Community News, Vol. 8 Iss. 46

Eboo Patel to speak at Duke

DURHAM, NC–Eboo Patel, organizer of an international multi-religious network, will speak at Duke University on Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. in Von Canon C in the Bryan Center.

Patel is the founder and executive director of Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based organization that brings young people from different faith communities together to build understanding and cooperation.

“Our work grows out of the emerging revolutionary interfaith movement and adds the important dimension of a specific focus on young people engaging in concrete community service and social action,” Patel said in a news release.

He is an American-born Muslim, a former Rhodes Scholar and a member of the Duke Center for Islamic Studies’ board.

His Durham appearance is the keynote event in a series of five inter-religion dialogue programs supported by a grant from the Robertson Scholars Collaboration Fund and other co-sponsors from Duke and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Patel’s vision and methods are an exciting way to engage the “new interfaith generation of students,” said the Rev. Mike Rutledge of the Duke Religious Life staff, an adviser to Duke’s Interfaith Dialogue Project.

The event is open to the public.

Ibrahim Khan nominated for outstanding lineman award

TORONTO–Winnipeg football player Ibrahim Khan has been nominated for the outstanding lineman award by the Canadian Football League. Khan was acquired by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers as the first pick in the 2006 Ottawa player dispersal draft.

Khan won the J.P. Metras Trophy as the top lineman in Canadian university football in 2003. Khan was drafted in the first round (2nd overall) of the 2004 Canadian College Draft. He dressed for the Ottawa Renegades during the first two games of season but did not play. In Game 3 versus Edmonton, he saw the first live action of his CFL career. In Game 7 versus Calgary, he got the first start of his CFL career at right guard. In Game 8 at B.C., he started for the second time in as many weeks against the Lions. In Game 9 versus Hamilton he backed-up Mike Sutherland at right guard. He also had a special teams’ tackle. In Game 10 versus Edmonton, he backed-up Alexandre Gauthier at left tackle and had a special teams’ tackle. In Game 11 versus Montreal, Khan began the game as a back-up and filled in well for centre George Hudson when he went down with a back injury. He started Game 12 versus B.C. as Center against the Lions.

Khan’s family resides in Orleans, Ontario. He attended Sir Wilfrid Laurier High School where he played football and rugby.

He played minor football for the Gloucester Dukes. Khan was one of three Canadians to participate in the 2004 East-West Shrine Game, an all-star game for graduating college players, mainly from the United States. Khan was a college teammate of Bombers linebacker Neil McKinlay.

Utah Muslims donate half ton of food supplies

SALT LAKE CITY, UT–Utah Muslims lived up to the spirit of Ramadan by donating 1,015.2 pounds of food supplies to the Crossroads Urban Center’s food pantry. The donation was a result of collective efforts of the area’s entire Muslim community including Girl Scout Troop 786, Iqra Academy, the Muslim Society of Greater Salt Lake and mosque attendees.

Last year, the Crossroads food pantry served more than 90,000 people, said Linda Hilton, volunteer resource coordinator. The non-profit center also offers other services such as a food pantry, fuel assistance and advocacy programs, she said.

This is the first time the Muslim community has organized such a drive, and Hilton said the help goes beyond the food.

“We like to have new groups, it expands our donor base,” she told the Deseret News. “As another faith community is more educated about our services, they will send more people in need to us.”

Imam Shuaibuddin of the Khadeeja Mosque was already looking forward to giving again, saying, “Next year I’d like to see one ton.”

Vigil held for Darfur victims

TERRE HAUTE–Students from the Amnesty International chapter at Terre Haute North Vigo High School hosted a vigil to honour the victims of violence in Darfur. An estimated 200,000 have died and 2.5 million have been displaced from their homes since violence began in the war-torn Sudanese region more than three years ago, according to press reports.

Shariq Siddiqui of the Muslim Alliance of Indiana also spoke at the event. In August 2004, Siddiqui visited Sudan for a week to investigate the situation. He spoke with government and militant leaders, who he felt were spinning the situation for their own gain.

“The only people who seemed honest and truthful was [refugees],” Siddiqui said. “That’s the only time when you can come to the truth.”

Col. Muslim youth lend a helping hand

DENVER, CO–The Ansar Group in Denver has launched several projects to provide services to the larger community. One of Ansar’s first projects was assisting Wilderness on Wheels, an outdoors project that endeavors to provide access to hiking for the wheelchair-bound, according to an article written by Taj Ashaheed, chairman of the Colorado Muslim Society.

Other projects soon followed, including assisting at the Denver Rescue Mission, establishing a 9News HealthFair site at a mosque, and working a new housing site with Habitat for Humanity in Denver. In 2005, the Ansar Group began formulating a plan to establish a food pantry to help needy families, and soon began a relationship with Metro CareRing in Denver.

Metro CareRing provided food to needy families five days a week, Monday through Friday. Soon, the Ansar Group’s participation added services on Saturdays. In October of this year the Group secured a separate facility in Aurora under the auspices of Metro CareRing.

The facility’s grand opening on Oct. 28 marked the first major community service program for Muslims in the state of Colorado, and will shed a new light on a much more relevant perspective of Muslims who know the importance of community involvement, compassion and goodwill for all people.

Jews, Muslims unite for hospital fundraiser

LONDON, CANADA–A joint Jewish-Muslim initiative on behalf of the new Children’s Hospital of Western Ontario exceeded expectations, organizers said yesterday.

About 400 people attended the Salam, Shalom Building Bridges with Faith breakfast, creating momentum for what will become a fundraising campaign for the hospital.

Faisal Joseph, who chairs the Association of London Muslims, said organizers were “blown away by the attendance, the enthusiasm and the depth of commitment of the people who were there.”

The event was organized to show that in London, Jews and Muslims can work together in common cause, in this case children’s health care.

“It’s not going to be too tough to build on this,” said Joseph. “People kept saying, ‘How can we help.?”

Though the Jewish and Muslim communities were well represented, people of other faiths and backgrounds also attended, Joseph said.

Quartics launches digital media chip

Irvine-based Quartics, the semiconductor firm headed by Safi Quereshey, said that it has launched its digital content chips. The firm’s PC2TV chips provide wireless connectivity for sending video and audio via wireless networks. Quartics has developed a media processing system for connecting televisions via Wi-Fi networks to a personal computer, and it targeted at the digital living room. The firm said that its products are being incorporated into OEM products for introduction in coming months.

According to Addlogix President, Sharon Charna, “The Quartics architecture allows our customers new flexibility in how they interact with their environment. Both businesses and consumers are looking for ways to free their content from their PCs and use it how and where they want without restrictions. The Quartics-enabled products we’re producing allow them to do just that.”

The rise of Internet video and audio has opened the floodgates on a new generation of Web-based content. The last several years have witnessed a growing disharmony in the content space relative to ownership and distribution of media; no longer do content and media companies transmit free and paid material to subscribers solely through proprietary portals and coded receivers.

The ways in which consumers enjoy media content have changed dramatically as well: consumers demand immediacy. The only restraints lie in the reproduction devices themselves-the viewing screens or audio devices that play back material. Since consumers now have increased control over how to display and consume media content, the company says that Quartics users now have the tools to bring it to the displays of their choice.

“We’re very bullish on this company,” said Rich Redelfs, a general partner with Foundation Capital, which won’t say how much it invested but it is working on a new round of funding. “It’s in a huge potential market, and it has an awesome management team. Safi has built a Fortune 500 company. There’s not a lot of those around.”

Qureshey plans to keep the price of a TV with the chip no more than $100 more than a TV without the chip.

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