Community News (V9-I23)

Minority Business Development Award for Shahid Khan

NEW YORK, NY–The National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC), celebrating its 35th anniversary as the nation’s leading corporate membership organization, paid tribute to a trio of business leaders for their long-standing accomplishments and commitment to minority business development at its annual Leadership Awards Dinner-Dance on Tuesday, May 22nd, at the Hilton New York and Towers in New York City. Peter J. Davoren, chairman, president and CEO of The Turner Corporation; Nathaniel R. Goldston III, president and CEO of Gourmet Services, Inc.; and Shahid Khan, president of Flex-N-Gate Corporation each received the 2007 NMSDC Minority Business Leadership Award.

“High achievement and decades of commitment to the power of solid alliances between minority businesses and their corporate partners are what distinguish this year’s honorees,” said NMSDC President Harriet Michel. “As individuals they are recognized as leaders in America’s business community. Collectively they represent strength, perseverance, vision, forthrightness and commitment to our mutual goal that all Americans deserve a chance to take full part in our nation’s economic progress.”

Shahid Khan is president of Flex-N-Gate Corporation, a $2.5 billion global auto parts manufacturer with 15,000 associates. The Urbana, Illinois-based company makes metal and plastic automotive components and assemblies, including bumpers, grilles, hinges, instrument panels, pedal systems and running boards. Flex-N-Gate’s list of corporate clients includes BMW, DaimlerChrysler, Ford, General Motors and Toyota. The company has been expanding since 2000, and now has more than 48 manufacturing plants in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Spain and the U.S.

More than 1,650 guests attended the event, including CEOs and executives of Fortune 500 corporations and minority business owners from across the nation.

Mohammad Khan elected officer of Smart Card Alliance

The Smart Card Alliance Contactless Payments Council has announced new officers, elected in February 2007. Among the new officers is Mohammad Khan, founder and president of ViVOtech.

He held several engineering, marketing, and business development management positions during the 15 years he worked with VeriFone.

Joining VeriFone in its early stage in 1983, Mr. Khan helped the company develop its payment automation systems and later helped successfully market these products in more than 96 countries. Included were the smart card and security payment products he conceived for VeriFone and launched to its worldwide markets in the early ‘90s. He was also a co-founder of the Internet Commerce Division within VeriFone and was responsible for expansion of its Internet payment systems business into more than 25 countries. VeriFone grew to $600 million in revenue before being acquired by Hewlett-Packard for $1.2 billion in 1997. Mr. Khan is a co-founder of Sparkice, Inc., China’s e-Hub for global commerce, where he worked as its senior vice president. He holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. In 2006 Khan was recognized as a leader of the Electronic Payments Industry by the Transaction Trends Magazine and in 2005 as a “Mover and Shaker” of the Electronic Payments Industry by the Transaction World magazine.

Assemblyman records Muslim meet

At what is is being described as an attempt to intimidation Newport Beach Assemblyman Chuck DeVore filmed a lecture event sponsored by the Muslim Students Union of University of California at Irvine. The speaker at the event was Sheikh Sadullah Khan, a prominent scholar and activist who fought South Africa’s apartheid regime.

DeVore told the media that he was inspired to do the recording after reading reports that MSU members had allegedly blocked an anonymous person from filming the speech of Amir Abdul-Malik Ali.

No one stopped DeVore from filming eventhough there were signs requesting no video taping. “For those who want to videotape, feel free to do so,” Imam Khan said in the opening minutes of his speech, gesturing toward DeVore.

Marya Bangee, the union’s spokeswoman, said DeVore’s comments were off the mark and that her group is opposed to political Zionism.

“As Muslims, we respect all Jews,” she said. “I think that clear distinction has to be made between a political ideology and a religion.”

She added that her group was wary of people videotaping its events because members felt the footage was often edited and taken out of context.

Israeli wall at Poly

POMONA – Muslim students placed a traveling wall representing opposition to the Israeli security barrier separating Israelis from Palestinians in the campus center quad of Cal Poly Pomona this week.

The gray-painted wooden wall – 10 feet high and 60 feet long – was first erected at UC Irvine last week and will remain on display at Cal Poly until Friday, said Amir Mertaban, president of the Student Coalition for a Just Peace.

It is meant to give students a Palestinian version of the conflict, Mertaban said.

The barrier was constructed by Israel and divides Israel and Palestinian land. Israelis say the barrier protects againsy terror attacks.

The Cal Poly wall was built by students in the Muslim student organizations at UC Irvine and Cal Poly Pomona.

“The idea is to balance [an] already tilted scale with something like this,” Mertaban said. “We’re trying to bring out the truth.”

Imam leads prayer in Alabama house

Imam Kareem Abdullah of the Birmingham Islamic Center led the opening prayer last week in the Alabama House.

Ministers from across the state, mostly from Christian churches, come to the microphone to pray at the start of each day’s session, just before House members say the Pledge of Allegiance.

Abdullah was invited by Rep. Yusuf Salaam, D-Selma, the only Muslim member of the Legislature.
Salaam said he invited Abdullah because he feels it’s important to show legislators and other Alabama residents that most Muslims are “sane, sober-minded people,” and not terrorists or against America.
“Most Muslims are God-fearing people with much in common with this country,” Salaam said.

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