Rev. Jesse Jackson and Dr Agha Saeed Honored
By Tahir Ali

Westborough, MA: It started with a news item appearing in the Boston Globe on July 21, 2016 titled "Muslim-American delegates to DNC celebration at send-off." The news featured the MA National Democrat delegates: Homaira Naseem and Noman Khanani. That news item was picked up and carried by many blogs, social media and organizations like the ‘Center of Christian-Muslim Engagement for peace and justice’, eventually making it to the "Top News Trending Now."

We all arrived at the DNC and major news media (BBC, VOA, GEO, Pakistan Link, NPR, CBS, NBC etc.) were eager to talk to the Muslim delegates. 

Now we are all back from Philadelphia - a welcome party in the making. The delegates still find themselves talking to the media. Recently - on August 4th, 2016 - the delegates including those who were in DNC talked to a reporter from T&G over dinner. The participants included Homaira Naseem, Noman Khanani, Nazda Alam (all delegates from MA) - plus others who went along to the Philadelphia DNC as guests.

Quite recently Noman Khanani was interviewed by WBRU 95.5 - link attached below - [Revolving around Khizr Khans DNC elegant speech and the Trump's repugnant rebuttal]

The T&G report and VOA TV version will be posted when available.

http://www.wbru.com/republicans-local-muslim-delegates-respond-to-khizr-khans-dnc-speech/?trackback=blogroll_widget-news

Some of the most important political work often gets done at the sidelines of major conferences and conventions. Such was the case when the Muslim delegates attended a conference organized by the American Muslim Caucus, where AMA participated by giving awards to Rev. Jesse Jackson and Dr Agha Saeed.

Here is the text of the plaque proudly displayed by Rev. Jackson in the picture above:

The American Muslim Alliance presents its Hajj Malik el Shabazz, Malcolm X Award of the Decade 

To   Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr.

For being the voice of the downtrodden and dispossessed.

For having stood for the rights of the Palestinians, when it required great personal courage and sacrifice to do so.

For having spoken against every nation and every state in the world that had denied the rights of any group of people.

But far more importantly for having the vision, the integrity and the courage of his convictions that he articulated his understanding of Islam being an integral part of the Western spiritual life and ethical code.

"We are bound by Moses and Jesus, but also connected with Islam and Mohammed. These three great religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, were all born in the revered and holy city of Jerusalem."

We salute the author of this, the most creative reference to Jerusalem, who had developed a framework for combating Islamophobia, even before the term had been coined.