AMEEN

I do not judge Muslim people for clubbing, flirting, dressing sexy, or whatever.
I just think it's wrong for them to use the excuse of an Islamic convention to fly out to Chicago to do all these things.
Also, I couldn't care less if Muslim people flirt with each other, or Muslim women dress in a sexy way. But I don't think they should do it at an Islamic convention. They should take all that somewhere else.
I hope you understand what I mean. It is a matter of respect for the purpose of ISNA.

Paradise924: there is a reason they are called "after-parties" they happen after the actual event. Why blame the event for what happens afterwards? ;)

Ehteshamfarooq, I am not passing judgment on anyone. Since I live in Chicago, I have heard many stories of wild ISNA after-parties.

As people have said before, its what you make of it. If you go for the intention of learning and benefiting from the knowledge, than what is wrong with that? You are the only one missing out then.

Paradise924: ISNA convention being "all" evil and unIslamic is debatable, but one thing is for sure, you and whomever do not attend it just because of that reason are denying yourself the opportunity to guide whom you assume/know are doing wrong, let alone the judgement you decreed on all those attend in the first place.

And amongst all my numerous relatives who live in Chicago, the ISNA convention does have a bad name. None of us attend.

Raniyah, I am really glad that you posted this village entry about what really goes on during ISNA weekend in Chicago. More people on naseeb need to be aware of how people are bringing "trash into something aimed towards being Islamic." I live in Chicago and have never been to ISNA. All it is is a meat market for guys and girls to flirt and hook up with each other, for girls to wear sexy clothes, and for them all to go clubbing afterwards.

My point is not to condemn doing all this stuff. What disturbs me is that people are using the guise of an ISLAMIC convention to do acts that are far from Islamic.

lol rice cooker? i mean i would personally say a blender, b/c i don't know what i would do w/out my mango lassi.

lol! yeah internet and rice cooker :D

what will you ever do without the internet? lol :)

Try to stay safe!

W'salam: we drove for 12 hours and did not even get out of Houston. Freeways are packed :# So we thought we will ride the storm indoors :)

Should be an experience, except for the power outage.

Salam, well glad you agreed. So you are from Houston, are you riding it out or evacuating?

Onemozluv2: I agree. Kinda sorta what I suggested.

Its sad to say that event was posted in just about every village i am active in, and only a few moterators actually took it off.

I have skimmed through what most of you were saying. I agree with some of the things mentioned. A few comments on ISNA in general. Let me tell you why I think why you did not enjoy ISNA as much...you cannot be religious and progressive both at the same time. You attend a great lecture come out and you indulge in Fitna...what you gained from the lecture is lost and you are left dis satisfied. Thats my take on it...that does not mean you were doing it...but that is what happens with most people.

Some of my friends were making the most of all the lectures, doing Qiyam-ul-layl and they benefiteed a ton from the convention. This year i had 2 new converts with me. They absolutely loved the lectures, and all the post activites. Ie the entertainment, and the Qiyams. They couldnt get enough of it. ISNA is what you want it to be...

One thing we all do is judge people. Now i am not saying what goes on in the lobby or whatever is correct at all. We never know where ppl are coming from and what their life experiences have been like. You learn that from interacting with different kinds of people when you are doing dawah...its amazing what many of them have been through in their lives. So before we start judging the way others are raised look at yourself first. How can you improve yourself.

So instead of complaining about this happening every yr, why don't you get involved and help make a change. Since i helped out with security i know this: I know that this year, they had security breaking up the lobby scenes. They kicked everyone out of the lobby. We try to make more halal actvities throughout the night. Ie the sisters entertainment, b-ball tourneys and the qiyams. So there are people who are trying to make a positive change. Its not going to happen over night, but that doesnt mean we should stop.

RIS is amazing. I didnt get a chance to go last yr, but inshallah a group of us are trying to go this yr.

just some thoughts.

Salamz Raniyah,

Jazakallah Kair for putting this journal up. I was actually thinking about doing something similar as well... didn't get the chance. you know what they say....Great minds think alike :) Yeh I had the same experience @ ISNA this year as well. I've been to ISNA Canada, but it was my first time @ ISNA Chicago as well.... I noticed the same thing when I attended a few of the lectures. The lecture halls were pretty empty, and a lot of the topics being discussed were things that most of us already know. And then a lot of speakers seemed to be locals from within the states. It would have been better to have some more renowned speakers come in. This was nothing like I had expected. The Reviving the Islamic Spirit Conference in Toronto during the Winter, is completely awesome, and definitely worth going to. If anyone's planning to come to Toronto, try to make it the weekend of RIS, it'll be an event you'll never forget inshallah:)

Yeh at ISNA most of the people spent their time in the Bazaar or just hanging outside the lecture halls - like you said trying to pickup each other, or checking each other out- asthaghfirullah. I was surprised to see so many hijabis out there seemed to make hijab into a fashion statement. It seemed like hijabis are completely forgetting or undermining the true purpose of hijab. Even at Hydrofest I was surprised to see how many hijabis ended up staying at Cleopatra's that night. They seemed to be really enjoying their sheesha, watching the belly dancing while sitting on other ghair mehram guys laps... I know we shouldn't be judging others, but it's girls that wear the hijab and attend places like clubs etc., that are giving us hijabis all a bad reputation. It's unfortunate how people have lost respect for hijabis as a whole. It seems like now it's nothing different than wearing a matching cap with each of your outfits. The concept of modesty, and purity of the heart; the true purpose of hijab has been lost. Like you said.... they used to say sister... and now it's like give me your number - asthaghfirullah. Like Saud & Prince_charming said we can't really be surprised about whats happening though because that's just another sign of us getting closer to Qiyamah. It seems that more and more people are becoming muslim but we as muslims seem to be getting further and further away from Allah SWT.

As sad as it may seem Muslims have gotten to a time now, where we've become so accustomed to the Western ways that some among us are trying to find ways to manipulate the religion in order justify haram things to be Islamically correct. Like one of the Sheikhs said at one of the speeches I attended a lot of teens and young adults are really into the temporary marriages thing...and that they temporarily get married for 3 days to prevent zina with the intention that they will divorce within a few days. I mean isn't that ridiculous? And the same can be said for the postings that guy "pakiwhatever" put up about the ISNA Bash... in some villages it was called the "non-halal" party. It's like since when is it okay to go somewhere after it's been declared "non-halal"? I mean how many people in their right mind would go to something like that? In a perfect world no body would... but I heard people saying that it was a blast, and that there was quite the turnout -disgusting really.

May Allah SWT give us all Hidyaa to bring us back onto the straight path. If we don't smarten up our children and future generations to come will be completely lost.

Hmm Raniyah cmon if any muslims or anyone tells me anything about muslim's be it drugs, dating, doing "Haraam" acts I would not be astonished at all in our environment now a days. So why are u?. This is the sigh of the times we live in. This is US. As long as Parents themselves didnt put some decent upbringing into their children they will never learn. And quiet frankly I have seen VERY VERY few parents that put some good islamic sense in their children.

Quiet frankly i think it has to do with the life style of the US itself that contributes to the demise of our muslim society not just here but now in other muslim countries. How many times have u seen both the muslim parents working from 8am to 8pm because they have some assignment at work to get done but they themselves dont give the NEEDED attention to their children? Instead the kids are raised with TV and other Non muslim children. What do u think they will learn? :) I blame the children but I also blame their parents who did not teach them the current taleem. One thing lets make sure we raise our kids differently. And if we cannot make sure others are good lets at least make sure our kids are model muslim citizens. inshAllah.

Ok now my 2 cents on ISNA. I think it is TOTALLY BOGUS. In my opinion it should be stopped by the muslims society as a whole. WHY? because it has become nothing but a sham an embarrassment to the muslims. It almost goes against everything we say in the lectures. You have good and bad going on in the same lecture hall you are listening to the sheiks..lol with i think is hilarious.

I had friends go to ISNA this year and all they had to say is how much haraam they saw..lol I jokingly asked I though u went there for the lectures and None of them said they sat in a decent lecture where they can learn something new. Lets be honest I dont think ISNA has anything of offer anymore. And as times goes on I think it will get worse. I learn more from my friends telling each other the rasul.saw hadiths than from the lectures because its usually the same thing. If not i see the lecturer come up and say how good we should be how we muslims should be a model of all of humanity and the US. Well we should be ashamed of our current state.

The last time i went to ISNA i was so saddened to see Young(12-18) as well as Older(19-25) guys and girls practically hitting on each other, doing baysharaam stuff right in front of everyone to see.

I thought i would join the main Youth counsel at ISNA and bring about change by stopping this bayhayaat actions. I thought We needed Shurtas(aka police-ing of the hall ways to stop this act)But i realized that SUCH a big change is not possible. If people want to do it they will do it anyways.

So anyways i think we should do our best to stop this to the best of our ability but I dont believe it can be stopped completely. So dont be disheartened with a few try to change one person at a time. And instead of getting angry at this guy. Tell him whats right and inshAllah he will see the truth. If we get angry at him this will only encourage this behavior and with that we will have lost him and other people like him.

I was at ISNA in 96 or 97, I was thorougly bored, but the ppl I went with kinda enjoyed it. Havent been back since.

Raniyah: this problem you type of so eloquently here is not with "THEM" this problem is "OURS", we all on some level have contributed to it.

These type of events come to ISNA or are advertised on Naseeb and what do we do? We remove the article or alienate the ppl responsible for it. Why not take them to someone or a group of ppl who can disuade them from doing it? or why not let the JE be on here and respond to it trying to explain that it is wrong?

Lets win our ISNA back by eradicating one party at a time. WO! thats like a kool slogan, eh? ;)

lol Frosty it's not "my revenge". I'm sorry if it seemed as such. It's just that, I'm so tired of all this garbage our generation has to deal with and looked down upon because of cr@p like this. This was my 4th conference and honestly, i was really really disappointed. Yea, the entertainment was good, but man... not like before. The conference was good but.. not like before. It was clean before and you got more of a wholesome feeling before. There was "club ISNA' atmosphere but people weren't besharam. I remember walking thru my first isna proud to be a hijabi, I walked THRU club isna to go up to my hotel room and guys would part like the great sea while I'd hear salaam and "sorry sister". Now all I hear is "can I get your number?" or see guys checking me out. ALL OF THAT happened because of the mentality of people that it's "oK" to do haram things in an Islamic environment because we're all muslim. People fail to realize that once shaitaan's in the mix, he's fogging up our minds with the idea that it's halal when in fact it's probably even more haram. How? Look out in the normal world, outside of ISNA. You have a whole haram environment to struggle against and keep yourself good.. with NO reminders of deen/iman except for those you make or arrange yourself. When you come to ISNA, you have lectures and salah and Qur'an recitation and signs and other auditory/visual reminders to keep your iman in check.. YET what do you do? Go to the "ISNA Kickoff" and think it's a halal way to find a partner. If you want to find a partner so bad ISNA has made arrangements for that... There are halal alternatives and people choose to use the haram ones and drape them with a halal cloak.. but ultimately all they're doing is fooling themselves.

Raniyah is exactly right. I saw the posting and was just shocked .... an Isna kickoff bash at a club????? Its an Oximoron ..... it just doesn't make sense. You are right that these are signs of Jahaliyah and that qiyamah is just around the corner. It was my first time at Isna Chicago and I have to admit ... the lecture halls were empty ... it seems that is not the main reason why people come to this conference, it has become more of a social thing. Well kudos to you Raniyah for taking the time and effort in expressing not just yours but many other's feelings here as well regarding this nonsense.
May Allah guide us all and keep us on the righteous path, and make us all stronger in our Imaan Insha'allah.