By Luke Wilcox 

Al-Salam Alaikum! My name is Salam Murtada and I am a volunteer for the Iraqi & American Reconciliation Project (IARP), thanks to Mr. Sami Rasouli who introduced me to it and its wonderful members last year.

Ikhlas Muhassan Abbas lost her left leg and right foot to an errant missile in 2004

 

I am writing to you about Ikhlas Muhassan Abbas, a young Iraqi teacher who was hit by an errant missile in August of 2004 (see her statement below). In order to save her life, the doctor had no choice but to amputate her left leg and right foot. As a result, she became disabled and confined to a wheel chair at a very young age. She lost her teaching job, a profession she loves, and became dependent on her family. The unexpected incident shattered her dreams of taking part in teaching today’s Iraqi generation and contributing to its better future.

The IARP is sponsoring a trip to bring her to Minneapolis some time in late September or early October to support her stay while the doctors can attach an artificial leg so that she can resume her teaching career and become an active member of her society once again. The procedure of designing, building and adjusting the bi-lateral prosthesis is being donated by Greg Gruman of Winkley Laboratories. The physical therapy is also being provided free of charge through Winkley.

However, IARP has committed to the following expenses:

(1) Airfare for Ikhlas and her mother who will be accompanying her.

(2) Visa expenses.

(3) Health insurance for Ikhlas and her mother while in the U.S.

(4) Transportation, food and incidentals while in the U.S.

Total costs are estimated at $7000, which IARP does not fully have. IARP is also looking for a host family or living space where Ikhlas and her mother can have some independence of living while also experiencing the support of locals. Her treatment will be in Golden Valley but any place that works for independence and support would be ok.

If you could share this information with anyone you know, we would greatly appreciate it. I hope that the local Moslem Community would keep her in their minds during this Holy Month of Ramadan and consider her when making their Zakat payments. IARP urgently needs the funds to cover her costs and we have not matched them yet. Last I heard we have not yet reached $1000 because so few people know about this young woman’s plight.

If you know of any interested donors, checks can be made out to IARP with Ikhlas in the memo line and mailed to 1346 Westwood Hills Road; St. Louis Park, MN. 55426. By helping Ikhlas stand on her feet again, we would also be helping every one of her students receive their education in a war-torn Iraq.

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Statement from Ikhlas

اني المواطنة العراقية اخلاص محسن عباس احمل الشهادة الجامعية بكالوريوس كلية التربية / جامعة الكوفة .My name is Ikhlas Muhassan Abbas, I am an Iraqi woman and I graduated from the University of Kufa with a bachelor’s degree in education.

تعرضت لحادث مؤلم بسقوط قذيفة امريكية على ارجلي اثناء الاحداث التي حدثت بين القوات الامريكية وجيش المهدي في النجف المصادف 5/ 8/ 2004 اخترقت سطح الدار دون ان تنفجر وأنا في حينها كنت نائمة في فراشي ليلا ونقلتني من عالم الى اخر مبدلة مسار حياتي ومستقبلي فأصبحت غير قادرة على السير والحركة ولم ادر ماحدث ففتحت عيني وأذا بي في المستشفى بين الموت والحياة . I  experienced a traumatic event during a conflict between U.S. forces and the Mehdi Army in Najaf on August 5, 2004, where a shell tore into my home and did not explode. At the time, I was sleeping in my bed. It took me from one world to another, altering the course of my life and my future. I awoke in the hospital, unable to move or walk. I opened my eyes and I did not know what happened, or if I was alive or dead…!

وبعد معاناة من الالم وفترات طويلة في غرف العمليات اجريت لي اثنا عشرة عملية جراحية بين فترة واخرى وقد بترت ساقي اليسرى من فوق الركبة واليمنى من القدم وبعد كل المعاناة والالام حصلت على اطراف صناعية الا انها غير مريحة ولا استطع التحرك والتعايش معها . I suffered from pain and long periods of time in the operating room. I had 12 surgeries in which finally my left leg had to be amputated, as well as my right foot. After all the suffering and pain, I received prosthetic limbs but it is not convenient and I am unable to move or live with them.

. وحصلت على كرسي متحرك , وجلوسي عليه يشعرني بالعجز فبت اكرهه ! اذ انه يشعرني بعدم تحقيق أي حلم من احلامي وخاصة التعيين في احد المدارس الحكومية لانني كنت انتظر بفارغ الصبر من بعد التعب والسنوات المرهقة ان اتخرج واتعين واعيش حياتي واقطف ثمار التعب ,I got a wheelchair, but sitting in it makes me feel disabled. I hate it. It makes me feel like I can’t achieve any of my dreams, particularly becoming a teacher in one of the public schools. I waited eagerly after years of exhausting work to graduate and live my life, and reap the fruits of my hard work.

الا ان سهام الزمن الغـــادر قد اصابت الثمرة وهي في علو مكانها في شجرة العمر والسنين واذا بها قد تناثرت وسط تلك الخلافات التي ما جنينا منها غير الالم والخسائر التي لا تعوض بثمن وتخلف الكثير من المصابين والمعاقين امثالي But the treacherous arrow of time has struck the fruit of the tree of life at the height of its ripening… scattering it amongst the conflicts of which we gained nothing but pain which can not be compensated with a price for  those, injured and disabled, like myself.

فأنا اناشد من قادر على مساعدتي ان يمد يد العون لي ليخرجني مما انا فيه وتعديل سير الحياة وان شاء الله ما اطلبه ليس مستحيلا كل ما ابتغيه هو ان لا تنسوني لانني ذقت مرارة الحياة كثيرا كثيرا وأنا في او حياتي ,فأنا بحاجة الى اطراف اصطناعية جيدة لامارس حياتي لاكون مواطنة نافعة فما زالت في داخلي طاقة كامنة لم استثمرها بعد , ولو لا الحادث اللعين لقطعت اشواطا في حياة المجتمع وادعوا من الله مع التماسكم ان لا تمروا على امري هذا مرور الكرام ولكم مني جزيل الشكر والامتنان .I appeal to the capable to extend me a helping hand and change my course of life, God willing. What I ask is not impossible to achieve, don’t forget me. I am in the peak of my life yet I have tasted the bitterness of life too much. I need good artificial limbs to live as a good citizen. I still have so much internal potential which has not been invested yet, despite the dreadful incident. I request that you not allow this to pass unnoticed. My sincere thanks and gratitude.

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Medical facility providing services

The Winkley Company has been in business providing orthotics and prosthetics since 1888.  They have six locations in Minnesota and one in Wisconsin. (see www.Winkley.com) They  employ 20 therapists. Their President and CEO is Gregory S. Gruman, a certified prosthetist who has generously offered to fit Ikhlas with bilateral prostheses so that she can once again become ambulatory. Her injury resulted from a missile which destroyed part of her home. Previously the substandard devices she was given were too painful for her to use so that she has been primarily wheelchair-bound for 6 years.

With great effort she has accomplished a bachelors degree and dreams of becoming a public school teacher and would like to resume a more normal life. Since April 2010 Greg has reviewed x-rays sent by email and the patient’s medical history recorded in Iraq. He is confident that his modern methods and materials will achieve better results and will warrant the effort for her to receive treatment in the US.

Greg is offering his expert services to fit and design new limbs as well as initiate her training and strengthening so that she can walk once more. The design, production and practice will require between 4-6 weeks. Upon return to her home in Iraq she will continue strengthening until she is fully mobile. Ikhlas will be treated at the Golden Valley clinic and reside with a local IARP volunteer during her stay. She and her mother, FadHeelah Ali-Ali, who will accompany her, will not incur any fees. Therapy, meals, transportation and housing will be provided by volunteers of the Iraqi American Reconciliation Project.

I have been battling migraines and extremely tired to write much, so there is a backlog of articles that I will wrap up this next two weeks regarding Ramadan. We had quite a few events within the Twin Cities during Ramadan where Muslims struggled to reach out to the best of their ability to be a mercy and in the service of others.

One such case I want to highlight is that of Dr. Bushra Dar. Dr. Dar is a Family Medicine physician at Allina Medical Clinic in Maple Grove, MN. She has lived with her family in Eden Prairie for 25 years. When Dr. Dar learned of the catastrophic monsoon floods that hit the northern regions of Pakistan – She didn’t think twice on how to react. Immediately, she started organizing a fundraising event with Human Development Foundation, which took place on August 27th, at Mounds View community Center.

I asked Dr. Dar to explain her motivation and quick thinking during Ramadan for this event.

Wazwaz: People usually are busy hosting family and friends dinner parties. To organize such an event in so little time is quite amazing. What were you thinking and how did you convince others to participate immediately.

Dr. Dar: Many people may not realize that when Muslims observe the daily fasting during the holy month of Ramadan, they do more than just refrain from eating and drinking from sunrise until sunset. The Qur’an states:

“Oh you who believe, fasting is prescribedfor you as it was prescribed for those before you, so that you may attain piety.[2:183]“

In this verse, piety refers to God-consciousness. Removing worldly distractions such as food and other petty affairs allows the believer to spend their time immersed in remembrance, thankfulness, and repentance before God. Likewise, during this time Muslims strive harder than usual to do good deeds, as the reward for righteous acts is multiplied many times over in Ramadan, through God’s mercy.

With a death toll in the thousands, a mass of land larger than the size of the United Kingdom submerged under water, millions of people displaced, and deadly disease outbreak on the horizon, Pakistan’s people are crying out desperately for help. To swiftly answer their call is nothing short of my obligation.

Islam already mandates that we aid the downtrodden and give generously to the needy to the furthest extent that we are able, no matter what time of the year it may be. But in Ramadan, when we experience hunger during the day in order to detach from the materialistic world and then gather at sunset to give thanks for God’s provision, failing to lend a helping hand to the flood victims would be missing the point of the month entirely.

Every year, some of my friends and I host a dinner party for family and friends to break their fast together and enjoy one other’s company over a festive meal. This time around, we called our guests to bring with them a small donation to support the Human Development Foundation’s relief in the wake of what has been deemed a more destructive natural disaster than the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, and last year’s Haiti earthquake combined.

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If anyone wishes to help the people of Pakistan, contact a charity organization you trust, or you can contact Human Development Foundation. I am also aware that Islamic Relief is also reaching out to the people of Pakistan. If you can or cannot donate, please kindly remember them in your prayers as well.

Ramadan Mubarak (Blessed Ramadan)

Ramadan is the 9th month in the Islamic Calendar. Because Ramadan follows the lunar calendar, it rotates through the seasons, moving back around eleven days each year. Last year, Ramadan started in August 22nd and this year, the Islamic Society of North America, declared Ramadan to begin on August 11th, 2010.

Read More…

John Noltner

By John Nolter

A year ago I started a project about peace on the belief that if we would just begin the conversation, and encourage others to do so, we could perhaps find some new and better ways to resolve the conflict in our hearts, in our communities and in the world.

The result is A Peace of My Mind. http://apeaceofmymind.net

A generation ago we didn’t talk about recycling…and nobody recycled. Then it became common to have that conversation at home and at school, and now recycling is second nature.

What if we did the same thing with peace?

A Peace of My Mind is competing this month for a grant that would fund the production of a traveling exhibit from the series. That exhibit will be brought into schools and community groups and used to foster public conversations about conflict resolution, tolerance and civic responsibility.

The grant winners are determined by popular vote, so I am asking for your help. I need people to vote…you can vote every day in the month of May. You can vote at this link: http://pep.si/dzqeEv

And I need your voice to help spread the word. Forward this as an e-mail to all your friends. Post it to Facebook. Tweet it on Twitter

This is not a perfect project, and I’ll be the first to say that. But it is a really good project. You will catch some background noise in the audio, a few of the portraits might not be award winners, and yesterday I sent out a mass e-mail with a ridiculous typo in it.

It’s not perfect, but maybe that’s part of it’s simple beauty. If I waited until everything was just right to put this out to the world, it might never see the light of day. If I didn’t launch the website until there was the perfect demographic mix, it might languish forever.

The important thing is to begin. I am not an expert in issues of peace. I don’t hold an academic degree in the field and I have trouble recalling names of authors and activists. But I can gather and share stories…so that’s what I will do.

We need to talk about peace and make it a part of our daily conversations…and with your help, we can expand the conversation by voting to fund this project. http://pep.si/dzqeEv

This project shares the voices of ordinary people doing extraordinary things in the name of peace. If we raise our voices together, we will be heard. Each of us has something that we can do…so start now…don’t wait…be a work in progress.

A mother and children helped by the Taking Root program

On a wintry afternoon in the last week of February Mariam, age 30, arrived in the Twin Cities on a flight from Turkey.  She and her family had taken refuge there after fleeing violence and anarchy in her home country of Somalia.  She has had no permanent home for the last five years.  She arrived with her five children, ages 4–13, with no connection to this community – no family, no friends, no resources.

However, she and her family were greeted at the airport by a group of people organized by the Minnesota Council of Churches to help them get rooted in their new community, their new home.  Her group of sponsors will get her family set up in an apartment, they will drive her and her family to appointments, they will introduce her to her neighborhood and community, they will help the kids get set up in school, and most likely they will become some of her first friends in America.

Mariam and her family are the first of nearly 100 refugees with no connection to anyone in Minnesota (a “free case”) expected to be co-sponsored by the Minnesota Council of Churches in 2010.

Receiving sponsorship support from volunteers is not only invaluable for refugees; it is also an immensely rewarding ministry.

Individuals now have a unique opportunity to be part of a mixed Muslim-Christian sponsorship team through the Taking Root program at the Minnesota Council of Churches.  Taking Root combines the Council’s years of experience in Muslim-Christian dialogue and in refugee resettlement to create mixed Muslim Christian sponsorship communities to help free-case refugees make the successful transition to self-sufficiency.

MCC is looking for individuals who are willing to work with members of other faith groups to volunteer their time for a four-month period to help with the tasks necessary to help a refugee move from new arrival to self-sufficient member of the community.  Sponsorship groups will be organized by MCC and have the full support and direction of the staff at the Council.  Members of the groups will learn about each other’s faith traditions at the same time they help to give a free-case refugee family a great start in Minnesota.

Taking Root draws on the MCC’s “Taking Heart” program of bringing people of different faith traditions together for food and conversation, and its congregational sponsorship program for refugees together. MCC will be forming 20 different sponsorship groups made up of Muslims and Christians in the next year.  These groups will work with newly arrived refugees who have no connection to our community when they arrive.

The MCC is planning its first orientation meeting next Thursday,  March 11 from 6:00 -8:30 p.m. at the Minnesota Church Center,  122 West Franklin Ave in Minneapolis.  Like a Taking Heart gathering there will be food and conversation, but participants will also learn how you can be part of making the difference of a lifetime to a newly arriving refugee family.  Everyone is welcome; please RSVP at the information below if intending to attend the March 11 meeting.

For more information or to register for a presentation, contact Gail Anderson at 612-230-3210 or gail.anderson@mnchurches.org or visit our website athttp://www.mnchurches.org/programs/christian-unity/TakingRoot.html

Gail Anderson, unity and relationships organizer with the Minnesota Council of Churches, organizes the interfaith project “Taking Heart,” which brings Muslim and non-Muslim neighbors together over good meals and good conversation. This column was adapted from Ms. Anderson’s recent letter inviting people to a March 11 event under a new activity, “Taking Root.”

Charles Patterson Curry

There was a shooting yesterday.  A man killed his wife.  The police killed him.  There was another the day before yesterday.  Friends killed each other over some small matter.  A few weeks ago an Army psychiatrist shot forty-three soldiers and civilians.  Some young, some older.  Some officers, some enlisted.  Men, women.  The shooter isn’t dead.  Not yet.  Each day the drones fly into Pakistan.  Killer bees.  Sometimes they hit their targets.  Sometimes not.  There is always collateral damage – meaning innocents killed.  On it goes.  Be grateful you don’t know the shooters or the shot or the blown up.  Not this time.

Listen.

Before there is joy, there is grief.  Sadness sits heavy like stones.  Let it turn us to stone for awhile.  Until one day we realize again that when we breathe, the stone shifts, rolls away.  Then it is possible to see beyond the violence.  Then there is joy.  The world is more than destruction.   There is hope.  Something beyond this.  Find it where you will.  But find it.  Beside you, before you, behind you.  Something.  For the sake of company or comfort.  For the sake of others who, like you, search for it.   There is love.  Behind and beyond destruction is creation itself.  Ever-flowing, said Origen, so long ago.  And around is love.  All around.  Seeping up from unexpected places.  Emerging from darkness.  Reaching toward us.  Even as we reach toward others.  First those we know…family, friends…then those we don’t.  It is the way out of darkness.  There is peace.  There is peace.  Peace in unfearfulness.  Peace in curiosity.  In struggle.  In not knowing.

Engage this messy time and place.  Where creator and creature find each other.  And embrace.

charles patterson curry

Read the rest of the article by Engage Minnesota’s Zafar Siddiqui here.

When trials and tribulations hit, many people struggle in search for meaning while others fall in despair or seek means of escapism.

Many faiths offer counseling on how to deal with trials and tribulations.  In Islam – trials and tribulations are expected to hit as a test of faith and growth, and in face of them, Muslims are to remind themselves and each other that: “Allah suffices us, and is the best to rely on.” (Qur’an 3:173)

The recent earthquake in Haiti is one such example.  The earthquake has destroyed homes, damaged infrastructure, and the Haitian government has now confirmed a death toll of 170,000 and estimated over 300,000 injured.  To add to the disaster, the rescue and relief efforts are severely limited by a shortage of resources.

In light of such large-scale destruction, many are left asking how this could happen and are now searching for answers.  Where is the Divine Mercy in all of this?  Where is justice? Where is the Divine Wisdom? Many atheists are now using this as another example that God does not exist.   Sheikh Nuh Keller will offer a reply in a free online event on Sunnipath.com

Event timing

This event will be on Saturday, February 13th, at 10am.  Registration is required.  Register here.

The event is free and open to the public.

Who is Sheikh Nuh Keller?

Sheikh Nuh Keller is an American-Muslim master of Islamic spirituality, specialist in Islamic Law, and translator. Born in 1954 in the north-western United States, he was educated in philosophy and Arabic at the University of Chicago and UCLA. He became Muslim in 1977 at al-Azhar in Cairo, and later studied the traditional Islamic Sciences in Syria and Jordan, where he has lived since 1980.

The Bosphorous Dialogue Association, a student organization currently registered with the University of Minnesota, and the Niagara Foundation of Minnesota, a Minnesota state/Twin Cities-based interfaith dialogue group — invite interested members of the public to be their guests at the 2nd Annual Dinner of Abrahamic Traditions at 6:30 pm on the 11th of February, 2010.  This is a unique opportunity for members of the Christian, Islamic, and Jewish faiths to celebrate their shared roots and traditions derived from their common ancestor, the Prophet Abraham (Peace Be Upon Him).

Our guests are going to be composed of friends from diverse backgrounds such as leaders of churches, mosques, and synagogues as well as community and businesses.

We sincerely hope that you will be our honored guests and join us.

Kindest regards,

Murat Ergen                                                 Askar Yussupov
President                                                      President

P.S.: Northern Lights Society (NLS) has organized many interfaith and intercultural events in Minnesota since 2001. To expand our friendship beyond any boundaries, NLS decided to merge with its sister organization, Niagara Foundation-a leading presence in Midwest at the end of 2009. NLS will continue to serve the community as Niagara Foundation of Minnesota.