_ For those of us who were there for the memorable Reviving the Islamic Spirit 2011 tenth annual convention, we know it was absolutely packed. The convention, taking place from December 23 through December 25 in the city of Toronto at the Metro Convention Centre, sold out for the first time in its ten-years of revival. Absolutely amazing, knowledgeable, and charismatic speakers such as Professor Tariq Ramadan from Switzerland, Shaykh Hamza Yusuf Hanson and Imam Zaid Shakir from the USA, Dr. Tawfique Chowdhury from Australia, Yusuf Islam from the UK, and many other such influential personalities constructed the backbone of this years extremely successful convention, speaking on the theme of the 2011 convention: Control Chaos or Community: three ways, one world, our choice. Along with inspiring and enlightening speeches and lectures, the attendees also enjoyed Revival of the Islamic Arts, notably by world-renowned artists such as Sami Yusuf, Outlandish, Khalid Belrhouzi, Benammi, Junaid Jamshed, and Shaykh Mishary Al-Afasy.

Beginning as an idea among a couple of university graduates, RIS has grown into a convention attracting the worlds top Islamic speakers and artists performing in front of twenty thousand attendees from across the globe. It isn’t only the Muslim community that has benefited from the convention; annually the convention has attracted large numbers of non-Muslims who have taken shahadah at or after attending the convention. May Allah make them strong and steadfast on the straight path.

Each year I have personally witnessed this event grow bigger and better. People of different cultural backgrounds, age groups, speaking different languages, people of different races and colour, come together at this convention once a year under the umbrella of Islam, masha’Allah. All of which is planned, managed, and executed by massive numbers of youth volunteers.

The RIS convention has proven to be an example of the success that can be attained by recognizing the potential of our Muslim youth here in Toronto.

On December 8, 2011 Scouts Canada’s chief commissioner offered an apology, “to former scouts who were sexually abused by volunteer leaders in the organization.” This apology came two months after an investigation completed by CBC titled, ‘The Fifth Estate’. This investigation revealed that former scout’s leaders abused 340 children from the 1940’s until this present day. More so, Scouts Canada knew about most of these cases and kept a secret list of pedophiles but never did anything about the crimes. The files were kept hidden from the public eye and it was a large scale cover-up.  Steve Kent stated in the apology that the organization, “sincerely and deeply apologizes to any and all former scouts who suffered harm at the hands of leaders.” He also went on to state that all of the former cases and records will be reviewed. As well, an expert panel will be coming together to examine Scout Canada’s current child protection policies.

However, many of the victims of these heinous crimes believe that this apology is not enough because it has come too late and does not heal the hurt and damage they have carried and endured for so many years.  Some also believe that it is a worthless apology because they question why it didn’t come sooner. They want Scout’s Canada to come forth with new and concrete plans to ensure that such things do not happen again.

Les élections législatives au Maroc qui ont eu lieu le vendredi 25 novembre 2011, sont les premières depuis le printemps arabe et l’adoption de la nouvelle constitution.

Le ministre de l’intérieur, Mr Taïb CHERKAOUI a annoncé le 27 novembre les résultats définitifs de ces élections tout en précisant que le taux de participation officiel est de 45,40% des marocains inscrits sur les listes électorales.

A l’issue de ce scrutin, le parti de la justice et du développement (le PJD), ou le parti des islamistes modérés comme le nomme certains, arrive pour la première fois en tête des législations avec 107 sièges sur 395 (plus du quart des siège du futur parlement) , on trouve en seconde position le parti de l’Istiqlal avec 60 sièges, et le rassemblement national des indépendants est classé troisième  avec 52 sièges.

Toutefois, les résultats obtenus constituent un échec pour le parti authenticité et modernité (PAM) qui a obtenu 47 sièges (contre 55 en 2007) et l’union socialiste des forces populaires avec 39 sièges (contre 50 en 2002).

La carte politique sera clairement définie après la désignation par le roi d’un premier ministre au sein du parti qui a remporté les législatives, alors le PJD va devoir trouver des partis alliés pour former un gouvernement juste après cette désignation.

Finalement, les marocains sont toujours en attente d’un changement et espèrent vivement que la coalition qui sera portée au pouvoir tiendra ses engagements.

It was a typical Friday night as I wondered what I was doing up at 3 am on Twitter of all places. Suddenly, Ken Berger, NBA insider from CBS Sports, tweeted: “Tentative agreement reached, according to one of the negotiators” for the NBA lockout.

I was skeptical and quickly remembered when Ron Artest tweeted the same thing a few weeks ago as a joke. However, reporters from major news outlets such as the New York Times and the Miami Herald soon confirmed this. An hour later, the news was up on the official NBA website.

“All I feel right now is ‘Finally,’” Dwayne Wade told the Associated Press. “Finally”—a word that sums up how everyone with an interest in the NBA feels right now.

So after 149 days, the NBA will begin preparing itself for a 66-game season.

“We're optimistic that will all come to pass and that the NBA season will begin Dec. 25,” Commissioner David Stern said. Training camp will be starting as soon as Dec. 9.

National Post writer Bruce Arthur put it best: “Somewhere a lot of players just jumped on a treadmill and got to sweating the bacon out.”

L’Arabie Saoudite a accueillis plus de trois millions de musulmans pour le pèlerinage à la Mecque cette année.  C’est toute une joie, que je ne saurais la décrire, qui me submerge en voyant le nombre de nos frères musulmans se précipitant pour effectuer leur pèlerinage. Hélas, j’aurais tellement être parmi eux. Heureusement, il n’y avait pas de bousculades ou de violence cette année, vu que le gouvernement Saoudien a veillé sur la facilité de la circulation. Nous demandons à Allah –le tout puissant- d’exaucer leurs veaux et de les envoyer chez eux sains et saufs.

Un moment de grande émotion que tout le monde attendait. Une émotion que chaque musulman se doit de ressentir au moins une fois durant toute une vie. Nous implorons notre créateur pour qu’il ne nous prive pas de ce bonheur.  Mes amis n’oubliez pas que ce moment est l’instant tant attendu pour obtenir la miséricorde d’Allah, donc tachez a acquérir cette opportunité comme il se doit. Et qu’Allah vous vienne en aide.

Popeye’s chicken, the greasy, crispy, KFC replacement, has made the shift to machine slaughtered meat. Popeye’s chicken still claim to be Halal as an audio recording is played while the chicken is mechanically slaughtered. And this form of slaughtering does have the backing of some scholars and Imams, but the majority of the Muslim population does not find it in line with the Sunnah. This has led to many in the Muslim community to start comment wars online on the permissibility. Popeye’s chicken has been a popular fast food chain for many Muslim students on campus as it is quick, tasty and adequately priced for a student budget.  I, myself, see this as sort of a blessing in disguise. Though, I occasionally did enjoy their food, I know many that would indulge day in and day out on these high calorie, high fat meals without regard. So, for those who no longer find it permissible to eat, you may be saddened now by the news, but your arteries will thank you later. That is if you don’t find something worse to replace it with.

I contacted Popeye the Sailor Man for comment but he declined to be interviewed.

The United Nations is an organization which formally came into existence on October 24, 1945.  At first there were 51 members, currently there are 193 member states. The purpose of this organization was and still is to work for peace, ensure the development amongst nations and to uphold human rights. Together these member states have globally declared that they will stand up for human dignity and support the well being of all people. The United Nations (UN) can be considered sort of like a world parliament.

The UN’s first conference on racism which was in 2001 ended up in a fierce and bitter argument with specific member states claiming that it was designed to attack Israel, Zionism and the Jewish people. Now, 10 years after that event the UN is holding another conference dealing with racism in Durban, South Africa. However, specific state members are refusing to attend and plan to boycott this conference! The US walked out on the 2009 follow-up meeting and plan to boycott the 2011 conference.  Other countries which are planning to boycott this event are: Australia, Canada, Israel, Austria, Britain, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. The UN upholds that its 2001 conference was unfairly and wrongly accused to be anti-Semitic.

I was quite shocked when I found out that Canada was going to boycott this conference because globally they portray an image of fighting against racism and discrimination. Therefore by boycotting this event I feel that they are disrespecting those people who feel that they are being marginalized and discriminated against. It’s also strange how easily member states can simply choose to boycott such conferences which ultimately affect and concern the people of the world. Perhaps there should be stricter guidelines which would ensure attendance from all member states. This organization was originally designed to ensure that relationships would be made amongst different member states. These different member states might have differing opinions but the overall goal was to reach some agreement through dialogue. Yet Canada has refused to partake in such a dialogue. Hence, how can relations and understanding come about if some member states bluntly refuse to listen to the concerns of others?

Perhaps Canada doesn’t agree with some of the opinions of the other member states but refusing to even listen to the concerns of others who feel that their rights are being violated is just wrong! Canada’s presence in such conferences is very important because by attending they would give out the message that although they might disagree with certain opinions or views of others, they are still willing to respect the right that others have to express their worries and concerns. This issue has also been swept under the rug because we rarely hear about it in the news. Overall, it’s quite disappointing to know that this is the decision Canada has made.

La nouvelle Constitution, approuvée massivement par le peuple Marocain lors du référendum du 1er juillet dernier, constitue une «avancée notable» dans le processus de démocratisation au Maroc a indiqué l'ancien  eurodéputé ; Pedro Bofill, tout en ajoutant que cette nouvelle constituon apporte des avancées notables ce dont le peuple  Marocain peut en etre fiere.

Dans le meme contexte Bofill a précisé que la  société marocaine a fait preuve de maturité et de capacité à surmonter tous les défis appelant les pays européens à soutenir les réformes entreprises par la Maroc en soulignant : «Les changements substantiels introduits dans la nouvelle Constitution confirment la ferme volonté du Maroc de devenir la première monarchie constitutionnelle dans le monde arabe» .

Cette nouvelle  Loi fondamentale jette les bases de ce changement qui reflète la détermination du Royaume à avancer sur la voie de la démocratisation.

Rob Ford does it again.

Now he wants to shut down some of the local library branches and privatize them.  This is similar to his idea of privatizing health care and the TTC. Closing down libraries is bad news for all members of the city from toddlers to youth to seniors. The library closures would mean there would be higher user fees, it would affect the hours of operations, lack of access to resources, and the parent child programs, youth programs and seniors programs drastically.

The library is not simply a place to borrow books but it functions more so as a community centre, filled with programs that untie us all and provide us with vital information. Moreover, it is the programs in libraries which help newcomers integrate into the Canadian society and it also is a safe haven for children in the summer because there are many programs for children to keep them busy.

It also is a place where non for profit organizations do outreach and educate the newcomers or the members in the area about the different programs and services offered in their vicinity.  Taking all of these services and resources away would come as a blow to ever member of the city in one way or another.

Recently, I was at the public library with a group making people aware of this new topic, many people we spoke to were not even aware of Rob Ford’s idea. This clearly shows how important it is for us to make each other aware of the political and economic issues which ultimately affect us all.

For more information please see the link below and take action by signing the petition to keep our libraries.  Let your voice be heard, because you are powerful. Spread this message to your family and friends.

http://ourpubliclibrary.to/

In order to tackle locations which maybe otherwise inaccessible by a vehicle or a car, Google has now deployed a tricycle to tackle such places. These places include getting off the roads to reach trails, sidewalks university campuses and theme parks. This allows for reaching those areas better which people experience in their everyday lives and enables the heart of Toronto to be captured. Dynamic 3D images of the places in their real settings are captured by three 360-degree cameras, using laser beams, fitted on either direction of the cycle, including one facing towards the sky.

Google didn't immediately reveal specific locations photographed by the camera-mounted trike in Canada, saying it was still awaiting permission to release details about the private locations.

The company later released a list of 17 locations visited in Toronto and in nearby areas, including Toronto Island, Canada's Wonderland, Hamilton's McMaster University and a number of conservation areas.

Jonathan Chang,27, rode the Google Street View Trike and often gets mistaken for an ice-ceam vendor due to the huge white box fitted at the back of the tri-cycle. Instead people "actually get more excited" and begin waving in hopes of being captured for posterity on the company's famous panoramic map views according to Chang