Students joined United Muslim Relief co-founder Shafi Khan Friday at the chapter’s first meeting to talk about opportunities through which students can not only help the surrounding community, but people worldwide. | Photo courtesy of Amna Khan
The newly-formed UH chapter of the United Muslim Relief gave students the opportunity to be involved in the transformative process of serving others from start to finish in its first general student body meeting on Friday.
“This organization is literally the definition of hope I have been looking for,” said psychology freshman and UMR-UH webmaster Lara Hattab.
UMR volunteers have fed thousands of homeless people on the streets of the United States while simultaneously coping with the greatest challenges of international relief.
“In the end, the goal is to help those who need help,” said pre-business and broadcast journalism sophomore Mahnoor Samana, who heads public relations for UMR-UH.
The vice president of Programs and Emergencies and co-founder of UMR, Shafi Khan, spoke about the formation of the organization and how his experience in helping victims of the Haitian earthquake with a group of students from George Mason University became a life-changing experience and quickly turned into one of the largest grassroots organizations for American Muslims.
“The smell of death was so strong in Port-au-Prince at this moment, we knew what we had to do,” Khan said.
Serving on the UMR team — formerly Muslims without Borders — for three years, Khan said the hardest thing to do is to renew your intentions.
“We don’t want this to turn into a business,” Khan said.
UMR-UH will offer different events to help people in the Houston community as well as international development projects. One event in particular is Project Downtown, which will be held monthly and will focus on providing meals to people who are unable to access food.
“We will be giving people what could be their only meal for the day,” said biochemistry sophomore and secretary of UMR-UH Dania Albaba.
Although all the officers of the UMR-UH may not share the same major, views or ethnic backgrounds, they all share the same passion of helping humanity.
“Through this organization, I want to get the Muslim community mobilized and for the volunteers to feel the personal connection,” said nutrition major sophomore and vice president of UMR-UH Komal Nathani.
The foundations of the chapter came from president Ahmad Asaad, a nutrition and pre-med junior who had the opportunity to serve as a videographer for a one-week project let by Kimiya International to end human sex trafficking in Cambodia.
“Making people smile — just that one instance can change someone,” Asaad said. “That experience boosted my potential to help people. Through UMR-UH, I want to drive down the street and be able to see Muslims helping people.”
Students hope the organization will allow students to share a passion of helping humanity and giving back to their community by allowing students to practice sincerity and will also serve as a sense of unity among the UH family.
“Development through service bears a message of changing lives at both ends: those who need our help and those who want to help others,” Asaad said.
Muslim charities have a history of funneling funds received – funds intended to help those in need – into the hands of terrorists. This has happened time and time again, and has been documented by the FBI on numerous occasions.
How do we know this won’t happen again with this charity?
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The large number of links between
Islamic Relief Worldwide and extremist terror groups suggests that
buried beneath the cover of a charity lies a structured pro-terror group
with an anti-Western agenda.
Islamic Relief Worldwide [IRW] is the poster-child of an exemplary
Islamic charity. Headquartered in the UK, and given tens of millions of
dollars by Western governments, the United Nations and the European
Union, IRW consists of a “family of fifteen aid agencies” which “aim to
alleviate the suffering of the world’s poorest people.” New information,
however, indicates that IRW — which counts Islamic Relief UK and
Islamic Relief USA as its most important branches — is an extremist
organization with a pro-terror agenda. IRW has worked with a significant
number of organizations linked to terrorism.
IRW’s accounts show that it has partnered with a number of
organizations linked to terrorism and that some of charity’s trustees
are personally affiliated with extreme Islamist groups that have
connections to terror.
Dear crazy tea bagger racist white dude, first of all nice copy paste job, second of all. I don’t see the words Islamic Relief anywhere in this article lol?? So your logic is just because they are Muslim they are all the same right?? Doesn’t matter at all if its another agency from another county. Where do you people come from???
typical racist teabaggers, same people that hate that fact that we have a black president, also hate muslims. The civil war ended more than 100 years ago, you lost, shut up, go home.
Pico,
You’re pretty crazy eh?
The facts are the facts, Pico. The fact that many, many Muslim charities are shells used to funnel funds to terrorists is a fact. I did not make it up. It is a reality.
Comprendo?
UMR is a merely a front group for the Muslim Student Association.
In the interest of full disclosure, MSA are a notorious Muslim Brotherhood affiliate and propaganda mouthpiece for Hamas terrorists.
Recall also, in a 6 to 3 decision, the Supreme Court upheld a federal law that makes it a crime for Americans to provide “material support” of any kind (be it in the form of cash, weaponry, training, personnel, services, or “expert advice or assistance”) to a foreign terrorist organization, even if that support is for (ostensibly) peaceful purposes.
Hamas would be one such example. It conducts terrorist attacks against Israel with one part of its organization while spitting propaganda lies with another. Propagandizing for them allows Hamas to not have to spend propaganda funds for its terrorist activities.
Upcoming Congressional hearings will undoubtedly focus the spotlight on MSA terrorism enablers. For those interested in a fuller disclosure of the MSA, read their dossier.
So, thanks once again to MSA propagandists for making it easier for Obama’s NSA to track your activities and Holder’s Justice Department to prosecute your material support propaganda campaigns.
And good luck finding a job with “terrorism enabler” emblazoned on your resume.