July 1995 Dear Editor

This Ummah is a Single Ummah

by Sr. Hiba Nasser

And verily this Ummah of your is a single Ummah and I am your Lord and Cherisher, therefore fear Me and no other. But people have cut off their affair of unity, between them into sects: each party rejoices in that which is with itself. (23:52-53).

After much planning, discussion, and voting, we have finally achieved a structure that is set up to represent everyone and to help us all to work together and to stay balanced as a Muslim community. The ISGC can do that if we use it properly. In the past, a lot of things did not get done or were not clear because no one talked to anyone else, and because the officers kept changing every year under the MSA (which is fine for students, but not conducive to growth as a permanent community). Now that has changed. Different people know what others are doing, who to contact regarding a particular issue, women are listened to for the first time, women and men can each feel that they are truly represented in a governing and administrative body. Now it is possible that we are being asked to consider a step backwards. It has been proposed by a few that women separate themselves into a sub-organization. Let me explain why I think we should stay intact as a unified organization.

For those of you who do not know, there has been a long history of almost no communication between men and women on the business of the masjid, planning major events, working towards common goals (i.e. full-time school, programs for everyone, both social and educational etc.) There was no one representing all the women (or all the men). Men and women did not know what was going on with the other even when it was a common concern or an Islamic project on which we could collaborate. When it comes to the community needs, goals, and other projects, there needs to be some clear, regular, and timely communication so that everyone who wants to can work together wisely. Also, there are ways now in which we are successfully collaborating without attending meetings together for everything.

It may be that some small groups feel that they are not here permanently and do not have a vested interest in a structure that focuses on permanency. That's a valid feeling but they can meet, study together, socialize, whatever they want and not have to be a separate or "sub' organization of the ISGC. The nature of the ISGC is to be all-inclusive but it allows for some separateness now if we want it. A proposal to separate ourselves from it formally is moving backwards. Nothing in Islam teaches separateness in the Ummah. we are to be a unified community.

The ISGC has a structure that allows for personal differences. Women and men can have separate study groups, separate meetings, and other events. We can pray in separate rooms or the same room, as you like. there is representation for men and women. We can go to a GBR (woman or man) or the Executive Committee or even the Board of Trustees - whoever is appropriate. We can offer help, complain, work, ask questions, literally anything we want to do that is Islamically correct.

The ISGC has not been in place for very long. we need to at least try the system. We can challenge each entity to do something different or better. We have the structure to do anything!

I truly believe that the BOT and the Executive Committee will keep the checks and balances in place so that no one goes too far in any direction. If they don't, you and I can challenge them to do the right thing. The current structure allows for correction from the general membership.

The ISGC is not an entity that came in, imposed something strange on us, and now we have to protect ourselves. No, this is an organization that the majority voted in, and in which we still have a voice. Let's try working with them and help each other to grow in the right direction. We have a lot to accomplish and we must do it together. Let's wait and give everyone a chance to develop. They are inviting our help and criticism - that's part of the structure we have voted in.
Keep in mind, that in the end, we are not meeting just for the sake of meeting; we are not studying Islam just to fill hours: we are trying to establish an Islamic community. The ISGC is one vehicle to do that.

May Allah guide us. May we grow together into a stronger, unified community and, Insha'Allah, make the ISGC the beginning of a true Islamic society beyond our walls.

July 1995 Shame on Perez

by Tarek Jalil

Muslims have grown complacent and sluggish. Actions and deeds have been replaced by excuses and living room, rhetorical talk. Islamic values and rules have slowly melded into cultural concepts and norms. The obvious question is, what does it take to prevent these things from happening? Apparently, a good amount of persecution and turmoil.

The invitation of Shimon Peres to Ohio State University's June 9th commencement was a slap in the face to every Muslim in the world. Peres' contribution and leadership in the Israeli government has contributed to the displacement, persecution, and killing of Muslims in Palestine. What is surprising, is that The Ohio State University, the self-proclaimed institution of diversity (in President Gordon Gee's words) which contains over 50 nationalities invited Peres.

In anticipation to Shimon Peres' arrival, a small, makeshift committee was formed in order to protest his arrival. The five member committee consisted of members of the Islamic Society of Greater Columbus (ISGC), one member of the Muslim Student Association (MSA), and several other members of the community. The committee was able to draft a letter to the OSU newspaper, (The Lantern). In response, two Non-Muslim OSU students declared that the MSA has a "violent" agenda and is only telling half-truths about Israel. flyers were also distributed after Friday prayer containing phone and fax numbers of various OSU officials. The reaction was less than admirable.

Peres' arrival proved to be damaging and detrimental. Part of his speech was dedicated to "fundamentalism" which he declared, "spread among 1 billion and 300 million Muslims with the same old philosophy as communism. Namely, that Muslims believe that goals justify means, that they have permission to terrorize, kill, cheat, and but on a double face." Peres' intent is obvious and debasing. His guise of peace is constantly destroyed by these type of comments, and more detrimentally, his government's actions. Around 5 or 6 brothers walked out of the ceremony, while at the same time, others stayed.

How can a whole community let this type of situation go unheeded? Lack of action now, will lead to more instances of slander, abuse, and humiliation in the future.
Currently, the ISGC and the MSA have formed a new committee to deal with a response to Peres' visit. This time, an effort to recruit support from national and local institutions is under way. On the university level, obtaining a meeting with President Gee and the Director of University Communication, Malcolm Baroway, is crucial for two reasons. First, to explain to President Gee why this decision was irresponsible and biased. Second, to learn how to prevent this in the future. Attempts to arrange a meeting with President Gee have thus far been unsuccessful. It took consistent calling to get a response from President Gee's secretary that his schedule was "up in the air". Hopefully President Gee's decision to stay at OSU stabilized his schedule.

Brothers and sisters can help by writing letters to President Gee requesting he meet with the MSA and explaining the unfairness of the situation. Also provide your name and phone number. ...

Hopefully, the Muslim community will respond quickly and effectively so that these type of events will not happen again. Inshallah, in the future, our supposedly neutral institutions will not take such obvious sides.

Allah (SWT) says, "Do men think they will be left alone on saying, "We believe", and not be tested?" (29:2). Of course, Allah knows best.

June 1995 Election Announcement from ISGC

General Body Representatives
Ali Khalaf
Amr El-Saadany
Fauzi Labidi
Hazem Gheith
Jamil Shalash
Minhaj Uddin
Mulya E. Siregar
Taymour El-Hosseiny
Executive Committee
President: Mohammad Matus
Secretary: Ahmad Al-Akhras
Treasurer: Atef Almosa
Daawa: Siraj Akhtar
Social: Mahmoud Halfawy
Information: Rached Zantout
MSA Executive Committee
President: Aladdin Gohar
Secretary: Abdullah Unatikan
Treasurer: Tarek Jalil

June 1995 IQRA! Celebrates its First Anniversary

This month IQRA! celebrates its first anniversary as the newsletter of the Islamic Society of Greater Columbus. However, IQRA! was established originally as the newsletter of Muslim women's Network. Sr. Hiba Nasser talked to IQRA! about the journey of this publication from dreams to reality.

"Sister Daaiyah Saleem and I had been thinking about a newsletter to serve women's issues. the Sisters at the English Study Circle discussed that and decided to start a newsletter back in November," Sr. Hiba said. "The name IQRA! came from the Holy Quran: Recite. It was the first word in the revelation. we chose Muslim Women's Network not to establish a new organization but rather to support a network for women; to express that IQRA! was a women's effort to help women and open a forum to provide education and support for them. The newsletter started in November 1993 with only 2 ads worth $8. That was the estimation of how much it would cost to produce 76 copies. That was all our ambition at that time," she added.

By May 1994, the editorial board of IQRA! met with members of the Muslim Students Association (MSA) to discuss the idea of expanding IQRA! to meet the needs of the community at large rather than to meet women's needs only. Sr. Daa'iyah, editor in chief then, felt, "IQRA! seems to have tapped into a need of the community."

IQRA! was re-organized in terms of staff, orientation and goals as of June 1994. The new team adopted a 5 point scope which it has adhered to since. The newly organized IQRA!@ sought to expand its objective from a focus on women's issues to a community wide plan to unite, inform, mobilize, entertain, and educate Muslim readers in the greater Columbus area. the team members have utilized a new two-tier agenda to implement their five goals: Producing a quality newsletter and building a sustainable institution.

First, an administrative structure was formed composed of an editorial board and staff members. Job descriptions served as a primary tool for new positions like business and financial manager, public relations, marketing and distribution, as well as the traditional editorial and reporting jobs. Searching for qualified and dedicated staff members was and remains the biggest challenge facing IQRA!

Second, the character of the newsletter was enriched with new and innovative focus on community problems investigations emphasizing subject, content, and format. These include fixed theme columns like Family Matters, Children's Page, and Why Not, that address specific educational needs, the social news page, ISGC news, and Dear Editor, which reach out to interact with the community, and Poll-time which surveys public opinion on certain events. Recently, the concept of reporting was extended from writers' personal impression to the more time consuming concept of "investigation" to bring together different sides of the issues, like the Oklahoma Bombing coverage, the Hajj issue, and the Islamic schools issue.

The changes in IQRA! were significantly reflected in distribution, which jumped from 400 in the first issue to 600 typically, 750 in Eid, and 900-1000 in Special Events. Unfortunately, feedback to questionnaires and suggestions has not been encouraging. IQRA! is in desperate need for readers help through objective criticism to improve.

The business orientation also changed to include other professionals like lawyers, realtors, and doctors. Recently, IQRA! took a new turn. After Eid, IQRA! collected formal annual subscriptions. The resource base, thanks be to Allah, and the readers' contribution has improved dramatically. IQRA! takes pride in that it does not burden the ISGC or the MSA with requests for funds. IQRA! has become self-sufficient with enough surplus to cover at least 3 issues in advance. The current challenge is to cope with the growing mailing requests from across the country and re-design the objectives to include non-Muslims who are interested in IQRA! despite its focus on Muslims.

We thank all the brothers and sisters who are dedicated to keep working on improving IQRA! We are working into having IQRA! available electronically. we hope that in the near future we will read IQRA! published in color. we are very proud of our young contributors. Thanks to 13 year old Basil Gohar who is providing us with his beautiful "Why Not?" articles. we are very grateful to the Abdullah family who are supporting printing IQRA! at a super low price, coping with our short-tie request to do the job, and helping in the distribution process.

We made a pledge on the first day to make this publication a quality newsletter. However, we are humans and very deficient and error prone. We need your help to minimize mistakes and expand. At this point we are in need for your ideas and comments. Give us your thoughts, ideas, and opinions. Hopefully this effort will be accepted for Allah's sake.

June 1995 Women General Body Representatives

IQRA! Special Report

The Islamic Society of Greater Columbus (ISGC) is a reality now. After months of electing the Board of Trustees, and after months of the hard work to put a "suggested constitution" in place, the constitution passed with flying colors. Last month was also an active one, preparing for the nomination and the election of the General Body Representatives (GBR). There were 14 brothers and 2 sisters who accepted their nominations. by the time of the election, one brother and the two sisters pulled out. Unfortunately, rumors were heard that the sisters were pressured to withdraw their nominations.

IQRA! interviewed both Sr. Hanan Farhan and Sr. Farida El-Henawy asking the following questions:

IQRA!: Why did you accept your nomination to the GBR?

Sr. Farida: I wanted to be a representative so that I'll have the chance to express women and children's needs and concerns.

Sr. Hanan: Allah says: "O people, We have created you from a male and a female." The Prophet , peace and blessings be upon him, says that women are sisters and partners of men. I believe that Muslim women have a role in building the Islamic society. Certainly, Muslim women have the obligation and the responsibility that complement men's. No man can play the role of the woman. Consequently, there was nothing to do except accepting the nomination to the GBR to participate in the decision making, in developing the future of this community, and in helping putting our decisions in place.

IQRA!: Have you received any support from the community to continue and be members in case you did win the election?

Sr. Farida: The period of time you are mentioning was very short. The support I got was minimal. the support actually came after my withdrawal!

Sr. Hanan: Like any other matter, there were pros and cons. Unfortunately, the majority was against having women on the GBR. But since I believe that being in this position is not deviation from the Islamic ruling, I insisted on proceeding.

IQRA!: Why did you decide to pull out of the GBR election?

Sr. Farida: I prefer not to discuss that now.

Sr. Hanan: My reasons and principles to accept the nomination in the first place have not been changed. I was the last to withdraw. First because I was left to be the only woman there, and second because I felt that one chair was not enough to represent all the women in the ISGC. I would like to emphasize that the Islamic society is like a bird. One wing represents men and the other represents women. How would a bird fly and get higher and higher with only one wing? If we want to be better and better, we must encourage women's participation at all levels including the level of decision making and execution.

IQRA!, as a part of its own investigation, acquired the following ruling of The Fiqh Council of North America from the American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 9:4, pp. 588-89. [On the issue of] "Whether women may share in the management and administration of mosques, Islamic schools, and executive councils of Islamic organizations. It was noted that there is no legal reason to prevent this essentially organizational concern and also, that this matter was not a source of controversy among the classical jurists, for the question of general sovereignty does not arise."

One prime example: Muslim Youth of North America (MYNA), a continental Muslim youth organization, in which a sister has been the youth chair of MYNA for several years.

Should the ISGC be two communities or are we supposed to be a true ONE community? Some people talk how 'ikhtelat" (mixing between brothers and sisters) is haram (unlawful) and that we should not allow it to happen in our ISGC. To clarify this point IQRA! would like to cite some passages from the book, "The liberation of Women in the Time of the Message" by Abdul-Halim Abu-Shukkah. In this book, the author leaves no doubt that the Muslim community at the time of the prophet, Peace and blessings be upon him, was indeed one community, where brothers and sisters dealt with each other and interacted on a daily basis according to the principles and regulations of Islam.

There are more than 350 authentic hadith (in Bukhari and Muslim) that list such types of interaction in various situations, like:

1. In the mosque, when prayers are held.
2. Gaining knowledge and education whether in the mosque or elsewhere.
3. In Makkah during Hajj and Umrah.
4. In celebrating Eid, during Eid prayers, and after during the celebrations.
5. In a legal court where men and women used to settle their disputes. This even included husbands and wives.
6. During "janazah" (funeral) and what comes after it from prayer to offering condolences etc...
7. During "jihad" (fighting for the cause of Allah) where women used to help in nursing and even in the actual fight, combat.

In addition to the public situations above, a lot of interaction took place also in personal matters like family visits, giving gifts, visiting a sick person, enjoining the good and forbidding the bad.

May 1995 Dear Editor

R.I.P. The Constitution

On the evening of April 7, 1994, MSA members were supposed to vote on a proposed constitution to replace the current one. The announcement sent by mail to all members, hung on the door of the masjid, and made after about three Jumaa prayers specified the meeting to start at 9:15 pm. Fortunately most of the brothers and sisters understood what the MSA executive committee meant and they all ignored the 9:15 pm meeting start time and came after Isha prayer to vote.

The meeting started and it took the MSA about 20 to 25 minutes to count the MSA members present. The count was 64, two short of the quorum required to begin the vote. Instead of following the constitution by adjourning the meeting for lack of Quorum, the 'majority' of the people present voted to continue with the meeting especially that it seemed that more pope were trickling through the door.

Alhamdulillah, the ISGC constitution passed with flying colors (55 out of the 66 present voted for it). the Muslims in Columbus should rest in peace now and sleep in comfort, we have the new constitution and the new organization.

Unfortunately, at least one Muslim will not sleep comfortably or rest in peace. According to this Muslim, a very dangerous precedent was set many times today. the more disturbing fact is that most of the brothers and sisters that are active in the Masjid have little or no regard for the constitution. If the pope who are most serious about Islam are at such a level then this Muslim feels sorry for our society.

The last time I checked, in Islam, ends to not justify the means. Even if the ISGC constitution was the best thing that ever happened to this community, the means that lead to its adoption should have been avoided.

Rached Zantout

May 1995 Meet the stress - The ISGC Constitution Vote

The ISGC is finally a reality. some say it took too long, others may say it is a 'premature step'. Both have a point. Discussions on the constitution were going on for over a year with meetings, seminars, presentations, and lengthy debates. On the other hand, the ISGC had a newsletter and a board of trustees long before it had a formal structure or a constitution.

In any case, its constitution passed by a sweeping majority albeit a marginal quorum. While the election process was swift, perhaps the shortest in MSA history, it was not exactly smooth. some inconvenience was caused by the delay and confusion of starting time for the elections. Yet, the legitimacy and effectiveness of the infant organization was unexpectedly tested by the recent tragedy in Oklahoma (covered in this special issue). What is the expected role of ISGC in the future? How can it cope with the increasing challenges the community faces? What resources will this entail and are we capable of delivering are some of the uncertainties we now face. IQRA! interviewed ISGC BOT member, Khaled Farag.

Q: Briefly, how would you comment on the legitimacy of the allegations made regarding the elections procedure?

A: All members were notified that the meeting will begin after salat Isha. The athan was at 9:19 that day. The meeting was formally started and Thanks to Allah, enough people came. We need to go on beyond bickering on small issues and concentrate on the growth and efficiency of the Muslim community and its dawa efforts.

Q: Now that the ISGC has passed, what is the immediate next step?

A: Elect good General Body Representatives (GBR) in order to practice Shura in the community. The GBR will be an important body that advises the Executive Committee (EC) president and the BOT. the community should select its representatives on the basis of qualifications and fear of Allah. Everyone in the community should remember that these representatives will represent your opinion on the important decisions.

Q: What is your vision of the ISGC five to ten years from now?

A: Allah willing, ISGC will be one of the most active Islamic organizations in the United States. Allah willing, ISGC will be a wide umbrella organization under through which all Muslims will work.

Q: What are the challenges facing ISGC that may hamper the establishment of this vision?

A: Convincing people to abandon individualism and work in groups with professional advice and supervision. Most importantly work for the sake of Allah.

Q: Do you think the ISGC is an organization with too many chiefs and no Indians? where can we mobilize the human power and the resources needed?

A: The punch line of an award winning story (Field of Dreams) was: "If you build it, they will come".

Q: Finally, what distinction in responsibility do you foresee between the resident and non-resident members?

A: Resident and nonresident members are equal. The reason of the unfortunate label is the sincere intention to have equal representation of the community. we do not want ISGC to be a student organization only. Nor is it desired to have ISGC to be an organization of primarily professional residents. ISGC should rather be a unifying and inclusive organization that provides the proper platform for Islam to grow in the United States.