Chicago Roundup
By Dr. Mujahid Ghazi
CAMP Power Hours a Great Tool to Empower Muslim Professionals
Chicago, CA: Council for the Advancement of Muslim Professionals is a networking organization led by young and energetic Muslim professionals. Power Hour is a unique monthly event that is making waves in the community. The event attracts a good number of young Muslim professionals from all walks of life to share their experience and enlighten one another about the fields they are excelling in. During their last two power hours they invited very talented young people.
In the October Power Hour they introduced two Muslim comedians. Jamilah Shello and Khalid The Comic. Both are actively doing their stand up comedies in the mainstream comedy shows. They shared their experiences and their problems in shaping up as successful comedians. Both of the comedians revealed that they try to dispel the misconceptions about Muslims in the mainstream population through their comedy acts.
The November Power Hour which was organized on the last day of the month featured “Change Makers in Healthcare”. There was a panel of four successful young women from the corporate world: Rabia Akram, MBA, MPH is the current president of American Muslim Health Professionals (AMPH). She is working as health policy analyst at Walgreen’s. She has worked in American Medical Association and in global health at John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Shehnaz Chowdhry, MD, is an Engagement Manager with Mckinsey and Company. Her work ranges from serving hospitals and health systems to leading pharmaceutical and medical device companies here and abroad.
Arshia Wajid, MPH/MBA, is the founder, former president and vice president of the AMPH. She is currently working as Financial Analyst at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.
Marwa Zohdy, PhD, leads the development of the HIS Knowledge Bank, a resource for best practice and synthesized evidence on health system improvements in McKinsey’s Health System Institute. Her job entails focusing primarily on growth strategy and system reform projects with healthcare systems around the world.
The event was masterly moderated by the Secretary of the CAMP Aalia Khawaja, MPH from University HealthSystem Consortium. She targeted the panelists with questions exploring their expertise in their respective fields. The panelists shared their educational and professional encounters in life and their achievements. They also answered questions from the audience.
Earlier Tawfiq Farraj, Outreach Coordinator of the CAMP, opened the session.
Sabrina Qureshi, Treasurer of the CAMP thanked the audience and the panelists. Ghazal Khan, event coordinator, must be commended for organizing the successful event which was attended by a large number of young professionals from the Greater Chicago area.
Islamic Society of Northwest Suburbs (ISNS) Raises Funds
Islamic Society of Northwest Suburbs (ISNS) held a successful fundraiser at Monty’s Banquet past Saturday. The target was to raise funds to buy the 300 cars parking lot currently leased from a private owner. The program started with the recitation of Holy Qur’an by Hafiz Yaqoub Sharif with a translation by Basalat Ahmad. Dr. Mohammed Ahsan, President of ISNS gave a brief report on the activities of ISNS. He said the parking lot was leased for three years to accommodate 300 cars. He said it is presumed that the center needs $ 1 million in 2016 to buy out the parking lot from the present owner and this is the first fundraiser in this regard.
Mr. Rashid Salam introduced the keynote speaker Mr. Salam Al-Marayati, executive director of the American Muslim Public Affair Council. Salam in his speech stressed the importance of political empowerment of the American Muslims. He reiterated that while living in this country we have to get rid of our cultural baggage from our countries of origin and create an American Muslim culture. If we keep on adhering to the past we will only create confusion in the minds of our children.
Irfan Karim, past president of CIOGC, was the guest speaker at the fundraiser. Due to his effective fundraising skills the center managed to raise $ 75,000.
The event was masterly conducted by a young physician Sana Ahmed.
Anwer Shahid Visits IQRA’ International Educational Foundation
Mr. Anwer Shahid, a senior journalist, visited the headquarters of IQRA’ International Educational Foundation in Skokie Illinois. He wrote extensively for Daily Hurriyat, Daily Musawat and Daily Nawa-e-Waqt, leading newspapers of Pakistan. He has also authored a book “Padma Surkh Hai” on the events of Bengali uprising and creation of Bangladesh.
Dr. Abidullah Ghazi, executive director of IQRA’ gave him a tour of the facility and informed him about the revolutionary work IQRA’ is doing to promote Islamic education in the US and other western countries.
Mr. Shahid commended the work of IQRA’ and its team. Dr. Tasneema Ghazi, director Curriculum Development; Mr. Wahajuddin, Director Finance and Hafiz Mohammed Ikhlas, Manager of IQRA’ were also present during the visit.
Hyderabadi American Association Hosts Reception for Amjedullah Khan
The Hyderabadi American Association hosted a reception in honor of Majlis Bachao Tehrik’s young leader Amjedullah Khan at the Charminar Restaurant in Chicago. He was recently in the Indian national news for being the first person to criticize the judgment on Babri Masjid affair. He was arrested and confined to solitary confinement for a while. He was elected as a corporator from Azampura in Hyderabad with a large lead in the last elections.
The organizers Shajiullah Khan, Mohammed Azeem, Shakeelullah Khan and Syed Mukarram expressed their gratitude to the young leader for the courageous stance he took for the rights of Muslims in India.
Pakistan Times Celebrates 10 th Anniversary
Chicago-based weekly newspaper Pakistan Times celebrated its 10 th anniversary at Monty’s Banquet last week. The program started with the recitation of Qur’an and Dua by Shehzad Ahmed. The resident editor Canada Sarwat Syed spoke about her experience with the newspaper. The editor and publisher Mohammed Nadeem shed light on the achievements and goals of Pakistan Times.
Well-known columnists Sarwat Zoha and Ehteshamuddin Arshad spoke about their association with Pakistan Times and recalled the early days of the publication of the paper when it was enthusiastically launched as Chicago’s very own. Professor Zafar Bokhari talked about his proposed project of economic empowerment by improving the infrastructure in Pakistan. Mr. Hashmat Sohail and Qaiser Naqvi entertained the audience with their humorous poetry. This segment was emceed by Raheela AlKarim.
The famous emcee of literary and musical evenings Amin Haider introduced the Raga Boyz Band with Wali Hamid Ali Khan and Inam Ali Khan as lead singers. They brought the memorable musical numbers of their Uncle Ustad Amanat Ali Khan and father Ustad Haimid Ali Khan to life.
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