ISNA convention of the largest umbrella organization of Muslims, representing more than 2, mosques and community centers throughout the U. The Islamic Society of North America dates its origin from an early association founded by Muslim students in the Midwest in Today, it is the largest Muslim body in the United States.
The convention had more than hundred of speakers, several roundtable discussions, art exhibits, films, fashion shows, a basketball tournament, a bazaar and many other activities.
This Muslim body when initially incorporated was called the Muslim Student Association or Called MSA, with chapters on university and college campuses. Its goal was to keep the light of Islam alive for the students coming to America for higher education from the Islamic lands. For almost three decades after its formation the organization remained a student oriented body, even as its founders turned forties and fifties and had become well-established professionals.
The ISNA goal is to unite people across different faiths and different backgrounds in the spirit of peace and better understanding. He also said in another session "our hope is to continue shaping a new narrative around what it means to be a mainstream Muslim.
Every year, ISNA selects a member of the North American Muslim community who has displayed an exceptional example of commitment and dedication to community service and present them with the Community Service Recognition Award. Sayyid M Syeed for his lifelong dedication to the American Muslim community, globally Islamic work, social justice issues and interfaith. She is a speaker, racial justice and civil rights activist. Sarsour has been at the forefront of major social justice campaigns both locally in New York City and nationally.
Recommended for You. Home ». Classifieds ». Obituaries ». Search DailyHerald. More Ways to Search Daily Herald ». Digital Subscriptions ». I'm not going to be the person to tell you how to run a mental health clinic because I'm not a mental health professional. I'm an organizer, I'm a communication specialist, I know how to do social media in PR, that's what I know how to do.
If you know what my talents are, use my talents. When I know the talent of our sisters and brothers, I use those talents, and when we as a Muslim community have leverage the skills across our community guess what happens? We win. We have won major campaigns across this country including incorporating Muslim school holidays within the New York City public school system that was a campaign that leveraged every community member, parents or the deceivers; communicators, scholars, media professionals and that's what we need to do on a whole landscape within the Muslim community.
I'll end by saying to you all, my dear sisters and brothers, we have to stay united, we have to stay organizing, we have to stay outraged… do not criticize me when I say that we as a Muslim community, in these United States of America, have to be perpetually outraged every single… when I wake up in the morning and I remember who's sitting in the White House I am outraged.
This is not normal sisters and brothers, those people sitting in the most powerful seats in this country is not normal, so do not ever be those citizens that normalize this administration; because when the day comes that something horrific happens to us or to another community, you will be responsible for normalizing this administration.
Our number one and top priority is to protect and defend our community; it is not to assimilate and please any other people in authority. Our obligation is to our young people, is to our women, and make sure our women are protected in our community.
And our top priority… even higher than all those priorities… is to please Allah and only Allah. We are never to cower to the powers-that-be we are never to give up any part of our identity so somebody else can open a door for us. If a door doesn't open, what we do… we build a new door and walk through our own door because we have that right in this country; to also open opportunities for Allah and other communities. I want to say congratulations to ISNA on 54 years and a certain 54 more years to come.
I ask of all of us and recently for those that knew my announcement…my new announcement was that I am now the former executive director of the Arab American Association of New York. I was the executive director for eleven years and I could have been the executive director for the next thirty years if I wanted to.
It is my organization, I helped build that organization. Eleven years later, sisters and brothers, I said to myself, my work is done here. The time came for me to give that organization to new leadership, to new young people so that they could infuse the enthusiasm and passion that my organization needed and so I can focus on other things. There is nothing wrong, sisters and brothers, for us to move on; we love our organization enough, like Dr.
Syed loved ISNA and he moved on. That doesn't mean that he's going to stop doing the work that he does. You will still hear doctor Syed, he will still be on platforms, he will still be doing the work that he did, but he knew that the time came for him to move on and give his space to somebody else; to another woman to another young person. So, I hope that Dr. Syed sends a message to all of us in this room who are on boards of organizations, who lead organizations… that sometimes moving on is the best decision that any of us can make for the institutions that we come from.
Let us encourage our young people, let us make them the leaders of now because they are the leaders of now, and let us integrate them in the institutions that we have created because, guess what? We need them now more than ever. We need their talents, we need their energy, and we need their passion. So thank you ISNA for all the work that you do for our community, thank you to all the leaders that are here in this community, congratulations again to Dr.
Syed, and again I'm so honored to have given this lecture in honor of a great woman and human being. A woman of the community, and for us to stand on this stage and honor the legacy of Hedge Arabia is really important to me, so thank you and thank you to the family.
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