ANAHEIM, California (June 5, 2014) – Nearly 1200 people attended the sold-out, first ever, all-day ICNA conference in California.
Quality programs are a hallmark of ICNA conferences and conventions across the nation – a fact witnessed by California’s Muslim community.
Ustadh Wisam Sharieff started off the conference with a session on “Faith”, followed by Imam Suhail Mulla and Abdullah Al-Andalusi from the United Kingdom. Majed Mahmoud from Detroit, Maria Khani, and Shaykh Yusuf Estes spoke during the next session regarding “Submission”. In the final session discussing “Service”, Dr. Ahmed Soboh, Dr. Anis Ahmed from Pakistan, and Dr. Khalid Mubashir from India shared their thoughts with the audience.
In addition to the main session, 1-877-WhyIslam organized a Spanish session which drew in, for the first time, dozens of people from Mexico. It was a valuable networking opportunity for the Spanish speaking community in the region. Mujahid Fletcher, Victoria Caldwell and Juan Solorio spoke at the revert session, moderated by Nahela Morales, coordinator of the WhyIslam Spanish da’wah program in New Jersey. The emotionally charged session led one of the audience members to embrace Islam.
Naeem Baig, president of ICNA, was joined by Noha Alshugairi and Mujahid Fletcher in the session on social justice. Many speakers, including Ustadh Hassan Elwan, addressed a younger crowd at the parallel youth session.
All sessions were translated to ASL by professional translators for the benefit of deaf Muslims. This is the first time this has been done by the ICNA southern California region.
During the conference, over 30 vendors set up stalls selling books, clothes, art and toys, among other things.
As the day drew to a close, Qari Youssef Egdouch entertained the audience with Islamic songs and the Muslim Hip Hop singer Karim Evans and his group sang their popular numbers. The comedy duo, True Story ASA, from New York also performed for the first time in California.
