For a better mutual understanding

The annual Mawlid-un-Nabi conference 2007 was held in the Chandler Community Center on April 8th 2007. Over 550 people from the diversified Muslim communities in the valley attended this spiritual gathering.

The Naqshbandiya Foundation for the Islamic Education organizes this event every year in the Phoenix metropolitan area to celebrate the birth of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH). This was the fourth year the foundation sponsored this program in the valley.

Asim Ameer served very meticulously as the moderator of the program. The conference started by the recitation of the Holy Quran by Imam Didmar Faja followed by the recitation of the Islamic nasheeds by Yousuf Bhuvad, Abid Haroon and Mohammed Bilal.

Dr Ahmed Mirza, who is a secretary of the foundation, gave a brief history of the Naqsbandiya Foundation, its mission and its objectives. He also thanked all the audience for their active participation in this event.

The attendance of annual Mawlid conference has more than quadrupled over the last four years.

The highlight of the program was the guest speaker Shaykh Muhammad bin Yahya Al-Ninowy, the Islamic scholar, who flew in from Atlanta to participate in this event.

He captured the spirits of the audience by his message of love, peace, and mercy. He spoke eloquently on the life of Prophet Mohammed, his teachings, life here and hereafter touching the hearts of both young and old in the audience.

The program concluded with Mr. Arif Kazmi recognizing the spiritual leaders of the Phoenix area, volunteers, and the food caterers of the event.

This year the conference coincided with the Easter holiday and thus became a source of interfaith information and discussions.

The Arizona Republic published a story of the conference on April 9th, 2007.
Here is the full article:

By Peter Corbett - The Arizona Republic - Phoenix, AZ, U.S.A.
Monday, April 9, 2007

Arif Kazmi is out to try to help the Valley community better understand his Islamic faith and its prophet.

On Easter Sunday, Kazmi was one of the organizers of a religious and social gathering of about 200 Muslims at the Chandler Community Center that was open to all faiths. The event celebrated the birthday of Prophet Mohammed, which this year coincided with the resurrection of Jesus Christ in the Christian religion.

It was an occasion to bridge the gap between Muslims and Christians and celebrate the life of the prophet.

"There is a lot of tension in the world," said Kazmi, a former Chandler Human Relations Commission chairman. "We want to bring some release in that tension."

To that effort, the Naqshbandiya Foundation for Islamic Education scheduled an event referred to as Eid Milad un Nabi, public meetings where religious leaders discuss aspects of the life of the prophet. Sheik Sayyed Muhammed, a religious scholar from Atlanta, was the featured speaker at the Chandler event.

Kazmi and other religious leaders say it is important to break down the walls of religious intolerance that leads to hatred, violence and war.

Paul Eppinger, executive director of the Arizona Interfaith Movement, praised the Islamic group's efforts to build respect among people of all faiths. "I am for interfaith dialogue so that people can begin to understand one another," said Eppinger, 74, a former American Baptist minister for 35 years.

Eppinger, whose group represents 24 faiths, said Easter was not an inappropriate day for the Islamic group to reach out to the broader community, although family gatherings might limit attendance by Christians.

In fact, it appeared that all of those attending were Muslims, dressed in a mix of traditional and Western clothes.

Eppinger said that the central message from Good Friday and Easter is that "love and life conquers hatred and death."

The Arizona Interfaith Movement estimates that there are 1 million Christians in the Valley and a growing population of Muslims of up to 50,000, Eppinger said.

Kazmi, 56, a Pakistani who has lived in Chandler for 22 years, has been the project director for building the Chandler Community Mosque. His full-time occupation is as a civil engineer for the Arizona Department of Transportation. The mosque, started in 2002, has taken far longer to build because fundraising stalled in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

It is Chandler's first mosque, but Kazmi said that the city is becoming increasingly diverse because of Intel's presence."It's almost like sitting in Singapore," he said.

Still, there is much misunderstanding about the Islamic faith.

Osman Birgeoglu, a publisher of Islamic and interfaith books, said it is a big task to educate people about Islam. "There is a big interfaith dialogue going on, primarily in the eastern cities," Birgeoglu said. "'We're very hopeful for that dialogue to continue."