Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Muslimah Next Door

Home
Muslim
Raise Your Voice: An Eid Celebration for Special Needs Children

Raise Your Voice: An Eid Celebration for Special Needs Children

Last updated on: October 22, 2014 at 1:59 pm by Dilshad Ali

Raise Your Voice: An Eid Celebration for Special Needs Children 2014-10-22T13:59:22-04:00 Dilshad Ali

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I can feel it. On more days than others, I can feel it. I can almost smell a change in the air, the movement towards action built on the weary shoulders of ongoing awareness. It’s starting to happen, all too much slowly for my impatient bones, but inch by inch, bit by bit. Not only are our Muslim communities starting to recognize and acknowledge the different needs and challenges of individuals and families with special needs, we are beginning to lay the path – brick by brick – to affect some real change.

This weekend we are gearing up to attend what has become one of our family’s favorite annual events: The Eid Celebration for Kids with Special Needs and Disabilities, hosted by the Washington, D.C. chapter of the Muslim American Society and also sponsored for the past two years by Islamic Relief USA. It’s an event exclusively organized to help individuals with special needs and their families enjoy activities, have fun and participate in a special afternoon prayer with no judgment, no pretenses, no second looks.

Although I can’t speak definitively, this event is the only of its kind in the United States and has been that way for the past four years. My dear friend Rasha Abulohom has poured her heart and soul into organizing this event, which occurs after Eid ul Fitr and Eid ul Adha. It’s consistently been a double challenge of getting organizations to sponsor the event (props to IRUSA, the ADAMS Center, United Muslim Relief, and any others I missed) as well as encouraging people to attend.

Which is something that has puzzled me for years – why do the organizers have to work so hard to not just get the word out, but actually get special needs Muslim families to attend? It reminds me of a conversation I had with my friend, Joohi Tahir, who has a daughter with autism around the same age as my son, and who is the executive director of a new organization called MUHSEN – Muslims Understanding and Helping Special Education Needs (spearheaded by the renowned Shaykh Omar Suleiman).

We were both at the Islamic Society of North America’s 51st annual convention in Detroit this past Labor Day weekend, where I was speaking on a panel about disability inclusion in the American Muslim community. That day, two new Muslim organizations with the goal of helping Muslim individuals and families with special needs – MUHSEN and Enabled Muslim – were launched. (I am part of the advisory group for Enabled Muslim).

After the panel discussion, Joohi and I spoke about the challenges that lay ahead for both organizations and for us, as parents trying to carve good paths of faith, independence and inclusion for our autistic children. Part of MUHSEN’s goals is to develop disability inclusion pilot programs in various masjids, as well as support groups and other things.

Do you think parents will come though, Joohi asked me? She related the story of trying to organize a support group for individuals and families with special needs in her local mosque, and how many people, whom she thought the group would benefit, didn’t want to come. I thought back to my own community – where time and time again Muslim mothers of children with special needs have privately reached out to me for help, but have been reluctant to join in any sort of public activity.

I’ve been puzzling over this. Why is this? The Eid celebration for children with special needs and disabilities has always had a good turnout, from what I have seen. But I know it’s always a challenge for the organizers to get people to come, just as it’s been for Joohi and me to encourage friends to meet and be more open and public about our joys and challenges with our loved ones who have special needs.

It’s been four years since I started sharing and writing about autism, about my son, Lil D and all that is hard, wonderful, earth-shattering, joyous, devastating and beautiful in our autism journey. It’s been a daily struggle to peel back the protective layers and share what it is like in hopes of making connections, finding inner peace, and showing others that we must support each other in what we are going through. We must build a community of support and care. We must understand each other better and eliminate the judgments. We must lift each other up when we are falling and bolster each other’s faith.

It’s been about autism awareness and action on a personal and global level, and it’s been about waking the Muslim community up to what is happening right in front of us. It’s been about demanding respect and dignity for individuals with autism. It’s been about encouraging other families find each other and hold our communities responsible for what they must do. It’s been about getting our mosques and Muslim leadership to take notice of those with special needs and make efforts of inclusion.

And it’s been about my son. It’s always been about him, and it radiates out from there.

I often call out our Muslim leaders, scholars, imams, organizations, mosques and communities to make more efforts, to build programs and support individuals and families with autism and other special needs. But I also want to encourage the Muslim families with special needs themselves:

Come out to events like MAS-DC’s Eid Celebration for Children with Special Needs and Disabilities. If you hear of a support group being organized in your local mosque, check it out. Maybe you don’t need support, but maybe you have support to give. And I’ll turn this criticism on myself — I’ve been stewing about things in my own local community with regards to what I want our local mosques to learn and do for local Muslim families with special needs. But nothing will be gained without being more vocal, without showing up.

Let’s raise our voices together.

And if you’re at the Eid celebration this weekend in Northern Virginia, look for me and Lil D. He’ll be the one in the hoodie twirling his beads. I’ll be the one smiling, taking pictures and probably crying. It’s what I do.

Previous Post

October 10, 2014

Ten Things to Know About Nobel Peace Prize Co-Winner Kailash Satyarthi

Next Post

October 24, 2014 Moment-to-Moment

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category A Global Voice for Autism Autism Awareness Month 2016 Autism Awareness Month 2017 Autism Interlude Hajj and Eid ul Adha Jenin Autism Project Ramadan Three Questions Uncategorized WISE Global Conference

Select a Month November 2018 October 2018 August 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who prayed in a den of lions?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Elijah Noah Daniel David