I was honored to be a week end guest and to speak at the Islamic Circle of North America/Muslim American Society Conference on July 1-3. It is one of the larger Islamic family events with several thousand in attendance, about half being children. I was one of three speakers and panel members on the general subject of community activism. Dr. Anwar Kaznie, who moderated, stated that community activism for Muslims is no longer an option and called it a matter of survival.
At this Independence day celebration time for Americans we must recall the Declaration of Independence that made 56 fair skinned and English surnamed men enemies of the state and capital criminals for the act of signing a paper that begins:? We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life? We can stop right there because without the right to life there can be no other rights. Many do not know that fully a third of those who signed were either killed or imprisoned and some died in prison, others including Samuel Morse, who died in poverty as a result of fulfilling his commitments.
My subject at this big conference in
