Feeback on police on Eid in Louisville

Here is the feedback on the article

Eid Mubarak, Eid-al-Adha2012 - the festival of sacrifices
URL- http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2012/10/eid-mubarak-eid-al-adha2012-festival-of.html


While entering the prayer hall for Eid at the Louisville convention center, two police officers were at the entrance, I walked up to them and appreciated their presence in safeguarding the well being of the congregants, and said my tradition calls for appreciating all those who put their lives at risk for the sake of others.... He was moved by it, who does not want to be appreciated? How often do we thank those who care for our safety?

I showed him the piece on my iPad, always ready to share and speak, and emailed him to his cell phone while talking, he loved that picture with police, fire and army men saluting… and then he turned around and emailed to his friends in appreciation. When I came out of the hall, both the men had smiles on their faces... among some thousand they spotted me… they had shared it with many more...

I sent the email to Mayor Greg Fischer with whom I met in Eid al fitr (Ramadan) and police and fire chiefs ... it took me an hour to get their emails...tracking down the right people. To me my eid would be complete if I contributed towards building relationships, while a few rascals among us are hung up with people of other faiths, we must continue to do the goodwill work and build relationships.

I had the emails of Police Chiefs and Fire Marshals in Dallas area as they participated in our annual Unity Day USA event,  but did not have the ones for in Louisville, Kentucky, where I spend the Eid with my wife. Unlike in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran or Saudi Arabia where people do not associate with police, we do it here, they are a part of our (American) community, and their #1 goal is the safety of the public and many have died in doing their job in keeping us humanly safe.

It reinforced the role of Muslims to me; to mitigate conflicts and nurture goodwill, fulfilling the first and foremost of the Sunnahs (sayings and practices of Prophet Muhammad -pbuh). His first model was to be Amin (truthful and trustworthywith whom one felt safe) among fellow beings. Remember, it was not MUSLIMS whom the prophet earned that title from,they were Pagans, Jews, Christians and others...and that is the first Sunnah we need to follow before any other Sunnah. It is the foundation upon which Islam stands.  

May be I should go around and deliver Jumma Khutba tour to talk about being the Amin, I know Muslims are craving to hear about connecting with the society and creating a better environment for all of us, it is time we pay more attention to the first Sunnah.

I have a full article on the topic pending with Huffington post and there is a quote from Muhammad Yunus and Dr. Tariq Cheema in it as well. I will continue to ask every one of the Muslim leaders as well as all the Muslims in my groups to please take a minute to write a sentence to be quoted for publication in Major mainstream papers as well as Muslim publications. My friend Dr. Pervaz Rahman in Dallas is well connected with the people of all faiths without barriers, and he said, he shared it with his friends and hope we get to share the feed back as well,  and I know Dr. Basheer Ahmed and several of my friends on facebook and other groups share this.... an overwhelming majority of Muslims are Pluralists like the Prophet, peace be upon him,  who respected every one and set some extraordinary citizenship models to follow. Every Muslim can recite those examples.

Salam us per ke jis nay bekason ki dastagiri ki
Peace be upon him, who helped the helpless

A Muslim should evoke peace and safety in every one around us. No one should feel unsafe if we sit next to someone in the plane, bus or the train or in a movie theater or a dining room even with our beards (last of the Sunnah to follow) or our cultural clothing or full Hijab. They should feel safe enough to rather sit with us in public places, and I hope a day will come when a single woman, a senior or a woman with children would rather sit near a Muslim to have that sense of safety by being with an Amin, the trust worthy and the truthful.  And for that we have to work, in our daily lives. Our Imams need to focus on making us Amins first before we don the externalities on us to show that we are Muslims.

All we have to do is follow the Sunnah in the order in which prophet delivered to us, should not go to the 2^nd Sunnah until we have passed the first one, where Christians, Hindus, Jews, Buddhists, Sikhs and others believe that Muslims speak truth and nothing but truth, they have no barriers for others, they will stand up for every one for the sake of justice… then we go to the 2^nd Sunnah…Islam ought to be taught in that fashion.

The first thing to go out of our minds is religious barriers. We should shed arrogance in us that God shines his lights on us exclusively, no, God shines his light on all of his creation, the best among us are those who respect his creation by knowing each other, and accepting the God given uniqueness of each one of them.

All  of us are God’s creation (Rabbul Aalameen's Mukhlookh),  and the Model Amins like Moses, Jesus, Krishna, Rama, Mahavira, Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, Nanak, Bahaullah, and several others who dawned on in every community to restore Dharma. We have to restore the meaning of Amin and every one of us must be an Amin.  Ameen!

You are welcome to join WorldMuslimCongress@yahoogroups.com by sending an email to worldmuslimcongress-subscribe@yahoogroups.com  and visit the site www.worldMuslimCongress.com and related site on it for Islam and for Pluralism and civil societiey you will find the links at www.MikeGhouse.net

Mike Ghouse is committed to being an Amin, and offers daily pluralistic solutions at www.TheGhousediary.com

Good people at the Airport

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Louisville, Kentucky
Monday, August 3, 2009

Yasmeen and I missed the exit to the airport in Louisville and went around in circles to get back on the road again. I was really surprised at the poor signage at the airport from the back roads.

She dropped me off at the departure terminal at 6:57 and the plane was to take off at 7:10 and I ran from the door to the ticket counter. Even in my middle school I did not run that fast, I must have run fast like a disappearing shadow at sunrise. The lady at AA counter said I could not check the bag in it was too late. However, she agreed to let me carry it with the caveat that I am taking a chance. Gee, it took about a minute or two and then I took off.... and came to full halt at the security check. The announcement came on the radio, last call for boarding AA, Flight # 529 to Dallas.

I walked up to the lady who checks the Drivers license and the ticket and said, "I just heard the last call to the flight, would you let me in" ... By God, ten men and women in the front line said "Go" in sync, and the lady said, if they let you, I will let you in. Then the chorus came back "Please go". For a moment I did not know what to say and stood there like a dummy, they chorused again “Please go" and the lady said, they say you can go now. In those few short seconds, I recalled a scene from the movie crocodile Dundee, where the guy was passed on over peoples heads towards Kathleen Turner and they all said in Chorus “he says he loves you".

Then I placed my things on the belt towards the scanner, the angel in front me, picked up my carrying bag and placed it in front of hers and said "Mike, please go". She had heard my name at the check. Golly, it was such a beautiful experience!

Out of the scanner, I dashed for the 1000 meters again, before that, the scanner lady walked up and pulled two pens from my back pocket, which I had forgotten to speed up the process. Any way, I was on the run again, and about 100 meters down, the electric cart came, the lady stopped and said are you catching the flight to Dallas? Like a two year old, I shook my head in big agreement, she said hop in and out she drives... like a bat out of the hell with the siren and all and slams the breaks in front of the check in gate.

I was waking up from my dream, when the check in man saw my bag. I still had my waist belt over my shoulders, luckily the pants stayed on, thanks to Yasmeen for feeding me well. He smiled and said you are guilty aren't you? The toddler in me could not disagree with him. He said "run" after he scanned my ticket in a jiffy.

There I was on the plane all excited and called Yasmeen, that is the first time in our relationship she probably did not understand a word I said and I did not know what I was saying either. The excitement from the good people was too much... every one from the ticket counter through ticket scanner was fabulous! God bless them all.

All that frustrations about poor road signage disappeared into thin Air.

Thanks to all of them and God for creating loving human beings all around with so much love.

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