Community News (V12-I49)

Ali Hussain wins prestigious scholarship

Ali Hussain, a government major at Cornell University, has won the prestigious Marshall Scholarship. He is one of 40 Americans chosen for two years of graduate study in England. Hussain will study for an M.Phil. in politics at Oxford University.

“I was extremely surprised and humbled when I got the acceptance from the British Consul General. Being a student of government, studying at Oxford and having access to its primary documents and diverse faculty have always been a dream of mine,” said Hussain.

Earlier this year, Hussain received a Harry S. Truman Scholarship in recognition of his academic achievements, leadership and commitment to a career in public service.

“I know for a fact that these fellowships would not be possible without the phenomenal support I have gotten at Cornell,” Hussain said. “[Fellowship coordinator] Beth Fiori and [fellowship associate] Cheryl Littell have provided me invaluable support throughout the whole process, and I am very grateful for the faculty I have gotten so close to throughout my time here at Cornell. They have been such an influence on my academic development and provided me the letters of support necessary to get the Marshall.”

Hussain is a member of Telluride Association, the Sphinx Head Society and Mortar Board. He is a founding member of the Cornell Urban Scholars Program Initiative and the Committee for the Advancement of Muslim Culture. Hussain also serves on the board of the campus organization Islamic Alliance for Justice. As a Cornell Urban Scholar he conducted policy research for the American Civil Liberties Union in Newark, N.J., on the School to Prison Pipeline.

Pioneering halal businessman in Virginia is no more

WASHINGTON–Mukit Hossain,a pioneering halal businessman in Virginia, has died. Mukit, who was born in Bangladesh, was a graduate of Duke University and long played a pivotal role in the Muslim community of Virginia.

He led organizations such as Food Source that fed the homeless and founded the non-profit group Project Hope and Harmony, which established a day-laborer hiring center in Herndon, Va.

His political activism at the state and national levels helped mobilize and empower Muslim voters in several elections. He recently left the telecommunications business and moved to rural Virginia to establish a farm supplying halal meat to the area’s growing Muslim population. In 2006, he worked with Jewish leaders to push for legislation in the Virginia General Assembly that made it a crime to mislabel halal or kosher products.

First Muslim prayer held at Fairfield University

FAIRFIELD, CT–Friday prayers were held for the first time in the Interfaith Prayer Room at Fairfield University for the first time. The service was attended by both Muslim and non-Muslim students.
“The opening of the Prayer Room in what was previously the Jesuit Chapel marks a new era in the religious life of Fairfield. It means that Fairfield recognizes the gift of religious pluralism on the campus, and desires to respond to this reality intelligently, respectfully and sensitively,” said University Chaplain Gerald Blaszczak.

Amjad Tarsin, is a student at the Hartford Seminary’s Islamic Chaplaincy Program, led the prayers. He delivered a sermon on “Mercy, Compassion and Service in the Islamic Tradition.”

Tarsin was raised in Ann Arbor and has a degree in English and Islamic Studies. He performed the pilgrimage to Mecca and was impressed by the diversity. He met people he never thought existed in the world and who spoke different languages.

Portland jail attack could be anti-Muslim hate crime

PORTLAND,OR–The Multnomah County sheriff’s office is investigating whether an assault on a Portland jail inmate is an anti-Muslim hate crime.

Sheriff’s spokeswoman Mary Lindstrand said witnesses to the assault Sunday on 23-year-old Mohamed Anwar Ahmend included racial slurs against Muslims.

Lindstrand told The Oregonian another inmate has been identified as a suspect, and deputies are investigating whether the assault was prompted by the reported plan to bomb Portland’s tree-lighting ceremony.

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