Source/Credit: IIP Digital | USEmbassy.Gov
By Jeff Baron | Staff Writer | 09 September 2011
Washington — In commemoration of a day on which thousands of Americans lost their lives, many Muslims — and others — are leading blood drives.
“The whole idea of needles and watching blood come out is something that I get a little queasy about, but hopefully, inshallah, I’ll do it today,” said Qudus Malik, a Washington patent lawyer and first-time blood donor who volunteered to help with a Muslims for Life blood drive.
The event, on September 7 in the lobby of a U.S. House of Representatives office building, was one of 236 Muslims for Life blood drives nationwide — among thousands of Muslim service projects — to mark the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. Malik called it “a way for us to show solidarity with all the innocent lives lost and all the families affected.”
His group’s other goal, he added, is to show Americans “that Muslims are just like people of any other faith: that these are peaceful people, and a very, very small minority of extremists are hijacking the agenda of Islam.” Unfortunately, he said, for many Americans, “their first real introduction to Islam came through the acts of these barbarians.”
Among those who turned out to donate was Representative Jackie Speier, a Democrat from California, who called the blood drive “a very powerful statement.”
“As we commemorate the 10th anniversary of 9/11, I think it’s very important for us to be introspective and find ways to express our continuing pain and sorrow for those who lost loved ones in a solemn and sober way that also has a positive result,” she said. “I can think of nothing much more positive than giving a pint of blood for those in need.”
Muslims for Life volunteer Qudus Malik (State Dept. / Jane Chun)
Qudus Malik says the blood drives are "a way for us to show solidarity with all the innocent lives lost and all the families affected.”
Few of the blood drives involve members of Congress and TV cameras. Amjad Mahmoud Khan, a spokesman for the national effort, said the largest event was at a professional baseball game in Philadelphia. “It was amazing, but we raised 1,100 bags of blood in one night,” he said. “And these were people who aren’t Muslim coming and just really supporting us that whole day at the game.”
In many cases, other community groups — including members of churches and synagogues — have joined the Muslims for Life effort as partners in the blood drives, Khan said. That sort of cooperation is one of the goals of the Muslims for Life campaign, said Malik. “The Quran says that you should cooperate with others in doing good. Our hope is, and our goal is, to try and find different avenues to do that,” he said.
A day before the congressional event and 20 miles (32 kilometers) to the west in a Virginia suburb, a drive at George Mason University strained the capacity of a bloodmobile and collected blood from more than 100 students. The organizers reflected the diversity of the university campus: Muslims for Life, the predominantly African-American Omega Psi Phi fraternity and Operation Smile, which raises money for surgery to correct cleft palates in children in developing countries.
Sophomore Sonia Foroudastan was there for Operation Smile. “We’re making the George Mason community stronger and also encouraging people to sign up for the club and come support us in other events on campus,” she said. “We’re helping out two other organizations today in their cause and hoping that they’ll come help us later on.”
Ibrahim Chaudhry, a third-year student who organized the Muslims for Life effort at George Mason, called it “a really, really humbling experience.” He said it was so successful that he is trying to organize a second blood drive on campus by the end of the month.
Read original post here: Muslim Americans Lead Blood Drives to Honor 9/11 Victims
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