Traditional Annual City of Houston Community Iftar Dinner 2011 

Saturday, August 06, 2011 (Our Special Correspondent): For the past ten years, the City of Houston (COH) Administration provides at no charge prestigious city facilities for the COH Mayoral Iftar-&-Dinner, where the payments for the food are made by the Muslim Community by pooling their funds with the Islamic Society of Greater Houston (ISGH) umbrellas organization for the Muslims of this important region of the country.
This time more than 1,500 persons of diversified backgrounds attended this established Iftar-Dinner at the George Bush Grand Ball Room on the 3rd Floor of George R. Brown Convention Center.

This year the food sponsoring organizations getting the kind donations from members of the community included The Islamic Society of Greater Houston (ISGH); Council On American Islamic Relations of Houston (CAIR); Houston-Karachi Sister City Association, Houston-Abu Dhabi Sister City Association; Houston-Istanbul Sister City Association; and Houston-Baku Sister City Association.

Program was very professionally Conducted by Saeed Sheikh, Stage Coordinator and later joined by former Council Member M.J.Khan for further proceedings. The evening started with serene recitation of Quran by young Huffaz Namak Top and Ammar Khan .On behalf of the hosts, ISGH President Dr. Aziz Siddiqi and CAIR-Houston President Dr. Tarek Husain welcomed all. 

Dr. Siddiqi highlighted the contributions of ISGH to the larger Houston community (both Muslims & non-Muslims) since its inception in 1969, including giving out $700,000 Zakat money to the needy just in the year 2010.

Famous writer and poet Michael Wolfe of Unity Production Foundation talked about his latest documentary film called “Salaam Houston”, which is composed of 20,000 dialogues on the understanding of Islam and Muslims in Houston and worldwide. Dr. Mahmoud EL-Gamal of Rice University talked about the significance of Ramadan and its positive impacts on the lives of individuals and communities.

In a most motivational manner, famous Islamic speaker Usama Cannon of Zaytuna Institute talked about the community services and contributions of American Muslims.

Several elected officials gave inspirational presentations. They included Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, Congressman AL Green, Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, and Mayor of COH Annise Parker. They highly talked about the involvement of Muslims in the progress of local Houston, State of Texas, USA, and the World. He said that sincere prayers for taking the world in the right direction are much needed in Ramadan.

Before the final special invocation and supplications by young Imam Wazir Ali of Masjid Warith D. Muhammad, preceding the Mughrib Adhan, Iftar, Mughrib prayers, and sumptuous dinner, Emcee of the event M. J. Khan thanked the more than 1,500 persons for attending, and thanked his team of volunteers like the Volunteers of His Highness The Aga Khan for the Southern United States, Saeed Sheikh, Azam Akhtar, Khalid Kazi & Sajjad Sheikh of Houston-Karachi Sister City Association, P.J.Khan Swati of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce (PCC-USA), Taslim Siddiqui and Ghulam Bombaywala of Pakistani-American Association of Greater Houston (PAGH), Dr. Aziz Siddiqi, Maulana Farooq Malik, A. J. Durrani, Humayun Mahmood and all the other office bearers of ISGH, Abeezer Tayyabji of Bohra Community,Mustafa Carroll of Cair-Houston and all the community media for their kind assistance in arranging the proceedings of this traditional event in a befitting manner.