IONA Youth Outreach Program

By Adil James, TMO

The audience pays close attention to Imam Mohammed Ishtiaq.

IONA hosted a long five hour program aimed at young people.  About 150 people were presenta at IONA for the program, which lasted from 5PM until about 10:15PM, introducing Imam Mohammed Ishtiaq, Ameer Abdul Malik, Omar Malik, and others.  The theme of the session could really be summed up by the catch phrase of the organization FIT–which stands for, first, its obvious meaning–but also as an acronym it stands for “fraternal, inspirational, transformational.” 

And this was in fact the theme of the evening–YOU is an organization which strives to thwart the “unmosqued” movement by bringing young people into the fold of Islam, reaching out to them through sports but then engaging them by making it a condition of their participation in sports to learn about Islam.

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