Assalamu ‘alaykum wa rahmatullah
The team at Ijtema.net wish all of our readers a wonderful and fulfilling Ramadan!
If you have an interesting and inspiring story to share about this sacred month, why not submit it to the MuslimMatters.org Ramadan short story contest? There are some great prizes on offer, so do check it out, as the deadline is 15th September!
Via sisters Izzy Mo and Aaminah:
Umm Zakiyya is a mother of two, a Katrina survivor, an active community member and student of knowledge (Islamic and secular). She is currently enrolled for an MA in English, and refuses riba-based loans, so she and her husband are paying out-of-pocket for her education.
Umm Zakiyya has created a short video starring Zakiyya for a scholarship opportunity. The video that gets the most views gets the scholarship. So we can help simply by taking 2 minutes to go watch this sweet little video, and by sharing this with others inshaAllah.
“You can help me win a scholarship just by watching this
video. The entry that secures the most views will win a $5,000
scholarship. All you have to do is view the video, available at this
link. If you want to help even more, you can forward this video to
everyone you know. Every view helps. If you have a blog, facebook,
myspace page or website, I would certainly appreciate a link.”
As I mentioned the week before last, I planned to represent Ijtema.net at the Emerald Lounge, which took place last Sunday evening at the Islam Expo in London. I was greatly looking forward to promoting our little site, and maybe meeting some of the readers; I even printed off signs, and everything. Look:
Unfortunately, when the time came for me to do my ‘thang’, I did not actually end up spending much time at the Ijtema table, due to urgent and unforeseen circumstances. So anyone who was actually interested in taking up my offer of “free publicity” may have been let down. If you are reading (which would be a miracle), I am sorry!
However, the night was not a complete waste of time. I finally met our Arts Editor, Teakster – though how he chose to introduce himself is a story best left untold (let’s just say that this is his punishment for embarrassing me in public!). He was this >< close to being sacked by yours truly – but after he was named Best Artist at the Emerald Arts Competition, I was reminded how fortunate we are to have him on the Ijtema team, and all was forgiven. Alhamdulillah! Congratulations once again, bro!
Anyway, to make up for my poor networking skills, I’d appreciate it if the existing readers would take the time to inform their friends and family of Ijtema.net – especially to ask them to subscribe to our content, either via RSS, or via e-mail (for those who are still grappling with the whole “feed” thing).
Speaking of which, we will soon be publishing a super guide to RSS feeds – just as soon as we fix a bug in our template, insha’Allah.
That’s all the news I have for now… if you have any photos or stories from the Expo, please get in touch – we’d love to share them!
Wa’salam
iMuslim
Just a quick message to tell the readers that I will be representing Ijtema.net at the Islam Expo this weekend, in London, insha’Allah.
More specifically, we will have a stand at the Emerald Lounge, which will be open from 6.45 pm onwards, on Sunday evening. The organiser, brother Rooful, informs me that for a small fee of £10 (which covers the catering) you can attend the Emerald Network event without having to book tickets for the entire Expo.
For those of you in the UK, I hope to see you there, insha’Allah!
Sister Na’ima of SISTERS asked me to inform you about the magazine’s latest blogging initiative, open to both brothers and sisters. The deadline for submission is close, so get writing quick!
Bismillah
Asalaamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu!
Greetings from me, Na’ima B. Robert, and the rest of the team at SISTERS, the magazine for Muslim women.I am writing to tell you about a very exciting development over at the new SISTERS website.
Every fortnight, we will be featuring an article from a blogger from out there in the blogosphere on a set of topics set by the SISTERS team. The chosen blog entries will be featured on the website, linked from our homepage, in our forum and receive a complimentary pdf of the latest issue.
But now we need your submissions!So, to kick-start this new feature, we are asking you to ruminate and reflect on the following statements, each inspired by an article in the latest issue of SISTERS:
“Are we taught to be ashamed of our womanhood?”
“Cross-cultural marriages are more trouble than they are worth”
“Marriage in Islam is about duty, not love and romance”Agree? Disagree? Get writing!
Submissions should be original, up to 600 words and in keeping with ISlamic guidelines. Other than that, feel free to air your views and, hopefully, get some healthy, enlightening debate going on our website.I look forward to reading your entries. Deadline for submissions is 4th of July.
JazakAllahu khairan
WasalaamNa’ima B. Robert
PS. Please forward this to other bloggers you know or publicise it on your blogging community websites! Submissions are open to brothers and sisters.
The Muslim Writers Awards are now accepting submissions for the 2009 awards. Categories and contact details can be found on their website. You can also browse through this year’s winner entries here, by clicking on the “Awards” tab.
In order to support “Blog About Palestine” Day, the editors of Ijtema.net would like to highlight the best entries from this event on the site, insha’Allah. So if you are planning to join in, please remember to forward us the link to your post on May 15th. You can e-mail us at editor[at]ijtema[dot]net, with the subject “Blog About Palestine Day“, or leave a comment on this page: http://ijtema.net/blog-about-palestine-day/
From the Facebook event page:
Help raise awareness about the Palestinian plight and the everyday experiences of an average Palestinian. On May 15th 2008, right an article or a blog post that is related Palestine or the Palestinians in any way.
It does not have to political, it could talk about the past, present, or future. It could talk about social issues, economical issues, political issues, even about art. You could talk about how do people go about their day lives, how do they travel, how do they go to school, how do they live ..etc. You could talk about your parents’ or grandparents’ memories of the Nakba of 1948, or about the life in forced exile, or about outlooks for possible peaceful resolutions.
You don’t have to be a Palestinian or an Arab to participate. You could offer your views as a non-Palestinian on the issue. We just seek to get the word out and inform people about us.
Please spread the word about this initiative – click here for some cool blog buttons and banners.
As mentioned on the recent welcome message, my new role on Ijtema.net is to highlight the latest Islamic Audio content, insha’Allah.
My initial plan was to simply replicate the current formula we have been using the past few months for blogs, which is to subscribe to a bunch of Islamic podcast channels, and every week listen out for the ones I like the most, to post on my day (that’s Saturday, by the way – even though by my timezone, it is already Sunday!).
However, looking at the Islam section of the iTunes directory, I was faced with a whole bunch of new channels that weren’t there a year or more ago, when I last checked it out. I wasn’t familiar with most of the names shown, and had no idea which ones would be worth my time subscribing to – so how was I going to fulfil my new online mission?!
Then it hit me… I can’t be the only one thinking that way when faced with such a long list! With this revelation, I decided that what might be more useful, would be if I took the trouble of going through every channel on said list, and basically outlined what’s ‘hot’ and what’s ‘not’, from a somewhat Islamic perspective.
So from next week insha’Allah, you can expect a weekly review of so-called ‘Islamic’ podcasts – including the ones that have clearly been planted by people who are most likely not into their Islam, so much (like the guys behind the “Arabic Audio Bible” podcast, perhaps?).
I pray that my opinion – although personal, and mostly uninformed – is hopefully not irrelevant, and helps you to make wiser choices when it comes to selecting your online source of Islamic knowledge, and Muslim news, insha’Allah.
To end, I may as well plug the latest Islamic podcast to hit the scene, produced by Muslimmatters.org. I won’t bother reviewing it as such, due to my involvement in setting it up – I wouldn’t want to be accused of bias now – even though it’s, like, the best podcast out there, masha’Allah (except for the other podcast I help to produce for Nisaa.ca 
).
Until next week, insha’Allah…