, as Muslims, to do something about that.

With the support of Zameer from Radio Dawn, we decided to launch a small campaign to support them. We were very keen to make sure that we supported the aspect of work which was going to have the greatest impact. It is admirable that all those people (who donated) looked beyond the initial thing that they saw, which was a white non-Muslim charity that was doing work, to the people that it was going to benefit.

I remember my father telling me that Christianity did well because they gave the Bible with one hand and bread with the other. You show humanity when you feed people, you show that you care for people – and if you can show that you care for people you can influence their perception of what you are and what you believe, and maybe that is one of the ways we can bring people to Islam.

This project is not the first time I have come across this practice. When I was a student in Bradford University, I was cajoled by some of my student colleagues into doing some volunteering that would “blow my mind”. They took me to an underground hall of a church and in the underground part of the church and when I went inside, Lo and Behold, there were all these Muslims who were cooking and preparing food and I asked “What is going on here?” and they replied “Well, the church is allowing us to have this space so that we can feed homeless people” and that was for me the first shock – I anticipated that I would see white non-Muslim people walking through with a tray, with food, picking up an apple and some fruit and going back to a table and eating. And the number of Pakistani people, men and women walking through – and I could tell that they weren't people who had homes, they were genuinely homeless, you could tell from their dress. Some had mental health problems, that was very apparent, and it dawned on me that I was feeding people here that were not just Muslims but there were other people as well.

I was just given an apron and told, put the food on the platter, smile, give them some water and let them pass by. And after one hour of doing that I was asked to take my apron off and pass it to the person who was walking through the door. What they had was a rota for three hours and a local businessman, who has a relationship with Nottingham as well, was located in Bradford was sponsoring this and paying for the food to be served every single Thursday evening.

So that was really my first experience of actually feeding people, so when I heard about other brothers in Nottingham wanting to do the same, I can support that 100%. For an hour a week, to make that much impact on that many people's lives who were walking through, was the backdrop for what I was seeing that needed to be done with Emmanuel House.I was dragged in as a student to do this one hour and after that I used to go back every Thursday and I did that for six-seven months. That work in Bradford is still continuing today.

That's one of the things I've tried to implement with many of the things done here at Karimia Institute. Things like the Scouts, I'm asking volunteers to come forward and I'm saying to them, “Give one hour a week. Don't give me two, I don't want two, just give me one. Just come here, do something good, enjoy yourself working with young people, making a difference in their lives and go home feeling like you have actually done something. If everybody just gave me one hour, I'd be a lucky bloke!

BFTF : Regarding the fact the some people may say that we need to help our community first. It's not an either/or, you can do two things at once. It's like saying that we shouldn't have gone to the Moon because we should have solved hunger on earth, but I don't think that if we had not gone to the Moon, the problems of hunger would have been solved. What would be your perception on that viewpoint ?

MY : I think that one of the issues with people saying that we should do something for our own is that what they don't realize is that there is a ripple effect. And things happen to us as a consequence of we not taking responsibility. For example, if we had taken responsibility over CFC's, we wouldn't have damaged the ozone layer – and the damage to the ozone layer affects not just Muslims, it affects everybody so to do something about that is important. Similarly there are plenty of examples where, you have someone who is so desperate that they might be forced to rob somebody and somebody might get hurt there. Now, if they weren't so desperate, because they had had a meal in their belly that evening, they might not need to have to do that. It's often the case that people say “It's not going to happen to me” until it happens to you and then it's like “Why did this happen to me?” and the reason is that globally, as a community, we failed to do something. And so I think that feeding people who are homeless, who have no home, no food, no livelihood, no work, no place that they can use as an address, can't get access to benefits – are basically completely detached. Well, those people are human being and they are going to want to fulfil some of their basic desires and that might be getting money from somewhere. Somebody could get held up, somebody could get injured, somebody could be killed – and if that outcome happened because we didn't feed somebody, that's our responsibility.

BFTF : Can you give a little more detail on what Emmanuel House does?

MY : Well they do all sorts of advice. Essentially, when you walk through the door they provide you with a free meal, access to a nurse to deal with any injuries you may have sustained and they arrange for you to have a roof over your head. They will also wash your clothes so that you can put some clean clothes back on. These are the very foundation stones of decency in our society.

Our campaign was not about the whole of the Emmanuel House organization, we felt that the best thing that we could do was to feed those people who are hungry and that that would be an excellent thing to do. And that is essentially what we have done, we fund raised quite a large amount of money for them and that money is going to be dedicated to spending on food for people who are homeless.

We raised about £6000, but they need a lot more than that, their target spend – just on food, is around £13,000. I think this is the first time that the Muslim community and the Christian community have collaborated on a programme like this and consequently it's clear that the Muslim community are prepared to put their hands in their pockets and are prepared to see beyond the structural differences between the communities, see through that fog to the people who really matter who are those lonely souls walking around on the streets during the day thinking about where they are going to sleep that night.

Imagine if this was your bedroom every evening…

BFTF : If people are interested in this project, how can they donate?

MY : They can send a check to Emmanuel House directly, or they can send it to us at Bobbers Mill Community Centre and we will forward it to them. Or the same thing can be done via a cash donation.

BFTF : What has been the response from the Non-Muslim community, the churches etc.?

MY : I don't think they expected us to come forward as we did and, as always, when Muslims rise to the challenge, people are astounded. If anything, we have demonstrated that we are not easily put into a box. Muslims are much more globally thinking, they are charitable, we are very, very generous compared to many other communities. We both look after our own community and we are prepared to look after other communities. In some ways it is a really valuable lesson to give to people who are non-Muslims because where they have had stereotypes about the Muslim community, about us being insular, not interested in other people, wanting to live parallel lives – that is not the case. I think we are part of our community, part of the city of Nottingham. We reflect both an eagerness to support people who are vulnerable, who are homeless, we are at the front-line.

No-one should be under the impression that Muslim communities are only interested in themselves or that they do not have any part to play in British society. British Muslims are interested in everybody in this country, as we are for people overseas as well.

Some people may think that Muslims are only interested in foreign affairs, well this is a really good example of how we are interested in home affairs – very close to home affairs in fact.

BFTF : BFTF often seen individual Muslims working in a whole range of voluntary organizations, but what is unusual is to see a Muslim Organization stepping forward to work with the wider society.

MY : What we have done here is to trail-blaze for other Muslim organizations in the city. We can demonstrate that we have an interest in helping people and we are building bridges and links with other organizations and I think there is a level of respectability that comes from this as well. Rather than us always being seen, dare I say it, terrorists or radicals and extremists in society, what we can be seen as is humanitarian people who think about their neighbor, who think about other people around them and can appropriately respond when needed.

I hope very much that anybody who contributed to the campaign, whether they were givers or supporters, will realize that when we are talking about working with people who are vulnerable, we have vulnerable people in our own community. We have people who are getting into drugs or alcohol, we have young people going to prison – at one of the fastest rates of any community in the UK and there is very little understanding of why we should be sympathetic to their needs. It's almost like “they have brought it on themselves, so they should pay for it” – but we forget that when these people come out of prison, their behaviour and what they do in society is likely to have an impact on us. So if you get burgled and you find that it was someone on drugs, you may also find out that that person may have been a Muslim. So when we talk about supporting people who are drug addicts in our community, people should not turn their noses up at it and think “That's their own fault”. . . How do we respond to ALL vulnerabilities in our community? Should we be open handed with them? Should we think about supporting those causes?

Because there are so many of those (causes) but the Pakistani and Muslim communities does not tend to focus on them. But this one campaign with Emmanuel House has, I think, demonstrated that there is a soft spot, a soft underbelly within the Muslim community that is prepared to look at that.

BFTF : What are your plans for the future of this project?

MY : Emmanuel House are the drivers and what they asked us to do was to support them with their campaign and that is essentially what we have done. Karimia does not have any plans to set up feeding services and I think this is primarily because this was our first trial run at seeing what the community is likely to be interested in doing.

For the future, an idea would be to put people on the street, we are already working with Radford Road Police Station to look at some of the issues with Muslim Youth in Forest Fields, there have been so many complaints and so many arrests carried out of young people involved in anti-social activity and crime that the Police Station is absolutely overrun with cases and they have approached us and said “Is there any way you can help?”so we have come up with a project, we haven't launched it officially yet, but I'll give listeners an inkling as to what it is about. The idea is that we are going to have “Imams on the Street”, the idea would be that we have people who are strong in their Iman (faith) who feel that they want to make a difference to their community and they will go out on the street and they will engage people and support them to divert them from crime and anti-social behaviour. That's our starting point and I am really fortunate to be supported by about 30 people so far, men and women, who have come forward to take a youth work qualification which we have laid on to NVQ level 2. We are appealing to these people to, when they have completed their qualification, to become part of this team of people who will go out onto the streets of Nottingham. Not just in Forest Fields but wherever this issue occurs, where Muslim youth are being led astray or going astray themselves – to interject, to make a difference in their lives.

BFTF : Why do you think this is happening now? Why not 10 or 15 years ago.

MY : Certainly 10 years ago, we didn't have the same rates of crime, anti-social behaviour and unemployment. There was a higher degree of control by families in terms of supporting their children. I think as time has gone on, certainly into the last decade, more and more people are thinking about working, the cost of living is going up, so there are lots of socio-economic factors that are affecting the make up of our community and also the impact that it is having on the different elements of the community, whether they be the elderly, middle aged parents, young people or even children. So, in some ways, to ask why this kind of work didn't happen earlier, we are reacting to current needs and maybe 10 years ago these weren't current needs.

But engagement with young people was, and maybe Karimia is in a good position to be able to boast that we were doing youth work . I can certainly remember when I was working in the local authority delivering camps at Overton Park . We would take young people and families camping and they would be able to see the countryside, some young people had never seen the countryside.

BFTF : On a slightly separate subject, I noticed that you were involved with a recent Himmah Institute “Big Supper” event, where they provided food for local homeless people. What's your perception of their work?

MY : It's interesting that you ask me that question because I was cajoled into supporting that one as well. I think that it is a very good connection by Muslim young people and I think that it is admirable that it is young people who are at the forefront of this one. The work that they have done is building bridges with organizations that wouldn't know the Muslim community and certainly they do know the Muslim community now. You know, if you maintain a clear Niyat (Intention) as to why you are doing it then it both benefits us and it benefits them. Perhaps what they should do is to have a calendar of events and invite people along to it, so if there are people out there who are thinking that they could give some time to volunteering, perhaps an hour or two, that might be an ideal way of doing it. Perhaps if they could produce such a calendar we could put it out on the airwaves.

“The Big Supper” for local homeless people

 BFTF : Lastly, could you give feel for the quality of mentoring that you and Perwaise do in the Youth Club as listeners may not be aware of everything that goes on behind the scenes.

MY : We are really keen to start supporting and helping young people achieve. As you know, Karimia Institute is about education, our mission statement says very clearly that we are about education.

We are about keeping people in education for a start. Many of our young people are beginning to find themselves in positions where they are excluded and not only that, they are not succeeding in achieving their 5 GCSE's and so were are hoping to support that education effort through our tutorial classes.

But in the Youth Club itself, that is an opportunity for youth workers, older young men and women to build a relationship with young people. So if those young people have got issues and they want to talk to someone, they should have someone who they can talk and look up to. I can remember years ago people used to organise events and I would get invited along to them and they would show an interest in me, and as a young person, I used to value that. And that is what we still need to provide – an appropriate adult who can be both a role model to young people but also show an interest and care for young people because that is what they don't have. Many of them are lacking in people who care and love them for who they are – and certainly in the Youth Club, people may think that the Youth Club is all about playing games but it's more than that, it's about building relationships with other people and if these people are building relationships in a place like a masjid (mosque) then that is phenomenal because that says that coming to the masjid is cool, its OK. So we don't need to cajole young people to come here and if they come to the Youth Club and the Azaan (call to prayer) goes then it is the norm that that they will say their Salat (prayers) and then come back to the Youth Club. We don't want to create an environment where you HAVE to go to the masjid and it has to be done with a stick – how it should be done is through love and association and the youth club provides that, and certainly the youth workers here are working with parents to address issues that the parents have identified. So if the parents are concerned and worried about their son, as has been the case – I can think of numerous examples of where people have come to see me and said “Look, I am really concerned, my son continually gets arrested by the Police and I'm really unhappy about that”. So when does he get arrested? “He gets arrested in the evenings”. So if he comes to the Youth Club he is active in those hours when he would be getting into trouble, then we are diverting him from crime.

So we are doing things that people do not see, normally. People see young people in our centre and they think “what are all these young kids doing here, running around” – well actually, they are running around in a good place, in our masjid and that is a really good thing.

Interview with Mohammed Yaseen, Director of Youth Services, Karimia Institute, on 29th June 2011 on Radio Dawn 107.6FM was originally posted here.

Emmanuel House have, quite reasonably, commented that Emmanuel have “moved away from being such a strongly Christian organization. It has a much broader base of support now.”

Read on…

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Muslimah – Deen Shine
by Salahuddin Rahim

Golden sparkle enfolding you
Like Divine arms holding you
Hijab embracing your modest face
Exposes a more lovelier grace
And as you move modestly
Your modesty defines the signs
Along the straight and narrow highway

Muslimah
You glitter like golden leaves
I saw you wrapped in saffron and was pleased
All breathing stopped momentarily, and like a sneeze
Al-hamdulil-laahi fell from your lips
And was snatched up by a passing breeze
Blessing all flowers, grass and trees
In its wake, for your sake

Muslimah
Your long, loose apparel
That's designed to conceal you
Only encourages the real you
To glow, like electricity you flow
Along the cables of our lives
And the force of your modesty commands us to lift you
To pedestals high beyond the dunyaa
Where loose ladies walk low roads and deal
In tight transparency that does not conceal

Muslimah
Let Deen al-Islaam shine from your radiant form
Like the morning sun
That breaks upon the dawn
Let your example of goodness be reflected bright
In the faces of your children
As stars throw back sunlight into the black night

Muslimah
When Allah beheld none worthy to be companion
For His fist Khalifah, He created you
You are our bushraa wa ni'mah
Yaaa amattul-laah
Oh slave woman of God
Let gentle hands hold tight to hablil-laahi
That binds you to your Lord
Be faithful to your zaawj
Be kind to your awlaad
And hold low the head so that Noor Allah
Shines from its crown like a beam
To guide your feet along the Siraat al-Mustaqeem.

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A Du'aa
by Binte Ali

O Allah, I turn to You, Allah, to Guide me,
I turn to You, Allah, to Forgive me,
I turn to You, Allah, to Protect me,
I turn to You, Allah, to Help me,
I turn to You, Allah, to Bless me,
I turn to You, Allah, to Hear me,
To Listen to me.
I turn to You, Allah, for company,
With You, Allah, I am never lonely,
To Your Mercy Allah, I cling,
O Allah, I turn to You, Allah, for everything,
for friendship,
for love,
for need,
for want,
for care.
I rely on You, Allah, for simple air
for food,
for water,
for ears to hear,
for eyes to see,
for everything Allah,
for everything that fuels me.
O Allah, I turn to You, Allah, to Give me,
I turn to You, Allah, for nothing
but everything.
I turn to You, Allah, to Answer me.
Guide me,
Protect me,
Forgive me.
To Give me
what is good for this Dunya and the Hereafter,
Please Allah, Answer me,
And the Muslim Ummah.
Ameen.

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Without further ado, here are three inspiring poems we've selected for today…

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Repentance
by Salahuddin

With a simple nod they dismissed God
He commanded and they heard, but they tossed their hair and opposed His word
Ate blood and swine
And taxed heavily the land
Lifted up the cross as His sign
And demanded that man lay with man,
Yes they rewarded evil with good
Burnt atomic particles in place of wood
Smogged cities with the smoke of coal
And fogged corridors of the soul.
But worse, they robbed the laborer of his wages
And ignored the knowledge of the sages
And when the poor could not pay their bills
Made them build shanties on wooded hills
And dump their dead by the side of roads
As funerals became much too heavy loads
To bear
for those who already had to pay for food, water
And air
And the enormous cost of medical care.

With a shrug of the hand
They deified the image of the white man
And preached God into obscurity,
While preaching the merits of equality and democracy
And confusing financial slavery with liberty
The dragon rode upon the sea of the silent masses
As sealed tombs ride upon the backs of dumb asses
Smiling from the home of hell
He raised both arms with the horned h    and sign
Indicating that all is well.

But hurricanes tore the fields of hops
Fire burned the forests
Sun burned the crops
And volcanoes erupted as politicians corrupted
Chase bankers stole billions
Chasing toy pirates around Somalia
And sold news
Vilifying the religion of Islam and men of darker hues.
God is not dead
But judging, watching and listening
As the world keeps getting more sickening
Like a dropped turd
That hits bottom in an outhouse, stench rises, a sound is heard
Maggots scatter, and try to flee
But eventually all crap is washed out to sea
To merge with the waters of eternal life
Where it is cleansed of blood, war and strife
And it cannot fight, flee or fly
Just float eternally
its gaze is perpetually to the sky.

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My Master
by Muhammad Badsha

(In Defence of My Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam)

May my wealth, treasures and life,
My precious possessions acquired after toil and strife,
My very breath, my every drop of blood and more,
Be sacrificed and given for,
A single glimpse of my beloved's face,

O Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) may I experience your wonderful grace.

O Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wa sallam), O wonderful Master,

You helped your people in every calamity and disaster,
You carried the old lady's load,
Upon your noble back young children rode.
You spoke with the poor and insane,
A smile for all through suffering and pain.

The fathers of disbelief placed thorns in your way,
Intestines on your back when you knelt to pray,
Pelted you with stones till your blessed blood flowed,
Hurt your family in every way and mode.
Yet you cried for the saviour of all, overlooking,
Forgiving, without revenge or berating.

You gave your blood for us, O my King,
For you, your Companions endured the scorpion's sting,
The strike of the sword and the smite of the lance,
Their worries fleeing with thy blessed glance.

For your honour may I be slain,
Your noble companionship I wish to gain,
A glimpse of your blessed countenance is my ardent desire,
Your company in Paradise the goal towards which I aspire.
May I be graced with your Kauthar water,
Sahaaba for your ablution drops gave no quarter,

How, O how can I thee thank?
I ask Allah, besides who there is no God,
To shower you with special reward.

May all I own and my very soul,
Be sacrificed for this simple goal,
That I be a piece of thy golden sandal,
Or a sliver in your wonderful sword's handle.

Simple leather and straw made your bed,
On humble food you ate and fed,
Patched clothes you wore,
Your language pure, you never swore,
Never putting on airs or harbouring pride,
Though the Angels walked at your side.

We are ready to give our lives for thee,
O best of Creation, O noblest of humanity.

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A Blessing to Mankind
by Aalia Rahman

As I read the authentic narrations
About our Prophet from Saheeh Al-Bukharee,
I was amazed at each of his reactions
Though it shouldn't have surprised me.

It should have been obvious,
He was our Prophet thus,
A man of generosity,
Ready to give his property,
A man of simplicity,
Never anything of vanity.

Yet his soft heart and gentle nature,
His truthful tongue and kindness to any creature,
His lack of love for this temporary Dunya,
His immense love for the eternal Akhira,
And his struggle, caused these tears to shed,
For in truth this blessing to mankind was dead.

He struggled for the guidance of this entire Ummaah,
Unlike what we enjoy, he had to be spat on,
He had to suffer through the pain and scar,
And bear with patience as the misguided scorn.

That was our Prophet, following Allah's commands,
Asking dua'a for this Ummaah with raised hands,
Despite this, still there are people of today,
“I do not believe in the Prophet's word” they say.
Paying no heed to the Seerah or Bukharee,
Refusing to flicker their eyes to see,
But their hearts would spin, If they but knew,
The number of trials our prophet went through.

And every time my heart sinks in grief,
Just thinking about the incident of Ta'if,
Not only to his message they took no heed,
But they pelted our prophet until he bleed.
And despite this our Prophet asked for forgiveness,
That was his state of humility and submissiveness,
For he felt he was lacking in his method of preaching,
And could have done better to keep the word spreading.
When asked by Angel Jibreel about the people of Ta'if,
If he could crush them (perhaps to the thinness of a leaf),
Our Prophet refused, for from them could come people,
He said, pious, and for this Ummaah an example.

So much of oppression and so much of pain,
Yet there were people to call him insane.
He struggled hard to get the message across,
Yet there were people who chose to be at a loss.
We weren't there to help or defend him,
But here today his words we barely skim.

And even during the last days of his life,
Though sitting in prayer for him was not rife,
Sitting was the only form the sickness allowed
And in pain to Allah he bowed.
For Jama'ah they carried him on their shoulder,
While his legs dragged on the ground,
But he was a man who preferred the hereafter,
And not one complaint did he sound.
He was a beautiful human being suffering much harm,
Both, perfect in character and perfect in word,
Not one thing did he leave out in Islam
But that it was complete he made sure.

Despite all the distress he went through,
To spread the truth far and wide,
People still take his message to be untrue,
And accuse him of being a misguide.

I pray for peace, blessings, and mercy (unlike some)
Be on our Prophet Muhammad Sallallaahu 'Alyee WaSallaam.

____________________________________________________

Reem is a 10^th grade student at Al-Arqam Academy in Doha.

A couple of months ago, several Palestinian prisoners were released in exchange for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier. While everyone seems to know every detail of Gilad's life and his freedom, few talk about the Palestinian prisoners, who by most accounts, suffered more terribly in Israeli prisons.

Some of the prisoners were sent to Doha as part of the deal. They were treated like heroes by the locals here. Two of the freed prisoners from Israel visited my school to tell us about their lives in prison and how they felt. The two men were cousins; one appeared to be in his late thirties and the other in his late forties. The two spent ten years in prison together.

They spoke in Arabic (Palestinian dialect) so the following account is an approximate translation of what we heard, with help from some of my friends:

In the beginning, they thanked our school for inviting them to speak and told us they were very happy to be talking to us.

The men described their prison rooms as small and approximately three by three meters. Sometimes eight people shared this tiny space. The food provided by the authorities was generally foul, sometimes with visible bugs, and harmful when eaten.

The two then gave us a glimpse of the torture they underwent. They told us that they did not want to disturb us psychologically, so they limited the details of the torture. They underwent two kinds of torture: physical and mental. They believed their mental torture was much worse than the physical torture.

For physical torture, they had different kinds of punishments. They would put bags or material on their faces so that they couldn't breathe, and a lot of prisoners died from that torture. They would hang them by their hands with chains, and then beat them. Beating was the most common torture. Also, they would put the men's heads under a faucet, and the water would continuously fall on their heads with so much pressure, that they felt like their heads would explode.

As mental torture, during prison trials/hearings, they would bring the prisoners' family members and relatives and beat the family members in order to make the prisoners admit to everything that they, the Israeli authorities, were charging them with.

The men said that they were barely ever allowed to have any visitors. On the rare occasion when a visitor was allowed, the visitors would have to go through a strip search as a form of humiliation for both prisoner and visitor and to discourage future visitation.  That was done to one of the men's sister.

Other important points mentioned:

• There were approximately 27 women in the prison
• In order to get a TV/radio for news or entertainment, they decided to go on a hunger-strike, and a few people even died. When they were finally given a TV, it barely had any worthwhile stations
• The judge told the prisoners that each of them had a secret file, which no one was allowed to see, which had all the information about them and the proof for whatever they did. And then they were asked if they did do that or not, and regardless of their answer, they were sent to prison
• A student asked how the prisoners managed to remain patient during these hardships, and the men replied that they kept their faith in Allah, and that kept them sane and alive

In conclusion, my class-mates and I were really touched by the stories of these freed Palestinian prisoners. Many of us were teary-eyed and the account was so vivid that we felt that we were in the prison with these men. We were impressed by the faith that these men had, despite the great odds of ever being freed.

Without further ado, here are two inspiring poems we've selected for today…

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Uncloak My Veil
Jenan Zahria

You'd die for me to uncloak my veil
Haven't succeeded to your avail
Mock my faith; claim it's causing my oppression
Distort the truth with your wide deception
To uncloak my veil would reveal my beauty
My beauty I reserve for my true love solely
To uncloak my veil would cost me greatly
Foolish men approaching abruptly

Loved enough not to aim for unwanted attention
Confident enough not to seek your wordly affection
My inner beauty I can uncloak
My point of view I shall expose

I chose to cloak my veil
Listen to God Who guides my trail

I'm not the one who's bitterly oppressed
You're just the one who's deeply obsessed
Longing to see me uncloak my veil
Disclose my beauty to all your males

Dress like the women on T.V.
So called role models exploited as “free”

Sex, drugs, clubs
Society's unrequited love
No, thank you
I'm a rebel with a cause

I will never uncloak my veil
The lies you spout will not prevail

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A Generous Lord and a Stingy Slave in Need of His Mercy
by Anonymous

Ya Ilaahi Your generosity is wider than the horizon
Yet how stingy am I to raise my hands to You
to bow and prostrate to You
to praise and thank You

Ya Rabbi You took care of me in my mother's womb
I was alone inside and by Your Mercy came out to a colorful world
You gave me so much without me asking for anything
I grew physically stronger and also in rebellion against Your commands

Deeper and deeper I drowned in the ocean of vice
You took me out of the suffocation and made me see light
I came back to bow down and prostrate to You Alone with delight

Soon I shall go back to the womb of the earth and again I shall be alone
So please take care of me as You always did
And help me meet You
A beautiful meeting, Ya Rahmaan
I wish to hear from You my Rabbi
“Oh my slave, I have forgiven you”

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(February 21, 2012) The Muslim Students Association of the United States and Canada (MSA National) officially expressed its concern today over new allegations that certain elements of the New York Police Department (NYPD) have been spying on local MSA chapters around prominent university campuses including Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania and other prestigious colleges around the Northeast.

According to a recent story in the Associated Press, the intelligence division of the New

York Police Department (NYPD) went far beyond New York's city limits and began to

“trawl daily through student websites run by Muslim student groups at Yale University,

the University of Pennsylvania, Rutgers and 13 other colleges in the Northeast.”
According to the same AP story, NYPD officials spoke with local authorities about
professors in Buffalo and went so far as to send an undercover agent on a whitewater
rafting trip, where he recorded Muslim students' names and even noted within police
intelligence files how many times they prayed on a daily basis.

SEE: “New York Police Department Monitored Muslim Students All Over Northeast”

(Associated Press)

“MSA National has always been an organization willing to work alongside law
enforcement agencies to help keep our communities safe,” said MSA National President
Zahir Latheef. “However, we believe that the NYPD clearly overstepped its boundaries
when it began spying on average American Muslim college students who were simply
taking whitewater rafting trips or innocently participating in school activities at their
college or university campus.”

Ms. Aamna Anwer, vice president of MSA National, further added that, “We at MSA
National actively work to distance ourselves from extreme ideologies of any kind. While
we appreciate the efforts of law enforcement agencies to ensure the safety of all
Americans, we hope that in the future law enforcement agencies will conduct
themselves in a manner devoid of spying on people simply based on religious and racial
profiling.”

The Muslim Students Association of the United States and Canada (MSA National) is a
non-profit organization that strives to facilitate networking, educating and empowering
the American Muslim college students of today to be productive citizens of tomorrow's
global community.

–END—

CONTACT: MSA National President Zahir Latheef, 979-575-5870,
president@msanational.org
MSA National Vice President Ms. Aamna Anwer, 309-335-7665