“Hummus for the Homeless” is Arab America’s Ramadan 2016 program that gives back to the homeless in Washington, DC every Friday during the holy month. With the help of generous donors from the Arab American community, our team has been able to serve delicious Arab and American foods to those less fortunate. Arab America also … Continued
On Monday, June 5, Arab America announced its 2016 Ramadan campaign, “Hummus for the Homeless.” It partnered with Catholic Charities to achieve its modest help during the holy month of Ramadan. Every Friday during Ramadan, we are serving the homeless of Washington, DC. Thanks to the generous women of the National Arab American Women’s Association, United Muslim Relief, … Continued
KENT, OH -– On June 5th, The PCRF launched its annual campaign throughout the month of Ramadan, with a special focus this year on Syrian refugees currently in Lebanon, Jordan, and Gaza. The online global fundraising initiative, PCRF Ramadan 2016 Campaign: Relief for Syrian Refugees, has an ambitious goal of $100,000 from private donations in … Continued
BY: Nisreen Eadeh/Staff Writer The Forbes list of The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women was released on Monday. Included on the list were world leaders, CEOs, justices, financial ministers, media moguls, and more. Also making the list were Arab women whose success transcends borders and combats harmful stereotypes about women in the Arab World. … Continued
RAMADAN IFTAR EVENTS: June 8, 2016 – June 14, 2016 Looking for a Ramadan Iftar Event in your area? Check out our list of Iftar events from around the country. … Continued
The Arab American and Chaldean Council (ACC), a premier nonprofit human service organization serving Southeast Michigan, will host its 14th Annual Golf Outing and Scholarship Awards Dinner, Tuesday, June 7 at Shenandoah Country Club in West Bloomfield (5600 Walnut Lake Road).
Registration and continental breakfast will begin at 10 a.m., when the driving range opens, followed by an 11:15 a.m. shotgun start for an 18-hole game of golf. The dinner program, which includes the scholarship ceremony, tournament award distribution and raffle, will commence at 5 p.m. Scholarships, whose funds are generated from the event, will be awarded to local high school seniors of Arab American and Chaldean descent.
This year, the ACC is welcoming three honorary co-chairs to the event: Bridget Hurd, Senior Director, Diversity and Inclusion, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM); Monty Fakhouri, Corporate Business Manager, Beaumont Hospital; and Brian Santee, Senior Sales Director , Frito-Lay North America.
In her role at BCBSM, Hurd is responsible for leading and executing the organization’s diversity and inclusion strategy. With 24 years of progressive experience in communications, community relations, corporate giving and diversity and inclusion, she has worked tirelessly to help facilitate stronger linkages among the community and health care institutions. Prior to joining BCBSM, Hurd spent eight years at the Greater Detroit Area Health Council.
The Southfield, Mich. resident received a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Wayne State University.
Santee, of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., has worked with PepsiCo for more than a decade, serving the metropolitan Detroit and Cleveland regions. Last year, he chaired the company’s Feeding Detroit volunteer event where they partnered with Feed the Children to distribute non-perishable food and daily essentials to 1,600 Detroit families for the sixth year in a row. Santee holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota, where he played on the varsity golf team, and an MBA from New York University.
Part of the Beaumont Health System for 10 years, Fakhouri has served in his current role since October 2015, having previously worked as the organization’s Business Manager and as an adjunct professor with Oakland University’s William Beaumont School of Medicine. In 1999, he began a decade-long career as the ACC’s Director of Public Health and Youth Development. Fakhouri graduated from Wayne State University’s medical school with a specialization in community medicine.
“I am looking forward to making our 14th annual golf outing our most successful yet. It is always such a pleasure to spend the day with ACC’s friends and supporters having fun on the course while also helping students reach higher education opportunities,” said Dr. Haifa Fakhouri, President, ACC. “With Bridget, Monty and Bryan joining us this year, I know we will make 2016 one for the record books.”
Tickets range from $100 per person for dinner to $200 per person and $750 for a foursome for the golf and dinner package. Information on sponsorship and participation opportunities can be found on at www.myacc.org.
About the Arab American and Chaldean Council (ACC) The Arab American and Chaldean Council (ACC) is the premier nonprofit human service organization providing services to the Middle Eastern and mainstream communities in Southeast Michigan. Founded in 1979, the ACC provides counseling, health care, social services, employment training, job placement, translation, interpretation and youth services to more than 70,000 clients in metro Detroit. The ACC operates 40 outreach offices in the tri-county area, staffed with bilingual and trilingual professionals to serve the Arab American and Chaldean American populations and offer assistance to the Middle East refugee population. For more information, visit www.myacc.org or call (248) 559-1990.
Arab American and Chaldean Council (ACC)
ACC is the premier non-profit human service organization providing services to the Middle Eastern and mainstream communities in Southeast Michigan. Furthermore, ACC provides better opportunities to enable newcomers to adjust to their new environment. As a bridge of understanding, ACC maximizes the skills, resources and expertise of the community to:
Build cooperation and understanding
Raise the level of individuals’ well-being
Increase cross-cultural understanding through education
Deliver human services, counseling and opportunities
Gear community members towards achievement
Empower through employment training and placement
Source: campaign.r20.constantcontact.com
By Ariana Figueroa
Tampa Bay Times
Lavender incense mixed with various aromas of Middle Eastern dishes poured out of the Islamic Center Hall.
Vendors selling perfume, henna and crochet were lined up. Children giggled and dashed around the influx of people.
Muslim men and women said “peace be upon you” in Arabic to each other as they came to buy tickets for food and make donations to Radiant Hands, a nonprofit helping to resettle refugees.
Radiant Hands president Magda Saleh, 49, ran back and forth in the hall Sunday afternoon setting up hijab donations, food, crafts and tables. With the heat and rain, the venue was moved into the hall instead of the open courtyard.
The event was a celebration of food, crafts and entertainment to raise funds for resettlement of refugees in the area, and it was hosted at Masjid Al-Qassam mosque at 5910 E 130th Ave.
Radiant Hands initially provided individual counseling for women and families. But now 80 percent of the nonprofit’s clientele are Muslim and Arabic-speaking refugees.
Saleh, an Egyptian Muslim raised in the United States, said she never expected to be serving the refugee community, a group she never knew existed. She is also the director at Bayaan Academy Home School Co-op.
Her clientele shifted in August 2015 when CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a civil rights group that works to promote a positive image of Islam and Muslims in America, asked her to help refugees from Muslim or Arabic-speaking countries. She got her first family in October and her organization has now taken in and helped 110 refugee families. The newest family came in on Wednesday, she said.
Most refugees are from Afghanistan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Iraq and Syria. Radiant Hands helps the families settle in for up to a year.
Many are either severely ill or have disabilities, Saleh said.
“They’re coming for health and education,” she said.
The hardest part is getting the refugees to learn English, she said.
A partnership with Lutheran Services Florida helps the refugees find jobs. The CARIBE program, an adult education project funded by the Florida Department of Children and Family Services, offers free English classes and Radiant Hands provides transportation for them, Saleh said.
Safiullah Masoubi, an Afghanistan refugee, said Sunday that the hardest part was getting used to American culture. He said the program helped him integrate into the United States and rebuild his life.
“I am very confident in the situation in which I am living in,” Masoubi said.
He said it’s hard for refugees because they don’t have any family here and they don’t know much about the community. But, he said he enjoys his new life.
“I am so happy,” he said, “I didn’t face any discrimination with my family.”
Even with Gov. Rick Scott asking Congress to halt refugees to Florida, Saleh said her organization still receives donations and volunteers.
“Everybody understands that it’s politics and it not the public’s views,” she said.
Kalimah Ujaama, a 20-year-old civil rights activist and poet who gave a performance Sunday, expresses her views on the refugee crisis and Islam through her poems.
The University of Florida junior goes by the stage name Lady K, her alter ego who “transitions into someone who is more confident, elegant and fierce.”
Lady K “stands up for people who don’t have a voice.”
Ujaama said she hopes people understand the refugee crisis and that the newcomers are just trying to escape persecution. People shouldn’t be afraid of Islam, she said.
“We bleed the same,” she said. “We’re all human.”
Source: web.tampabay.com
Associated Press
Millions of Muslims around the world on Monday marked the start of Ramadan, a month of intense prayer, dawn-to-dusk fasting and nightly feasts. Others will begin fasting a day later, Tuesday, due to a moon-sighting methodology that can lead to different countries declaring the start of Ramadan a day or two apart.
Here are some questions and answers about Islam’s holiest month:
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WHY DO MUSLIMS FAST?
The fast is intended to bring the faithful closer to God and to remind them of the suffering of those less fortunate. Ramadan is a time to detach from worldly pleasures and focus on one’s inner self.
It’s seen as a way to physically and spiritually purify, refraining from habits such as smoking and caffeine. Muslims often donate to charities during the month and feed the hungry. Many spend more time at mosques during Ramadan and use their downtime to recite the Quran.
London’s new Muslim mayor, Sadiq Khan, wrote in the Guardian that he plans to use Ramadan to “build bridges” and break bread with Muslims and non-Muslims around the city at synagogues, churches and mosques, though he acknowledged that 19-hour-long fasts during the longer summer days in Europe and forgoing coffee will be challenging.
Fasting during Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam, along with the Muslim declaration of faith, daily prayer, charity, and performing the hajj pilgrimage in Mecca.
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HOW DO MUSLIMS FAST?
Observant Muslims abstain from eating and drinking from dawn to dusk for the entire month of Ramadan. A single sip of water or a puff of a cigarette is enough to invalidate the fast.
However, Muslim scholars say it’s not enough to just avoid food and drinks during the day. Ramadan is also an exercise in self-restraint. Muslims are encouraged to avoid gossip and arguments. Sexual intercourse between spouses is also forbidden during the daytime fast.
Just before the fast, Muslims have a pre-dawn meal of power foods to get them through the day, the “suhoor.” Egyptians eat mashed fava beans called “ful,” spiced with cumin and olive oil, while in Lebanon and Syria, popular suhoor food is flatbread with thyme, cheese or yogurt. In Afghanistan, people eat dates and dumplings stuffed with potato and leeks, first steamed, then fried.
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HOW DO MUSLIMS BREAK THEIR FAST?
Muslims traditionally break their fast like the Prophet Muhammad did some 1,400 years ago, with a sip of water and some dates at sunset. That first sip of water is the most anticipated moment of the day.
After sunset prayers, a large feast known as “iftar” is shared with family and friends. Iftar is a social event as much as it is a gastronomical adventure. Across the Arab world, apricot juices are an iftar staple. In South Asia and Turkey, yogurt-based drinks are popular.
Every night of Ramadan, mosques and aid organizations set up tents and tables for the public to have free iftar meals.
But large crowds at mosques can also be targets for extremists. As the war with the Taliban intensifies, Afghan and U.S. military officials have said they expect attacks to increase during Ramadan. Nigerian intelligence officials also say the extremist Boko Haram group plans to attack Muslims during morning and evening prayers.
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CAN MUSLIMS BE EXEMPTED FROM FASTING?
Yes. There are exceptions for children, the elderly, those who are ill, women who are pregnant, nursing or menstruating, and people traveling, which can include athletes during tournaments.
Many Muslims, particularly those living in the United States and Europe, are accepting and welcoming of others around them who aren’t observing Ramadan.
However, non-Muslims or adult Muslims who eat in public during the day can be fined or even jailed in some Mideast countries, such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which is home to large Western expat populations in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. In many predominantly Muslim countries like Indonesia, karaoke bars and nightclubs are closed across much of the country for the month. Restaurants there use curtains to conceal customers who eat during the day.
And in Egypt, the Dar al-Ifta, which is the main authority in charge of issuing religious edits, on Monday warned against eating in public, saying this is not an act of “personal freedom, but chaos — an assault on Islam.”
In China, minority Uighur Muslims complain of heavy restrictions by the Communist Party, such as bans on fasting by party members, civil servants, teachers and students during Ramadan, as well as generally enforced bans on children attending mosques, women wearing veils and young men growing beards.
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WHAT ARE SOME RAMADAN TRADITIONS?
Typically, the start of the month is welcomed with the greeting of “Ramadan kareem!” Another hallmark of Ramadan is nightly prayer at the mosque among Sunni Muslims called “taraweeh.”
Egyptians have the tradition of Ramadan lanterns called the “fanoos,” often the centerpiece at an iftar table or seen hanging in window shops and from balconies. In the Arabian Gulf countries, wealthy families hold “majlises” where they open their doors for people to pass by all hours of the night for food, tea, coffee and conversation.
Increasingly common are Ramadan tents in five-star hotels that offer lavish and pricey meals from sunset to sunrise. While Ramadan is a boon for retailers in the Middle East and South Asia, critics say the holy month is increasingly becoming commercialized.
Scholars have also been disturbed by the proliferation of evening television shows during Ramadan. In Pakistan, live game shows give away gifts promoting their sponsors. In the Arab world, month-long soap operas starring Egypt’s top actors, rake in millions of dollars in advertising.
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HOW DO MUSLIMS MARK THE END OF RAMADAN?
The end of Ramadan is marked by intense worship as Muslims seek to have their prayers answered during “Laylat al-Qadr” or “the Night of Destiny.” It is on this night, which falls during the last 10 nights of Ramadan, that Muslims believe that God sent the Angel Gabriel to the Prophet Muhammad and revealed the first versus of the Quran.
The end of Ramadan is celebrated by a three-day holiday called Eid al-Fitr. Children often receive new clothes, gifts and cash.
Muslims attend early morning Eid prayers the day after Ramadan. Families usually spend the day at parks and eating — now during the day.
Source: www.nytimes.com
Press Release from WhoIsHussain? In honor of the holy month of Ramadan, international organization, Who Is Hussain?, plans a hot meal lunch for the homeless at Cass community services on Saturday, June 11, at 12pm at 11850 Woodrow Wilson, Detroit, Michigan. Ramadan marks days of fasting from sunrise to sunset. The month is celebrated by Muslims giving to the needy … Continued
The story of Samuel Stephens is spreading across the country in the hopes that more people of Arab, specifically Lebanese, descent will consider donating bone marrow to help people like Sam. According to his sister-in-law, Joan Walker, Sam is in dire need of a bone marrow transplant and needs help from people of his ethnic … Continued
Three Egyptian immigrants who saw a demand for Halal food in New York City started the Halal Guys street food carts serving up hot halal meats, pita brea, and sauces. They went from having one cart, to 355 throughout the country, and even one in the Philippines. From their franchise, they began a scholarship fund … Continued
Palestine Legal As we grapple with the reality that Palestine Legal’s founding Advisory Board member and trailblazing human rights attorney, Michael Ratner, is no longer with us, we wanted to share some examples of his thinking and work for Palestinian human rights. Since his death last week, much has been said of his pioneering legal … Continued
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