All this Talk about whats wrong in our community can get depressing.
So I thought I would post a thread on organisations and groups and individuals that are taking positive initiatives.
Al Imdaad Foundation.
They have been at the front in helping victims of the U.K. floods they have reached managed to touch the hearts of the victims of the floods.
Background of this Organisation.
Name of Organisation
Al-Imdaad Foundation has been named after Hadhrat Haji Imdadullah Muhajir Makki (Rahmatullahi Alayhi). His personality was well respected by the Ulama of the sub-continent India and Pakistan and also by the Arab Ulama. That is why his title was also Sheikhul Arab wa Ajam (the leader of the Arabs and non-Arabs). Haji Sahib passed away in 1317 AH (1896 AD) at the ripe old age of 84. In his inheritance he had one stick, two sets of winter clothes and two sets of summer clothes. Haji Sahib is buried in Makkah Mukarramah in Jannatul-Maala.
Our Team
All trustees and personnel of the Al-Imdaad Foundation strive to serve humanity with the skills and expertise that they are blessed with. Our UK board include Mufti Nurullah Shikder (Student of Mufti Taqi Usmani DB), Maulana Zubair Miah (Student of Darul Uloom Bury) and Maulana Mahmood Miah (Student of Darul Uloom Bury). The team comprises of Theologians, Academics, Accountants and IT Specialists, Medical Personnel & Paramedics, Attorneys, Businessmen and other voluntary aid workers.
About Us
Established in 2003, Al-Imdaad Foundation is a leading international aid relief and development organisation registered in the United Kingdom (charity registration no. 1140187). We are dedicated to providing humanitarian services in crisis and non-crisis situations throughout the world to the most needy orphans, widows and destitute, irrespective of race, religion, culture and geographical boundary. As well as responding to disasters and emergencies, Al-Imdaad Foundation promotes sustainable economic and social development by working with local communities through our international offices.
International Registered Offices
The Al-Imdaad Foundation has registered offices in UK, Indonesia, Jordan, Australia, Kenya, Bangladesh and head office in South Africa. These offices are established to take care of our various projects in these regions and to act as fund raising partners. The foundation is at an advanced stage to establish further representative offices in other parts of the world. The UK commissioners of International Relations and Cooperation and its various embassies are kept informed of our activities globally.
Our Partners
Al-Imdaad Foundation is a signatory to the Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movements and NGOs in Disaster Relief and also Al-Imdaad Foundation is a member of BOND (British Overseas NGOs for Development). The Foundation supports the Code of Conduct and strives to incorporate its principles in its humanitarian work. The Al-Imdaad Foundation is registered with the United Nations Department of Economic & Social Affairs. The NGO Branch is the focal point within the United Nations for Non-Governmental Organizations in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
Benefits
At Al-Imdaad Foundation we aim to discharge (Zakaat) funds within 30 days, ensuring funds are discharged according to the Shariah with professionalism and care. At every possible delivery of aid we aim to provide LIVE feedback from the ground on our website daily. We also operate with a 100% donations policy which means every penny you donate will go towards the cause. Being confident of our high standards of work and transparency levels we also offer a refund policy to anyone who is not satisfied with our work.
Our Vision
Our primary vision is to please Almighty Allah (SWT). The Al-Imdaad Foundation aspires to excel in humanitarian relief, providing humanitarian services with the highest level of compassion, professionalism and care under the supervision of a team of professionals from UK and abroad.
One profession in the west where Muslims have a high representation is the Taxi trade.
The following organisation in Chicago decided to do Dawah training workshops for Taxi drivers.
DAWAH TRAINING FOR TAXI DRIVERS
Empowering Muslim Taxi Drivers
Sr. Lauren Booth, the revert sister-in-law of ex-Prime Minister of England, once proclaimed that she has learned a lot of Islam from the taxi drivers, especially the Somali drivers she encountered.
There are about 10,000 taxi drivers in Chicago and about 60% of them are Muslims. When the customers see that the driver is wearing a kufi or has a beard, the conversation often touchs upon the topics of nationality, religion or contemporary events.
GainPeace's specialized dawah training will focus on empowering taxi drivers on how to properly educate their customers about Islam and politely correct their misconceptions, while maintaining the rules and regulations of the city and the State. Though this workshop is especially for the taxi drivers, all are welcome to attend and benefit.
I recently came across Tayba (an organisation that does outreach work for Muslim prisoners) after reading about it in the Twitter account by Shaykh Hamza Wald Maqbul.
Tayba Foundation.
Tayba Foundation runs distance learning Education programmes for Muslims in American prisons most of whom are Converts.
Along with other support and outreach work.
Some very inspiring videos and real life accounts on their website.
The Quran Project began in Birmingham u.k. in 2010 since then they have distributed thousands of free copys of English translations of Quran, and have had many Shahdahs as a result.
Came across this group from an old tweet on Nouman Ali Khans Twitter account.
Amongst the things you find muslims constantly complaining about is the way the Masjids are run, the quality or lack of quality of the curriculum in the Masjid. The sub-standard Imams, hired by Masjid. The lack of other services such as outreach work to counselling offered in the Masjids.
The antiquated way the Madrassahs are run. The Lack of professionalism in the way Islamic Charities are run. The low standards of Muslim students societies.
A Couple of Brothers looked at the situation (and unlike most of us who simply complain about these issues without coming up with any viable solutions) they after consulting with muslim Imams and other leaders set up a consultancy and advisory service, in helping Muslim Masjids and other organisations on how to become more professional, organised and efficient and to increase in the qualities and standards of the services they offer.
IERA is a Dawah organisation with a difference. They do everything from engaging in street Dawah, carrying out seminars at Universities, engaging in debates with scientists, challenging Islamaphobia. Doing Random acts of Kindness, engaging in local clean up operations, (That is sweeping the streets and removing graffiti etc). Doing academic and scientific research etc. The Movement has gained popularity in many countries around the world and hundreds have been guided to Islam.
Dental care in America is very expensive, with many People from Lower income households unable to afford it. Here is how a Muslim Dentist responded in California www.alshifafreeclinic.org/
Muslim dentist opens free clinic in California
Growing up in a large lower middle-class family on his father’s teaching salary, Makbul Patel said he learned early the value of a dollar. In his private practice, he saw that people were in need and wanted to help them, saying that this project is something that is close to his heart
When he immigrated to America about 30 years ago, Makbul Patel experienced something he hadn’t in his native India – a bone-chilling winter.
Patel, who lives in Riverside with his wife, Nasim, said his first stop when he came to the United States to continue practicing dentistry was Chicago.
“It was amazing,” he said. “When I came to Chicago, I saw my first winter. I didn’t have any exposure to snow.”
In an article in The Press Enterprise, Patel explains how who lived in California called him and urged him to come to a warmer climate which he did six months later. Thirty years later he has been serving patients in the Inland Empire and helping the community through his work and volunteer efforts.
Patel, 57, earned recognition from the city in late 2014 for his service when he received a Riverside Heroes Award.
Patel also founded Al-Shifa Dental Clinic, a free clinic in San Bernardino that provides care to patients regardless of their income, social background, religion, race or ethnicity.
Patel, a devout Muslim, sees his mission to help people in need as a duty, he said.
“In my faith, medicine is a noble profession,” he said. “So serving the community is one of the noble things to do.”
Patel has been very active in his community especially as he saw a sharp rise in anti-Muslim sentiment after the 9/11 terrorist attacks - he spearheaded several efforts to connect the Muslim community with Riverside, and established the Open Mosque Day event, inviting the public to visit and learn about Islam.
He helped to establish the Annual Ramadan Iftar Dinner in Riverside, an event that brings residents from various faiths and walks of life together.
Omar Zaki, who met Patel more than 15 years ago at the Islamic Center, nominated his friend for the Heroes Award. What he saw in Patel, was his ability to give and still maintain his piety and humbleness. He pointed out that for Patel, the driving force was his Islamic faith.
“As a Muslim, it’s his responsibility to help others. He does this without asking for him. He is the guy in the back of the room doing 90 percent of the heavy lifting.”
Zaki recalled how Patel created an annual event that recognized students graduating from high school and going on to college, giving each youth a gift and providing them with a boost from the community.
“This man has really tried to demonstrate to everyone he has come across what the meaning of being a good Muslim is,” Zaki said. “He does so with his generosity. We as American Muslims need more Dr. Patels.”
Patel, born one of 10 children in Gujarat, India, was the first in his family to become a dentist but his shining example also has spurred his son Sameer and daughter Asma to dentistry and a nephew who is also studying. His youngest son Hamza is at UC Riverside and is considering dentistry as well.
Patel’s nonprofit dental clinic is closest to his heart. Patel said in 1999, a group of Muslims started a nonprofit medical clinic in the unincorporated area of Muscoy. In 2004, Patel opened a dental office there.
“I’ve always wanted to do this,” he said. “I came here and saw lots of people who come to my dental office with no insurance. I was looking for a good opportunity. I’ve always wanted to give back to the community.”
A Few months after 9/11 Hamid Chaudhry moved to the small town of Reading Pennsylvania USA, his wife a surgeon was offered a position at a local Hospital. Hamid himself bought a Fast Food franchise. Worried about the reaction of the local white Christian community towards him as a Muslim so soon after 9/11 he decided to take the initiative, he visited the local Elementary School
and met with the Principal and offered to host a fundraiser, for the School at his fast food restaurant. The Fundraiser was very successful, since then he has hosted hundreds of fundraiser evenings, for various local causes. Single handedly changing the perception of the Local community towards Islam and Muslims.
Good Will to All, With a Side of Soft-Serve
Dan Barry
AUG. 16, 2011
The Dairy Queen is a neon beacon of comfort in Kenhorst, Pa., with cold chocolaty treats for hot summer days and scores and scores of posted handwritten thank-you notes to its owner. Credit Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times
KENHORST, Pa.
This American summer, the heat is the least of it. A pummeled economy. A credit-rating embarrassment. More tarmac ceremonies for dead war heroes. Tornadoes, floods and other disasters, including Congress. Presidential aspirants stalking Iowa like Barbie and Ken zombies.
Clearly, the country needs to pull off the road and take a break. It needs to treat itself to a soft-serve cone, chocolate-dipped and melting so quickly as to demand a tongue’s sculpting attention, while tiny tree creatures sing their carpe diem serenade, and reassurance comes with a stray evening breeze.
A tasty-twirly-twisty place has to be around here somewhere. There always is.
There’s one. In the Kenhorst Plaza, just outside the small city of Reading, a Dairy Queen shares asphalt space with a Dollar Tree, a Sears hardware store, a Fashion Bug, a food market, a pawn shop and a few vacant storefronts. It is the neon beacon of comfort in a tired commercial tableau.
Inside, though, this Dairy Queen seems different from the 5,000 others lighting up the country’s summer nights. It has the standard freezer filled with Dilly Bars, and the black-and-white photographs evoking a past that includes the first Dairy Queen, in prison-centric Joliet, Ill., in 1940. But plaques and letters and children’s handwritten notes cover nearly every inch of available wall, all praising someone clearly without Pennsylvania Dutch roots; someone named Hamid.
The Cumru Elementary School thanks Hamid. The Mifflin Park Elementary School thanks Hamid. The Brecknock Elementary School thanks Hamid. The Governor Mifflin intermediate, middle and high schools thank Hamid. The Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts, the soccer leagues and the baseball leagues, the Crime Alert program, the home for adults with mental retardation — they all thank Hamid.
And here comes the owner, Hamid Chaudhry, in the midst of another 80-hour workweek, fresh from curling another soft-serve. As he makes his way to a corner table, customers hunched over chicken-strip baskets and sundaes call out his name, and he calls back theirs.
“Hi, Tracey; I have that check for you.” “Bye, Mrs. Brady. All good for the homecoming?” “Bye, Mr. Rush. How was the Blizzard? Want another one?”
With such familiarity, you might think that Mr. Chaudhry, 40, grew up rooting for the Reading Phillies and taking late-night rides up to the iconic Pagoda on Mount Penn. But in words inflected by his Pakistani roots and slight speech impediment, he explains that he has lived in southeastern Pennsylvania only since the uncertain year of 2002, not long after Sept. 11.
Then, as a couple of local officials he knows catch up by the window, and a former state police officer he knows picks up a frozen cake, and a Mennonite family, regular customers, eat his soft-serve out on the patio, Hamid from the Dairy Queen tells his American story.
He was the youngest of six in a Muslim family in Karachi. His father, an accountant, was physically and mentally damaged after being hit by a car; his mother, a schoolteacher, took care of her husband and insisted that her baby go to America for a better life. That meant Chicago, where a brother was driving a cab while studying to become a college professor.
Mr. Chaudhry took several years to earn a college degree in finance, partly because of language difficulties, and partly because he was always working — mostly at the celebrated Drake Hotel. He was the unseen busboy, working his way up to assistant manager for room service and minibars, serving Caesar salad to President-elect Bill Clinton, delivering unsatisfactory apple pancakes to Jack Nicholson, tending to the dietary needs of a guest named Lassie. The Drake became an immersion course in Western pop culture.
He became an American citizen and started a career in financial-accounting software, eventually moving to New York, where he got fired. (“Wall Street wasn’t for me,” he says.) But he did meet a medical student named Sana Syed. Their first meeting was with her parents; the second was for a coffee at Starbucks; the third a brunch at a diner; and, finally, a dinner date at an Outback Steakhouse.
After they married in 2001, she landed a residency at the Reading Hospital and Medical Center. While his wife worked 90 hours a week, Mr. Chaudhry mustered the nerve to ask the owner of the local Dairy Queen, at Kenhorst Plaza, whether he wanted to sell. When he heard yes, Mr. Chaudhry scraped, mortgaged and borrowed to meet the asking price of $413,000.
He completed his classroom training at Dairy Queen’s headquarters in Minnesota, where he studied everything from labor management to the proper way to hand a customer a Blizzard. On June 27, 2003, he finally opened the doors to his Dairy Queen, but he was so jittery, intent on making every customer feel extra, extra special, that one employee quit on the spot. Oh, and the soft-serve machine malfunctioned.
Once he found his footing, Mr. Chaudhry decided to give back to the community, and held an elementary-school fund-raiser in which he provided the parent-teacher organization with 25 percent of the sales. Though the $450 seemed a generous amount, the publicity he received did not seem right to him.
“It felt like I got more in return than what I was giving,” he says.
Just like that, the Dairy Queen began to become the center of communal good, notwithstanding its contribution to the high obesity rate recorded among adults in Berks County. Mr. Chaudhry immersed himself in fund-raising, splitting everything 50-50 so that he only covered his costs. Good for promoting the business, yes, but also good for Hamid.
Fund-raisers for a father of four with cancer; for the Children’s Miracle Network; for soccer teams and Little League teams and the widow of a deputy sheriff recently killed in a shootout — he was a regular customer who liked Blizzards. Sponsorship of car washes and high school homecomings and blood drives four times a year. (Donate a pint of blood and get a $20 frozen cake.) Free parties held at every local elementary school, as well as at a Bible school run by the Mennonite church.
“My customers have made me well-to-do,” Mr. Chaudhry explains. “They patronize me, so why wouldn’t I give back?”
He gets up to hand a check to Tracey Naugle, the president of one of the local parent-teacher organizations who sits at a nearby table, enjoying a chocolate cone. Typical Hamid, she later says. She recently helped to organize a modest fund-raising event at Dairy Queen for a children’s swim team. “Hamid gave me a check for $1,000,” she says. “And I know we didn’t make $1,000 that night.”
Every community has its magnetizing place: a post office, a diner, a coffee shop. Here it is the Dairy Queen, Ms. Naugle says, mostly because of Mr. Chaudhry. He randomly shows up at schools with frozen treats for teachers. He once set up a petting zoo outside his store. He even bought his own dunk tank to use on the patio. He tries.
“He knows everybody and everybody knows Hamid,” Ms. Naugle says. “We’re so lucky to have him.”
The soft-serve has been a welcome balm, but it is time to toss those balled-up napkins and get back on the nerve-rattling road. Time to say goodbye to Mr. Chaudhry, who can tell you that younger people prefer Oreo Blizzards and older people prefer dipped cones, but he cannot say more about his motives than that he is lucky, thank God.
Just living in Pennsylvania, he says, with a wife, two children, a thriving business, and many friends. Hamid at the Dairy Queen is home.
Correction: August 17, 2011
A previous version of this story misstated the year that Hamid Chaudhry was married. It was 2001, not 2002. It also misspelled the name of a customer in the store. It is Tracey Naugle, not Naugel.
Muslim doctors run clinic for uninsured at St. Louis church
December 27, 2012 By Tim Townsend
The Salam Free Clinic at a church in north St. Louis grew out of a Memorial Day barbecue and a desire to help.
In 2007, about 50 Muslims intent on serving their community and their country, hosted a barbecue at the Veterans Affairs hospital at Jefferson Barracks, dishing out chicken and burgers to the patients and nurses.
It was the beginning of the Muslim Community of St. Louis, an organization dedicated to helping others. The following year, the organization returned to Jefferson Barracks and also added visits to homeless shelters, bringing food to the hungry.
A focus of the effort was to engage the community’s youth in good works, so typically half of the 40 or 50 Muslims volunteering were teenagers.
Many of the members of the group worship at two mosques in west St. Louis County. A Sunni mosque in Ballwin, Dar-ul-Islam, includes more than 200 doctors of mostly Pakistani and Indian descent. A Shiite mosque in Wildwood, Dar-al-Zahra, includes about 40 doctors, mostly of Iranian descent.
As the group’s service projects began to grow, some of the doctors at the two mosques began discussing ways to offer their medical expertise to those who fall through the cracks of the health care system. The doctors could have chosen to serve less well-off members at some of the St. Louis area’s more than 20 mosques. But they decided to approach a church in north St. Louis about a partnership.
The doctors “were not only interested in our own people,” said Bahar Bastani, president of Dar-al-Zahra and professor of internal medicine at St. Louis University. “We chose north city because there are so many people there who don’t have jobs and don’t have insurance. We picked the community, not by faith.”
Through a contact with Interfaith Partnership/Faith Beyond Walls, the doctors met the Rev. James Morris, pastor of Lane Tabernacle Christian Methodist Episcopal Church in north St. Louis, who has been a member of the Missouri Christian Health Alliance and Missouri Healthcare for All, and has fought against proposed Medicaid cuts.
They asked Morris if they could set up a free clinic on Saturdays. They would staff the clinic if Lane Tabernacle could provide the space.
Morris said when he first announced the clinic, his congregation was skeptical. “They kept asking, ‘What’s the catch?’” he said.
“Given that the nature of the relationship between the Muslim and African-American communities has not always been the best,” he continued, “I thought what better way for the communities to come together than have Muslim doctors working with people of color to provide them with vital care they wouldn’t otherwise receive.”
Morris said on any given Saturday, 20 people might come through the clinic. On slower days, only three might visit. Over four years, the doctors have seen hundreds of patients, Morris said.
The Salam Free Clinic opened for business in June 2008. Today, a rotating group of 14 physicians and pharmacists see patients for three or four hours each Saturday. A Catholic nurse, Barbara Frye, is there every week. Everyone who walks in is seen by a physician. All simple X-rays and routine labs – screens for heart, kidney, liver – are processed by St. Mary’s Health Center for free.
Bastani said the Muslim doctors are motivated by their faith. He leans, in particular, on a verse from the Quran that says followers of different faiths should leave their differences aside and compete instead over doing good deeds, leaving to God decisions on whose faith represents truth.
He said there are hadiths — traditional anecdotes and sayings attributed to the Prophet Muhammad — that say “the best of you is the one most serving the community.” Another hadith says that “in the eye of God the best people are those who serve God’s family most.” Asked who the family of God included, Muhammad answered, “people.”
Since the Salam Free Clinic started, other Muslim doctors — in the spirit of what Bastani called “healthy competition” — have founded two other free health clinics.
In September 2011, the Association of Physicians of Pakistani Descent of North America, established a clinic providing free dental, ophthalmologic, pediatric and pain-management services on Sundays at the Balal Mosque on St. Louis University’s campus.
And the Islamic Foundation of Greater St. Louis, in partnership with Volunteers in Medicine, opened a clinic in Manchester, 14395 Manchester Road, in October 2011 that accepts patients who meet poverty requirements (appointments are also required – see vimwestco.org for details) on Wednesday and Sunday afternoons.
Branching out
The success of the Salam Free Clinic after four years persuaded its doctors to branch out. On Jan. 19 they will open a second site, this one in Ferguson.
The Rev. Mauri Peaco, pastor of St. Peter’s Church said her 200-member congregation has a long history of social justice work, and that the Salam Clinic would fit perfectly into its community outreach mission. The church runs a popular program for young men in the community, opening its gym Wednesday nights for basketball games.
St. Peter’s, a United Church of Christ church, was already hoping to start a free clinic for the uninsured when church leaders heard that the Salam doctors were scouting a second location.
“We were two groups on parallel paths when we found each other,” Peaco said.
Getting the new clinic started with the Muslim doctors has enlivened St. Peter’s interfaith experience, Peaco said.
“We are both children of Abraham, and when we pray together to start a meeting, I believe we are praying to the same God,” Peaco said. “They are committed to making a more just and peaceful world, and so are we, so it’s a natural collaboration. I think we all feel a spiritual connection with one another.”
Set up in 2009, they do everything from organising regular study circles. Organising gatherings on Eid day for Sisters. Helping those who are vulnerable and have no family support, from converts to sisters who have suffered domestic violence.
Running a short term foodbank, to help sisters going through difficulties get back on their feet. Helping get Sisters involved in International projects such as rasing funds for Syria.
hhugs was an inititative started in 2004, by a group of sisters concerned about the draconian counter terrorism measures. The objective was to help the families of those accused of terrorism vast majority of whom were not even charged with any Terrorism offence. Many of these families were being left stigmatised and feeling isolated from the wider community. These Sisters started offering basic support such as organising Meals and get togethers , driving individuals sisters that were affected to and from appointments, etc.
From there it has expanded and offers a greater deal of support in a variety of areas.
This cannot be undone and I am sure it will be greatly appreciated.
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