ICNA Islamic Circle of North America

More than 1,000 Muslims gathered yesterday for a rally and prayer session across the street from the Danish Consulate in Manhattan, protesting cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that have set off a series of violent demonstrations around the world since their first publication in Denmark.

The rally, billed by the organizers as a stand against the vilification of Muslims, was considerably larger than another one this month, drawing South Asian, Arab, African-American and other Muslims to a plaza a block from the United Nations as the sun peeked out after a morning of rain.

In a program that lasted several hours, the speakers talked about the responsibility that comes with free speech and their reverence for the prophet to a peaceful crowd that included families with small children and student groups.

Read entire article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/18/nyregion/18protest.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

A New York Muslim group has staged a prayer protest outside the Danish mission to the United Nations over the cartoons affair. While protests in other parts of the world have been often marked by violence, the New York demonstration was a model of calm.

New York City Muslims hold a peaceful demonstration near the U.N. headquarters Friday against the cartoon depictions of the Prophet Muhammad.

The demonstration was aimed at the Danish mission and organized by a group calling itself the Islamic Circle of North America. The Imams of local mosques led their congregations to assemble for prayer at the protest site.

Read entire article here:
http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-02-18-voa3.cfm

 
—FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—
 
JAMAICA, New York (February 16, 2006) – The Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), a grassroots organization of American Muslims, has strongly condemned the senseless arson attacks on ten Baptist churches in Alabama, five of which were burnt to the ground.
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The National Council of Churches USA is praising the restraint of some Islamic groups over the Muhammad cartoon controversy while calling for a ‘‘dialogue of civilizations.’’

 The NCC on Monday said it stood in solidarity with North American Islamic organizations that “exercised disciplined restraint and advocated diplomacy and education” in response to the caricatures of the Muslim prophet Muhammad.

The NCC, which is composed of 35 Orthodox, Protestant, Episcopalian, historic African American and peace church traditions, listed the following North American Islamic organizations as those which have “exercised disciplined restraint and advocated diplomacy and education:” Islamic Society of North America, Council for American Islamic Relations, Muslim Public Affairs Council, Islamic Circle of North America and the ASMA Society.

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(Houston, TX) On Thursday, February 9, 2006, representatives of the Houston Police Department met with local Muslim leaders at the Islamic Dawwa Center, located at 202 Main. The primary purpose of the meeting was to address local concerns and recent international attention given to the media handling and depiction of the Prophet Muhammad.

Among the organizations represented at the meeting were the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Iman Academy, Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), Muslim American Society, Muslim Islamic Society of Greater Houston, Muslim Observer Newspaper, Masjid Ul Mumineen, Islamic Dawwa Center and the Madarsa Islamia. The meeting was organized by the Community Relations Unit of the Public Affairs Division.

Read entire article here:
http://www.houstontx.gov/police/nr/2006/nr021306-2.htm

As the crisis over the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad flared over the last two weeks, leaders of several American Muslim groups began working quietly to try to mediate between European Muslims and the West. 

Muslim American leaders say they feel anguish over the Muslim world’s violent protests, which have left at least 11 people dead. Azeem Khan, assistant secretary general of the Islamic Circle of North America, based in New York, said, "It hurts us when people attack embassies, because it reinforces the image that we were protesting in the first place, which is that Muslims are violent."

Read the entire article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/13/international/americas/13muslim.html&cid=0

When the 1988 film, "The Last Temptation of Christ," in which Jesus is tempted to live out his life with Mary Magdalene, the Islamic Circle of North America, based in Jamaica, Queens, joined with some Christians in protest. They did the same when an artist at the Brooklyn Museum of Art depicted Jesus as a naked woman, said Assistant Secretary General Azeem Khan.

"We interact with non-Muslims every day," he said. "We understand the misconceptions. Overseas, there’s just an expression of anger that’s just reinforcing a negative image."

Muslims are taught from the time they are young to try to emulate Muhammad in their everyday lives, by treating neighbors with respect and generosity, and completing good deeds. The Islamic Circle of North America distributes biographies that speak to Muhammad’s virtues.

Azeem Khan, of the Islamic Circle, said another part of their efforts to show the beauty of their faith involves turning the camera on themselves.

"With so much negative propaganda, we realize we have to document our own community," he said. The New York chapter of his national organization has its own media department, recording their events by photography.

Read the entire article here:
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-limusl0212,0,1972021.story?coll=ny-linews-headlines

 
—FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—
 
JAMAICA, New York (February 7, 2006) – The President of the Islamic Circle of North America, Dr. Khurshid Khan, issued the following statement on the death of Coretta Scott King, a great civil rights activist, leader and wife of Martin Luther King Jr:
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Muslim ACT : Goals and Objectives

The Muslim ACT Project has been designed to improve immigrant ability to access a range of 9/11-related services. This goal will be achieved through our provision of  individual crisis counseling and referrals, workshops and culturally competent and intensive self-help groups for clients  in their local communities. 

Objectives:

1. Coaching and counseling at least 25 survivor families    
2. Coaching, counseling and referrals for 150 of our current clients
3. Peer-group self-help sessions for 70 clients per month (840 for the year)
4. Referrals and social services to 100 new cases
5. In November of 2004 each crisis counselor will individually meet with atleast 15 clients per week to assess need
6. In November 2004, each Crisis Counselor will escort 5 clients to services
7. Culturally-specific group empowerment meetings, with West African and S. Asian family members will continue throughout the year (targeting (70 – 100 family members)
8. A female crisis counselor will work with women’s groups and social activities for 7 months serving 50 women per month
9. Each counselor/trainer will visit an average of 4 diverse masjids per week in  rotation, facilitating workshops, support groups and community education
10. 30% of the counselors’ time will be consumed with community education and training regarding access to services. Some training will include stress reduction and navigating municipal social services
11. Staff will facilitate entry of trainers from other agencies (who are usually turned away from  masjids)
12. Counselor/educators will be responsible for design of outreach program and supervision of outreach workers
13. The masjids to be visited/serviced, will be based on the percent of those affected by the disaster
14. Outreach staff will visit at least 6 masjids per week
15. Outreach workers will compose a needs assessment tool (our survey?)     
16. A basic orientation and an interaction to be given at 25 or more masjids to be given to 1300 or more family members and to 40 Imams  and community leaders to serve 85% immigrant residents
17. Informational material should reach 13, 000 men, women and children at these masjids and 5,000 after Juma’a each week

"This is hate speech, plain and simple," declared Nahid Noori, 19, of Fresh Meadows, describing the caricatures of the prophet Muhammad in several European newspapers. Like many of the 400 New York-area Muslims who a braved biting wind yesterday to join a protest at the United Nations, Noori viewed the cartoons as not just blasphemy, but proof of rising Islamophobia.

But in sharp contrast to the Muslim demonstrators in Syria and Lebanon, who burned embassies and made death threats, nearly every speaker at yesterday’s rally organized by the Islamic Circle of North America, a Jamaica-based national group, decried violence as a response.

Read Entie article here: http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/ny-nyisla06,0,1535214.story?coll=ny-top-headlines 

A Queens-based Islamic group plans a rally today outside the United Nations in Manhattan to express condemnation of what it calls "horrible blasphemous images" of the prophet Muhammad published in European newspapers.

"To denigrate a religion and a historical figure is an act of blasphemy, not democratic freedom," said a news release yesterday from the Islamic Circle of North America, a nonprofit Muslim organization with offices in the Jamaica section of Queens.

Read article here: http://www.newsday.com/news/rally-in-city-1.689855

NEW YORK: The General Assembly meeting of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) was held in New York from January 28 through 29. Members of General Assembly (MGAs) os ICNA from different states attended the meeting in large numbers. During the two day meeting, the MGAs reviewed ICNA’s last year performance while reports concerning different state chapters and ICNA’s affiliate organizations were also presented. Significant among these were the reports concerning Dawa, relief and education departments, said a press release issued by ICNA from its New York headquarters.

The MGAs eulogized the ICNA performance during the natural disasters such as the Asian tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and the South Asian earthquake. The MGAs also expressed their full satisfaction at the transparency with which these projects were run by ICNA and its affiliate organizations.

Chairman of the ICNA Relief Board informed the MGAs that ICNA Relief was carrying out its international projects in partnership with its affiliate – the Helping Hands. He said it would continue to complete international projects with Helping Hands USA in future too. The MGAs after detailed review and discussions on different ICNA projects carried out during the preceding year endorsed all the decisions made by the ICNA Ameer during this period.

Speaking on the occasion, ICNA Ameer Dr Khursheed Khan expressed gratitude to Allah for making the organization vibrant and effective. He said ICNA is an open organization and is working for the Deen of Allah. He expressed satisfaction at the fact that all decisions were being taken with full consultations of MGAs.

Dr Khursheed Khan said the basic objective of ICNA was to let the message of Allah and Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) reach the fellow countrymen in the United States. He said every Muslim was duty-bound to preach the Deen of Allah wherever they are. He said every individual Muslim was bound to pray five times a day and to recite the Holy Qur’an. At the end of the meeting, Dr Khursheed Khan lead a special prayer for the father of Professor Zahid Bukhari, father of ICNA New York Ameer Dr. Yusufuddin and the death of wife, daughter and brother of senior member of ICNA and former in-charge of ICNA book service in an accident. The meeting prayed to Allah to rest the departed souls in eternal peace and give courage and fortitude to bear the losses with fortitude.

This years meeting was attended by MGAs in record numbers, including several former Ameers. Senior ICNA member Amrullah Hussaini, despite his ailing health, participated in the proceedings on both days.

This article was taken from: http://www.muslimsweekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1378&Itemid=206

 
—FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—
 
JAMAICA, New York (February 3, 2009) – The Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) unequivocally condemns the depiction of any of the prophets from Adam to Moses to Jesus to Muhammad (May peace be upon all of them). ICNA joins all Muslims worldwide in stating and calling for the demonstration of our displeasure with the printing and reprinting of such horrible blasphemous images published by Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten paper and later reprinted in newspapers in France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, the Netherlands and Spain.
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Azeem Khan of the New York-based Islamic Circle of North America said his organization is "absolutely outraged" over caricatures meant, he said, "to defame Islam on the world stage."

His group is organizing supporters in New York and the District, he said, to protest as early as today.

Read entire article here: http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20060202-111840-7988r.htm 

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Press Contact: Naeem Baig
Vice President for Public Affairs
Islamic Circle of North America
E-mail:
Office: (718) 658-1199 Extension: 102
Cell: (917) 202-2118