online rihla

Muslim Rep. Ellison preaches peace, democracy, here and abroad
Minnesota is home to a fair number of African immigrants, so Ellison’s work on Africa is local as well as international. This year, he hosted a forum in Minnesota on the Horn of Africa, with the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Africa subcommittee, New Jersey Democrat […]

Oh no wait, it’s Ingrid Mattson.  It’s all I can do just to shake my head at the foolishness of the right wing blogosphere.  Seriously, really, she’s a radical islamist?  If she’s radical, who’s not?
Faith is what we live for
Another [standing ovation] was reserved for Mattson, who said she tells Islamic leaders abroad that Muslims in […]

Yaay!  From CAIR:
Minn. Muslim’s Workplace Bias Complaint Resolved
CAIR-MN welcomes company’s ‘prompt and professional’ response to incident
(ST. PAUL, MN, 8/14/08) - The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) today said a Muslim teenager who was initially denied a job at an Old Country Buffet restaurant in that state will be offered a second […]

…and thank them.  At a plant in Tennessee, Tyson Foods has agreed to the union’s request that Eid be considered a holiday and a paid day off.   Between 250 (Tyson’s number) and 700  (the unions number) muslims, mainly somalis, work at the plant.  Is that a majority of union members?  A majority of the workers?  If the 700 number is correct, […]

Twin Cities Somalis are moving down to Postville, Iowa, to fill positions at a kosher food plant previously filled by illegal immigrants.
The influx of Somalis has been met with some surprise in a community still bewildered by the Agriprocessors raid, the largest raid of its kind in the United States. Federal agents arrested 389 people, […]

From the NYT, sent to me by Christine.  A lot from Br. Keith:
As Senator Barack Obama courted voters in Iowa last December, Representative Keith Ellison, the country’s first Muslim congressman, stepped forward eagerly to help.
Mr. Ellison believed that Mr. Obama’s message of unity resonated deeply with American Muslims. He volunteered to speak on Mr. Obama’s behalf […]

Weather here has been pretty cruddy as of late.  I’ve lost count of the number of tornado sirens that have gone off in the last week.  But alhamdulilah, nothing major has happened up in our neck of the woods. 
The same cannot be said for many of our midwesterly neighbors to the south.  The flooding in […]

Greetings from backhomelandia aka cheesecurd central aka the land of 10,000 Prius. As has become a tradition, I trek across the border to spend the extended memorial day weekend with family.
First up was a visit with my grandma in the land of 10,000 Prius aka Madison, Wisconsin. Seriously people, I should have counted. 3 minutes didn’t […]

This will be just a brief post on this weekend.  I took pages and pages of notes, and inshaAllah I will post a few highlights from the lectures and some of my thoughts.
First, the negatives:

Where were the Minnesota Muslims at?  Seriously, one of the best speakers our american ummah has to offer is right in your […]

Day 1 down, 2 to go.
Went to Jummah at a Somali Masjid yesterday, which alhamudlilah, what a much better experience then I’ve had in the past when venturing out to jummahs in new, exciting, unknown locations.  It was in an old garage, and when I asked the group of men in front where the women’s […]