MAQzine

US Muslims at the crossroads By Mowahid Hussain Shah September 30, 2010 In an environment of non-stop pressures on Muslims in the US , a realisation is slowly dawning that something has to be done about it. The question is how. On that, opinions differ. Although US Muslims are economically able to make a living, their political judgments and strategic skills remain less than satisfactory. Some of the notables in the Muslim community recently undertook a bold initiative to brainstorm ideas, through the medium of a town hall meeting in the Washington area. The participants were well educated and professionally accomplished. Yet, when I asked the question: “How many had read the newspaper that day?”, only six hands were raised out of a gathering of nearly 100. The minimal heavy-lifting required to get the job done is not yet there. While there is a desire to see victories, there may not be a similar willingness to pay the price. Noticed was the modest attendance of young American Mus...

Islamic center trying new Twitter strategy By   Michael Calderone The organizers behind Park51 never expected such strong opposition to building an Islamic community center and mosque two blocks from Ground Zero. The New York Times recently noted   the group's "early missteps"   in presenting a clear message of what the project's backers planned for the space. Social media consultant Oz Sultan is now hoping to influence public perceptions of the project through   Park51's Twitter account . The change comes after a series of irreverent tweets this week that resulted in   one intern getting replaced . "I was brought on five weeks ago to start together just basically social media engagement,"   Sultan told Capital's Gillian Reagan . "It's super nascent—where we are right now. A blog is launching in a few weeks, and we're looking for more folks who will write for us." So far, the Cordoba Initiative—the organization behind Park51—has str...

AUGUST 13, 2010,   8:10 PM By   TOBIN HARSHAW For many, the issue of the Islamic cultural center near ground zero has become personal. This hasn’t helped with the “dialogue” the project was supposed to start. The personal is still political.   “Michael R. Bloomberg is a former Wall Street mogul with a passion for the rights of a private property owner,” reports The Times’s Michael Barbaro. “He is a Jew whose parents asked their Christian lawyer to buy a house and then sell it back to them to hide their identity in an unwelcoming Massachusetts suburb. And he is a politician who regards his independence as his greatest virtue.” Where is this taking us? To ground zero, of course: That potent combination of beliefs and history, those closest to Mayor Bloomberg say, has fueled his defense of the proposed Muslim community center in Lower Manhattan — a defense he has mounted with emotion, with strikingly strong language and in the face of polls suggesting that most New Yorkers...