Ameen, no need to panic, the times I have attended and ppl of other faiths were invited, they only talked about the similarities of the faiths and have not put down islam.If you think he can put doubts in your heart, then ur deen isn't very strong, but that's for you to resolve. Don't assume that all the others would be weak and fall prey to doubts, i'm secure enough in my religion that I can listen to any faith without being tempted to jump ship. It actually strengthens my deen. The seminar was held a couple weeks back, a friend invited me last minute so I did not register for the class, but the first day was informative.

There is nothing wrong with inviting a rabbi, he isn't there to convert us, and if we muslims are secure in the knowledge that our deen is the right one, hearing what he has to say can't hurt us. He may talk about our shared faiths, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Let's not judge until we see what he has to offer b4 you put doubts in future attendees heads. I attended a seminar for al-maghrib institute and found it very beneficial.

I still do not get your reasonings. On the one hand you acknowledge that intermingling occurs daily in our lives, and on the other,you hold RIS accountable for something you participate in regularly. Unlike individuals, who can more or less choose what they do daily, RIS is an organization that is trying their best to adhere to islam, namely in their efforts to separate the sexes, which you don't give them credit for. You paint the picture that the event is a free for all mixing, when in reality, how you choose to conduct yourself there should be your only concern, not what others around you are doing. In regards to your comment about the sheikhs contradicting each other, each one is responsible for himself and shouldn't be held accountable for another's point of view. Where is your proof? That comment about the one sheikh who said we should follow the sharia doesn't mean he's contradicting himself for attenting the conference, it is simply a reminder to us all. Your question: "is it more correct to say that Islam is a religion of equality or a religion of justice?" It is both, Islam doesn't practice inequality nor does it endorse injustice, it is a religion that is rooted in fairness for all.

^^^"is not sitting with people who share another creed or aqeedah, strictly prohibited in the Shaari'a? and if so, what does that mean to us, in regards to the RIS?" Unless you have psychic powers, none of us can know for certain what others around us truly believe, but if they profess to be muslim, then our deen dictates that we treat them as such. Why label them any names except what they profess to be? They are muslims and if you disagree with anything they have uttered or know them to say, pls illustrate it here and give facts. You're suggestion that some aren't worth hearing needs to be backed up or it would mean that you are merely backbiting. Take what you find beneficial from their talk and leave anything else you doubt or disbelieve. Simple. Like I stated previously, and I am sure many of the sisters who've been attending can agree, we have yet to hear any speakers/sheikhs utter anything that directly contradicts with Islam. They go thru great lenghts to quote hadith and/or quran and not only the parts that suit them but the whole passage and its context. Tariq Ramadan was great with that when he was illustrating equity in islam when it comes to women. You may also pose urself your own q when it comes to intermingling with ppl of multiple faiths in our daily lives, what does that mean to you in regards to islam? You can't pick and choose when something applies to us in islam based on a setting you may not approve of. Otherwise that would be highly hypocritical of you and not very islamic now would it?

Tami, i'm doing well, I hope you are too. As far as I know, Khalid Yasin is a sheikh, very influential and inspiring to the youth especially. I saw his purpose of life talk as well and was hooked. He is credited with converting many ppl, ex. in a lecture one yr in australia, many reverted. p.s.-i'm green with envy that you got "personal" advice from Zaid Shakir, another beloved sheikh of mine.

Tami, you are not the only one who's excited, I know a number of sisters who cannot wait and are as excited as kids awaiting presents, myself included. Mine comes in the form of Khalid Yasin, provided he's allowed entry,which inshallah he will. I agree with Hayam and Aaliyah. Those ppl that use lame excuses can throw themselves off a bridge for all I care. They are the same ones attending weddings, jams, lectures in school with both genders present as you guys mentioned, "free-mixing" miraculously didn't enter their psyche, but when told to attend a legitimate islamic conference,the shaydan in them has a list of excuses of why not to. Like Hayam said, on the left is the brothers section, in the middle is the family section and on the right its the sisters section. How ppl conduct themselves while they are there shouldn't reflect on the organizers as they did their job. Lastly, it's one thing to not want to attend, it's another to attack sheikhs, who from all the years I attended, have not said anything that contradicted Islam, be they rumored to be sufi or not. P.S.- did you guys already buy your tickets?

Hayam, you would love khalid once you hear him, there is a reason all those ppl were excited, at york, uft, and ryerson, where he was scheduled to speak. Check him out on youtube. SB, I disagree with you. Dr. Zakir Naik is amazing, you may not agree with his analogy but if you dig beyond the obvious you'd see the truth of his words. He is talking about the culture of swingers, where wife/husband swapping is easily done, akin to some animals. Do not twist his words and call him names just b/c u disgree with him, thats juvenile. His memory is the best i've seen so far, not only has he memorized the quran, also the bible, torah, the hindu book, sikh, buddahism, etc....able to compare them on the spot by recalling exact passages. Nothing he has said so far contradicts with Islam, in fact with every statement I have heard him say, he has backed up with proof from the quran and or sunnah, and also compared that to the other major religions, quoting exactly where to find them. Give credit where its due, I doubt a buffoon would have an iota of his accomplishments.

warmoog, hey old friend, im alive and kicking....i only come out of hibernation for RIS, a worthy cause...hope to see u there this yr,u can find me trailing khalid yasin...hopefully they will let him in this time, damn americans wouldn't let him cross the border last week when he was scheduled to talk about malcom x and also a talk addressing atheists. Hayam, the knowledge retreats are pricey, but if you have the time and the dough, go for it, like u said, i heard good things about it, and as for volunteering, i wouldn't mind b4 the show, but once it starts, i don't want anything to take away from the experience of being there live, listening to those eloquent speakers....the only thing i don't like is the seating, how when u go to pray and come back a load of ppl took ur prime seats, i wish they would assign seats based on ur ticket, that way no matter what thats urs, thats what they did at muslim fest and it helped enormously... See u guys there, inshallah

Hayam, I'm also looking forward to RIS. I've never volunteered because I don't want to miss all the great speakers, and I have not gone to the retreats, but i'm sure they're great. Are you planning on going to the retreats this yr? I'm also looking forward to seeing tariq suwaidan, sheikh khalid yasin, abdullah hakim quick, zaid shakir, etc, all great ones this yr. I hope that one year the topic can be the great women of islam, honoring aisha, khadijah, etc.

Zafir, the young lady actually lived on her own and the story is, was not on good terms with her mother, hence why no one filed a missing person's report. A few neighbors who were distant relatives went to pay their respects to her mom who was obviously horrified and shaken by her daughters' brutal death. Now police are trying to piece together the last few days of her life, question her boyfriend to see if maybe he was somehow involved. May Allah have mercy on her soul. There has been disturbing reports recently,(more than usual) specially about women because there have been so many reports of rapes, murders, reported almost every weekend. Example; A 91 yr old woman in ottawa was raped, and a pregnant woman in toronto was assaulted.

My 2 cents on the scariest day of my life. I've had a similar experience warsan, a couple years ago. I was visiting my aunts' apartment and we had about 3 families gathered, mostly children 10 and under. It was a nice day, fun family time, and certainly not a day to ponder on death. One of my cousins called out to us "Fire, Fire" and we all rushed over to the door. As she opened it, we saw huge black smoke so dark, you could not see the apartment door right across, and also flames licking the walls. We couldn't even go outside, risking burning to death and it took some effort to convince some of our family members that its actually safer to stay inside rather than venturing out. We immediately bolted the door and ran towards the phone calling for help. The kids were scared, not to mention my aunts who all panicked and the cousin who opened the door was crying "Oh my God, i'll never get married, oh my god!",totally out of her mind.(we later joked about that comment, but it goes to show you, when ur faced with death, what you think about first.) Another cousin and I took charge and got everyone over to the living room, as far away from the front door as possible, locking the doors along the way, trying to calm the family down. We suggested to get some towels, dampen them and put them down on the floor of the door, so that if smoke came thru, it would ease. By this time, the smoke entered the home and one of the younger kids and one of my aunts had asthma, so you can imagine how they felt. All this time, another aunt is crying, at the balcony with half the kids, crying out to whoever can hear her from the 11th floor, "Help, get a helicopter, or we're gonna die!". Her desperation was so high that she was close to jumping down the balcony to our neighbors, and we had to convince her that it was not a good idea. Throughout this whole time, I remember thinking, I do not want to die this way and if I did, I was not ready to meet my maker. I thought about all my sins, what I could do differently if given the chance to live, regrets, etc, all the ingredients of having your life flash before your eyes. I looked around thinking 3 families would be nearly wiped off and maybe this is the way God designed for us to die. Firefighters came soon after, putting out the fire that at this time burned one apartment down( no one was inside) and a chunk of the hallway. We surveyed the next day, and to see the enormity of what a carelessly left smoke could do, and how close we came to becoming human fried chicken. Being stuck in an apartment on a high level hardly makes one think they can safely escape and it was thanks to the quick response of the fire crew that saved our lives, because my aunts door was nearly all black and it would have been a matter of time before it would have engulfed all of us. The scary thing was, the building's fire alarm was not working and that was the reason that the fire got out of control in the first place, otherwise it would have been detected alot earlier. Only when it was out of control, and our neighbors heard our cries from the balcony and we called emergency, saved our hides. Thank God! I was not ready to die, but then again, are we ever?

Speaking of the purpose of life, for those interested, you may listen to a lecture by Shaykh Khaled Yaseen. http://english.islamway.com/bindex.php?section=lessons&lesson_id=55&scholar_id=7

Whatever happened to each his own? Who are we to say who's muslim or not? Let those who have differing beliefs have their say without the constant "hellbound" rhetoric. Today's worse muslim can be tomorrow's best, so let God judge and easy on the finger pointing. This isn't 3rd grade.

Sagal, I agree khalid is a great and compelling speaker. I attended one of his lectures (about the cartoons and contributions of the Prophet (saw) to mankind), for the first time last night and found him to be fascinating. His no-nonsense attitude and straight to the point style, coupled with humour gets the message across. SB has a point, about not getting so wrapped up in a sheik's point of view that we neglect to do the homework ourselves, but at the same time, we shouldn't discredit them. Do ur homework about them as well, disregard those that teach solely thru the lens of their culture and give those that give u facts and hadiths their due respect.

Katrina, Mukhtar Maghroui is a much see sheikh,an eloquent and dynamic speaker. I too did not know him up until 2 yrs ago, hearing him at a conference. The theme was the prophet(saw) and I was excited to see the speakers I was already familiar with, namely, Abdullah quick, zaid shakir, dr. tariq ruwaidan, to name a few. Mukhtar is soft spoken and when he was relating stories about the Prophet(saw), he was moved to tears and his sincerity was evident.From then on, I feel in love with him and was disappointed that he couldn't make it to this past conference. He nevertheless holds a spot in my all time fav sheikhs list. Siraj wahaj is also great and I finally heard Ingrid speak couple months ago, who has also earned her place in my list.