Militant Islam Monitor > Satire > ADL aka "Anti Defecation League" honored Islamist linked Muslim Board Member S.A. Ibrahim With "Americanism Award" In 2015
ADL aka "Anti Defecation League" honored Islamist linked Muslim Board Member S.A. Ibrahim With "Americanism Award" In 2015
September 2, 2016
MIM: The ADL aka "Anti Defecation League" is composed of a bunch of anally retentive Jews who know more about anti semitism than Judaism!
In 2015 the ADL awarded their Muslim board member S.A. Ibrahim with the "Americanism Award". Ibrahim is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood front group the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).
"...On a Haj pilgrimage S.A.Ibrahim absurdly stated that he "hopes that more Jews will visit the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia" convieniently ignoring the fact that many non Muslims are banned from entering the country and that entry to Mecca is forbidden to all of them.Something which he appears to have had no problem with during his own haj pilgrimage..."
"...The expected election of S.A. Ibrahim on May 9 will mark the latest step in a life journey that has taken him from his native Hyderabad, India, to Philadelphia, where he has achieved enormous material success in the field of banking and finance....
He began to study Islam more seriously and traveled to Saudi Arabia to complete the Haj pilgrimage, as required by the faith...Though he'd never had any issues with Jews or Judaism, per se, he said he did absorb "by osmosis" from other Muslims some negative feelings toward Israel..."
For more on S.A. Ibrahim see:
S.A. Ibrahim: ADL To Elect Muslim Linked To Islamic Society of North America To Philadelphia Regional Board http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/5257
S.A. Ibrahim: ADL To Elect Muslim Linked To Islamic Society of North America To Philadelphia Regional Board http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/5257
MIM: From the ADL website:
Read S.A.Ibrahim's Moving Americanism Award Acceptance Speech
Each year, ADL honors a community leader who exemplifies a commitment to promoting diversity, counteracting hatred and bigotry, and supporting fair treatment for all citizens. This year, ADL honored S.A. Ibrahim and Radian Group Inc. at the Americanism Award Dinner for promoting diversity and inclusion in the Philadelphia community. Below is the text of Mr. Ibrahim's acceptance speech.
Dear Friends,
Thank you for coming here this evening and for your support in making this evening, and the great work that ADL does, possible. My thanks especially go out to you for your generous contributions, and to those who put in so much time and effort into getting ready for this evening.
It is with a sense of great pride on Radian's behalf, and great humility on mine, that I accept this year's Americanism Award. It is indeed America, more than anything else that makes it possible for ADL, an organization with its rich Jewish history, to award this honor to a Muslim immigrant, who is a proud naturalized citizen of America, and to his company Radian, that traces its origin to Saul Steinberg – a legendary Jewish business leader and philanthropist.
Such a story would be beyond the imagination of many in parts of the world where religion continues, even today, to divide people, often with bitter and horrifyingly tragic consequences. So, it is indeed fitting for me to thank America, and even more so given that we are gathered here this evening but a short distance from where America was born.
Some two hundred years ago, a group of men from everyday walks of life gathered together, to create something amazing. They imagined a new nation based on the premise that all men are created equal — a nation where those who govern are answerable to those they govern.
What made this so extraordinary, was that these men came from different backgrounds and while all Christian, they followed different beliefs – differences considered so serious in those days that some of their parents or grandparents were subjected to persecution, or worse, in the lands they left behind to seek a new life and new opportunities in America. The desire to create a nation that could rise above these differences gave birth to the words: "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness".
Today, we still have a nation that attracts those seeking to escape persecution, find new opportunities, or, as in my case, becoming so powerfully smitten by the very idea of America that walking away from my family inheritance and starting over seemed like a small price to pay for being part of this great country of ours.
And that brings me to thanking ADL, an organization that makes the true meaning of America possible, for all Americans, by fighting prejudice, bigotry and hate – in all forms, be it anti-Semitism or hate against newer faiths on our shore, or gender, or race, or orientation.
Hate in any form is un-American, and those of us who believe that we all share the goal of making the words in our Declaration and our Constitution true for all Americans can draw both comfort as well as courage from the ADL.
Without organizations like the ADL, we would be betraying the fundamental values bequeathed to us by those who risked their lives and fortunes to sign the Declaration, and so many who over the years sacrificed so much to ensure that we remain who we are: a nation of equals – all equally American.
I thank the ADL for accepting me as an equal and recognizing that, in their judgment, someone like me, while unique in my own way, was American enough to be given the Americanism award.
There is a special group in the audience this evening that has to be congratulated on receiving the Americanism award. I request the Radian Board members and members of the Radian team to please stand up and be recognized. I count myself very fortunate to be part of such an inspiring team, one that has dealt with so many challenges and defeated them and will no doubt continue to do the same.
Business achievements notwithstanding, however, the Radian team also stands out in terms of truly representing a cross-section of the emerging America while engaging in the task of providing homeownership opportunities to those who, while qualifying in credit terms, do not have the benefit of being able to access support from wealthy family members and therefore would otherwise have to forgo homeownership or wait for several years.
Radian has helped millions of such families all over the country, including many from the African American, Hispanic or Asian communities achieve the American dream of becoming homeowners.
Given, Radian Group's headquarters in Center City, Philadelphia, Radian also regularly brings in groups of inner city school students to provide them with the first hand opportunity to interact with our team and to encourage them to imagine themselves in successful careers in the future. After all, how can we live up to the vision of America as a society of equals if we do not provide equal opportunity and access to success to all our citizens?
My very fond thanks to the Radian team, those here this evening as well as the many others in various parts of the country and the small yet important few abroad.
Finally, I cannot say enough to thank those near and dear to me – friends and family members, who over the years have nurtured and supported me, no matter how difficult I can be. My wife Nina, here in the audience, who made the big journey from a sheltered upbringing in post-partition Pakistan, to become a proud American whose love for our country is as great as mine and whose love for the family has no limits, and my son Winston, who is not here tonight because he is absorbed in the American dream of launching a new business.
While, we all make our way to the destinations that are destined for us, we can be helped or hindered in that journey by our origins. I count myself blessed to have been born and brought up in post-Independence India with its secular ideals — where I was surrounded by so many so different from me, whether in their faith or how they practiced it, or their food and customs, their languages, or in the range of colors and shades of their skin.
Yet, however different they may have been, their warmth and love made it easy to accept the core value I was lucky enough to acquire, that human beings may come in different packages and with different labels yet are indeed all the same from the inside.
Finally, I count myself so fortunate to have been born into a Muslim business family, where I cannot remember hearing any words of hate directed at others of different faith and where I was always taught that our Hindu, Sikh, Zoroastrian and other neighbors were our dear friends and that as a Muslim, I was part of a greater family that included Jews and Christians – "the people of the book".
Over the years since my childhood, my journey has taken me through as well as to, both expected and unexpected places. Yes, America distant as it is from Hyderabad, India, has to be counted as expected given a childhood surrounded by stars and stripes and predicted by actions like changing the horn on my first car at age 18, to go Yankee Doodle Dandy.
Yes, a business career is not entirely surprising, given my heritage – coming from one of India's community of merchants and traders, both Hindu and Muslim, about whom the joke was, "Oh their religion is really money"!
What is surprising however is the path that led me from a secular identity, bereft of any strong religious inclinations, to returning to my ancestors' faith. And for that, I have to hold "9-11" responsible. For me 9-11 was an attack at multiple levels. My country was attacked and I was outraged like everybody else and committed to doing what I could to help ensure that such a thing would never happen again.
Of course, anybody who attacks my country is my enemy, but to me those who attacked my country also became enemies of my faith – at least as I had seen it practiced by my parents and grandparents and the many others in my childhood, growing up in what had until recently, been the state of Hyderabad – the largest Muslim kingdom in pre-independence India.
My family observed Islam faithfully but had no problem with me attending Catholic and Anglican missionary schools, as did my aunt and my sister. My family joined our neighbors in celebrating all their festivals and in sharing ours with them. This was not viewed as diminishing our faith but rather as enhancing our humanity.
So after 9-11, I read with alarm and disbelief, views on my faith, so different from my own experience, expressed by those outside as well as those inside. The views ranged from sober and scholarly to outright hurtful and insulting.
I found myself, whether I liked it or not, whether I wanted or not, caught between those who insulted my faith in the way they believed and practiced it as well as those who intentionally insulted and disparaged it, in the way they attacked it. Supported by my then boss, a devoted Catholic, who lost his son on 9-11, I found myself in a new, unexpected place – committing to fighting hate, intolerance and extremism, no matter from where, while also trying to rediscover my own faith.
I am grateful to all of you who are joined with me in fighting extremism and as I try to glean the true meaning of my faith and the faiths most closely connected to mine – always attempting to find, and often finding to my delight, the many positives and the many things we all have in common.
In this quest, I am particularly thankful to my many friends, in this room as well as the growing number of academics, religious leaders – rabbis, ministers, imams, and lay thinkers, who like me, realize the hard truth: that regardless of our differences, different narratives and pasts, we all share this small planet and an increasingly inter-dependent future.
It is up to us to choose between actively building on the common good in all of us to create the foundation of a brighter future that we bestow to those who follow us, or to surrender to the continuation of divisive and potentially mutually destructive hate, through our complicity or silence.
I am sure that we know which path to take and feel the need to support organizations like the ADL.
I would like to close with the following inspiration from the three great Abrahamic faiths:
There is a concept called Kavod HaBriyos in Judaism – the requirement to treat all of mankind with dignity and respect
"… have love for him as for yourself; for you were living in a strange land, in the land of Egypt". (Torah – Leviticus, 19:33-34)
Psalms 133:1 "Behold, how good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity!"
Romans 16:17 "I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them."
"God commands you to uphold justice and to do good to others …." ( Quran 16:90)
"Had God willed, He would have made you a single community, but He wanted to test you regarding what has come to you. So excel one another in doing good.." (Quran 5: 48)
http://philadelphia.adl.org/read-s-a-ibrahims-moving-americanism-award-acceptance-speech/
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