Egyptian Gumbo

My opinion columns turned into a speech. That speech turned into a script. And that script has been turned into a dawah, public service announcement video. (To see the video, keep reading…)

Last year, I wrote and delivered a five minute speech to my public relations class. I decided to take the easy way out of the assignment and decided to take the opportunity for dawah and picked the subject of prejudice to talk about. I chose excerpts from my past opinion columns in The Daily Reveille and made them into my speech.

After delivering the speech one girl came up to me and said, “It really does make me see how ignorant we really are. Especially seeing how it’s only the actions of few that get attributed to your religion.” Others told me it was a successful PR speech because it made them look at their own beliefs about Islam and compare them to my words. I didn’t expect that feedback. Alhamdulillah it was successful, all by the will of Allah. And only Allah has allowed me such opportunities, walhamdulillah.

Meanwhile, I was working on a media kit for Leechon and particularly the upcoming documentary, “Tufaan.” During that time, we came up with the idea of shooting public service announcement videos to put at the beginning of every documentary that Leechon would produce — especially Tufaan, since its primary target audience is non-Muslims. Hence, the idea to use my speech as a script for the PSA emerged.

So we decided to do it much like the format of the “Bear Witness” video that Br. Belal Khan had produced a while back, where every person would read two lines from the script. Here’s the Bear Witness video, which in my opinion is an really nice dawah video:

Anyway, Br. Ahmed Eid, a brother from NJ who has been working with me and the PR team for quite a while took up the challenge of shooting and editing the video for Leechon. MashaAllah, it turned out great. Although I don’t personally know anyone in the video, I wanted to give a big jazakum Allahu Khairan katheeran for the work and effort you guys put into it. May Allah make it heavy on your scales, ameeeeen. And inshaAllah I look forward to working with you all in the future, bi’ithnillahi ta’ala.

So without further adeiu, our PSA: FREEDOM FROM FEAR

Lastly, in the future I would like to write dawah videos that are not on the defense. Sure there are people who hate Islam, sure there is still a lot of anti-Islamic sentiment around, but I would like to move away from being on the defense to speaking to people in general about Islam. A PSA about “Islam” why they see us prostrating on the floor when we pray, etc.

Good things to come inshaAllah. Give us your feedback and if you like it spread it around inshaAllah.

There is MashaAllah a lot of people registered! You seriously don’t want to miss out on it, especially since the class is only going to be conducted once.

This is the last video before the launch of the first webinar on May 31st. Wallahi this is worth it. It’s no secret that I’m big on getting more Muslims in the media. It’s not only because it’s something I’m passionate about — but it’s because I know what potential is out there. This video does a good job of laying out the problem in the beginning with the 3D graphics then tells all about Message Mastery.

Registration will close I believe on June 13th. So whether you are more interested in writing, marketing or film making. Signing up for the first class is crucial because you will get into all the other ones for free. It’s really worth the money. And I hope that Allah ‘az wa jal makes it heavy on the scales of the people that register. ameen.

Remember the first session will be FREE for everyone to tune in and listen to on May 31st. So check it out and tell your Muzzzzlim friends.

Also: There is a post talking about the difficulties when making this video here.

Insha’Allah I hope I won’t get in trouble for this post. Because this is going to be some juicy goodness right here.

For those of you who don’t know, I do a lot of the PR work for Message Mastery. I really only do PR work for projects I really, truly believe in. MM is one of those projects that subhanallah, not only I have full faith and support in, but sheiookh like Yusef Estes, Muhammad Alshareef and Yasir Qadhi have also all showed interest and support in.

(If you know about Message Mastery, we want to know your thoughts and/or how you heard of the program. So be sure at the end of this post to leave a comment letting us know.)

If you knew the amount of work that goes into making something like MM successful (by the Will of Allah) then subhanallah, you too would find this to be something rare and a great opportunity for all Muslims.

Some of you have seen the Message Mastery videos, some of you haven’t. I’m not going to talk about things you might already know (from the videos and the website) but rather, I’m going to tell you the “backstage” stuff that goes on; things we discuss and only insiders know and things that will be released publicly soon, but you hear it here on my blog first

But before tell you the inside stuff, here’s just a little bit about Message Mastery: It’s all about training Muslims to be well-rounded in several areas of the media; not only for the sake of their own work, but for the betterment of Islam, inshaAllah.

10 things you might or might not know:

1. Plans for the Message Mastery System:

The upcoming film making class (on May 31st) is NOT Message Mastery. That is just ONE CLASS in the Message Mastery system. The plan is that we are establishing this as the first webinar of many to come in the future. There will be other classes like marketing/viral marketing 101, photography , and surprise, surprise — a media writing/PR writing 101 class taught by none other than yours truly, inshaAllah. Those among many other classes, bi’ithnillahi ta’ala. So this really is going to be an all inclusive “getting Muslims in the media” system. Awesomeness, no?

2. Special Deals Still Under the Rug… Until Now:

Shh, word on the street is that if you sign up for the first class (film making) you’ll get into all the other future classes free. Why is this genius? It’s genius because only 200 people will get this deal. Everyone else will have to pay for every other webinar they want to take when they come out.

3. People Who Actually Make Awesome Projects/Films Will Have the Opportunity to Get Client Work in the End. There is more work being sought out then there are the Muslims with the skills to do it. We know who’s looking for promo videos, news articles, marketing for their projects/companies. And inshaAllah those people who show the best work will be given these opportunities.

4. The Awesomeness and WEIRDNESS of Our PR Team.

If there was ever an example of a “mastermind group” this would be it, mashaAllah. I must say, we have all different types of personalities on the team but somehow we all compliment each other’s ideas and thinking in the end.

We have the social members of our group — the ones who love to give input on everything (which is great) and we have the silent ones who out of no where “bust out” with their great ideas. We have the nice members of our group and we have that one sarcastic “mean” member of the group who makes us all gasp in disbelief at some of the things he says . Ahem… see (www.themanoffewwords.com and www.islamify.com.) –Oddly enough, he too, brings forth great ideas and puts his words to action… so we’re all happy to have him on the team.

5. More Weirdness:

We all make fun of each other’s grammar and spelling, we have about 30 posts for every topic we discuss and we all read them — it’s the nerdiest group you will ever come across, and I love it. Hafsa will email me all my mistakes in this post (which I love), the poor brother and sister from the UK stay up all night just for our conference calls, Manoffewwords always insults all members of the group only for all of us to end up laughing at it, despite its meanness, and several members of the group keep trying to get Belal in trouble with the authorities by suggesting project names like “Youtube Jihad.” Sorry Belal, you have bad friends.

6. Taking Over Ideas and Us Acting Like We Know What Br. Belal is Talking About:

Belal, who makes the videos, usually has a specific vision for what he wants his next videos to turn out like. He usually has it all planed out until we, his PR team, decide that he should do something completely different. And subhanallah, he doesn’t hesitate to go with our advice. He also likes to make up a lot of words — i.e. “ordinatory, UPPOPPR” — and uses them a lot, expecting we know exactly what he’s talking about.

7. If You’re Worried About the Cost, You’re Worrying Over Nothing.

I don’t work for scams. If I truly didn’t think that people would get their money’s worth, I wouldn’t be promoting it. ESPECIALLY with this first class (since you’ll get all the other ones free.) We debated and debated over the cost, and really $247 was what we came up with due to all the things we KNOW that will be provided for those who register. Trust me, people pay thousands of dollars for less than you would get with Message Mastery.

8. Most of Us Just Want to See His Little Sisters in the Videos…

…share the spotlight. All up in their “grill” like that.

9. We’re all Becoming Masters of Viral Marketing.

Seriously, we’re discovering so many secrets and techniques that will blow anyone’s socks off. We also have so many ideas that are being worked on right now with regard to viral marketing, all of which will be taught inshaAllah in one of the future Message Mastery webinars.

10. None of Our Success Could be Possible Without the Will and Help of Allah.

Walhamdulillah.

OK, this post became a little too long. If you haven’t already go ahead and check it out and TAKE the opportunity while you can, inshaAllah.

To be honest, hate using the word “opportunity.” I’ve too been jaded way too much by that term. “You have the opportunity to go to outer space! Oh, did we mention you just have to have 20 million dollars.”

However, this really is an opportunity for any Muslim with some interest in any of the areas within mass media. So I suggest you check it out at www.messagemastery.com.

P.S. before any of you label me as stupid, I wouldn’t really write a post if I knew it was something that could get me in trouble and cost me my job :).

Let us know your thoughts. A new video will be coming out any day now, inshaAllah — stay tuned.

“Who are YOU to tell ME anything?!”– We’ve all heard this some point or another when we got into a “heated debate” with someone. In essence, if someone spits this out at you they most likely want your resumé; your credibility. (And most likely they think they’re better than you, bad friend I tell ya.)

I started the first post of a series on the Leechon Blog called “The Best Persuader, Muhammed (Salallahu alayhi wa sallam).” I’m currently writing a book (which has been on hold for a while) about the art(sunnah) of persuasion in light of the sunnah.

This is REALLY useful information… so read on inshaAllah:

(photo courtesy of futoor.com)

Yesterday, I held a conference call with my PR team and the issue of ethos, pathos and logos came up into the conversation. With these three things properly executed in a message, one can achieve persuasion, by the Will of Allah.”OK Gumbo, what are you talking about?” I’m talking about establishing credibility (ethos), having an emotional appeal (pathos) and having a factual or logial appeal (logos). And there is no doubt the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam would have all three of these elements in his speech. *these terms are terms of contemporary rhetorical scholars, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam set the first and prime example for mankind*

So first let’s give examples from the life of Muhammad, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, then let’s apply that to our lives today.

When studying seerah, you will notice how scholars are not shy of establishing the credibility of the Prophet,salallahu alayhi wa sallam. For indeed, Allah ‘az wa jal chose the best of the best of the best to deliver and carry the message of Islam.

Imam Ahmad narrates a hadith in which people were talking about and describing the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam in different ways. For example, one person said that Muhammad sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam was like a green tree growing in the desert. In reality what they were trying convey was that Muhammad sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam was the only good
person in the clan. So Ibn Abbas says “certain things the people were saying reached the messenger of Allah, so he mounted the pulpit and asked, ‘Who am I?’ they replied ‘You are the messenger of Allah’ he replied ‘I am Muhammad bin Abdillah bin Abdul Muttalib. Allah divides the creation and made me amongst the best of His creatures and He made them all into two groups placing me in the better of them. He created the tribes and placed me in the better of them and divides them into clans and placed me in the best one and I’m the best of you in clan and in spirit.’”

So the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam is saying, I’m not the best person in a group of evil people. But instead he was saying that I am the best and from among the best. You’ll also notice that he referenced his linage back to Abdul Muttalib who was of course well known and highly respected in all of Hujaz.

The prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam also said, “Verily, Allah granted eminence to kinanah from amongst the descendants of Ishmael, and he granted eminence to Quraysh from among kinanah, and he granted eminence to the bani Hashim from Quraysh, and he granted me eminence from the tribe of Banu Hashim.”

Again, this establishes his credibility in a line of the best of tribes and clans. So what exactly does this credibility do? This catches the audience’s attention. It makes the speaker seem that whatever they have to say is both valuable and should be considered due to the that person’s ethos.

And what about other instances from seerah? The fact that the Prophet Salallahu alayhi wa sallam was NEVER an idol worshiper, never drank alcohol, that Allah protected him from listening to music before his prophethood. These are all things that can be categorized under ethos (or credibility of the speaker- salallahu alayhi wa sallam)

How does this apply to YOU?

Let’s say you make Islamic videos, write a speech to be delivered, have a blog or business, or even just give dawah to muslims and/or non-Muslims. You NEED to establish your credibility. And to use specific examples:

Let’s say you are giving dawah to a Muslim and you are trying to convince them to pray regularly and become more practicing. Perhaps you or someone you know was in the same position a while ago and you(or they) completely changed since that time. You should mention this experience to give you better ethos in their eyes- thus, better convincing them to take the same path you did to become closer to Allah.

Another example: Why do you think all those weight loss pills and diets catch on like wildfire? It’s because of all the testimonials they see and read about. REAL PEOPLE getting REAL RESULTS. I mean c’mon have you seen those infomercials?!

Or even just look at the sheiookh when they speak at conventions or in different communities. You will always see a moderator or MC first give an introduction with a background of the sheikh before he speaks to establish his credibility to his audience.

If they do it, you should too. Wallahu Ta’ala Alem.

*if you liked this post, remember to give it a “thumbs up” on StumbleUpon.

I know a secret. A secret that led to over 1500 subscribers to my blog in just 2 days. And if you pay attention and do what is required, you too can get the same results. (Only by the Will of Allah, of course)

Do you have a blog that’s kind of slow with traffic? Want more people to review your posts on Stumble Upon? Need more Muslims to come to your website? Read on…

Let’s be honest with each other: why would I want to expose my awesome secret to everyone for free? Well, for one, I too have something to gain. (And because I’m nice. And if you disagree, I hate you.) As all of you now know, I have just officially registered my PR company, Minbar Media. This is a PR company aimed at doing public relations work for Muslims.

In order for me to better serve you, we need to develop a way to reach the Muslim masses quickly and efficiently. What does this have to do with my secret? If done properly, not only will this help YOU drive traffic, subscriptions and potential customers to your websites but this will help develop a new era of Islamic Marketing and Advertising.

So what did I do to get these results?

Welcome to the beginning of a HUGE, genius campaign - and it all starts here at EgyptianGumbo.com.

So, bloggers, stumblers and Muslims, this one’s for you:

A couple of days ago I wrote my “Hijab Challenge” post. The attention it got afterward was not what I expected. That, in turn, lead hundreds of people to my site (by the way, welcome :P.) Afterward, I did what I normally would do and submit my posts to Stumble Upon, only this time instead of submitting it to the usual “Islam” category I submitted it to a different category. (you’ll only be able to know the category if you follow the next steps)

Anyway, the result was over 2,000 new people coming to my site via Stumble Upon in a period of 2 days (hey Stumblers :).)

And just to see if this method really worked, I tried it again with some of my previous posts on the Leechon Films Blog. Sure enough, 20 minutes later about 127 people had already come via Stumble Upon.

WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO TO GET THESE RESULTS? Just keep reading:

OK, so what exactly IS this campaign? We need to educate Muslims on Stumble Upon. Why? The very fact that posting my posts in a category other than “Islam” –which in turn drove so much more traffic to my site– shows the lack of Muslims using these social networking sites.

The result was in an increase in traffic and subscribers (which is all great), but not my primary target audience; Muslims.

The more Muslims that use Stumble Upon and  who are active in pressing the “Thumbs up” or “Thumbs down” button, the more our content will be read by our target audience; the Muslim masses all over the world. Thus, driving more traffic, subscribers and consumers to our sites.

More importantly, in order for Muslims to really get stronger — especially in the West — we need to know how to take advantage of these sites and use them to their full potential- so those Islamic articles you’ve written for the Sake of Allah, imagine how many more people will be able to read them and how much more ajr you can get, truly this is the best way to utilize these sites. So, after consulting with the PR team, we agreed that we should launch a PR campaign aimed at educating Muslims on “new media”– specifically, Stumble Upon.

WHAT TO DO:

Alhamdulillah, I had already written a post on the Leechon Blog on what Stumble Upon is and a tutorial on how to use it.

So if you haven’t already registered with Stumble Upon, go ahead and read this post I made and follow along:

“Stumble Upon Something Addictive: New Media Part 2”

Once you have the Stumble Upon Toolbar, go ahead and add the “Islam” category to your interests. Then, go ahead and give this post a thumbs up (to spread it around) and then post something on YOUR blog or website about this campaign. And tell all your friends that also have blogs and websites to do the same. Finally after this done, let me know and i’ll let you know exactly which categories I’ve observed get the most traffic via Stumble Upon.

The potential result?

-immediate attention to the campaign, increase in traffic and subscriptions to your blog, very rapid educating of Muslims around the world, and the ability to reach and connect to our brothers and sisters everywhere

Long post, I know. But it’s sooo worth it… inshaAllah.

Shirien