Dawah Workshop

*IF YOU CANNOT ATTEND THE EVENT IN PERSON DO NOT WORRY, LIVE STREAMING WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR THIS EVENT: HOWEVER YOU WILL NEED TO REGISTER TO RECEIVE ONLINE LINK TO LIVE STREAM*

With the growing misconceptions surrounding the Islamic Faith Today, it is extremely important for the Muslims from around the world to stand up and have a voice. To not only combat all the ignorant misunderstandings that are spreading but to also educate about what it truly means to be a Muslim. Defending the faith, and educating the world about Islam is not a small or simple task. It takes knowledge, patience, and public speaking skills. It also is important to know your audeince and change the tone and attitude of the discussion to fit the needs of those listening. That is why the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh is hosting a Dawah Workshop on March 12th of this year. We are bringing in speakers well-versed in different ways to spread Dawah to train and teach our community how to do so as well.

10:00-10:30 Sign-in/Registration/Refreshments
10:30-12:30 Imam Suleiman Hani: Muslim to Muslim Dawah:
How to talk to other Muslims about the Religion of Islam during times of doubt or confusion, especially the Youth.
12:30-1:30 Dhuhr Prayer/Lunch (lunch will be provided by ICP)
1:30-3:30 Ustadh Hamza Tzortzis: Active Dawah
How to actively approach people who might hold misconceptions about Islam and spread Dawah in a way that will make them understand more clearly
3:30-4:15 T. Rashad Byrdsong: Community Based Dawah
How to show the beauty of Islam through Actions. Being a strong Community builder and Social Justice Activist to show the power and strength that Muslims can bring to the world
4:15-4:30 Asr Prayer
4:30-5:15 Karen Hussaini: Interfaith Dawah
How to talk to people of different faith backgrounds in a way to ensure sensititvty and understanding. But also in a way that shows the full picture of the beliefs and practices of Islam.
5:15-6:30 Panel Discussion
This is your time to ask all of the speakers questions about Dawah and ways that we can all improve in these areas
6:30 Closing/Maghrib Pryaer

Speaker Biographies

Imam Suleiman Hani

Imam Suleiman Hani is an inspirational religious speaker and youth lecturer hailing from Dearborn, Michigan. At the age of 14, Imam Suleiman left his family to attend a Qur’an Memorization school in the US where he successfully completed a 10-month program. Soon thereafter, he began leading taraweeh prayers at some of the largest mosques across the United States. His lifelong Islamic studies intensified as he gained knowledge at the hands of local and global scholars, completing hundreds of classical and modern texts as well as curriculums of multiple Islamic universities. He has since been giving workshops and seminars around the USA, as well as motivational and theological lectures at North American and European conferences. He’s been known in recent years for his popular one-day seminars, “Paradise & Hellfire”, “How to Memorize the Qur’an”, and “Islam vs. Modern Philosophies.” His specialties include Fiqh, ‘Aqeedah, Tazkiyah, Tafseer, Hadith, philosophy, counseling, and social justice.

Imam Suleiman gained experience as an Imam and a youth director since the age of 19, where his main focus was to help the youth resist modern-day challenges and corrupt ideologies. He earned his Ijazah in Sahih Muslim from Sheikh Zaheeruddin Mubarakpuri, who presently has one of the shortest Ijazahs in the world, as well as Ijazahs in the six books of hadeeth from five scholars.

Imam Suleiman recently authored a book in English on the topic of memorizing the Qur’an through IIPH and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Islamic Studies and a Master of Science degree in Leadership and Strategy. He presently works as an instructor at the international Himmah University of Da’wah, an Imam and youth lecturer in Michigan, the CEO of Hifdh Coach, and a traveling speaker for national and international religious, humanitarian, community, and interfaith organizations.

Ustadh Hamza Tzortzis

Hamza Andreas Tzortzis is an international public speaker on Islam, a writer, lecturer, instructor and researcher. He is particularly interested in Islam, politics, western and Islamic thought and philosophy.

Hamza delivers workshops, seminars and courses on the foundations of Islamic thought. He is an instructor for prominent dawah organisations including AlKauthar Institute.

Hamza is known for engaging prominent academics and intellectuals including Professor Peter Simons, Professor Lawrence Krauss, Professor Simon Blackburn, Professor Ken Gemes and Professor Dan Barker. Hamza delivers presentations across the world on various topics; ranging from ‘Does God Exist’, ‘Why Islam?’, ‘The Miracle of the Qur’an’, ‘Islam or Atheism?’ to ‘Can we live better lives without Religion’.

Hamza is a popular speaker at UK University campuses, and has also travelled the world extensively to deliver lectures, most notably in the USA, Australia, Netherlands, Malaysia, Canada and Lebanon. Hamza has authored a number of Islamic publications as well as serialising a number of articles on his popular blog.

Hamza has also led major pieces of research including ‘Non-Muslim Perceptions of Islam and Muslims’ through iERA, and is currently working on a number of publications. Hamza studies Islamic thought and philosophy with a qualified scholar who has been authorized to transmit Islamic knowledge (ijazah).

Hamza is one of the main initiators of the contemporary emergence of Muslim public debaters and speakers using western and Islamic philosophy to defend and explain Islam. Hamza heads the research team and Lectures for iERA.

T. Rashad Byrdsong: Mr. Byrdsong is nationally known for his innovation in building coalitions (Parents in Action, Citizen Coalition for Justice, African American Workforce Development, Grassroots 200, East End Workforce Development Task Force, Homewood- Brushton Community Coalition Organization, Measles Immunization Task Force, Center for Injury Research & Control-Presbyterian Hospital Trauma Unit) to name a few. His work with parents who lost children to violence, and sensing that there were more mitigating factors related to violence, prompted Mr. Byrdsong to establish Community Empowerment Association, Inc. (CEA) in 1994, offering services to address those factors in an effort to reduce and prevent violence in the Homewood-Brushton area of Pittsburgh. Mr. Byrdsong has a long history of working with youth who are seriously at risk for imprisonment or death by providing street mentoring services, conflict resolution, negotiating peace treaties, family reunification and connecting these youth to appropriate services to put them on a more positive life track. He was Principal Investigator, collaborating with a major hospital system in Pittsburgh, to provide trauma intervention services in the emergency room with the families of victims who experienced violent traumatic events. Mr. Byrdsong is currently working on a comprehensive Public Health Approach to Violence Reduction for Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. This approach has been presented at Emergency Town Hall Meetings in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County and calls for a paradigm shift that views violence as a preventable social disease. Also Mr. Byrdsong, through CEA and in collaboration with a faith-based organization located in Pittsburgh, has received funding from the Heinz Endowment to launch an African American Leadership Institute a two year intensive leadership development program for African American youth. In addition, Mr. Byrdsong is part of the National Urban Peace and Justice Council, an organization that has been holding youth/gang summits throughout the United States for over 19 years, bringing members of gangs and other street organizations together in efforts to negotiate peace treaties, as well as offer mediation and conflict resolution services. He is also a member of a national mediation conflict resolution initiative that has traveled extensively throughout the country addressing gang violence. Mr. Byrdsong's success as a powerful negotiator among rival street organizations is due to his reputation as a man who genuinely works to broker support and understanding of conditions they face while challenging them to find more positive ways to interact.

Karen Hussaini: Karen Hussaini is the co-founder and president of the SFH Islamic Netowrk. The SFH Islamic Interfaith Network was founded to continue the work of her husband, Syed Farooq Hussaini. Mr. Hussaini had been an interfaith peace builder for more than two decades inspiring people of all faiths. His passion, belief, and commitment to humanity drove his efforts to build bridges among all people. Well known in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for his selfless, dedicated, and tireless work and contributions to the community, Mr. Hussaini had been an active participant in interfaith and inter-religious initiatives representing the Islamic perspective. With his untimely death in May 2008, at the young age of 50, which resulted in a void of consistent outreach, his wife Karen Hussaini and their close friend of over twenty years, Helen Waseem-Ahmed decided to initiate an organization that is committed to embodying Farooq's philosophy of creating love and beauty among humanity. At a time when demand to understand Islam is unprecedented, the SFH Islamic Interfaith Network offers speakers, materials, and presentations for opportunities in schools, colleges, churches, synagogues, and other civic organizations to promote an understanding of Islam. It is a way of building bridges of understanding and trust among people and communities. On a comprehensive level, this interfaith network focuses on issues that concern all people. It is about the joint interfaith pursuit of social justice, human dignity, and constructive action on behalf of the common good of all people. It provides a process where people of different faiths can come together and work together to address social and moral issues, denial of human rights, exploitation of people, injustice, and to speak out against such issues. This network believes that education, dialogue, and action can counter the dangerous and destructive effects of ignorance, silence, and prejudice.