Seventh Annual Conference of the American Federation of Muslims from India, October 11, 1997

Inaugrating the convention on October 11, 1997 at 7:00 am, Double Tree by Hilton, San Jose, California.

As chairwoman of the seventh Annual Convention of the American Federation of Muslims from India, after declaring the conference open, I asked the attendees to ponder if the ideals the freedom fighters fought for, and Tagore sang for, had been achieved in the fifty years of an independent India?

Tagore’s Gitanjali 35
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Then, invited our beloved Mawlana Shaykh Hisham Kabbani to the stage for a beautiful recitation of the Quran Majeed which left the entire audience in awe.