Media Release:-1838 Gala: Brown Sugar

Media Release

2018-07-30

Re: One Love Media presents 1838 Gala: Brown Sugar-  A Fundraiser for Children of Guyana

Friday Aug 17^th   at 7:00 pm at Elite Banquet Hall 1850 Albion Rd Toronto

Celebrate the Presence of the East Indian arrival to Guyana as Indentured labourers on the sugar plantations of British Guiana in 1838. Slavery of Africans ended in 1834. A historic year for sugar when new labourers arrived from India. A new history in the making of Guyana and the contributions of both Muslims and Hindus will be highlighted!

Today sugar workers are laid off after the recent closing of sugar factories in Guyana. Their children's future is bleak without basic food and financial support to educate them. More sugar workers commit suicide besides the social ills of losing one’s job in Guyanese male dominated society.

The funds raised will continue supporting the 250 poor students in Skeldon- through Service to Humanity- a registered NGO- towards the new school year- with free lunches every day and back to school supplies for September.

Also we will be doing Qurbani in Guyana and using it to feed the children- strictly lamb. We will continue to support the poor families- like the families of the piracy attack in Berbice river during April this year leaving ten devastated families, etc.

We are adding the Orphanage in Albion Berbice as an additional recipient this time.

Keynote Speaker is Dr. Mohan Ragbeer, Pathologist and notable writer from Guyana who will be speaking to the theme of the contribution of the East Indians to the sugar economy of Guyana since 1838! 

We will be honoring two young Guyanese living in Canada as an inspiration to the youths of Guyana- MPP Sara Singh- the politician and Aftab Maxi Shamsudden- the cricketer!

Entertainment includes live performances by Naaz Khan of Trinidad plus Karan Singh and Dj Slim Robin Mohamed of Guyana!

For more information contact

Habeeb Alli

416 823 1738

Rumi turning ecstatic

Rumi turning ecstatic

I saw in your eyes

The revelation of a thousand songs

Fireflies have martyred themselves

Into the night where you belong

Why this fast that reveals nothing

Sip from the tavern and read

The eyes are the window to the soul

I saw innermost self on fire

When you crawl around this modernity

You kill the wings every human was born with

Because the lion lives with lambs

The courage to face adversity

Was loss long before the roar was learnt

Sip slowly from the spring of inner peace

The knowledge you gain by silence

Outweighs the scholars ink and keys

I know your time is spent on smart phones

Your strokes are recorded for impunity

Yet like Rumi was lost in Shams Tabrezi enrapture

He wrote nothing yet his heart memorized each wisdom

This night is too long

The love has gone wrong

Why would Divine love find carnal expression?

What makes a European wed a Trinidadian

What gives color to the rainbow colors

This fascination with life is cheap

By death we learn to live yet we run

I know your days are like jewels in a glass

The Kohinoor was taken and placed on her Royal Highness

Yet the head now has tea with the slave child

Let the dreams of imagination run wild

Only in the dug up ground could wildflowers grow

Only when your pain is embraced will you see

Creator is another name for Om and Allah

The universe is just a spot in the galaxies of His creation

Yet you strut about as if you will preside forever

Even Pharaoh and Hitler didn't escape the angel of destruction

What sweetness you emit from these wicked stares

That fragrance the mountains of Kush couldn't bear

Nowadays the Abraham of yesterday is born weak

I see fathers and mothers make children who will cross barriers

This time of unease is the souls stirring

The name I call on has no language

The thrust of the Niagara is so powerful

Yet a man walks over like a child on bicycle

The contortionist swings through the taut rope like a butterfly

I think with these prayers you will find nirvana still

Cause your search is more important than your findings!

Reflections of Van Attack: Terror on Yonge St

The call came in like broken tasbeehs

One after the other 9 1 1 rang

White van crushing pedestrians

The world waited to hear Muslim terrorist on rampage

I stuck my hopes on the emptiness of media prejudice

Things turned out not the way most hoped

The carnage that filled Yonge and Finch

Fam I was just there with Hasan Minhaj the other night!

Is terror of a white van not terrorism?

I reverted to reflect on InCel

How could  Zulaikha lived through Yusuf's rejection?

Didn't she put him in jail and had the girls cutting?

But the racist Jahillya needs a new rant

A terrorist in white van

Is a terrorist no matter the whiteness

Isn't this stupid stuck on stupidness?

But wait

That heroic act of the officer

That Interfaith vigil like Spring flower

That fundraiser gone viral - All destroy this terrorist's power.

#HumboldtStrong

Sorry to hear of this tragedy
Youths and teens loss so crazily
With dreams and laughter they shot their puck
Hockey moms wail while carnage fill our sanity

What a beautiful thing it could be
Loss of lives awakens generosity
People from hockey loves and disbelievers together
On the platform of giving charity

So is the course of life
If you look at the glass half empty
You lose a child and family
But half full gives you  hockey players from faraway Cities!

Isra and Meraj- Ascension of Muhammad teaches us to rise up to causes!

Holy is He Who carried His servant by night from the Holy Mosque (in Makka) to the farther Mosque (in Jerusalem) - whose surroundings We have blessed - that We might show him some of Our signs 1. Indeed He alone is All-Hearing, All-Seeing. (Quran 17:1)

The ascension is what inspires me to rise to the call of duty every day. Why is that so? The fact that the Prophet Muhammad, on whom be peace, was beginning to feel the weight of the mission in Mecca and needed some respite or inspiration around the ninth year after Prophethood is the raison d'etre of Isra and Meraj. What did Allah provide for him to continue fueling his drive? It was this miraculous journey into the heavens visiting his comrades like Prophet Musa and Ibrahim who had very similar challenges from a disbelieving people. He was so inspired that he returned within the night rejuvenated and ready to continue spreading the word of God among the Quresh despite their brutal racism against him and His Companions.

I think today when we are called to serve humanity and share the love of Islam through our humanitarian deed as called Zakat and Fitra and Qurbani and Sadqa we have to rise to the occasion and this will be our Meraj and Isra. Ascension to the heavens can be done just here without the miraculous Buraq and travel to Jerusalem in the night by sacrificing a bit of our worldly possessions so that we let a human live, let a child breathe, let a mother eat and let humanity survive in dignity once more. Malala, our shero, just thought us that and we are lucky to have her in Canada on Meraj and Isra fighting for girls education worldwide!

Quebec Massacre Commemoration: A time to invest in people

As I think of those who loss their lives whilst praying in the mosque in Quebec a year ago, today, I'm reminded that Canada is the best country in the world to live in, however, we are a work in progress.
As we celebrated the Canada 150 throughout last year we aimed in our celebrations to invite First Nations and people from different faiths and races. Not only Muslims. As I just concluded the first One Love Cruise I am blessed to have people from from all faiths and nationalities aboard the beautiful Carnival cruise. The power of love is the only thing that seems to fight deadly racism, one white supremacist who converted to Islam said to me just after the Quebec tragedy! I am working on a documentary to share his story with the world!

I am not oblivious to the deliberate policies that divide us and those who are intent to follow suit the tweets that aim to denigrate us.

What is true, however, is that little funds are placed upon investing in people. More funds are for research and political promotions, besides in exorbitant buildings in the name of worship.

As chaplain I see men and women worry about suicide, delayed justice, immigration detentions prolonged, divided families, racism in its raw form, homophobia, anti Aboriginal and Black racism among other ugliness. So to hear the ringing cries of Islamophobia from Quebec last year, the day after we just celebrated One Love Gala for the successful reintegration of inmates, and the day before our Interfaith musical at a church with a Rabbi, shocked me first and made me angry after.

Knowing that it's like pulling teeth to fund programs and faith based work in our communities. It's easier to get buy a blunt and legally smoke in front our children now than to ask for funds to invest in the spiritual and social wellness of our youths.

A young man walked into my office this week just to share his grief of a young cousin who died from suicide. He lost three friends similarity! A girl who I had known for years in Ottawa doing fabulous community service revealed in an email on Launchgood I read last night that she has been on suicide watch since last year. I feel incredibly sad and yet I continue to beat the road of Interfaith knowing that the interactions of different races and faiths and sexuality is what will destroy racism and stop more Muslims from being killed. However, the police reports in Canada demonstrates differently. More people have increasingly been victims of Islamophobia and Antisemitism of recent.

I ask where is the funding and the resources to make people feel like family and neighbors again? Not with increased poverty. We see Muslims operating more food banks and volunteering together against homelessness or venturing into unchatterered waters on many aspect of socio-economic fronts and not only on Rohingya and Palestine but it's not debunking the myths as fast as we wish.

It's time to stop crying wolf and make every act of racism me too- invest in people and not tweets!

One Love Cruise family Jan 2018

Join us Mar 3rd for the 6th One Love Gala as we help others make this a better world by the power of love!

Onelove150.com

One Love Day

Media Release

Jan 6/2018

Re: Apex Consulting Greater Toronto One Love Gala

One Love Gala 2018: The Power of Love

The One Love gala was inspired by Bob Marley’s song one love!

Some six years ago, when diversity chaplaincy was under threat, thanks to a Minister who thought otherwise, I was sitting distraught and this song was playing. I thought to myself that we must have an event that both celebrates our work with those incarcerated and advocates for the continuation of this crucial service. The name suited it so much as interfaith leaders and people from all walks of life joined us for an evening of much love! This year’s 6^th anniversary will be held on Sat Mar 6^th at Elite Banquet Hall 1850 Albion Rd Toronto with chief guest Shaikh Riad Ourzazi.

Those incarcerated gets a second chance in Canada. That is the very teachings of our Faiths. We live and let others live. Chaplains do not sit in the jury box. They are there with a compassionate heart and a listening ear, holding hands with the men and women who approach them for spiritual direction, throughout their journey.

Many such individuals have passed the boundaries of the prisons and have reintegrated into society successfully. Their stories inspire those who aspire to change. We must honor them in their journey. For many, these transformative years have renewed their faith and given them a chance to forgive.

To make a theme that speaks to our mental crisis- we say:  The Power of Love!

First Nations are a crucial foundation of Canada and world politics. We can only learn to love if we are prepared to forgive. We are letting the stories of diversity chaplains, successful inmates and Interfaith communities serenade us with Four Awards- the Malcolm X, Tayyibah Taylor, Ghulam Sajan and Lyla Ali awards that nite!

Dress Code: formal Gala wear.

Color theme: Red, Black and White

After party theme: #HAVEFUN!

Hash tag: #ThePowerOfLove

Thank You

Co Chair and Founder

Habeeb Alli

416 823 1738