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Holiday Conference Review

IN Hits TDC and RIS



TX Dawah Conference: Houston, TX


Since IN had merged with Arees Institute only a few weeks before, we headed out to promote AI at TDC.  The conference was held at the George Brown Convention Center, which is a massive building in the heart of downtown and the official hotel was the Hilton Americas, which was subhanallah one of the nicest hotels I’ve been to for a conference (sometimes you pay a very high “discounted rate” but the hotel is still horrible but this one was superb).  The surroundings were exciting and gave everyone plenty of room to spread out.  They had food in a big hall behind the bazaar from some local restaurants, which was nice, but the food just wasn’t that good (sometimes cold or just sloppily prepared).

Anyway, the main point of the conference was to examine the theme: “Muhammad (S) in the 21st Century- What Would He Have Done?” Unfortunately, even though the theme was such a great question, besides some moments like at the opening session, most of the lectures had nothing to do with it or were LOOSELY connected (like some seerah stories or something).  It was disappointing because there was not really any resolution or concrete and in-depth examination.  Inshallah we hope the next conference is more together in terms of theme.

A lot of the speakers were good, but some were just OK.  It would be great if there was like a submission form on the website to recommend speakers because mashallah there were many people who had knowledge and good speaking skills who either had too little exposure or were unknown and thus in the audience.  It’s annoying when you go to a lecture and the lecturer either just did not prepare well for their session or they don’t really know how to connect to the audience.

OK, highlights- Yasir Qadhi was awesome.  Apparently everything he did was brilliant.  He did an unplanned fill-in for Yahya Ibrahim (who couldn’t make it) on Suratul-Kauthar which was quite moving, a very interesting (and little known about) lecture on the Mahdi, and the pinnacle was his lecture on Ibn Taymiyyah rahimahullah to a packed audience of men and women.  By the end we were speechless and inspired (a good combo).  Also there was a game session called Family Feud (which was fun) and another round of the famous “Generation Gap” (it was a good idea but then sequels are usually not as good as the original).  Also a concurrent MSA convention was held (where the lectures actually looked a lot more interesting as usual) and I caught a glimpse of the infamous SEMY (SE Muslim Youth- shout out to Masjid Abu Bakr!) films which are hilarious hits.

And now, the part you’ve been waiting for - IN furiously promoted Arees Institute at TDC since we just merged and only have a few weeks before classes begin!  (We got a kick out of the fact that part of the TDC marketing campaign was the slogan “Are you IN?” :D ) We came up with a brilliant marketing campaign of just using a solid color (the cool pictures and stuff been there, done that) and bold, recognizable lettering.  We splashed these posters all over the bazaar and the cool thing was you knew what they were from like a mile away – now THAT’S branding!  Another crazy caper was to ask every vendor to put up OUR posters and almost every single one did (1 guy made us buy a youth T-shirt lol) so it was just a cool show of solidarity and helpfulness on the part of everyone (jazahumullahu khayran).  We spent all day and night on our feet selling it like mad to anyone that walked by and subhanallah AI was the buzz by the end. 





Overall it was a fun experience and it was great to see the brotherhood and sisterhood (which no amount of planning, themes, concessions, or prizes can bring about).  We’ll hit ‘em harder next year with IN (inshallah).  See you there. 

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Reviving the Islamic Spirit Conference: Toronto, Canada


About 10,000 people made it out to the 4th annual Reviving the Islamic Spirit conference which this year showcased 15 speakers from 9 different countries. The RIS conference, a youth effort, headlined with the theme of “Islamic Civilizations”.

RIS has made great strides during it’s four years of existence, blooming from 2,500 attendees in its first year, to 10,000 now in its fourth year.

The event kicked off its first day with a Friday sermon delivered by Munir ElKassem and showcased a night of lectures from a plethora of speakers, including Attalla Shabbaz, the daughter of Malcolm-X. It included an interactive question and answer session with the audience as she delved into intimate and personal moments she witnessed with her father. Zaid Shakir’s lecture entitled “What would Malcolm Say” encouraged the audience to engage in sincere introspection.

There were other touching moments throughout the conference, such as the melodious recitation of the world renowned Muhammad Jibril, Sheikh Abdallah Bin Bayyah’s insights into disagreements within the Ummah and our approach to them, as well as Shaykh Sulaiman Mullah’s address on avoiding bankruptcy. Additionally, Muhammad AlShareef’s morning session on the life and leadership of the righteous Caliphs had the audience in tears.

The event, however, did not pass without controversy. Dr. Tareq Suwaidan presented an erratic session on “Islam and Democracy”. During his emphasis on “freedom”, a concept he failed to provide a hard definition for, he left many deductions which fell upon unconvinced ears. At one point, he claimed that the institution of religious verdicts was one that was open to everyone, and not limited only to scholars.

At another instant, he concluded that some of the actions of the Prophet saws were performed simply as a political leader, and that we as a nation were open to either accept to follow the Prophet’s actions from a political standpoint or reject them – at whim. To this, a group of attendees began to shout “No we can’t!” - however due to the size of the hall, their sound was drowned out.

Imran Haq, who was in attendance, took in the contested lecture with a raised eyebrow. “It was stuff I’ve never heard before, I would have loved it if the speaker had the time to go through all his proofs and justifications for coming to his rather shocking conclusions. He continually said, ‘if you disagree you bring the proof.’ As correct as that may have been, I didn’t find it efficient.”

Another attendee, Fahad Syed, said “I disagreed vehemently with some of the things he said when he started arguing in favour of American style capitalism, or saying that everyone can issue fatawa, or that he’d choose logic over faith, that really irked me. [But] I just feel each of the speakers should perhaps stick to their respective areas of expertise…with Suweidan, it’s his knowledge of management/leadership development. He could have dealt with that area in much greater detail and I would have loved to learn about his theories in that regard.”

The conference ended with a benefit concert for South Asian Earthquake relief, and featured artists such as Sami Yusuf, Raihan, and Native Deen.

From IslamicNetwork.com