Funny video: what NOT to do when giving dawah, especially to converts

Now, I regret missing this seminar! Check out this skit they did in class.   The sad part is that people actually do this for real!

Greek Muslims majority at European camp

Source:  IslamOnline.net

Article:  EU Muslim Converts Sharing Experiences (at NEMA Camp in Turkey)

“Participants are coming from different European countries, but Greek Muslim participants represent the majority.”

 

Imagine 60 native European Muslims to gather in one place for four days to discuss, learn, and seek beneficial inspiration for overcoming any challenges facing them as European Muslim reverts – that is what the Native European Muslim Assembly (NEMA) current camp looks like.

As one of the associations of the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe (FIOE), NEMA organizes its second annual meeting for EU Muslim converts in Istanbul. The camp, which started on April 10 and lasted for three days, aimed at reinforcing a European-scale network for the new Muslims.

“NEMA has already held two important meetings; the first took place in Brussels which aimed at getting accurate view of new Muslims, determining the main challenges, and setting an action plan for NEMA’s task while the second one was in Birmingham, UK, where the reverts’ monitors had a series of training sessions,” said Dr. Hany El-Deeb, NEMA’s president.

“This project came very late as it should have been launched years ago,” said Dr. Ayman Ali, FIOE’s secretary general,referring to NEMA’s recent launch that was founded after the FIOE’s New Muslims Committee (NMC)’s workshop in May, 2007.

Inspiring Models

 

Over the four-day camp, EU reverts are presenting their successful experiences to set models for the other participants.

Nourdeen Wilderman, a Dutch lecturer within the Dutch Islamic Ummah, is one of the converted presenters who came to Istanbul to share his inspiring experiences with others. His range of activities included delivering speeches, interacting with the media and acting as a stand-up comedian.

Wildeman’s presentation was mainly tackling his well-developed project: “Masjid Finder”, which he hoped to expand with the help of fellow Muslims. Speaking about his project, which serves as a good example for a Da’wah effort carried out by a proactive revert according to NEMA, he says, “My project provides a detailed database of Mosques in the Netherlands.”

“By car, I have visited more than 250 mosques in the Netherlands to confirm their addresses, the services they offer, the languages they use in Friday khutbas, and more detailed information.”

Wildeman, who was officially converted to Islam in December2007, got his project’s idea from what he used to experience when googling the mosques in his region.

“I used to follow the information available online, but unfortunately it was usually out of date.”

Greek Muslims Rethink

 

Participants are coming from different European countries, but Greek Muslim participants represent the majority.

“The group of Greek Muslims who came here not only for the camp’s activities, but also to discuss serious issues of the Muslim affairs in Greece,” said Naim Al-Ghandour, president of the Muslim Association of Greece who takes part in the camp.

The Greek Muslim group has managed to create a team that would work hard on solving the Muslims’ problems in Greece. The meeting was coordinated by Greeks Rethink, member of the Muslim Association of Greece. “It is absolutely necessary for our team to act radically since the Muslim population in Greece is constantly increasing.”

Networking

 

While Dr. Jamal Badawi’s lectures were advantageous for many participants who came to learn from him how to respond to controversial questions and how to deal with other non-Muslims in general, networking also was of interest to many of the camp attendants.

“I am attending the camp to do networking with other European converts,” says Alser Ebroothaers, a Belgian Muslim convert. Ebroothaers, who has been a Muslim for almost a year, is looking forward to getting connected with new converts through the camp as she worked with a Belgian organization for converted women. She wants to see how her organization can expand and reach out to new converts in Europe through making use of others’ previous experiences and collaboration.

Non-Membership NEMA

As one of the projects that was founded and operated under the umbrella of the FIOE’s Da`wah department, NEMA camp’s organizers were keen to involve Dr. Jamal Badawi in the camp. Dr. Badawi is a prominent Muslim Canadian scholar and a member of the Islamic Juridical [Fiqh] Council of North America, the European Council of Fatwa and Research and the International Union of Islamic Scholars.

At the camp, a couple of lectures are given by Dr. Badawi on different issues that have to do with European Muslim converts, such as converts’ isolation and the way of integration, balanced Islam, how to deal with controversial questions about Islam, etc.

“This camp is our first experience in gathering Muslim converts from different European countries at the same place and time,” declares Wanees Mabrook, head of the Dua`wah department in the FIOE.

Both Mabrook and Al-Deeb insist that NEMA be a non-membership organization that offers services to any native European Muslims. “We felt happy when we knew that we helped any convert on an educational or a social basis.”

Converts’ challenges range from social, spiritual, to educational ones. Such gatherings are seen as “turning points” in their path to become active European Muslims who can serve their Muslim Ummah and their local European communities.

In your opinion, what are the challenges which the European Muslim converts face? How can they get encouraged to overcome those challenges? Do you think sharing experiences through such camps and events can help them positively?

 

 

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Radwa Khorshid is an editor in the Euro-Muslims Zone at IslamOnline.net. She is a graduate of the Department of English Studies, Faculty of Law, Cairo University. You may contact her at radwa.khorshid@iolteam.com.

Giving dawah in Greece might need a different approach

It’s interesting to see how people give dawah differently (tell others about Islam).  Over the years, I’ve learned what to do and what not to do but now I face a new situation: telling people who live in Greece about Islam.  And I am finding over and over again, that Muslims living in Greece are taking a different approach that conflict what we, here in the West, find to be the best dawah techniques.

I have been told from various Muslims living in Greece that they take a calm approach making sure not to oppose Christianity but instead to show the similiarities between Christianity and Islam, otherwise Christians will become defensive because they think that you are disrespecting them. 

I definitely agree with the part but about being calm and respectful for sure.  These are the etiquettes of a Muslim anyway but I have to disagree with showing similiarities with Christians.  (I’ll tell you why at the end; keep reading.)

For example, here are some techniques that have been proven to be best and that come from the way the prophets have conveyed the message:

 

1. Understand where the person is coming from

Giving dawah to someone who is sincere in his questioning will be totally different to someone who is cutting and pasting some aspects of Islam, taking things out of context intentionally and taking you for a whirl.  Also, here is where you will assess how Islam is viewed where they live.  Do they live in Toronto, Canada where there are thousands and thousands of Muslims or do they live in a small city of Greece where there is only a small minority of Muslims?

 

2.  Don’t get trapped on the defensive

Unfortunately, some questioners have everything planned to drive you between a rock and a hard place.  But, for the most part, the questioner is sincere.  I’ve seen way to many Muslims take the passenger seat and showing less confidence in their body language and voice.  We are carrying the best message sent to ALL of the worlds.  If I am proud of that, I want to show it with confidence.

 

3.  Focus on tawheed first

In the end, writing articles or talking with others about fiqh points like drinking, smoking, adultery, gambling etc. is not going to get us very far.  Sure, these are very important aspects, no doubt, but people will never stop doing those things unless they have faith in their heart first.  And to have faith, they have to believe in tawheed (the Oneness of Allah).

 

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, “You are going to a people from the People of the Book. Let the first thing that you call them to be the worship of Allah. If they acknowledge Allah, then inform them that Allah has obligated upon them five prayers during their days and nights.” [Al-Bukhari, Muslim]

 

4.  Concentrate on the differences NOT the similiarities

We all agree that we are here to only convey the message.  Our goal is not to convert people to Islam because only Allah can guide.  Now, if you concentrate on only similarities, you are taking the passenger’s seat and not only will they see you as coming closer to Christianity, they might even want to convert YOU!  Here in the West, we’ve heard of stories like this when Muslims participate in interfaith dialogues in churces with priests.

If our duty is to convey the message of true monotheism, have we really completed our duty if we hide the message in order to concentrate on similarities? 

The #1 secret to inviting others to paradise

 

 

Today, I gave a talk on the #1 secret to iniviting others to paradise.  Can you guess what it is?  Before I give you the answer, think about all the prophets and the heavy message they carried out of worshipping one God without partners.

They were not wimps, they did not desperately try to be the same as the people they were sent to and they definitely did not have an inferiority complex like some Muslims have today.

They were leaders and acted as ambassadors of the religion.  They stood tall and confident.  Their message emanated from their non-verbal communication just as much as their verbal message.  So, the #1 secret would be leadership through confidence.  Confident that you have a trust from God [Allah] to carry out His message.

 

Here are some tips I gave throughout my talk:

• Be confident
• Pay a lot of attention to your body language
• Avoid arguments/debates; leaders go on offense instead
• Always keep Islam super simple!!

 

The convert pendulum

 

 

Over and over again, I hear about converts (or reverts) to Islam swinging from one end of the pendulum to the other and most of the time, after a while, they land in the middle path somewhere.  I think it’s become a natural cycle:

 

Before Islam (no knowledge, no action):

         leading the crazy life

Right after Islam (little knowledge, lots of action):

        abandoning the crazy life and strictly admonishing others from keeping it

Years after converting (lots of knowledge, lots of action):

        abandoned the crazy life and being more wise in speaking with others about their lives

 

I recently came across this quote, which sums it up: 

When knowledge exceeds action, arrogance prevails.  When actions exceed knowledge, innovated matters (bidah) prevail. 

 

And really, it’s true.  Right after I converted to Islam and abruptly stopped my bad habits, I started to arrogantly admonish my family members for continuing to do those actions.  Eventually, they just got really sick of it, until years down the road, I realized what a big mistake I had made.

I learned two things over the years:

1. Give dawah by my actions and manners, not by admonishing

2. Concentrate on matters of belief and not on fiqh (what actions are allowed and what are not)

Come join our team!

I invite you to join our team.

We’re planning some really exciting stuff so if you’d like to help out with translating to Greek, connecting with other Greek Muslims, giving dawah, or just helping us promote the website to everyone out there, you’re the one to help us!

E-mail us at info@greekmuslims.com RIGHT AWAY and let us know how you can contribute.