“Crawl in, Or Reach Out” By F. Sheikh

After Boston Marathon Bombing, one Muslim woman remarked on her Facebook page ” I feel like crawling in the closet and not come out”. I am sure many of us has similar feelings or thoughts.

But despite this difficult to come out moment, Islamic Center of Rockland ( ICR ) continued its outreach efforts and invited a group of fellow Americans from Orangeburg library to visit the Mosque and observe last Friday’s Prayer.After listening to Sermons(Khutba-posted on our website) and observing prayer, there was a question answer session. Mr. Azeem Farooki is spearheading this program on behalf of Islamic Center, and  received following heartening comments in two e-mails;

From:<rcls.org>
Date: April 22, 2013, 10:42:49 AM EDT
To: <farookiazeem
Subject: Thank you!

‘Hi Azeem!

The card I sent should arrive at the mosque in a few days, but I want to thank you and all the others that helped with Friday’s program.  I’ve gotten numerous emails from the patrons who attended, saying what a wonderful program it was, how they enjoyed meeting everyone, and how much they learned.”

Second E-Mail

“On Apr 22, 2013, at 8:16 PM,

 Dear Mr. Farooki,
 
 I was a member of the group from the Orangeburg Library that attended your mosque on Friday. I wanted to thank you and the other members of the Islamic Center for your kindness and hospitality in hosting our group. It was just a wonderful experience to observe the prayer service, and the sermon was absolutely terrific. Then, you and your colleagues were so kind and patient in answering the many questions of the group. The gift of the books about the Qur’an was so very special.
 
Thank you again for a most rewarding afternoon,”

On April 25th, 2013, Rockland Community College & Islamic Center of Rockland are holding a program  ” Promoting Muslim Understanding”, and below is its e-mail invitation;

Please join us

Thursday, April 25, 11 a.m.

Film: Persepolis

Technology Center, Room 8180 (Ellipse)

Admission: Free and open to the public

The film is a “poignant coming-of-age story of a precocious and outspoken young Iranian girl that begins during the Islamic Revolution.” The viewing will be followed by an open dialogue with Azeem Farooki of the Islamic Center of Rockland. Refreshments will be served.

Please join us!

— 
Sarah N. Levy
Interim Library Director
Rockland Community College Library
145 College Road
Suffern NY 10901

(845) 574-4472; 574-4097

Islamic Center of Rockland not only holds interfaith meetings but also regularly invites a group of students from local schools to visit the Mosque and ask questions.  ICR joins local church and Synagogue for distribution of Thanksgiving meals. This year it has started its own Soup Kitchen for poor on major holidays.

Although tragedies like Boston Bombing sets back years of efforts, but recoiling or crawling in is not the option.The purpose of this writing is that if all Islamic Centers and Mosques have similar programs, it will go a long way to counter onslaught of stereotyping and demonizing propaganda. Apart from cleaning our own house, energetic involvement in the sociopolitical activities is more important than ever to safeguard the future generations from this stereotyping and demonetization.

Two related Articles;

Link to “Today’s Friday Payer’s Sermons- Courageous & Right on Target”

http://www.thinkersforumusablog.org/archives/5568

Are We Failing Our Young Muslim Generation?

http://www.thinkersforumusablog.org/archives/5587

 

 

Stunted children in India, the Largest Democracy

( Shared By Akhtar Ehtisham)

By SiliconIndia | Tuesday, 16 April 2013,

Bangalore: More than 61 million stunted children are
from India, findings by the United Nations Children’s Fund have
revealed. These children remain weak both intellectually and physically
for the rest of their lives, the reason for this being malnutrition.
These children make up for over a quarter of those coming under five
years of age and this will mean that the potentials of over a quarter of
these five year old kids have gone for a waste, which is more than
unfair, reported Shawn Pogatchnik for AP.

According to UNICEF’s executive director, Anthony Lake, since 2010, lack of clean water, vitamins and a better focus on breast feeding
to these kids would have helped prevent this sad fate of these
children. These children will in fact remain increasingly vulnerable to
various illnesses and may even face an early death, he said.

“Stunting is the least understood, least recognized and least acted
upon crisis. It is a hidden crisis for these children,” said Lake, as
has been reported by the AP.

These kids have been deprived from folic acid, iron and vitamin which
are so vital at the time of their development in the womb. “Stunted
doesn’t mean simply short,” Lake said. “The child’s brain never properly
develops. Irrevocably. That’s it. You can’t fix it later. You can fix
being underweight. You can’t fix being stunted after age 2.””What this means is, for the remainder of that child’s life, irrevocably the child
will learn less in school, will earn less later, is more vulnerable to
disease,” he said. “This is a tragic violation of that child’s life, but
it’s also a tremendous strain on that society.”

It was at a global conference in Dublin that Lake had unveiled the findings of his report along with slides of these children’s nerve development, weaker cells and stunted brains.

According to the findings in the U.N report, the highest number of
stunted children had come from twenty four countries spread over South
Asia and the sub Saharan Africa. In fact, more than a half of the
children in places like Madagascar, Niger, Burundi and Timor-Leste under
five years of age suffer a stunted growth.

The largest number of stunted children was from India with a total
population of over 61.7 million stunted children. This makes up for over
forty eight percent of all five year old kids in the country.

The civil war has also led to this problem growing in Syria with the
widespread disruption to family life, schools and healthcare. Prior to
the war, the percentage of stunted children across the country had come
up to over a twenty eight percent.
There
are in fact an endless number of different spots in the world in need
of attention, and various officials in the UNICEF have been in
collaboration with these governments and local aid agencies. The U.N has
been permitted to get education, vitamins and water distributed among
expectant mothers in Syria.

“I’ve never had any (country) push back,” he said. “There’s a natural
reluctance among all governments to say: ‘Yes we have a problem that we
could have fixed quicker.’ So you’re always going to get a little bit of
denial. But I’ve never heard of a country that said: ‘No, we’re not
going to deal with it,'” as reported by AP.

“People too often assume if you get enough food to eat, you’re getting
enough nutrition to head off malnutrition or stunting. The fact is you
can eat lots of food and not get enough nutrients.”
The fact that India which has been free from the shortage of food
possesses the highest number of stunted children shows that ensuring the
ideal growth for kids does not mean letting them eat a lot.

Breast feeding is
something that needs to be highly focused on, especially among mothers
in the Third World. The first six months are of especial importance.
Local dirty water has to be completely avoided since diarrhea is one of
the main factors responsible in creating stunted kids.

Dr. S. Akhtar Ehtisham

 

My Travels to Vietnam & Cambodia-In Pictures

 

By Fayyaz Sheikh

When we think of Vietnam and Cambodia, rice fields and jungles come to mind but these are beautiful countries with rich history, that were unfortunately ravaged by wars. We started our travel from North ( Hanoi) and then traveled south. Our guide took us first to Hanoi Museum and we saw following pictures;

Buraq

Buraq-It took Prophet Mohammad from Mecca to Jerusalem and then to Sky. It has Human’s head, horse’s body, cock’s tail and great wings

Attached to the picture was following description.Tokyo,Singapore, Vietnam,Cambodia, Kua lumpur 143

Quran in Arabic text

Quran in Arabic text

 

Tokyo,Singapore, Vietnam,Cambodia, Kua lumpur 146Quran in Chinese textTokyo,Singapore, Vietnam,Cambodia, Kua lumpur 139Raden Maulana (1465-1525) used puppets to teach Islam in Indonesia.

In Saigon we visited a Mosque. There were Halal food restaurants near the mosque.Tokyo,Singapore, Vietnam,Cambodia, Kua lumpur 459

Mosque in Saigon

Mosque in Saigon

RELIGION IN VIETNAM AND CAMBODIA

Majority of the population, about 90 %, is Buddhist. There is immense influence of Hindu religion and culture on the society. Religion is a big part of society and Buddhist Temples are everywhere, many converted from Hindu temples to Buddhist temples. As per our guide, Hindu religion came to this part in 1st B.C. when one Brahman came from India,married a local princess and then became a ruler.This whole region practiced Hinduism until 12th century and then started converting to Buddhism. There was some Muslim population, called Chams. There  is a Muslim town in Vietnam called ‘ Mubarak’. At present there are about 70,000 Muslims and about 40,000 Hindu in Vietnam.Pictures bellow tell the story of Hindu religion in Vietnam. Some were part of   Buddhist temples.

Tokyo,Singapore, Vietnam,Cambodia, Kua lumpur 288Tokyo,Singapore, Vietnam,Cambodia, Kua lumpur 289Tokyo,Singapore, Vietnam,Cambodia, Kua lumpur 291

Brahmanist Goddess

Brahmanist Goddess

Brahmanist Goddess

 

Template in Sansikrat

Template in Sansikrat 

Tokyo,Singapore, Vietnam,Cambodia, Kua lumpur 511

An old Buddhist temple in Cambodia with large tree growing in temple. Movie " Tomb Raiders" with Angelina jollie was filmed in this temle.

An old Buddhist temple in Cambodia with large tree growing in temple. Movie ” Tomb Raiders” with Angelina jollie was filmed in this temple.

CULTURE

The northern part ( Hanoi) is more conservative with traditional family values and women mostly wear beautiful traditional dress. As you travel south, it gradually changes and in Saigon you see women mostly in western casual dresses. Men mostly wear casual western dress both in North and South.Food is mostly sea food and rice, but some of the dishes has Indian flavor and spices.Indian restaurants serve very spicy food. In general people are happy, very loving and welcoming. Some pictures:

Door attendant at Hanoi Sheraton with traditional dress.

Door attendant at Hanoi Sheraton with traditional dress.

 

Ldies posing for picture in traditional dress

Ladies posing for picture in traditional dress

 

Food served

Food served

 

Delicious Lamb Chops with Desi flavor

Delicious Lamb Chops with Desi flavor

 

Delicious mangoes are also avalable

Delicious mangoes are also available

In old times Huts were used for living and has different shapes in different part of the country, and some with separate entrances for females.

 

Hut with separate entrance for male and female. Female entrance has Breast sign at stair

Hut with separate entrance for male and female. Female entrance has Breast sign at stair

 

Now many Huts are being replaced by brick "skinny houses" with very small frontage, because lesser the frontage, lower the property taxes.

Now many Huts are being replaced by brick “skinny houses” with very small frontage, because lesser the frontage, lower the property taxes.

In future installments trip to beautiful Halon Bay, Hoi An, Hue, Saigon, Saigon Vietnam War Museum( local feeling and impression about Vietnam War) , Phenom Penh, Siem Reip, Singapore, Kualalumpur and Tokyo.

Thanks!

Fayyaz

 

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