Egyptian Gumbo is back, and I’ve decided to let my husband have a little taste of my online gumbo recipe – a little sas, a little attitude, much needed information, and a lot of fun. So welcome Belal as the newest writer for EgyptianGumbo.com.

Last week, we read an article on MuslimMatters together which got us tossing and turning at night. “Surely we cant just let it go, can we?” We’ve debated with this question for a while, and the result is, yup — this blog post. We couldn’t let it go. So MuslimMatters, this one is for you:

This is specifically in response to part three of the Islamic marketing series, which is written by ibnabeeomar.

We’re sorry for having to do this, but there are some major mistakes in the article.

Let’s start with the basic understand that public relations and branding are two completely different facets of marketing.

The article states,

Marketing is also closely tied to branding – or the perception that people have of your organization

For example, if you run an organization closely tied to youth activities, people’s perception of you will always be of being youth focused. Even if you later try to brand yourself as something tailored for adults, it is hard to shed that reputation.

Just like Nike may brand itself one way, but people invariably associate its “brand” with sweatshop abuse.

The reason this is important to keep in mind is because I strongly believe certain types of marketing practices can brand an Islamic organization one way or another (most often in a negative fashion).

Branding has to do with the image in the minds of the people that has been built over a period of time supplemented with symbolism, colors, and emotions. Its a one-way communication from the company to the masses.

PR has to do with managing the communication between the company and its publics, therefore it’s two-way communication.

Let’s give the example of a company’s “image.” More specifically, lets look at cars since that’s the example you used in your article.

You posted these four videos —

Two of the videos were straight branding and the other two were straight sales — no PR or branding involved.

If we’re talking branding with the Infinity and BMW commercial, the branding is PURE, FAST, SPORTY, and THRILL.

Notice the white background in both videos. Notice the focus on speed and sharp turns.

How do we turn that into PR?

Lets say one of the cars has a transmission problem and people are questioning the quality of these expensive cars. A PR rep might hold a press conference assuring customers the vehicle is safe. Also, PR reps could recommend the company extend its warranty on the transmission — sort of like what Acura did with the CL and TL models from 2001-2003.

Another PR stunt would be to get reviewers from car magazines to test drive and give their thoughts on the different facets and benefits of what this car has to offer in comparison to the others in its class.

By the way, Nike didn’t have a “branding issue” with the sweat shops. They had a PR issue. No one questioned the quality of Nike shoes. They questioned ethics which is a PR issue. If Nike hadn’t taken care of the issue, over an extended period of time it would eventually turn into a branding issue.

To an extent, branding and PR are closely related, but we cannot mix the two and say they are the same.

– –

Strategy vs. Tactics

Throughout the article the word “strategy” was used in place of the term “tactic.”

Every single Islamic program nowadays is doing the best it can to showcase itself as the best program on the planet, being as flashy as possible, and utilizing whatever strategies are at its disposal to convince people to attend.

Sometimes out of our zeal to get people to attend programs and benefit from them, we sometimes use strategies that can degrade the noble thing that we are calling to.

You followed the last statement with what Seth Godin is describing as specific tactics.

What’s the difference you might ask?

STRATEGY itself isn’t an action plan or a formula. Strategy is simply the evolution of a core idea within a company that is operating within changing circumstances.

An effective strategy comes with understanding several things:

• What advantages your company has on the ground?

• What ways you can suprise the industry?

• What are the different approaches one can take to attack an industry?

• Who are the people that one can team with to assist in that attack?

• What moral forces will come into play?

• How you’ll bear focus on a single point within the industry itself?

An effective strategy has to do with having an understanding of who you are and who/what the centers of power and influence are within a given industry and knowing that those are the power centers one has to attack.

Another way you can define strategy is the understanding of:

• What is the overall impact that your organizations long range goals will have.

• What is the ultimate accomplishment and ultimate position – the perception in the minds of people – you want your organization to have in the market

TACTICS are the specific actions you take to fulfill your organization’s strategic objectives and support the position that is being targeted and knowing that those specific efforts are fulfilling the strategic objectives of the organization individually and together.

– –

As you can tell, that section on strategy was clearly written by Belal alone and I was unsuccessful in Gumbofying it. I gave up. He talks too technical. So to that I say, “Batatis.”

– –

Ibnabeeomar had good and valid points in his article and by no means is this undermining his general thoughts. We agreed and disagreed with him on some issues but we decided not to comment on the main theme of the article but rather the nitty gritty things that may not seem so big or important to most people.

We felt it is important for most individuals to understand the nitty gritty details because whether you are a volunteer or and admin planning events with MSAs you are responsible for marketing just as much as the marketing director.

These things are essential to execution and success after the tawfeeq of Allah ‘az wa jal.

This article is a joint effort of Belal Khan and Shirien Elamawy.

Chemical Irritants Sprayed in Room With Children in Apparent Attack

Media Turns Blind Eye

By Shirien Elamawy

It’s hard to believe the Islamic holy month of Ramadan is over.

Muslims all over the world are celebrating with feasts and gatherings. But for many Muslims in America, it’s hard to celebrate in the midst of tragic news that the world has turned a blind eye to.

I implore media to let go of their bias and report on the huge news story that has been swept under the rug – despite the story having multiple elements of newsworthiness.

The incident happened in Dayton, OH when a chemical irritant was sprayed into a mosque causing worshipers to panic and children to cry from fear.

“According to fire dispatch communications, a child reported seeing two men with a white can spraying something into a window. That child was brought to the supervising firefighter at the scene,” Dayton Daily News reported.

That’s about the only thing the Dayton Daily News reported.

The Daily Kos, a political news blog which public figures like President Jimmy Carter and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi have used to voice their views, gave a much more detailed account of the incident.

A woman who witnessed the incident told The Daily Kos, “The gas was sprayed into the room where the babies and children were being kept while their mothers prayed together their Ramadan prayers. Panicked mothers ran for their babies, crying for their children so they could flee from the gas that was burning their eyes and throats and lungs.”

A paramedic at the scene tried to give oxygen to this one child who couldn’t stop crying from shock.

The woman said that her children slept with her sobbing all through the night. She was afraid to go back to the mosque.

Days earlier, the anti-Muslim, fear-mongering DVD created by Fox News, “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War on the West” had been circulating inside of newspapers and US mail in Ohio and other swing states as part of a political stunt by none other than John McCain supporters.

In fact, 28 million copies of the DVD were distributed as a scare tactic to get people to vote for John McCain, The Huffington Post reported.

“70 newspapers in swing states have been paid to distribute ‘Obsession’ this weekend and next, which means not all the DVDs have been delivered yet.”

Talk about dirty politics.

Sally Lopez of Lemoyne, PA displays a copy of the DVD that came in the mail. Photo courtesy of The Huffington Post.

And so I ask the media, where are you? If you are more interested in covering politics, this story has politics written all over it.

If you’re looking for hard news stories filled with investigations, why not investigate if there was an obvious link between the DVDs and the hate crime?

This news story is timely, has prominence, is pertinent, has conflict and has many human interest stories waiting to be told.

There is no reason why this story should remain under the rug, unless the media chooses to embrace its bias knowingly.

If this incident had happened in a church or synagogue, would the response have been different?

Children were attacked. How then, can we turn a blind eye?

Mr. Dreher,

Your latest article on beliefnet.com has recently come to my attention — partially because of the subject matter being about me and my work with The Daily Reveille.

I’ve done a little bit of research about you and your past and have discovered that you are currently a columnist for the Dallas Morning News, are a contributor to the National Review and The American Conservative. It also appears that you were previously a columnist for The New York Post and have authored a book titled, “Crunchy Cons.”

However, regardless of your “credentials,” I am not impressed. While it does seems that you are a journalist by definition, you failed to do the most fundamental and obvious thing any journalist should do before writing an article: research. You’ve been an opinion columnist longer than I have. So it seems rather odd to me that you would neither do your research nor ask me for an interview before assuming certain things.

In your article, “Dhimmitude on the Bayou” you wrote:

“Favog discovers, to his chagrin, that our alma mater in journalism, the LSU Daily Reveille, allowed itself to be mau-mau’d by a Muslim Student into giving her a column, which she used to proselytize for Islam.”

Mr. Dreher, it seems as though you did not take the time to even look through or read any of my columns before rushing to judgment.

You later said, “Now, just imagine a state college newspaper giving a column to a fundamentalist Christian who uses it solely for the purpose of evangelization. Wouldn’t happen. Shouldn’t happen. But anything can be justified in the name of diversity. Ms. Elmasraya may be a pushy activist with a one-track mind, and a mediocre, jargon-dependent writer to boot, but the lady obviously knows a thing or two about how American newsrooms work. I predict she’ll go far.”

I challenge you to find any instances in any of my columns i’ve written in the past 1.5 years in which I blatantly call people to accept Islam. If someone accepted Islam as a result of reading my columns and seeing the truth nature of Islam, than this is by the Will of Allah alone and I’m very happy that I could help someone see the true nature of a true religion. And yes, this has happened before but I still challenge you to find an instance of what you call, “Evangelization.”

So again, for a journalist it’s surprising to see that you did little-to-no research on my past columns before you decided to dish out your “George-Bushy” words.

You claim that I somehow admitted my columns were for proselytizing Islam in my “Farewell Daily Reveille” post – which again, has no basis. I told a story of how I was hired. And in order to understand my post you need to understand a concept called “Divine Decree” or Qadr. And that is to say that Allah (or God) had everything that we will do in our lives already written before we were even born and that everything that happens in the world is by His will. It was by the divine decree of Allah that I was at the right place and the right time which led me to get my job. Much like it is by the Qadr of Allah that we wake up every morning.

I also take offense at the notion you have made by implying The Daily Reveille felt threatened or pressured into hireing me. If that were the case, then why would they re-hire me for two more semesters in which about 100 other people were competing for that one spot every semester? I did have to re-apply and go through the interview process every semester with different editors and different managers each time — just so you know. And tell me Mr. Dreher, how can this be when I had no idea they were accepting applications at the time and the editor himself was the one who suggested I apply? Hmm…

You also said, “Now, just imagine a state college newspaper giving a column to a fundamentalist Christian who uses it solely for the purpose of evangelization. Wouldn’t happen. Shouldn’t happen.”

It did happen. Again, this shows your lack of research because if you did any at all the name “Emily Byers” would come to mind. Byers is a friend and ex-Coworker of mine. She, too, was a columnist for The Daily Reveille who — more often than not — would talk about Catholicism. So nice try.

I’d like to thank you for being an example to the Muslims (and to the rest of the world) the very problem with the mass media today. People are quick to write and speak publicly without doing any investigations or without knowing anything at all about the topic they talk about.

Your use of the words “Dhimmi,” “Evangelical” and “Proselytize” are poor attempts of persuasion, to say the least. And I think most of your readers caught on to that based on the comments they left you on your site. But to reiterate, I thank you for being a prime example for my readers as to why they should NOT trust everything a journalist and someone with so-called “credentials” spews out at them.

Perhaps the problem, Mr. Dreher, is not that The Daily Reveille hired me to write about Islam, but perhaps you, as a strong conservative, are merely threatened by the spread of the true nature of Islam. For even the idol-worshipers during the time of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) used to attack him not because of him as a person, but because it was Islam and truth that they hated.

And Allah knows best.

Sincerely,

Shirien