— Muslim Alliance of Indiana

Register for the 2015 Conference at 2015maiconference.eventbrite.com

Congratulations to our Award Winners

Dr. Sayyid M. Syeed Interfaith Excellence Award 

Organization: Indiana Center for Middle East Peace

Individual: Imam Michael Saahir

Honorable Judge David Shaheed Access to Justice Award

Afshan Paarlberg and Ali Saeed 

MAI Community Service Award

Nayab Ahmed* 

Ahmad Rami Saltagi, MD

MAI Award for Organizational Excellence 

Eman Schools

MAI Civic Engagement Award 

Amin Alghani 

Babar Suleman Award for Creative Leadership 

Muslims of the World 

Reclamation Studios 

Exemplary Professional Achievement Award 

Mariama Shaheed Carson

 

Muslims of the World

by Sajjad Shah

Awardee of Babar Suleman Award for Creative Leadership

 

I always had this huge desire to connect the Ummah together.  I would travel and see so many different Muslims and realize that we are all going through similar struggles and internal conflicts.  I wanted people to relate to each other and connect with each other on a large scale.  Therefore, I decided to try to get Muslims to open up and share their personal stories with the world on a social platform that I started called “Muslims of the World.”  I started getting stories from inspirational people in my community, then other communities in America started to join and send in stories and next thing you know I was getting stories from all over the world and people were loving it.  It has been almost one year and I hit close to 200,000 followers between Facebook and Instagram.

 

The page has connected so many people and I even had a few people meet and get married from the platform.  The page introduced tons of new and neat Islamic business ideas.  One of the big projects I did was selling a water proof hijab on kickstarter and …within one month Muslims of the World raised close to 40,000 dollars for that company.  The social platform also has done a lot from a philanthropy side.  I remember  very vividly a sister reaching out to me who had the misfortune of getting acid thrown all over her face by some jerk.  Her face was completely disfigured and it was so bad I could not tell if it was a male or a female.  She was trying to get my help to raise money for her surgery.  I put her story on Muslims of the World and within four days I raised close to 35,000 which allowed her to get her surgery.  The platform has raised money for all sorts of non for profits as well. 

 

Our most recent project was for a masjid in Indianapolis, Indiana.  It caught fire and the entire Masjid was ruined.  I decided to try to raise money on my platform for the masjid.  In four days I raised about 50,000 dollars Alhamdulillah.  Every day I get messages that are so encouraging and getting responses from people that they have been so inspired by the stories.  This is what makes it so fulfilling for me.  It makes me happy to make others happy and inspired.  Inshallah this page continues to grow and my next plan is to create a social platform to help Muslims who are seeking money for serious emergencies!  Thanks for taking the time to read my story! 

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Too often in recent years, the 1.6 billion Muslims in the world—including 5 to 7 million Muslims in the United States— have been pressed to answer for the actions of small groups of extremists. The rise of these groups and their claims to act in the name of Allah and his Messenger (peace be upon him) have caused many to question where exactly Islam stands on issues of violence, freedom, and equality.
The Indiana-based project Reclamation Studios, headed by Evansville imam Omar Atia, has launched a series of “webisodes” that aim to address those issues. The “not in HIS name” series answers questions such as “Does Islam sanction violence?”, “Does Islam devalue women?”, and “Why don’t Muslims denounce ISIS?”, backing up their positions with citations from the Quran and Sunnah.
These videos are a resource not only for non-Muslim Americans who have questions about Islam, but also for Muslims themselves who are seeking to better understand their own faith. As the series continually stresses, both groups have more in common than they may think, with the principles of Islam aligning closely with the principles of America and other faiths.
For too long, both Islamophobes and Islamic extremists have taken advantage of social media networks to spread misinformation about Islam and recruit others to their cause. The Muslim Alliance of Indiana commends Reclamation Studios and their partners for using those same channels to counter misinterpretations of the faith and promote the Islam that most Muslims practice.
MAI shares Reclamation Studios’ goals of celebrating the universality of faith and elevating the human family. We too know that education is the strongest weapon we have against extremism and hatred, and we join these Muslim Hoosiers in stating unequivocally that the actions of extremists are #notinHISname.

This summer MAI present to you multiple workshops all across the state.

Please note the following important information, before registration:
-Registration Fee includes breakfast & lunch. Please contact Hannah Croucher (hannah@indianamuslims.org) if you have any special dietary preferences. Lunch will have a vegetarian option – please contact Hannah if you require this as your choice.
-Attendance will qualify for 7 CEU hours (1 Ethics hour included) for social workers. A certificate for attendance will be offered to all other attendees.
-Seating is limited for first 100 registrants.

For registration details and dates click here.