The Dallas Islamic Center

Group visit from Methodist Church of Wichita Falls

admin — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:05:21 +0000

DIC hosted a youth group from First United Methodist Church of Wichita Falls, TX. The group has been traveling to visit different sites of faith including a Catholic Church and a Jewish Synagogue. As part of their interfaith exposure, the group visited DIC and gained knowledge of Islamic faith and culture. The program started with a warm welcome from DIC and lunch was served. After the lunch, Mr. Kocabas from DIC presented on what DIC is, followed by a presentation about Islam. Mr. Kocabas highlighted the fundamentals of Islam and discussed briefly the history of Islam and the life of Prophet Mohammad (pbuh). The presentation was continued by a Quran recitation performed by Imam Yesil. The visitors also had the chance listen to the Islamic call to prayer “Adhan” and witnessed a prayer by the members of DIC. The program ended with a group picture and kind wishes from both sides.

First Quran Study of 2012

admin — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 01:51:46 +0000

DIC has been organizing Quran study programs on every Friday. It starts with dinner at 7:00 p.m. and continues with the lecture at 7:30 p.m. It is open to everyone who wants to enhance their knowledge about Islam and Quran. In the first program of this new year, in addition to our regular guests, we also hosted some Christian students from University Of The Nations Dallas Campus. Guests indicated that it was a great experience for them for enhancing their understanding about Islam. Below are some pictures from this program.

Thanksgiving and Neighborhood Dinner

admin — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 05:02:49 +0000

DIC invited its neighbors and friends to Thanksgiving and Neighborhood dinner. The program started with a presentation about Islamic understanding and perspective of thanksgiving. In the presentation Mr. Kocabas also mentioned why we need to be thankful and what we need to do for being thankful to God for the bounties we are given. Then the guests shared a dinner together. The program ended with a prayer.

Winter Retreat Program

admin — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 19:25:46 +0000

December 18, 2011 12:00 pm

December 28, 2011 12:00 pm

This year Dallas Islamic Center is organizing its annual winter retreat program from December 18 to December 28, 2011. Families with their children will come together at American Airlines Training and Conference Center in Fort Worth. During the program, adults will mainly focus on enhancing their religious knowledge and consciousness throughout seminars, discussions and individual readings. There will also be a special program for children including activities with lots of fun.

Eid-el Adha Prayer and Eid Program

admin — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 03:00:05 +0000

DIC members celebrated Eid-el Adha on Sunday, Nov 6, 2011. Eid program started with the recitation of Quran and followed by the Eid Prayer. DIC also provided breakfast to brothers and sisters. Kids enjoyed the Eid in the playing area and are given gifts by DIC. Moreover, as the core of the Eid necessitates sharing, the meat of sacrificed animals also given as charity to the people in need around DFW area.

Turkish People Need Your Help !

admin — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 23:51:48 +0000

On Sunday, October 23, a quake with a magnitude of 7.2 hit Van province of Turkey. Around 600 people were killed and 3000 were injured in Van. We have received many calls and emails from the community expressing sympathy. We are very saddened by this disaster and extend our deepest sympathy and condolences to those who lost their loved ones. May God comfort them at this difficult time. Please send us your generous donations so that we can deliver it to those who are in need. Funds collected through the DIC Helping Hands’ account will be delivered to the people in Van, Turkey. You can send donations by check (payable to Dallas Islamic Center) or through the donation button in the right panel in our web page. We appreciate your generous donations.

DIC attended Interfaith Dialogue Panel in Collin County

admin — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 05:01:35 +0000

DIC was invited to an Interfaith Dialogue (Open Doors, Open Minds) Panel at Collin County Community College on Tuesday, October 25, 2011. Many different faiths were represented at the panel. On behalf of Islamic faith, DIC Director Yasin Ceran talked about principles of faith. Mr. Ceran also stressed the importance of dialogue between the faithful. Panel ended with a Q&A session.

DIC hosted Rabbi Schlesinger at Abraham’s Table

admin — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 02:35:18 +0000

The Dallas Islamic Center hosted Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger from Jewish Studies Initiative of North Texas at Abraham`s Table Program. The program started with recitation of Quran by Imam Nihat Yesil. He recited several verses of chapter Ta-Ha which are about Prophet Moses. Then, Mr. Ceran of DIC made a presentation about basics of Islam and answered the questions of guests about Islam and Muslims. The program continued with washing hands ceremony by Jewish guests followed by a peaceful dinner shared by guests from both faiths. Jewish guests broke their Fast of Gedalya and shared the same table with Muslims on this special day. After the dinner, Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger gave a talk titled: “The Jewish High Holydays”, where he also gave brief information about Jews and Judaism. The program ended with a Q&A session.

You can also read Rabbi Schlesinger’s thoughts about the program in this essay .

“Civic Peacebuilding against Fanaticism” panel held at SMU

admin — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 19:52:55 +0000

The Dallas Islamic Center continued its panel series with a panel titled “Civic Peacebuilding against Fanaticism”. Speakers of the panel were Rev. Dr. George Mason from Wilshire Baptist Church, Dr. Mark Chancey, the professor and chair of Religious Studies at SMU, and Mr. Bashir Ansari, Afghan writer and author who also serves as instructor at SMU. The panel started with opening speech by Dr. Tim McLemore and continued with twenty minute speeches by each of the speakers. The speakers shared their knowledge and experience about the topic according to their field of expertise. After the speeches, the panelists answered the questions of audience. The program ended with serving of some refreshments.

Below you can find the biographies of panelists.

Rev. Dr. George Mason is the pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas. He is a nationally recognized leader among Baptists, serving the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Baptist General Convention of Texas, Texas Baptists Committed, Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University, Duke University Divinity School, and Children’s Medical Center of Dallas. Mason has given keynote addresses at meetings of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) and Baptist General Convention of Texas (BGCT), as well as the Fund for Theological Education. He has been a featured preacher on the nationally syndicated radio broadcast Day 1. George earned a bachelor of business administration degree in 1978 from the University of Miami (Florida), where he was a quarterback on the football team. He also holds both the master of divinity (1982) and doctor of philosophy (1987) degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. His doctoral field of study was systematic theology, with a minor in philosophy of religion.

Dr. Mark Chancey. Dr. Chancey attended the University of Georgia, where he earned a B.A. in Political Science with a minor in Religion (1990) and a M.A. in Religion (1992). He entered Duke University’s Graduate Program in Religion in 1993, where he focused on New Testament Studies and early Judaism. While at Duke, he participated in excavations in Israel at Sepphoris, an important ancient city three miles from Nazareth. He earned his Ph.D. from Duke in 1999 and joined the faculty of the Department of Religious Studies at SMU in 2000. His research interests include the Gospels, the Historical Jesus, archaeology and the Bible, and the political and social history of Palestine during the Roman period. His book, The Myth of a Gentile Galilee (Cambridge University Press, 2002), integrates archaeological and literary evidence to demonstrate that first-century C.E. Galilee was overwhelmingly Jewish. He is currently at work on a book about the extent of Greek and Roman cultural influence in Galilee at the time of Jesus.

Mr. Ansari was born in Afghanistan. In 1992 he graduated from the department of law at the Omdurman Islamic University in Omdurman, Sudan. After the graduation, he enrolled in the Khartoum International Institute for Arabic and earned his masters in the field of teaching Arabic to non Arabs. He was then appointed as first secretary of Afghanistan embassy in Khartoum. After one year of his service he was sent to Afghanistan embassy in Tripoli to work as the Charge d’affair of Afghanistan and represent his country in Libya. By the rise of internal conflicts between various Afghan political groups, he left government service by his own will and moved to US. In 2006, he completed his masters degree in Political Science at San Francisco State University. Bashir Ansari has contributed about more than one hundred articles on International Politics, Political Theory, Religion, Culture, Language etc. in various journals, magazines and newspapers. His articles were written in Persian, Arabic and English, but his most writings are in Persian. Some of his books were translated to other languages too. He has also authored the following books: Afghanistan in the blaze of Oil: untold facts. This book was published about ten times, Tyranny: The main illness of our political society, Tribal mentality, Women in the scale of Islamic political theory, Who are we? (Discourse on culture and identity), Political legitimacy in the octopus of force, fils and falsehood , Teaching Arabic in Islamic schools in the United States: Problems & proposed solutions, and Cultural Obstacles to Democracy in Afghanistan.

DIC attended joint commemoration of 9/11 tragedy

admin — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 19:00:54 +0000

DIC was at Lovers Lane UMC for joint commemoration of the 10th anniversary of 9/11 tragedy. There were two services of remembrance and reconciliation at 9:30 and 11:00 a.m. Speakers for this interfaith service of worship include Imam Nihat Yesil, President of the DIC; Imam Hamidullah Qiyam of DIC; Rabbi Heidi Coretz, Director of Hillel of Dallas; and Dr. Stan Copeland, Pastor of Lovers Lane United Methodist Church. A special donation offering was also received to benefit the National Law Enforcement and Firefighters Children’s Foundation. Below is the speech of Imam Nihat Yesil:

On September 11, 2001, American people faced one of the biggest terrorist attacks in the entire human history. Thousands of innocent people died, millions of us were traumatized and shocked by what we had to see and experience. Today, as people from different faiths, we remember those who lost their lives in this tragic event in our prayers, and ask from Almighty God to give us wisdom and courage to turn this world into a peaceful and harmonious dwelling for all of us.

I would like to express my feelings on behalf of my community by quoting from a condemnation message posted at Washington Post a few days following the September 11 attacks. This message was delivered by a well-known Muslim scholar, Mr. Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish preacher, author, educator, currently living in United States of America.

He says:
“I would like to make it very clear that any terrorist activity, no matter by whom it is carried out or for what purpose, is the greatest blow to peace, democracy, and humanity. For this reason, no one—and certainly no Muslim—can approve of any terrorist activity. Terror has no place in a quest to achieve independence or salvation. It takes the lives of innocent people. Even though at first sight such acts seem to harm the target, all terrorist activities eventually do more harm to the terrorists and their supporters. The terrorist activity on September 11, which is a most bloody and condemnable one, is far more than an attack on the United States of America—it is an assault against world peace as well as against universal democratic and humanistic values. Those who perpetrated this atrocity can only be considered as being the most brutal people in the world.

The terrorist attack on September 11 only deserves condemnation and contempt, and it must be condemned by every person in the world. In our daily lives, when we respond to this heinous assault out of our justified anger and pain, please let me express that we must understand why such a terrible event occurred and we should look at how similar tragedies can be avoided in the future. We should remember that terrorists represent an extremely small minority within any society or religion. We should try to understand each other better, for only through mutual understanding and respect can such violence be prevented in the future.

Today, we feel the pain one more time from the bottom of our hearts, and we pray to God Almighty for the victims and we pray that He guide us to the days of peace and love in which we all coexist with our own faiths and worldviews.