June 1995, Pages 72-73

American Muslim Activism

By Greg Noakes

ICNA, National Community Plan Conferences

The Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) will hold its 20th annual convention at Pennsylvania's Bloomsburg University from June 30 to July 2. This year's convention will focus on the guidance of the Qur'an and will feature an extensive exhibit of rare Qur'ans and Qur'anic manuscripts. For information on registration, speakers and convention activities, contact ICNA's national headquarters at tel. (718) 658-5163, fax (718) 526-3645.

The 13th annual shura (consultation) council and riyaadah, or sports day, of the National Community of Imam Jamil al-Amin will be held on July 20-23 at the Greensboro, NC campus of North Carolina A&T University. Planned activities include conferences, speeches and an extensive bazaar, in addition to sports and recreational activities. For more information, call Khalil Abdur-Rahman at (910) 274-9735.

AMC Tours Military Bases

Abdurahman Alamoudi and Qaseem Uqdah of the American Muslim Council (AMC) conducted an April tour of naval installations in Florida to assess the needs of Muslims in the U.S. Navy. Alamoudi and Uqdah met with Muslim and non-Muslim personnel, senior military chaplains and the commanding officers of naval installations in Jacksonville, Mayport and Orlando. AMC, which is the endorsing agency for Muslim chaplains in the U.S. military, announced that the first Muslim Navy chaplain will be named in the near future.

Muslim Relief Agencies React to Oklahoma Bombing

A number of Muslim relief organizations contributed to humanitarian efforts to assist victims and their families following the April 19 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City. In addition to the activities of the city's Muslim community, Mercy International, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, and the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO) organized relief efforts, while a number of individual Muslim doctors also rushed to the scene.

Numerous local Muslim communities in the U.S. and Canada held fund-raising drives after the bombing, and Nihad Awad of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), who attended the April 23 memorial service in Oklahoma City, presented Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating with checks totaling $21,000. "On behalf of the people of Oklahoma, let me thank you again for the most generous contribution to the Victims and Families Fund," Keating wrote Awad. "I am immensely proud of Oklahomans of all races, creeds and faiths. May Allah bless you always," the governor concluded.

CAIR circulated a nationwide questionnaire to detail intimidation and hate crimes directed against American Muslims in the wake of the bombing. Responses were being compiled as the Washington Report went to press. For more information on the forthcoming report, contact CAIR at tel. (202) 638-6340, fax (202) 638-6412, and e-mail: cair1@ix.netcom.com.

UASR Seminars Continue

The round-table discussion series conducted by the United Association for Studies and Research (UASR) continued with programs by University of Maryland Professor Charles Butterworth, who examined political Islam in light of Western conceptions of liberty, and Peter Bechtold, chairman of Near East & North African Studies at the Foreign Service Institute, who discussed "Islamist Sudan and the New Mid-East: Precursor of the Future."

Butterworth noted that Western civilization set as its goal the promotion of virtue among its citizens, and that liberty was seen as an indispensable tool to achieve that goal. "It is only because we have come to doubt that there are wise people who can administer our affairs—either because they are not all that wise or because they have their own interests at heart—that we have come to prefer to rule ourselves," Butterworth argued. He suggested that religion and liberty were not polar opposites, saying "the mark of the human being is free choice, but choice must be deliberate." Butterworth said American policymakers too often sacrifice long-term stability for short-term interests in their approach to the Muslim world.

In his address, Bechtold argued that Sudan's current situation has to be analyzed in light of the country's history, noting, for example, that framing the nation's civil conflict in terms of "north and south" was too simplistic. Bechtold said Sudan's Islamist government came to power too soon and was thus unprepared for the political opposition it has met, resulting in the country's current instability. Both panels were organized by UASR's Ahmed Yousef and moderated by Imad ad-Dean Ahmad, president of the Minaret of Freedom Institute. For more information on upcoming panels, contact UASR at tel. (703) 750-9011, fax (703) 750-9010.

Fatwa Phone Center Founded

The Islamic Assembly of North America (IANA) has established a National Research and Fatwa (Islamic legal opinion) Center accessible by phone, fax and e-mail. The center will conduct research projects, post a "tape of the month" with a selected fatwa, and sponsor a toll-free hot-line to put American Muslims in touch with Islamic legal scholars in order to resolve questions related to proper Islamic practice. English-speaking Muslim males may call Mondays and Fridays from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. EDT, while English-speaking Muslim women may telephone on Tuesdays from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. EDT. The center can be contacted at tel. (800) 95-FATWA, fax (800) 998-IANA, or e-mail: IANAfatwa@aol.com.

Gallaudet Sponsors Friday Prayers

Friday prayers are now being conducted at Washington, DC's Gallaudet University, the country's premier institute of higher education for the deaf and hearing impaired. Both the khutba, or sermon, and the prayers are translated into sign-language. Readers interested in more information may contact Imam Raqeeb Abduljabbar at (202) 399-6779.

Greg Noakes is the news editor of the Washington Report.