Muhammad Islamic Center of Greater Hartford

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Building Sisterhood

Mubarakah Ibrahim and her Muslim sisters break stereotypes and empower women.

Thursday, April 17, 2008
By Alexis Fitts

Kathleen Cei Photo

Mubarakah Ibrahim: "You go, girl."

With her warm smile and talkative demeanor, trainer Mubarakah Ibrahim doesn't paint a very intimidating picture.

That is, until you realize it's 6:30 in the morning, and a small following of women have assembled at a football field near Wilbur Cross High School in New Haven for the punishing regimen of crabwalks and Indian runs that are part of her morning boot camp workout.

"Ladies, it's time for sprints."

There are groans.

But the scene is more girl power than torture. The first runner pumps her arms above her head triumphantly, in classic Rocky style. The slowest runner finishes to a rallying chant of "you can do it" and Ibrahim's token "you go, girl." In other words, this isn't your typical gym class.

And Ibrahim isn't most people's vision of a personal trainer. An observant Muslim, Ibrahim hosts her classes in traditional attire, all in accordance with Islam's decree that a woman show no more than her face and her hands in public. Today Ibrahim's workout ensemble includes loose black track pants, a pink tunic and a flowered pink hijab, or head wrap, worn chicly with a matching pink baseball cap.

Ibrahim bears none of the trademarks of a personal trainer—no ripped abs, no skimpy workout bras. There's no way to see how strong Ibrahim is until you watch her hold a plank pose long after her students have collapsed on the ground. There are no men in any of her classes, and the windowed wall of her studio has a curtain that she regularly draws for privacy when working with Muslim clients. Some are Muslim or orthodox Jews, searching for the separation by gender in order to exercise. Others simply like the comfort of being around other females.

But in the two years that Ibrahim has owned Balance Fitness, her business has been making waves far beyond the health industry. She's been the subject of front-page stories in the Hartford Courant and Chicago Tribune. Last year, she was a guest on Oprah.

Ibrahim has become something of a poster child for a breed of Muslim women who are publicly defying the stereotypes of suppressed, submissive women of Islam. By entering the workplace on their own terms, as business owners, Muslim women are combining religion and profession in a way that forces clients to encounter them in a professional light. Even more surprisingly, many of these small businesses are popping up because of Islam, not in spite of it.

Muslims Outnumber World's Catholics

By ALESSANDRA RIZZO,

Posted: 2008-03-31 07:28:38

VATICAN CITY (March 30) - Islam has surpassed Roman Catholicism as the world's largest religion, the Vatican newspaper said Sunday.

World's Religions

The Vatican's newspaper reported that for the first time in history, there are more Muslims in the world than Roman Catholics. All groups of Christians still outnumber Muslims, according to 2007 estimates from the CIA World Factbook.

"For the first time in history, we are no longer at the top: Muslims have overtaken us," Monsignor Vittorio Formenti said in an interview with the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano. Formenti compiles the Vatican's yearbook.

He said that Catholics accounted for 17.4 percent of the world population — a stable percentage — while Muslims were at 19.2 percent.

"It is true that while Muslim families, as is well known, continue to make a lot of children, Christian ones on the contrary tend to have fewer and fewer," the monsignor said.

Formenti said that the data refer to 2006. The figures on Muslims were put together by Muslim countries and then provided to the United Nations, he said, adding that the Vatican could only vouch for its own data.

When considering all Christians and not just Catholics, Christians make up 33 percent of the world population, Formenti said.

Spokesmen for the Vatican and the United Nations did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment Sunday.

BEING “STRAIGHT UP”

A Teenager’s Guide to Understanding

The History of Our Community

Imam Benjamin Bilal

PART TWO

Mr. Fard considered blacks to be “Original People” who, as in past history according to his eschatology, would again rule the world with justice–after the “destruction of the white man’s civilization”. Whites of America and Europe, according to Mr. Fard, were considered to be “grafted devils” who were genetically cloned by a “black scientist named Yakub approximately 6,000 years ago on the Greek island of Patmos”. Mr. Fard developed a slew of such myths and presented them as literal facts. (These myths would later be interpreted by Imam W. D. Mohammed as “picture language” which spoke great wisdom through its symbolism).

After establishing “temples” (later known as “mosques”) with Mr. Muhammad in Detroit, Chicago and Milwaukee, Mr. Fard chose Elijah Muhammad to be his “Supreme Minister” and leader by proxy to the 5 to 8,000 followers Mr. Fard had garnered in 3 ½ years of his hands-on leadership .

The threat of deportation loomed heavily over Mr. Fard’s head after having been arrested and imprisoned on several occasions. Then in April 1934 he left the United States for Mexico, as far as could be determined. Clara would receive several postcards from that country in his name; especially after Wallace D. was born.

"BEING “STRAIGHT UP”

A Teenager’s Guide to Understanding the History of Our Community

Part 1

By Imam Benjamin Bilal

The Lost-Found Nation of Islam in the Wilderness of North America (NOI) was established in 1933 by two men who would make a tremendous impact upon the course of African American history. In doing so, they would in fact, change the course of both race relations and religion in America. One was an immigrant from (what is today known as) Pakistan, India, named Wallace D. Fard (pronounced “Fa-ROD”). He was also called, Wali Fard Mohammed, Professor W.D. Fard and Master Fard Muhammad, among other aliases. The other was his student, Elijah Poole.

In 1925, Mr. Poole moved his family from Deep Step, Georgia to Detroit, Michigan in hopes of better employment opportunities. However the infamous Wall Street Crash, which began in New York City in 1929 and lasted throughout most of the 1930’s, had made already bad economic matters much worse. This event was also called “The Great Depression” because of the monetarily depleting domino effect it caused throughout the industrialized world (particularly the United States and Europe). Wealthy European Americans were found jumping out of windows and off of bridges after losing their money behind this financially catastrophic event.

MANA Conference in review

Imam Qasim Ahmed is a native of Chicago and is an imam in Tampa, FL and has previously served as an imam in Texas. Although this brother may not be known to a lot of my readers he is highly-respected by many and well-versed in all aspects of the deen. He defies many stereotypes that exist about the followers of Imam WD Muhammad; he has a masterful command of the Arabic language, he is versed in the history of Islam, and he is as at ease with all segments of the Muslim community in America.

His message to the crowd was simple yet poignant; “we have developed a mind for someone else’s problems …we are ignoring our own communities and fighting other peoples struggles.”

He talked about his experience in coming to Islam and the battles of those around him who were products of broken homes, addicted to drugs, and leading lives of crime in Chicago and of how he saw Islam as a way out and a solution for the problems ailing the community.

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