On Thursday, June 16th, American Islamic College held its 6th Annual Ramadan Reception. AIC welcomed Hon. Susana Mendoza, City Clerk of Chicago, representatives from Consulates of Pakistan, Indonesia, and France, President Fr. Mark Francis, Catholic Theological Union, Rev. Michael Shelley, Lutheran School of Theology, Rabbi Michael Balinsky, Chicago Board of Rabbis, Omer Mozaffer, Chaplain at Loyola U, Tahera Ahmad, Chaplain at Northwestern U, Turath Ensemble, and a number of Chicago academics, community leaders, clergy, and interfaith activists, all of whom we were so grateful to have to share in the traditional breaking of the fast. AIC students, faculty, and staff were also present.

The evening began with a beautiful Qur’anic recitation by Turath Ensemble’s Ismail Al-Qadi. Then, AIC President, Dr. Ali Yurtsever welcomed the guests with an encouraging note about good intentions and that with good intentions and God’s help, there should be no room for hopelessness in this time of trial. He also mentioned that the Reception itself was a meaningful and symbolic gathering of people as it portrayed God’s gift of diversity in one room and that it was an inclusive space where people of all backgrounds could come together in the name of peace.

Omer Mozaffar then gave an incredibe Keynote on “Developing a Disposition of Rahma” or Mercy. He inspired attendees to speak up for the oppressed and to lean on each other for support so that together, in being compassionate, we can be transformed and draw nearer to God’s mercy.

Turath Ensemble followed with enchanting Middle Eastern music and Islamic Nasheeds. As the sun set, the Call to Prayer, or Adhan was recited, which marked the breaking of the fast. Guests then prayed the evening prayer, Maghrib at the AIC Masjid. All were invited to observe.

Guests returned to a delicious Turkish cuisine and an opportunity to engage in dialogue. Sr. Tahera Ahmad then offered a dua, or supplication, after the meal. She recited, beautifully, verse 18 of Surah Al’Imran.

Reflections from honored guests and students followed. Special thanks go to Hon. Susana Mendoaz, Azam Nizamuddin, Scott Alexander, Mohammed Kaiseruddin, Anya Cordell, Rabbi Michael Balinsky, Oliver Niklin, and Caleb Boclair for their insightful, moving, and heartfelt reflections.

Thank you to all who attended. Ramadan Mubarak!

A group of college students from Omaha, Nebraska visited the AIC campus to engage in meaningful dialogue about Islam. They observed the congregational prayer, Jummuah, at the AIC Masjid, followed by a luncheon forum where the students asked questions about the prayer service and Islam. The group was part of “Youth in Mission” through the ELCA, which brought them to Chicago for a visit to a number of religious sites, schools, and organizations. It was a delight to host them! We look forward to welcoming students of different backgrounds and engaging in impactful interfaith dialogue with hopes to build understanding and peace.

The Prayer of the Oppressed event began with an Arabic prayer recited by Dr. Ali Yurtsever then an English translation was read collectively by prayer participants. The prayer called for an end to systemic violence and oppression and God’s mercy to envelop all of creation.

After the prayer, three panelists, Chaplain Khalid Bilal, Anna Lloyd, and Zaynab Shahrar, spoke on various manifestations of systemic racism, including the prison industrial complex, white privilege, police brutality, the intersection of Islamophobia and anti-blackness with a sincere and lively Q and A session that followed. It was an honest discussion with thought-provoking points.

Calls to action for awareness of these societal ills were made by all participants, in addition to an invitation by Anna Lloyd to attend an interfaith dialogue on racism sponsored by the Interfaith Coalition Against Racism on June 12 in Hyde Park, Chicago.

Thank you to all the panelists for their critical insight and thank you to our co-sponsors: the Muslim Student Association of the University of Chicago, Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, and Sirat Chicago.

Date: Sunday, May 15, 2016
Time: 2:00pm
Where: Reception Hall, Dormitory Bldg, American Islamic College

“The prayer of the Oppressed is a poetic devotional prayer that seeks to end the violence and oppression that is so rampant in our world today. The power of the prayer lies in its simplicity, its purity, and its sincere supplication. It is essentially a plea to God that our transgressions be overlooked, that divine mercy be bestowed upon us, that social justice be restored in spite of us, that wrongs be righted, and that righteousness reign once again in our lands, so that the destitute may no longer be in need, the young may be educated, the animals’ purpose fulfilled, rain restored, and bounties poured forth. It is a plea to be freed from the aggression of foreigners in lands over which they have no right – a plea much needed in our modern world, rampant as it is with invasions and territorial occupations. Ultimately, it asks not that our enemies be destroyed, but simply that their plots, and the harm they cause, be halted. Its essence is mercy, which in turn is the essence of the Messenger of God, Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him: ‘And We have only sent you as a mercy to all the worlds.’” (Sandala.org)

Zaynab Shahar

Zaynab Shahar is an aspiring the@logian, writer, and interfaith activist. A future doctoral candidate at Chicago Theological Seminary, she received her bachelors in Jewish Studies from Hampshire College (2013) and her Masters in Religious Studies from Chicago Theological Seminary (May 2016). Her research focuses on rhetorical constructions of gender and communal ritual within public religious space within religious law and their impact on current movements for women’s religious leadership in Jewish and Muslim American communities. She also maintains specializations in Jewish gender studies, historical anti-Semitism, theopoetics, and comparative mysticisms. Outside of academia she maintains a foot in the world of cultural work and interfaith activism. She has represented Muslims in an interfaith capacity at Creating Change 2016, the 2015 North American Interfaith Network conference as a youth scholar, and the 2015 Muslim-Jewish Conference in Berlin.

Chaplain Khalid Bilal

Chaplain Khalid Bilal has been a prison chaplain for over twenty years. He is a paralegal and legal student and is currently studying at Wilbur Wright College. Furthermore, Chaplain Khalid is the property manager at Heartland Alliance, a non-profit that seeks to end poverty by working in housing,
healthcare, jobs and justice.

Anna Lloyd

Recently teaching the organization management module for the McCormick Theological Seminary’s executive leadership institute, Anna Lloyd is a 25-year veteran of executive management, social entrepreneurship and higher education consulting. Committed to the redesign of integrative institutions, she has launched the first Chicago RoundTable for Gen X leaders seeking to practice holistically in financial, marketing and social services, on behalf of Seeing Things Whole, nationally. The integration of business objectives with social impact has facilitated her serving as Founding Executive Director for the Center for Integrative Leadership, University of Minnesota, after completing eight years as CEO for the national Committee of 200 (C200), and C200 Foundation, the international women’s business organization featuring entrepreneurship among women. Signature research included Teens on Business, a collaboration with the Simmons School of Management. The recent collaboration with McCormick deepens personal objectives as sector boundaries disappear among organization research, management and spirituality.

Trained in New York City economic policy, serving as a vice president in the city’s Financial Services Corporation, Lloyd then directed the C200 national foundation and membership organization for women executives and entrepreneurs for over eight years, designing and launching education initiatives with business and policy schools, corporations and elected officials. As Founding Director for the Center for Integrative Leadership, a multi sector and university wide leadership research and practice center, she attracted faculty and donors and anchored a multidisciplinary approach to classroom and online teaching that launched both case studies and corporate leadership training tools. Lloyd believes that most organizations can manage to re boot and remain relevant.
She is co-founder of the Chicago-based Interfaith Coalition Against Racism.

On Friday, May 6, AIC concluded another successful academic year. A BBQ was held to celebrate the occasion. Students, staff, faculty, the administration, and their families, enjoyed a beautiful time together. The sun was bright and the breeze warm. Everyone had a wonderful time; it was a great way to build fellowship on campus.

On Saturday, April 30 in Chicago, families from all across the U.S. who have adopted orphans from Morocco and Pakistan came together with their adopted children for a reunion.

New Star Kafala is the only adoption agency whose entire goal is to push Muslim governments to let us place children from their orphanages into healthy Muslim American homes.

We opened up our annual adoption reunion to the general public, so people could meet these incredible families who have adopted and learn more about adoption, the specific needs of these orphans, and how to participate and help this cause
.
After the program, an exquisite Moroccan and Pakistani Dinner was provided. For more information, please visit

http://www.newstarkafala.org/events/annual-adoption-reunion-2016/

Join us for an evening of Classic Arabic Music with Turath Ensemble. The program will include Kudood Muashahaat & Nasheed.

Calligraphy art works will be availble to purchase.

Date: Friday, Aoril 22, 2016
Time: 7:00pm – 10:00pm
Where: Auditorium, Main Bldg, American Islamic College

Date: April 21-22, 2016
Where: Auditorium, Main Bldg, American Islamic College

Between April 21-22nd, 2016, over twenty scholars from Africa, Europe, and North America took part in a global conference dedicated to the scholarship of Islam in Africa. The conference was organized by Northwestern University’s Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa, the Program of African Studies, and co-organized by American Islamic College, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Center for African Studies.

The conference was on, “Sacred Word: The Changing Meanings in Textual Cultures of Islamic Africa,” which was dedicated to the memory of Dr. John Hunwick, the renowned scholar who “worked to change the perception that Africa was a continent lacking written records.” It explored the meanings of textual cultures in Muslim societies in Africa and the changes that have taken place in those cultures during the last two centuries.

The panel on “Transmitting Knowledge, Finding Meanings: The Holy Qur’an” was held at the American Islamic College’s historic auditorium. AIC’s Asst. Professor of Arabic & Islamic Studies, Jawad Qureshi, served on the panel as the discussant. Corinne Fortier, Anthropologist of Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique, presented on “Power and Embodiment of Qur’an Sacred Words.” Afis Ayinde Oladosu, scholar of Arabic & Islamic studies from the University of Ibadan, presented on Dalail al-Khayrat of S.M. al-Jazouli’s “Sacred just like the Qur’an?”. Jeremy Dell, Historian from the University of Pennsylvania, presented on “Reading the Qur’an in Wolof: The Tafsir of Muhammadu Dem.” The discourse presented on the culture, history, transmission, and translation/interpretations of the Qur’an in various Muslim African communities brought to light the richness of scholarship on the Qur’an in Africa that is full of critical depth.

After a thoughtful Q & A session, the panelists, scholars, and attendees enjoyed a delectable reception hosted by AIC in the Reception Hall. Guests were warmly welcomed by the President, Dr. H. Ali Yurtsever.
AIC was pleased to collaborate with Northwestern’s ISITA on this important conference and was honored to welcome its international scholars to AIC’s campus.

For more information, please visit:
http://www.africanstudies.northwestern.edu/publications-research/ISITA/ISITA%20symposium.html

The award-winning feature film called MARIAM, by Saudi filmmaker, Faiza Ambah, will be featured at American Islamic College on Sunday, April 17th at 2pm. The film is set in France in 2004 and tells the story of a teenage Muslim girl dealing with the new hijab laws in school, general Islamophobia, and teenage angst.

Discussion with the producer, Ms. Faiza Ambah, will follow.

Date: Sunday, April 17, 2016
Time: 2:00pm
Where: Auditorium, Main Bldg, American Islamic College

Faiza Ambah is a Saudi filmmaker with a background in journalism. She was Gulf Correspondent for The Washington Post before leaving in 2009 to focus on filmmaking. Her scripts have been supported by the Sundance Institute through the Rawi Screenwriters’ Lab in Jordan, the Dubai International Film Festival, and the Doha Film Institute. She was a jury member at the Gulf Film Festival in Dubai in 2013 and organized a festival of Gulf films at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, France the same year. She produced and directed the medium-length narrative film, MARIAM, which won the Special Jury Prize at the 2015 Dubai International Film Festival. Ambah has a feature-film writing certificate from UCLA extension and has taken directing courses at the Cinematic Arts School at the University of Southern California and the New York Film Academy.

MARIAM is a rare portrait of the coming of age of a Muslim teenage girl in France. In 2004, France passed a law that banned religious symbols from public schools and Mariam is forced to choose between going to school and following her beliefs.

The film is beautifully made, and it addresses the themes of Islamophobia, the diversity of the Muslim experience, the choice of some Muslim women to wear the hijab, and the assimilation and acceptance of Muslims in the West.

It was the awarded the Special Jury Prize at 2015 Dubai International Film Festival, screened at UNESCO as part of the commemoration of the 2015 International Day of Peace and is scheduled to play at many upcoming festivals around the world.

Despite the amazing progress in understanding and treatment of mental disorders, psychiatry was severely constrained by two self-imposed limitations: (1) it was dominated by intellectuals who considered faith and spirituality to be vestiges of a pre-scientific era, and (2) the Cartesian mind-body split long taken for granted in Western medicine, prevented us from focusing on the mind’s crucial role in pain, anxiety, and depression. But during the past three decades, a growing body of evidence especially Mind/Body Medicine (Benson, 1996; Koenig, 2001; Larson, 2001; Levin, 2001; Bergin, 1997; Dossey, 1984; Newberg, 2001) has suggested that spiritual and religious involvement is positively correlated to physical and mental health, and faith protects people from anxiety and depression, especially when related to tragedy and trauma. This presentation explains the spiritual dimensions of trauma healing and delineates how faith and trust in a Supreme Power provides a steady anchor that can cure a person’s insecurity by quieting distress and generating hope and positive expectancy. At the end there will be a brief discussion to explain whether Islamic perspective is different from the traditional psychotherapy as practiced in the West.

Date: Tuesday, April 12, 2016
Time: 6:00pm Reception; 6:30pm Talk
Where: Conference Hall, Main Bldg, American Islamic College

Dr. Abdul Basit, a former Fulbright Scholar, has a cosmopolitan educational background with degrees from India, England, and the United States. His work experience is also rich and varied.

He is a former Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago. For more than 18 years, he served as Superintendent of the Tinley Park Mental Health Center, Tinley Park, Illinois. Dr. Basit was also the Director of Multicultural Mental Health Services at the University of Chicago. It was during this period that the US Secretary of Health and Human Services appointed him as a member of the US National Mental Health Advisory Council for four years.

Before his term expired, he was acknowledged by the US Department of Health and Human Services as a “Nationally Recognized Leader in the Field of Mental Health.” In 2001, the Governor of Illinois appointed Dr. Basit to serve as a member of the Children and Family Services Advisory Council.
Dr. Basit was also co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Muslim Mental Health, which is published by Taylor & Francis. He has published extensively, including books and book chapters. He has also presented numerous papers at various national and international conferences. He has special expertise in the fields of mental health and comparative study of world religions.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys are victims of sexual abuse by the age of 18. Join us for a day-long training targeting community & faith leaders, educators, social services providers and other interested individuals to gain an in-depth understanding of the issue and what we can do to work toward prevention. The goals of this training are the following:

1. To raise awareness about the prevalence of sexual violence in faith-communities, with a particular focus on Muslim communities.
2. To learn from other faith communities to create strategic, sustainable, and victim-centric approaches that address and prevent sexual violence.
3. To increase the number of anti-sexual assault advocates in faith communities, with a particular focus on Muslim communities.

Date: Saturday, April 10, 2016
Where: American Islamic College

The event featured local and national experts such as HEART Women & Girls, Sumaya Abubaker (Rahma Network), Suzanne Healy (Archdiocese of Los Angeles) Arab American Family Services, Barbara Blaine from Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), and many more.

Brought to you in part by Anne Germanacos and the Interfaith Youth Core, and co-sponsored by HEART Women & Girls, and the Center for Urban Research & Learning at Loyola University.