SALAM Annual Banquet Focuses on the Media
By Ras H. Siddiqui
The Sacramento Area League of Associated Muslims (SALAM) held its Annual Banquet on Saturday, December 7, 2019 with a needed focus on “Muslims & the Media” plus, as always, a bit more.
SALAM has remained at the cutting edge of Muslim thought in the Sacramento region for many years. It has also been successful in its efforts to both cultivate and maintain its ties to the Sacramento mainstream community for almost three decades. How it achieved this was through dedicated teams of highly educated volunteers, with a PhD professor in the lead. He had the vision to see the possibilities of closing a gap between the area Muslim community (especially since 9/11) and the other diverse groups that live in the capital of California.
SALAM has lived up to its reputation as a truly American Masjid, and those who come to pray at its facilities can additionally be impressed by the physical beauty of its Mosque located across the street from American River College (ARC).
At this banquet (a pretty full house here) with the SALAM Community Center as the venue once again, event emcee Asif Haq first called everyone’s attention and invited Imam Amr Dabour to start the proceedings with a recitation from the Holy Qur’an. Followers of Islam are deeply moved by such recitations, and the quality of their delivery certainly makes a difference, and one can only add that SALAM’s own Imam Dabour did a wonderful job here. Asif Haq also provided some details on the evening program schedule and gave us a bit of bad news too that poet and activist Amal Kassir who was included in the program schedule was under the weather and could not make it to Sacramento from Houston. Nonetheless, the rest of the event schedule was to remain unaltered and as printed.
There was a change in format from previous years as the awards ceremony and dinner were served first to the delight of many. To start off, the SALAM Volunteer Service Award was presented to Sister Khadija Toure for her dedicated service to the organization. This award was presented by Br Rashid Thomas, Vice Chairperson SALAM Board of Trustees and Dr Metwalli Amer. Following that, the SALAM Distinguished Award was presented to Dr Maqbool Ahmed & family for their philanthropic pursuits locally in the Sacramento area and overseas, including helping health facilities in South Asia like the Indus Hospital. And next was the presentation of SALAM Education Scholarships to 12 deserving area students who have excelled in their educational pursuits at the college level. These scholarships were sponsored by Br Anjum Saeed, Professor Ayad Al-Qazzaz, Professor Metwalli Amer, Professor Rosalie Cuneo Amer and Br Omar MoheyEldin. All students received certificates and checks. A delicious Mediterranean dinner followed which gave everyone an opportunity to eat and converse and also watch a video presentation titled “A Year at SALAM” put together by Sister Joumana Bawa which highlighted activities and services that SALAM had provided over the past year.
Post dinner SALAM Board Chair Waseem Bawa delivered his annual message. Bawa thanked everyone for coming and extended his gratitude to all the volunteers for organizing this beautiful banquet. He also thanked the SALAM Office Manager and the Board of Trustees for their hard work and recognized Directors Imam Amr Dabour and Asif Haq along with Executive Director Dr Metwalli Amer for their continued contributions. Amongst the work done this past year Br Waseem highlighted the SALAM Girl Scouts effort towards a memorial playground in honor of two community girls who we tragically lost. He also mentioned the solar system installation completion made possible due to the generosity of the community and the hard work and tenacity of Br Ajmal Khan, plus the upgrading of the floors and beautification of this community center through the efforts of four other individuals. The interfaith outreach effort also received a great deal of praise.
Bawa next elaborated on the theme of the night “Muslims in the Media” and shared some of his reflections growing up in a war torn era in Lebanon during which the news coverage left a lot to be desired. American Muslims at that time were missing in the media, but we have better (but still not enough) representation now. In closing Br Waseem thanked everyone for their support over the years during which he has held the office of Board Chair and expressed how grateful he was to have been able to serve the community.
The SALAM Financial Update was presented next by Farrukh Saeed. Br Farrukh said that SALAM Center came into existence in 1987 and it has been independently audited every single year since then and that we should all have faith and confidence in SALAM’s management. He explained the details of the recent 12-month report with contributions totaling $451,000. He followed up with the details of expenditures totaling approximately $455,000. He added that he expects some of these expenditures to go down especially after the recent installation of the solar system, and that the expectation tonight is a collection target of $125,000. With that figure before us Imam Amr Dabour took over the fundraising and worked hard to make people part with their money!
The keynote speech was next presented by Wajahat Ali who was introduced by SALAM’s Dr Anne Kjemtrup. If there is anyone today who wants to know about the topic of Muslims and the Media, Wajahat Ali should be amongst their top points of contact. From amongst the South Asian Muslim media, the names Hasan Minhaj, Mehdi Hasan and Wajahat Ali come to mind. To go into the details of Wajahat’s presentation here would require a separate article. But right up front we would like to add our deep concern for his now three-year old daughter Nusayba who recently had surgery for 4th stage liver cancer. Our prayers go out to her and the entire Ali family.
From an overweight, left handed kid growing up in Fremont, California (referred to as Fremontistan by him), Wajahat charted for us his difficult journey to becoming a prominent voice of Muslims in America today in a very entertaining manner. From his nervous high school days, to college student at UC Berkeley where his writing ability came forward through a play that he wrote called “The Domestic Crusaders” during post 9/11 period in America. His professor Ishmael Reed can be credited for convincing him to write this seminal work by one from within our Muslim and Pakistani-American community.
One question that I did get to Wajahat at a pre-event meeting was how one should get past the gatekeepers in the mainstream American media to be heard. He had a very interesting response. He said that there were not one but three gatekeepers. The first one was our own community which has to encourage kids to venture out of the standard doctor, engineer and possibly a third (small business or lawyer perhaps?) professions so that they are able to tell our story. The second is the established American (predominantly white) mainstream media in which minorities are making some inroads but with some difficulty. And last but not least is the gatekeeper of the self which also has to be overcome to succeed. That in a nutshell is (in my opinion) is quite an accurate answer, one which we hope will hopefully resonate within Muslim families and readers all across this country.
The ending of this event also included a special performance by the Syrian Group Anasheed Ensemble and a closing prayer by Imam Dabour. Around $150,000 were collected at this event.
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