Being There

11/19/2017

I want to thank all my friends, colleagues, and family members who contributed to the success of our 1st Annual Turkey Drive. We set a goal to give 35 turkeys to the Urban Ministry Center and we exceeded our goal with an even 40.

I want to give a huge Thank You to the Urban Ministry Center for giving us opportunity to contribute to the Thanksgiving dinner for the neighbors and to Food Lion for giving us a hefty discount on the turkeys and again to everybody who contributed. God bless you all and I wish you all a very Happy and Wonderful Thanksgiving!

05/01/2016

It was an honor and a blessing to have Wajahat Ali and Rose Hamid to be a part of this program. Thank you both very much for speaking and taking Q&A from the audience.

Wajahat and Rose hit it out of the park. The information, knowledge, and experiences they provided were invaluable. And somehow The Iron Sheikh and Samuel L. Jackson were mentioned :)

I also want to give a huge, huge thanks to Afzal Syed from the Charlotte Muslim Forum for organizing this program with me every step of the way and the UNCC MSA.

07/27/2015

Everyone,

Each year MeckMin hosts “In Our Own Backyard”, there interfaith summer leadership camp for high school students. The camp begins this evening and continues through Saturday and will kick off, as always, with a Poverty Simulation conducted by Crisis Assistance Ministries (CAM). They need your help to make this successful. The activity takes a large number of volunteer helpers to be meaningful and they need 6-8 more people.

They need volunteers today from 6pm-9pm Trinity Episcopal School’s Cafeteria (750 E 9th St., Charlotte, NC 28202). Volunteers simply facilitate stations of the simulation – you are given a detailed packet of info explaining your role and we will provide training between 6-7pm so that folks know exactly what to do and how to interact with our campers.

Good candidates for this would be people involved in local mission outreach, college students and clergy or staff that have not been exposed to a CAM poverty simulation in the past. Thank you!

If you are available this evening, please reply to this thread, or contact Danny Trapp at [email protected] or feel free to PM us.

07/16/2015

The Interfaith Iftar we co-organized (and part of my speech) made it on to URI's website! Thank you United Religions Initiative and Sari At Uri for giving Being There a huge shout out.

During the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, United Religions Cooperation Circles across North America hosted interfaith iftars -- fast-breaking meals -- and celebrations for community members to get to know and celebrate with their Muslim neighbors.

07/07/2015

All houses of worship are sanctuaries

"We want for others what we want for ourselves: the right to worship without intimidation, the right to safety, and the right to property."

07/06/2015

We had a great turnout yesterday, giving out 150 lunches to the homeless. Thank you United Muslim Relief for sponsoring and coming out.

06/26/2015

We had a great turnout at the Iftar yesterday. What a great atmosphere and great mix of people. Some pics are posted below, I hope you put up more soon. Below is part of the speech that I presented to everyone yesterday, which is something we must all act upon:

Human connection is the foundation for peace. If we have the opposite - disconnection, it will lead to division, and even worse, conflict. We see it or read about it every day, it happens between classes, races, and religions. We have seen it in Charleston, Ferguson, Baltimore, Sandy Hook, Columbine, and the list goes on and on. We have also seen the opposite, people coming together and supporting each other, uniting against hate and bigotry. To me, nothing on this earth is more powerful than the human connection.

Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) once said: "All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over a black nor a black has any superiority over a white - except by piety and good action." In other words, All Lives Matter. We can all agree on this.

You may have heard this before, but I would like to emphasize that we need to get up and meet people we do not usually meet with, outside our social gatherings, and get to know one another. This should not be a one-time occurrence; we need to continue the conversation and find solutions, together, that can be implemented in our communities.

We need to inspire and be inspired. We need to push our body and mind to do what our heart wants, because all it wants is good. Don’t be afraid to take action; even if you are, do it afraid. Great connections and stories come from people who embark on the journey, on the journey to peace.

To sum it all in one word- Connect.

06/24/2015

Can't wait for tomorrows Interfaith Iftar at Masjid Ash-Shaheed. This will be a great opportunity to connect with members of various faith communities. You can still RSVP, and we will be taking walk-ins as well. If you are available, come and join us. The event information is pinned to the top of this page.

06/19/2015

Our hearts and minds continue to be with the victims, the congregation of the historic Emanuel A.M.E. Church, and the Charleston community.

The horrific shooting that left nine dead at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston will be "etched in that community forever," according to Rev. Arthur Price. As pastor of

06/11/2015

We had a great turnout this past Sunday, giving over 100 lunches to the homeless, from volunteers of various faiths. Thank you to all who came out. We are currently scheduling more dates, and will keep you all posted of when the next one will be.

05/30/2015

How one Pakistani town mastered religious tolerance.

If you think Pakistan is all about bombing churches, destroying temples, Talibanisation, slaughtering religious minorities and forced conversion, I would request you to visit Mithi, a small district town, at least once. Mithi gives interfaith harmony a new meaning.

05/30/2015

Muslims And Jews Spent A Day Of Prayer Together And The Result Was Beautiful

On a quiet California morning in May, a group of Jews and Muslims came together on a Los Angeles beach to pray. The worshippers laid out prayer mats and the sounds of their chanting, in both Hebrew