By Roomana Songerwala
 
LOS ANGELES, California (April 22, 2013) – Over the past two days the prestigious Los Angeles Times Festival of Books was held on the sprawling grounds of the University of Southern California campus amid a warm but breezy weather.

ICNA’s outreach project WhyIslam was present in its 9th year with two professionally decorated booths. Nearly 40 trained volunteers gave over 2,000 copies of translations of Quran and over 6,000 pamphlets on Islam to those who requested it. Thirty one people embraced Islam during the weekend at the event.

“People were very receptive (to the message of Islam)” said Sameer Shaikh, manager of one of the booths. The WhyIslam booths were the center of attention in two corners of the festival. After many hours of tiring dialogue, someone would be on the verge of shahadah; a proclamation of the Islamic creed, thereby entering the fold of Islam, but someone not very at-home with Islam would say something to dissuade her. This was a familiar routine. A young festival goer came and said “I lived among Muslims, heard everything good about Islam and now all I needed was the Quran – and there you are!” But the conversation with him ended with a shahadah.

One of the volunteers was describing the different kinds of people mentioned in the first chapter of the Quran, Surah Fatihah to very interested individual. She was saying that those who had invited the wrath of Allah and those who were astray. But those who were blessed with favors were those who took the guidance from God.

The booth came a day after the devastating Boston bombing attacks. The trained volunteers went out of their way to satisfy the thousands of queries and to convey the correct message of Islam with professionalism and excellence. “We were able to discuss with our visitors that Islam doesn’t condone violence and dispel many myths regarding Islam” said Dr. Salahuddin who is the manager of one of the booths.

Volunteers are always needed. To apply visit http://www.icna.org/volunteer

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The West, being the most developed part of the world, is globally regarded as an insignia of a successful life. Included in the definition of success are the following key factors: equal work opportunities; job satisfaction; financial stability and continuous professional growth and the West promises to facilitate its residents with all of these. It does not only accommodate natives in a graceful manner but also warmly welcomes foreigners to get benefitted from its prosperity stream.

In the same context, west is a land of prospects for Muslims, too. Only in the UK, Muslims are a great majority. Though they are facing hard times in some countries like France, yet they are free to live according to their religion in most of the western countries. Since Islam is the fastest growing religion here, it is evident that Muslims are provided with an environment which helps them practice Islam. It offers them a fine living experience with a handful of opportunities to grow both in the academic and professional streams. Those Muslims, who have western citizenship, are entitled to all the benefits offered by the government without any discrimination.

Muslims can live a very successful life in west. They can enjoy financial freedom since western society is the most developed. When Western Muslims are inquired about what so special they enjoy being a part of this society; they answer with a smiling face – equal opportunity. They are provided full support to be a successful and effective member of society and through this factor are encouraged to go ahead in life. They can enjoy a career oriented life where there is full job satisfaction; continual training and development leading towards career growth.

West helps through its influential platform a Muslim researcher to advance further in his respective area of study. Western research based program and projects are indeed a gateway for Muslim to earn global recognition for their intellect and wisdom.

Nowadays, west takes a more broad view of Islamic art and thought. Indeed, the age is past when oriental bias promulgated hatred against the West. Today, western scholars consider Islam as a growing factor in the light of its own teachings. Historians of religion contribute much time and space to the development of Islamic thought, which is fascinating in all its glory.

The ”open the door” policy started by the west has encouraged Muslims to settle there. Now the west stands not as a grim prospect hindering the growth of Islam. West, on the other hand, has helped in the democratization of Islam, and has enabled it to realize its own potentialities.

Orientalism and Occidentalism are now being reconciled to produce a harmony, and the west is playing a key role in sustaining this blended identity. As a Muslim, one finds the works, considered as a magnum opus in their respective ages, preserved in full form in Western libraries. Respecting the Islamic limitation on promiscuous intermingling, as a consequence of co-education, western societies and groups are helping Muslim communities to build separate schools, where education is imparted on equal footings.

Our only hope of peace is a world where tolerance is practiced, and tolerance is possible only if we learn to remove our mutual differences. If we can bridge the gap between the Western world and Islam, we can build a world where love and peace prevail.

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Finally, after having so many casualties the Iraq war took a final turn. The US government retrieved the US troops from Iraq, and one thing that we hear everywhere is that whether this war, that lasted for so many years has resulted in success or failure. The debate is going on whether this nine-year war resulted in the success of the US troops or failure and everybody looks from his own point of view.

No one is actually going to use the word ‘ win’ as the US army has not actually won the war. Kelly, the commander of US forces in Iraq, himself has said that the word ‘won’ cannot be used. In fact, he even hesitated in using the word victory for this. Even though, some say that the US government does not need to announce that it is a victory because everybody knows it for sure that it is a victory, but some reluctance is also sensed on the part of the secretary and the people working on calling it a victory. All this has left people into confusion. The Pentagon spokesperson said that there is a lot of progress that still needs to be made and a lot of work still needs to be done.

Looking at the initial effects of the war, American invasion achieved its first goal of bombing the town of Baghdad, and the division that was followed by the removal of Saddam Husain from power. Apart from that, they got control over the oil regime and believed that the Iraqi oil could be a great option for letting wealth flow into the country.

However, the stability then went into thin air, followed by violence when the bombing took place in a Shiite Mosque and violence started between Shia and Sunni. The situation did not come under control, and there was a lot of disruption until 2007, when the war was declared to be lost by one of the generals. However, the US army was not called back by then, and further attempts were made. Eventually accomplishments were made, and bloodsheds continued, until 2012, when the US government ordered the US troops to retreat from Iraq. They declared it the end of the war, leaving it to the public, to go on debating whether it was a success or failure.

It is as successful if the American government has achieved what they wanted when entering into the country. If not, then it is a failure. President Obama was noticed to have congratulated the US troops at the time of retreating, for achieving the main objective, which was to remove the Hussein regime in Iraq. According to Barrack Obama, they also achieved establishing a sovereign government in Baghdad. If that was their main objective, then the war was a success.

However, President Obama agreed that they could not call it a victory mainly because violence has not ended completely. Violence will continue, and all questions regarding Iraq’s future will remain unsolved. People are going to continue debating on this topic as every person is going to think from his own point of view.

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I love to write creative articles. I have been writing on different social and religious topics for 2 years now. Give me a creative topic and I will write it for you.

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