European mentoring course for converts: photo gallery

The following is an article and photo gallery of the NEMA mentoring course in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, that took place on December 12-13, 2009. Two members from the Muslim Association of Greece and one member from Greeks Rethink attended the course.

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The Mentoring Course that NEMA organized  (Native European Muslim Assembly, affiliated to FIOE) was indeed a great success. People from many countries as Finland, UK, France, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Greece and Holland attended it. The location was the Islamic University of Rotterdam and the honored guest was professor Jamal Badawi, a beloved scholar for millions of Muslims worldwide. The mentoring course was held by Kathleen Roche Nagi who runs the Approachable Coaching Program (www.approachablecoaching.com).

The Dutch Muslims presented their activities to us, their goals and participated actively with lectures that aimed to realize the situation and the challenges of the New Muslims. They presented their association and their websites www.ontdekislam.nl & www.lpnm.nl

The Mentoring Course was a sequel of previous and future sessions and when they are completed the attendees will be certified mentors in order to use their skills to the demanding convert community. The promising aspect was that most of the future mentors were converts themselves and this is always preferable in order to achieve maximum effect.

Dr. Jamal Badawi was giving lectures and answering all questions of the attendees and as well he gave more lectures out of the course at Erasmus University and at an Arabic center, so we were happy to follow him and listen to his teachings that are really inspiring and enlightening for all Muslims.

Greece was represented by three members of our group Elena Pouliasi, Amir Arvanitis and Anna Stamou but we also met our sister Stefanie Danopoulos, a Greek-Dutch, who lives there and was very active indeed in this event as a member of the Dutch Muslim Community.

Although the program was very tight and we had to squeeze time and learn as much as possible, we had a great time and endless talks with each other as we shared experiences and impressions from our countries. We were all sad when Sunday afternoon came and we promised to meet at the next session for mentors and of course at the NEMA camp that will be announced soon.

Indeed all people of NEMA did a wonderful job, the program was very successful like the previous ones and we are looking forward for their new website that will be launched soon.

Click below to see the full photo gallery.