SE Michigan (V9-I21)

arsna-pdf-islamic-council.pdfMichigan imams create accord on honorable relations,

American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) holds successful function at Ford Community Center in Dearborn

Dearborn–May 10–American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), a new political committee, kicked off to a successful start this past Friday at Dearborn’s Ford Community & Performing Arts Center.

About 500 people sitting at 50 beautifully decorated tables were in attendance at the posh and well-organized event, most of them Palestinians–there was a large celebration of Palestinian culture, with traditional dances and many fiery speeches reflecting the theme of the evening, “Palestine: We will return.”

AMP, as explained on their website, is a not for profit with the purpose to provide “non-partisan and non-sectarian educational, social and cultural programming for the purpose of raising American public awareness of Palestine’s rich heritage and diverse people.”

“AMP’s mission is accomplished through publishing books, organizing conferences, providing educational programs and resources for all ages, incomes, and cultural backgrounds. The AMP is a membership-based association with the goal of involving all segments of the American community in its work.”

AMP has offices in Dearborn, Chicago, and Palestine.

Speakers at the event included Alison Weir from “IfAmericansKnew.com, Dr. Raji al-Sourani, a professor from Palestine, and Dr. Hatem Bazyan, the AMP President.

Alison Weir maintains a blog website, alisonweir.org.

IfAmericansKnew.com is a very interesting website also maintained by Ms. Weir; it graphically illustrates the immense disparities between casualties (and support for) Israel and Palestine. The website publishes reports on the use by Israel of, for instance, experimental weapons on its Palestinian people.

The site also describes the Israel-Palestine situation in extensive detail, from the historical context to the present, exploring whether the US in fact has interests in the region, and rigorous studies of mainstream media reporting on Palestine and Israel by the major networks. If Americans Knew publishes videos, among them “The Easiest Targets,” a documentary about “the Israeli policy of strip searching women and children”–free copies of DVD compilations of IAK’s several short videos were made available to the AMP audience for free.

On her websites Ms. Weir of course provides plenty of material on the Israeli strafing of the USS Liberty which killed 34 American servicemen and injured 170 in 1967.

The message of AMP president Dr. Bazyan was mainly that things have changed immensely in the recent past, especially in light of Jimmy Carter’s new book exposing Israel’s apartheid and arguing for peace, but that more work is needed.

The event was timed to coincide with the beginning of Israeli occupation of Palestine, which began May 14, 1948.

AMP Michigan’s website is www.ampmichigan.org.

“Ek Shaam Talat Mahmood Ke Naam” – A Memorable Evening in Detroit

To celebrate 9th Anniversary of legendary singer Talat Mahmood “Ek Shaam Talat Mahmood Ke Naam” program was conducted on May 4, 2007 at the University of Michigan Dearborn auditorium by a team of Aligarh Muslim University alumni and its well wishers led by Ashfaq Qureshi, Chair Board of Trustees Federation of Aligarh Alumni Associations of America. The main of the sponsors included Dr. Mahboob Fatteh of Lansing Michigan and Mr. Arif Ali who has a lot of experience in conducting cultural events. Other sponsors included AFMI led by local Vice President Arif Motorwala and Pakistan Association of America (PAA) led by Zahid Hussain President, Hafiz Anjum, Naved Ashraf and Mohammad Qasim. Some of the sponsors didn’t want to be identified.

The program was started with Tilawat-e-Quran, in the Aligarh tradition by nine year old Armaan Khan. Maria Siddiqui, an MBA from Aligarh acted as the Master of Ceremony. Mr. Narendra Sheth of Geet Mala radio program led the orchestra and provided musical system support.

Dr. Mohammad Haneef recited a light Ghazal. Anita Sharma, a local music teacher, recited some old songs from classical Indian movies.

Introducing Khalid Mahmood, the son of Talat Mahmood, Ashfaq Qureshi stated that Khalid was using his father’s harmonium which was a million dollar treasure for all of us. Khalid sang famous songs of his father such as ‘Tasweer Teri Dil Mera Behla Na Sakegi’, ‘Itna Na Mujhse tu Pyar Barha’ and ‘Ai Mere Dil Kahin Aur Chal’.

The audience was really stunned by the two other voices – Rujuta Joshi of Michigan who sang famous classical Indian movie songs. Munni Begum a Pakistani Ghazal singer who is already a well known figure in North America and worldwide charmed the audience by her old classical songs. She carried the rest of the program with high level performance for more than an hour and a half. Overall the whole three and a half hour program starting with the theme of ‘Ek Shaam Talat Mahmood Ke Naam’ became an all time memorable evening for the people from Michigan, Ohio and Windsor Canada.

Radio Asia (Neleen Chandra), Manoranjan (Mumtaz Haque), Indian Radio (Dr. Subhash Kelkar), Voice of Pakistan (Faiz Khan and Uzma Syed) provided free publicity for this community program for a charitable cause. Miindia.com and mumtazworld.com provided free publicity through their esteemed websites as a service to the community.

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