Engage Minnesota

By Lolla Mohammed Nur, Engage Minnesota

It is 7 a.m. on November 5th, and I am in my living room in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia with the TV on. CNN has just announced that Barack Obama has won the electoral vote and is therefore the new president-elect of the United States. An endless flow of tears start streaming down my face. My tears are those of joy and victory, not of sadness.

This was the moment of victory Obama and so many others—including me—had been waiting for so long. This was the announcement of success Obama had strived so hard to achieve, regardless of the never-ending attacks that he had to endure all year long on his policies, experience, personal life, and roots. As I tried to dry my face which was proving to be impossible, I reflected on why I was crying so much. Read more »

By Tanweer Janjua, Engage Minnesota

As a long time admirer of Barack Obama’s leadership, I was moved by his speech on Tuesday night. There is no doubt that Barack has shown his leadership again and demonstrated that he deserved to be in the highest office of the land. This is truly an historic and remarkable event and we should all cherish this.  It is truly a time of joy for those who believed that our country needed different direction and leadership. It is indeed a proud day to be an American.

Who could ever imagine this 45 years ago? It is less than half century ago, when Civil Rights Act passed and now we see an African-American heading for the White House. Barack’s success should not be perceived as anything incidental and easily achieved. Many people gave their lives, spent their lifetime in struggle, suffered humiliation, torture and discrimination but, they did it and a dream was fulfilled on Tuesday night.  

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By  American Muslim Taskforce, Engage Minnesota

Washington, D.C.  11/04/08: The American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Election (AMT***), an umbrella group representing major Muslim organization, has congratulated president-elected Barak Obama at his world-historic victory and pledged their full support for his efforts to build a better world.
 
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By Luke Wilcox, Engage Minnesota

During my six months as a policy intern in Washington, DC, my days were filled with important tasks critical to national security, such as copying memos and creating Microsoft Excel sheets. Thankfully, I was also able to escape the office once in a while to attend some really great hearings and events. One of my absolute favorites - and one that is reoccurring here in the Twin Cities - was the book launch of Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think.

In the book, Dalia Mogahed of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies and John Esposito of Georgetown University draw on 6 years of systematic research conducted by Gallup. Rather than unfounded assumptions, 50,000 verbal interviews of Muslims back up Mogahed and Esposito’s claims. If you care about sound methodology - or if you want to hear, from Muslims, what Muslims think about the world - this is the book for you. Read more »

“Are they in essence accepting that the past eight years has been a
total failure?”

By Zafar Siddiqui, Engage Minnesota

Perhaps never in the history of the presidential elections has the word “change” been bandied about as it is being done during the current elections. The palpable thirst for change is a result of the American public’s frustration with the direction the country is headed in. The dismal financial situation, the ever escalating “war on terror“, the never-ending wars, the increasing anti-Americanism both in the East and the West, and literal drought of fresh ideas cry out for a change in all these areas.

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By Owais Bayunus, Engage Minnesota

Islam places a duty on every Muslim to let their neighbors know what they believe in. Therefore it is incumbent upon all Muslims to practice their religion openly. It is also important for Muslims to know what others believe in. That is why meeting of the interfaith groups is very important, where open and respectful discussion can be carried out and true pluralism can prevail.

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By Johanna Osman, Engage Minnesota

Today I attended the Interfaith Memorial Service at the Basilica St. Mary in Minneapolis, commemorating the anniversary of the 35W Bridge Collapse. My intention was to document, as a scholar, the cooperation between peoples of many faiths. This was to be another example of Minnesota’s interfaith activities to include in my study. Read more »

On July 18, Dr. Ihsan Bagby and Imam Qasim Khan will present on “A History of Islam in America” at the Minnesota Dawah Institute.

The presentation, set to begin at 7 p.m., will feature Bagby, a professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Kentucky. Bagby has been a key figure in documenting the lives of Muslims in America; in 2000, Bagby conducted the first national survey of mosques in the United States.

“A History of Islam in America” is sponsored by the Muslim Alliance in North America, a national network of mosques, Muslim organizations, and individuals working together to address the needs of Muslim communities.

The Dawah Institute is located at 478 University Avenue in St. Paul, 55103.

By Lydia Howell

In the almost seven years since the September 11th attacks, intensifying after the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, non-Muslim Americans have been fed a steady diet of myths, distortions and outright hatred propagated about Islam. The religion has 1.4 billion believers worldwide, and more of Minnesotans’ neighbors are Muslim, hailing from Somalia, different Middle Eastern countries and South Asia. Islam is also winning many American converts. One of the most surprising facts in a wide-ranging interview with Arafat El-Bakri is that the biggest group of the 5 million American converts to Islam are educated women.

El-Bakri is participating in a series of events to challenge the misconceptions about Islam and Muslim people, and to foster interfaith dialogue, at the Robbinsdale United Church of Christ. He is the founder of the Islamic Relief Social Services in Minneapolis, an outgrowth of his work on the Bosnia Relief Committee. An imam, he is on the boards of many Islamic organizations, and serves on the board of Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless.

“A lot of words are being used to discredit and smear Islam,” El-Bakri says. “Jihad literally means ’struggle’. It’s mostly translated as ‘holy war’–a concept that is not in Islam at all. Jihad is a struggle–struggle against your own desires, struggle in education, struggle on the battlefield. For us, war is justified or unjustified. There’s nothing holy about war. Wars are bad. The highest jihad is with yourself.”
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