Imran Chowdhury (Managing Director) of SunniPath was recently in the US with the aim of developing new business relationships and network with other similar organizations.
As part of the visit Imran attended the 2008 ISNA convention, which was held in Columbus, Ohio this year. As well as a great opportunity to network with other organizations and individuals, Imran attended 2 main conferences.
The Muslim Chaplaincy Conference, which was organized by the ISNA Leadership Development Center. This conference generated a number of opportunities including a useful dialogue with Chaplain Col. Brett.C.Oxman, an orthodox rabbi, who is the command chaplain for the United States Army’s Strategic Command Unit and a meeting with Rev. Dr Snorton, Executive Director of the National Association of Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE) on developing an ACPE program for Muslim Chaplains.
Also during ISNA Imran attended the Muslim Professionals Networking Forum,this enabled Imran to meet with different Muslim Professional Groups and share ideas.
As well Imran met with Dr Ihsan Bagby of the Muslim Alliance in North America, who is also a member of the Majlis Al Shoura for ISNA on the potential for SunniPath to develop a training program for Muslim leaders in the West.
Other meetings were held with Saif Omar of Fawakeh and Sadaf Khan who is the program manager for Zaytunas Minara Program, to explore the potential for providing blended learning solutions for these organizations in the future.
Imran also had a chance to talk to Dr Jamal Badawi and Sheikh Anwar Khan to network and share updates.
A chance encounter with Ayse Basaran, Editor of the lastprophet based in Istanbul led to a discussion on developing cooperation in translation services between SunniPath and the lastprophet
Finally Imran met with Shaykh Faraz who is now running Seekers Guidance. This interaction high-lighted how SunniPath and Seekers Guidance, are working towards the common goal of enabling Muslims in the West, to learn Islamic knowledge easily.
After ISNA, Imran met with Dr Kurshid Khan, the president of ICNA and also Mahbubur Rahman, editor of the Message magazine to discuss a possible Affiliates Agreement.
It’s wonderful to have the team back in Amman and Insha’Allah we are looking forward to developing some exciting new projects as a result of our travels.