I arrived safely at the ISNA convention after a tedious 20 minute metro (subway) ride into DC. Went straight to Jummah which Imam Mohammed Magid gave. He basically discussed the importance of working for Islam in this country by various different means is the ultimate pursuit of happiness (the theme of ISNA this year) since that is jannah. If we dedicate ourselves to Islamic work we will, inshaAllah, be on our way to jannah.

Usually almost every convention I attend I’m usually a volunteer for something. Last year I retired and decided to be a regular attendee; same with this year (although minor work was required – not to be considered volunteer). After Jummah I didn’t go to any lecture. I went to eat with family and that took a good portion of the time away and then walked through the bazaar. Walking through the bazaar was even longer than eating. At one point it took me about 1 hour to walk about 10 steps. It wasn’t crowded at all, but I had met many brothers I haven’t seen in a long time.

After that, prayed maghrib then headed home. Yeah I slept early Friday night (or attempted to) so I can have energy for Saturday, inshaAllah/

Shout out to the Stony Brook crew, “Stony Crooks”, Nurayn & Ammar AlShukry at AlMaghrib booth, brothers at AlMadina Institute (can’t wait for Pearls of the Quran!!!), the UK brothers at Lawung (AMAZING THOUBS!), themuslimblogger at Faith Publications, Azeem and ChillYoIslamYo at Muslim Ad Network, Naeem and Islamic Relief, Amir Sulaiman’s brothers at New Muslim Cool (inshaAllah you got the video resolution at the optimal view, ), TermiNader Khan, Shaykh Faraz, Shaykhs YQ & YB and everybody else I forgot that I said salaams to.

PS – For those waiting for the video blogging, yes I will do that. Friday I wasn’t fully prepared. InshaAllah, Saturday you’ll see some videos!

Details can be found on the MuslimsUnitedForChange.com website.

This is the best project I have ever seen in a long time. May God make it successful. Ameen!

We need to learn more about our history here.

Details here.

Divine Link: Fiqh of Salah
Taught by Shaykh Yaser Birjas
July 10-12 & 17-19

Crowne Plaza Hotel
2 Harmon Plaza
Secaucus, NJ 07094

Details here.

Spurred by a broad coalition of religious, labor and immigrant groups, the City Council overwhelmingly passed a resolution on Tuesday to add two of the most important Muslim holy days to the public schools’ holiday calendar.

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Imam Talib Abdur-Rashid, a leader of the campaign to add the holidays, said that if the mayor continued to oppose the move, the results for him at the voting booth could be “catastrophic” among the city’s roughly 600,000 Muslims.

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The resolution’s advocates said that since about 12 percent, or more than 100,000, of the city’s public school students are Muslim, they deserved recognition. The two holidays have already been adopted by school districts including Dearborn, Mich., and several municipalities in New Jersey.

Source

I wonder if the NYC public schools will follow the global moon sighting view or the local moon sighting view.

US troops have withdrawn from towns and cities in Iraq, six years after the invasion, having formally handed over security duties to new Iraqi forces. A public holiday – National Sovereignty Day – has been declared, and the capital, Baghdad, threw a giant party to mark the eve of the changeover. Hours before the Monday night deadline, four US soldiers were killed in combat. US-led combat operations are due to end by September 2010, with all troops gone from Iraq by the end of 2011.

Source

It is fitting that today’s deadline for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq’s cities coincides with a meeting in Baghdad to auction off some of the country’s largest oil fields to companies such as ExxonMobil, Chevron and British Petroleum. It is a reminder of the real motives for the 2003 invasion and in whose interests over one million Iraqis and 4,634 American and other Western troops have been killed. The Iraq war was, and continues to be, an imperialist war waged by the American ruling elite for control of oil and geo-strategic advantage.

Source

ISNA is the same weekend as JOF but it’s in DC which is much closer for me (and I already planned to go before I knew of JOF), but for all the brothers and sisters in Canada, JOF is in your country, meaning you won’t have to cross the border and face our lovely homeland security check points.

The website for the event appears to be still under construction.

Source: IslamCrunch post here.

Hummus can be very dangerous to Israelis. They are afraid of its killer taste.

A West Bank checkpoint managed by a private security company is not allowing Palestinians to pass through with large water bottles and some food items, Haaretz has learned.

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The security company also dictates the quantity of items allowed: Five pitas, one container of hummus and canned tuna, one small bottle or can of beverage, one or two slices of cheese, a few spoonfuls of sugar, and 5 to 10 olives. Workers are also not allowed to carry cooking utensils and work tools.

Eat more here.

May God bring justice to the innocent people under an oppressive regime unchecked by “Free and Democratic” world.