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lecturesnthoughts.wordpress.com

I moved to:

lecturesnthoughts.wordpress.com

On MAS-NY Fundraising

MAS-NY has many branches (subchapters as MAS-NY calls it). These branches are taking on a very serious responsibility on implementing the mission of MAS on the local grassroots level. In order "to move people to strive for God-consciousness, liberty, and justice, and to convey Islam with utmost clarity," as MAS mission says, and in order to realize a "Just and virtuous American society," as we see ourselves doing, we need to be very involved. We need to build Masjids, run schools, offer tarbiya programs to all sectors of the community, and to engage in the civic work of the society. We need to take care of our youth and develop them to carry the torch forward.

However, MAS has a unique opportunity that is different from all other local organizations. MAS leverage the large network of local presence in creating a vibrant effort on a larger scale. We benefit from each others' experience; we provide training to local workers; we push in the same directions; we take on responsibilities and challenges that no single local group or organization can take; and we create synergy between all local effort.

Our local work is only successful if supported by work on both the chapter (NY) and the national levels coordinating and supporting this large local network of MAS members and teams. NY is a unique city. It has a unique value in the whole world. It is one of the most important cities and by far the most influential. It is also a city of over 500,000 Muslims and Muslim youth are large in numbers.

Driving the good work of MAS forward in such a city cannot happen by the effort of a local teams only. It also cannot happen on the shoulders of volunteers only. MAS-NY should be able to hire a staff to provide support and training to all local projects, to hold large magnitude projects throughout the large city, to create a strong youth movement in schools and universities, to engage civically on the city level, to defend the rights of Muslims and others, to stand for big causes and to have a political influence, and to make meaningful results from all the huge, yet sparse, effort take place by many MAS and non-MAS work.

All this effort needs 2 things: 1) a group of dedicated people, and 2) financial means. MAS Tarbiya works so hard to develop those people. What is remaining is the fund. MAS-NY needs to hire the best lawyers, the best outreach staff, and the best youth workers. MAS-NY need to fund scholarship for young men and women studying Islam for the ability to teach it and convey it. MAS-NY needs to be able to hire an admin team to take care of the huge city-spread operation throughout the city.

The Muslim New Yorkers have a huge responsibility towards Islam and towards their people. This is a mandatory responsibility in front of Allah that MAS-NY rose to take on. MAS-NY cannot be successful without the help of all.

Please support, June 7th, Laguardia Marriot 7:00PM

An Islamic Games Thought - 2 things I like about competitive sports

One should reflect on almost everything. I was thinking of the benefits of being in the Islamic Games this past weekend and the answer list was big. The Islamic Games make you see many, say Salam to many, smile in the faces of many, feel the warmth of a community; that is a lot of reward if you have a clear intention.

But there is something unique about it containing competitive games and not just a gathering of Muslims. I am even talking in particular about games where the competition happens real time when two team compete against each other and not that where the competition is against time or score (like gymnastics for example :-) )

The 2 things I like the most are:

I - Competitive games show the reality of people. It puts all of us under the pressure of competition which shows our real personality and push some buttons rarely pushed in real life. I can see myself and my teammates as well as other team members behaving in a way that is a little different than that when they are relaxed. When we yell at the ref., when we yell at each others, when we yell at the other team, when we even yell at ourselves and our performance we show an example of us when we are challenged in real life. When we yell at the ref it shows our tendency to blame "unfairness" taking place beyond our hands without focusing on what we should do to overcome this "unfairness" if it really exisits. When we yell at each others it shows how much of a team we are. When we yell at the other team, and sometimes become a little physical or angry at them, it shows how much competing for worldly matters is more important to us than genuine issues such as brotherhood and love for the sake of Allah.

II - Competitive games sets a clear example of who will be able to win and when victory will take place. You can find the pillars of success in life while playing competitive games. When you see clear team work in the field, when you see clear leadership and full compliance to this leadership especially in crucial time during the game, when you see support from team members, when you see a spirit of winning, when you see patience in overcoming our tiredness and  our temptations to take jobs other than ours, when you experience our ability not to give up when we lose partially in the middle of the game, when you see support from people who are not playing yet would like the team to win, when you see the subs under the temptation of wanting to play prefer to sit out to give a chance for those who can do a better job, when you see us passing the ball to people even if they are not fully skillful and cheering them up when they make mistakes, you know that we are about to win. When you see otherwise, you will expect otherwise.

I really enjoyed the Islamic games and I really enjoyed reflecting on our team and other teams as well. I was very happy not only with the number of gold medals we got but with the attitude of winning that we demonstrated. I am upset from some of the mistakes some of us did but the overall spirit was a spirit of victory. Since competitive games is a very pressuring moment, I expect this spirit to hold when we carry on with our real endeavor.

There is an App for that

Inspired by my new phone and the ad campaign "there is an App for that," my kids showed me, I was extremely excited by the "movement" iPhone created. "35,000 applications and the it keeps coming," their website says. If you want to play, there is an App for that; if you want to work, there is an App for that; if you want to dream, there is an App for that. Isn't it a nice campaign?

I was thinking about the many local and national Muslim organization that are trying their best to offer a value and a service to the society in general and the Muslim community in particular. If you want to learn, there is an Org for that; if you want to advocate, there is an Org for that.; if you want to have fun, there is an Org for that; if you want to gather, there is an Org for that. Even if you want to vent, there is an Org for that :-)

However, all these iPhone applications gained value and created such a large movement because of the platform, the iPhone. The iPhone is what made them valuable and the iPhone is what gave them the chance. The iPhone is what created the movement where everyone became part of.

In order for all this effort on the analogous side of the Muslim organizations to create real value, in order for it to be a movement of khair (good) where everyone can benefit and benefit others, there should be the platform. I ask Allah to enable MAS to be this platform where everyone can participate and everyone can bring about value.

The iPhone is:

- a cool platform

- suitable for many

- very well known

- an open platform where not only iPhone can develop applications

but

- somehow expensive

- available only for AT&T customers

MAS should be

- a cool platform

- suitable for all

- very well known

- an open platform where all and not only MAS can participate

and

- inexpensive

- available for all customers

When you start over

When you start over, make sure that you are NOT

• giving up,
• going to stick again at the same point and start over, again and again,
• demolishing what you have already established,
• deceived by the excitement of new things,
• just doing the very same thing over, or
• doing that because you do not know how to complete.

My personal reflection on the situation in Gaza

Just some personal reflections

As usual, your comments are more than welcome

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