Thank You by Syed Fayyaz Hassan Sb. Thank you all for making it happen. I think we hit a milestone last weekend. We were talk of the convention. Muslim Democratic Caucus has risen to the surface of Texas Democratic Party with a big bang. Our aim was to create space for Muslims in people’s heart. This was an opportunity to reach out to grass root activists, who were from all over Texas. Hundreds of Facebook comments we received from our fellow Texans were full of praise for our group and Muslim community. The event was educational for a number of attendees and was inspirational for others. This could not have happen, without great efforts from selfless community leaders The program was fantastic, the publicity was great, the attendance was outstanding, and the magazine was full of research articles. I am personally grateful to all of the steering committee members and the leadership of Muslim Democratic Caucus of Texas for building a political space for Muslims in Texas. This one event has broken glass ceilings for Muslims. If I name the names it will be a long list, but the leadership of MDC of TX deserves credit for taking this as a challenge and pursued it tirelessly. Thank you Aftab bhai for your leadership, Emad Salem for being keeping us straight, Amir and Melissa for their valuable inputs and taking over the registration and sign up. Tariq Jaffery for providing magazine articles and bringing valuable ads. For Amina Ismail for bringing to us our future leaders. Besides the board members of MDC, I would like to especially thank Amir Makhani, who not only have spent his money but also worked tirelessly to make this a success. I would like to thank Zahid Khanzada for his role as facilitator for the magazine, bringing valuable advertisements, and for keeping performers in check. Hussain Mahrooq has been supporting MDC of TX since some time; his generosity in providing us resources is invaluable. There were many who helped in this program but our youth team trio with Naeem Makhani, Aisha U-Kiu and Sameer Jamal was awesome. This trio has showed us the path for future. The demonstrated professionalism and focusing on program details was a new concept for a lot of us and I personally learned a lot form our youth. The team is not complete without mention of Dr. Amir Suleman and Dr. Javed Ajmal, Raja Muzaffar, Moazzam Bhangar, Siraj Butt, Ghulam Jangda and Asif Effendi. The program was great but the magazine is even greater as the magazine was take away for people in attendance. We distributed almost one thousand copies as I have only handful left. The quality of research based articles highlighting the profile of Muslims in America and in Texas was the intended purpose of this book. Thanks to Mustafaa Caroll, Dr. Basheer, Tariq Jaffery, Zahid Khanzada, Aftab Siddiqui, Dr. Hind Jarrah and Bob Ray Sander (Courtesy of Emad Salem). The message in the book was simple, Muslims have roots in this country and we are becoming a significant political force for the better of America. Talking of the performances, right from Ismaili scouts, all the performances were outstanding, recitation of Quran from two Amir Rehmans daughters were very much relevant to the topic of the program. Thanks to Javed Samuel and Erum Samuel, the Sitar Tabla, Johnny Wolfe recitation of Rumi’s poetry, Areeba on violin and Shahina Rahman on flute were fantastic, the West African music and dance from Leo Hassan, the highlight was a thought provoking poem barcode from young Noor Wadi that brought tears into people’s eyes, it was superb. The performance by the Dubka dance group by Palestinians youth of Al-Mustaqbil had the biggest impact on people in attendance, which brought all the people closer dancing on the beats of Palestinian music. This was what we were hoping for that our fellow Texans see us next to them without prejudice and in positive light. The stand-up comedian Amer Zahr is a nationally acclaimed artist. His presentation was a straight talk to America. He covered topics from racial profiling to media bias and hate mongering against Muslims. He said all the things with humor that we wanted to convey to our audience. The speeches from Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa and Congressman Mark Veasey were reassuring. Texas Democratic Party Executive Director Will Hailer went an extra mile to help us have this historic event, for which we are all thankful to him. Sameena Karamally is a candidate for Texas house seat from Plano area, she gave a great speech from the stage The best element in the whole program was that it was all lead by youth. Naeem Makhani as event coordinator, Aisha U-Kiu and Sameer Jamal as Emcees made this happen. This reflects our future direction as our next generation is ready to lead the community now. All the volunteers at registration desk and in the hall were most efficient We would also like to thank Ruby and Javed Chaudhry for stage, Nizar Ali for providing video coverage, Rehan for Audio Video, Dr. Amer Sulaiman and Mrs. Sulaiman for bringing artifacts for display, Visaal AbuSaad for Palestinian exhibits. Thanks to the community support for the success of our program that has written a new chapter on Muslim’s political empowerment. We especially thankful to Dallas County School board President Larry Duncan, Texas House Representative Chris Turner, Judge Gena Slaughter, Rick Faulkner for their support. Magazine advertisers Dr. Anas Athar, Azhar Aziz, Azim Yasin, Texas General Hospital, Qazi Mujeeb, Mohammad Amin, Dr. Akhtar Ali Shah, MCC, CAIR, Islamic Relief, Dr. Dawood Nasir, Bilal Khaleeq. Special thanks to Farooq Khan and Dr. Rehana Kausar and Sam Mahrooq and Walid Joulani and of course Amir Makhani for their generosity and support Thank You Syed Fayyaz Hassan Muslim Democratic Caucus of Texas 682 429 9954
Posted on: Wed, 02 Jul 2014 04:41:40 +0000
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