Summer Educational Activities

The summer schedule for Islamic Activites will be changed for the next couple of months:

• Instead of our weekly Fiqh class, we will cover as basic history of Islamic history from the time of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) until modern time. These classes will last until 3 weeks before Ramadan when we resume our fiqh classes before Ramadan starts.
• Middle of July. A visit by the renowned Shaikh Muhammad Salah
• Every Saturday after after Fajr, Weekly community iftar breakfast. Followed by Quran Halaqah by Imam Amr
• First Saturday of every month, Monthly community dinner. Followed by an Open community discussion with Imam Amr
• Sundays after Maghrib. Hadith Qudusi (Divine Hadith) by Imam Amr(/li>
• Thursday after Maghrib. Companions Lives by Shaikh Abdenasser
• Mondays after Maghrib. Imad Ahmad’s Khatira (companions)
• Fridays after Maghrib. Halaqah with Imam Amr. Islamic History
• August 30. CIC (Carolina Islamic Council) meeting in our Masjid + 3 workshops about Ramadan.

We also have:

1. Hadith comments after Fajr & Maghrib by Imam Amr.
2. Sister’s Halaqah every other Thursday
3. Saturday Program (speakers: Imam Mohamed Baianonie, Dr. Hamdy Radwan, and Imam Amr)
4. Other Dawa and social programs like sponsoring an orphan and the project of “FD (food & Dawa) project”.

Siraj Wahhaj is coming to our Masjid

Imam Siraj Wahhaj will be coming to Jamaat Ibad Ar-Rahman on Sunday, June 1st 2008 to give two lectures at our Masjid. The first lecture is our Annual Fundraiser and is entitled Share: When you Care…It Shows; When You Share…We Grow! This lecture will be held from 11:30am - 1:00pm. Imam Qasim Khan will be the additional guest speaker for this first event.

The second lecture by Imam Siraj Wahhaj is sponsored by the Da’wah committee and will begin at 6:30pm. Refreshments will be served at 6:00pm. The title for this talk is Effective Solutions for Anti-Crime in Community Life. The event will be held at our Masjid. Imam Siraj Wahhaj has been very active in the Da’wah movement and improving the communities around him.

Imam Siraj is has been giving lectures around the world for over three decades and is considered one of the most respected Muslim leaders in America. The Imam is currently the Amir of the Muslim Alliance of North America (MANA) and is the Imam of Masjid Al-Taqwa in Brooklyn, NY. Siraj has been active in many Islamic organizations. He has been Vice President of the Islamic Society of North America since 1997 and has served on the Majlis Ash-Shura, a consultative council of Islamic scholars, since 1987. He is a member of the Board of Advisors for the American Muslim Council and has also served on the national board of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Our main reason for inviting the Imam is his proven record in fighting crime and improving the quality of life for people living in high crime areas. How did Imam Siraj and the Muslims in Brooklyn clean up their neighborhood? How did they bring members of the community together to fight crime? Did it succeed in the long run? This will be the focus of the following story and hopefully the lessons we learn from it can be applied to our own neighborhoods and communities.

Imam Siraj came into Islam by joining a group called the Nation of Islam in 1969. Even though this is not what one would call “Orthodox Islam”, it was his introduction to Islam. What drew Siraj to the Nation of Islam at that time was not the message of Islam, the articles of faith in the Quran, or the actions of the Prophet Muhammad. This is not to say that the the Imam was not interested in these aspects of religion, it was simply that he was unaware of these tenants of belief at that time. What appealed to Siraj about the Nation of Islam was its message of social justice and empowering black people in determining their own destinies.

The leader of the Nation of Islam at that time was Elijah Muhammad and he attracted prominent Americans like Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali to the movement. In 1975 when Elijah Muhammad died his son Warith Deen Mohammad pointed Siraj and others in the Nation of Islam to the direction of “Orthodox Islam” which became very important to the Imam and allowed him to learn more about God and his final, beloved messenger Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him).

Imam Siraj established Masjid At-Taqwa in Brooklyn in 1981. At that time it was one of the worst areas in the city in terms of crime. The captain of the 79th precinct, the area in which the Masjid is located, said that this was one of the worst precincts in Brooklyn in terms of drugs, murders, shootings, and robberies. This was an area of darkness and despair. There were fifteen crack houses on this block alone.

In 1987-88 the Imam and his congregation had enough and decided to start a comprehensive anti-drug campaign to get rid of those crack houses. They implemented a three prong strategy to deal with this problem. First they formed an alliance with the police department. They organized a large anti-drug rally asking thousands of people to gather on a certain date, which they did, and then asked the police department to simultaneously raid each one of those fifteen drug houses and get the drug dealers out. Imam Siraj told the police that, “If you get them out, we will keep them out” And that’s what happened.

For forty days and forty nights the Imam and a group of Muslim brothers, dressed in their abayas (traditional Muslim garb) stood in front of those crack houses and said, “No more drug will be sold here!” As you know this is a very dangerous action to undertake but the Muslim brothers had a very strong faith in the Almighty God, an unshakeable courage and an empowering spirit of commitment in working together to stand up to the drug dealers.

The second prong of attack in this anti-crime measure involved the media. The Muslims at Masjid At-Taqwa took the time to understand the drug dealers they were going up against. Drug dealers are business men and business people running illegal operations don’t want attention drawn to them. They assumed that the Muslims would only be there for a couple of days and then go away and things would return to business as usual. They were wrong.

What happened was that the media started to cover this event and it further frightened off the drug dealers because more attention was being drawn to them. And they knew they had to avoid the attention if their business was to succeed. But then the New York Times ran a front page story on what was happening in the Bedford-Stiverson area of Brooklyn. Time, Newsweek, US News & World Report and journalists from all over the world including France and Turkey came to cover this event and wanted to know how the Muslims cleaned up this crime invested neighborhood in New York.

The final aspect that helped rid the neighborhood of the drug dealers during that time was that the criminal elements in the city had an inherent respect for the Muslims. They knew the Muslims were not people to mess with and that they would not simply quit and run away scared. The Muslims were people who were hard working, honest, patient, courageous and committed to a set of values and morals which they would not deviate from.

Of course this is not to say that all criminals will respect or fear Muslims. There is certainly a percentage of very evil criminals who have no respect for anyone; the church, the synagogue their families, law enforcement, or even guns. Nor do we want to paint a picture that a majority of criminals all respect Muslims and would not try to fight them because if that was the case this sort of anti-crime measure would take place all over America.

But what it does highlight is that the Muslims and other people committed to their faiths need to build up this respect again and this is part of the mission that Imam Siraj is trying to accomplish as he travels across the United States. We wants to teach people to gain respect through building strong character traits and cultivating a commitment to improving the community around them.

The prologue to the story is that people were ecstatic with how their neighborhoods changed and how this action by a few concerned citizens literally changed their lives and their standard and quality of living. This anti-crime initiative was not limited to only Imam Siraj’s community but it produced “copycat” programs among Muslims and their neighbors across the country who wanted to emulate the model that Masjid At-Taqwa used in cleaning up their neighborhoods.
Please try your best to come out to this event on Sunday, June 1st and listen to this enlightening and dynamic lecture by Imam Siraj Wahhaj. Everyone is invited to attend. Hopefully each one of us can take away something beneficial from his talk and apply it to our own lives and our communities.

Sister’s Educational Program

Jamaat Ibad Ar-Rahman is pleased to offer Fiqh and Arabic classes for all sister’s in the community. Fiqh classes are held on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of each month between 7:00pm - 8:00pm. Arabic classes each Sunday after Salatul Dhuhr with Imam Amr. Sister’s are welcome to join either class at any time. There is no registration cost or fees. Finally, there is a Sister’s halaqah on Thursday from 12:30pm- 1:30pm. All sister’s are invited.

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