COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT FOR THE UNMOSQUED – ART OF CONNECTION WITH BELAL KHAN (VIDEO)

I read an interesting article recently by Mohamed Abdul-Azeez, the former head of the Salam Center in Sacramento on the “Crisis of Imams in America”

Source: muslimmatters.org

By: Belal Khan

Due to the way Muslim communities have been developed, the challenges they face are different from that of other faith communities.

Among the Christian community you find one of two types of models.

Model 1 – Corporate Franchise Clergy Structure

Model 2 – Local Visionary

The American Muslim community for the most part doesn’t follow any of these two models.

Typically you have a bunch of local folks that want to establish a place to pray. They come together, form a board, write out the policies, buy some real estate and make that a place to pray.

Then they realize they need to get an imam, and they end up hiring one of two types.

The post that Suhaib Webb took down about Nicki Minaj and Ferguson

By: Suhaib Webb

After greater thought and encouragement by brothers and sisters from different communities, I’ve decided to repost the post I took down about Nicki Minaj and Ferguson. Shame on me for cowering to isms who in the name of constructs foreign to our faith seek to insulate evil.

The post is found below. I would appreciate folks comments and thoughts – their critique. However, I will not tolerate harsh accusations against me or anyone who comments.

I’m concerned with attempts by some who obviously have no idea who I am or are familiar with my track record to label me something I’m not. That in itself demanded a repost. Folks who know me know that I see the arts as an important vehicle to souls. Hence we have #ArtMonday on this page. When the arts serve to corrupt and harm people, regardless of ethnic or cultural root, you can bet that I will be there to speak out. For that reason I gave a Khutba a little over a year ago on Breaking Bad.

As a father, and an Imam in a community, I pay attention to what is influencing folks around me and I speak for or against it. I do not look through the lenses of isms, but the lenses of the permissible and the impermissible.

‘We tortured some folks’ – Obama on CIA tactics after 9/11 (Video)

 US President Barack Obama made a rare acknowledgment during a Friday press briefing concerning the United States’ past use of enhanced interrogation tactics in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks.