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The International Revert Conference 2007 - An interview with Sister Jennah, founder of the Revert Muslims Association and chair person of the International Revert Conference. 

How many people, born and revert Muslims, attended the event? Did any non-Muslims attend the Conference? The conference attendance was expected to be around the 200 mark but as it turned out due to inclement weather, a snowstorm, the travel plans of many who were driving long-distance and by flight were canceled. Our original numbers went from 200 to 225 to 100 to 125.  We estimated the crowd at about 50% Reverted Muslim and 40% born Muslim and 10% non-Muslim. The numbers for non-Muslim were very small but the conference was not promoted well enough to non-Muslims and it’s my intention to further promote this annual conference to non-Muslims next year.  The idea is to keep it open to everyone. 

Did the Conference find its way into the Canadian media? What about the Muslim media? Were there any positive or negative reactions? It was our intentions to have the Canadian Media pick up on this conference but we did not pursue it well enough. There were other Canadian/US and American websites and the Ahlulbayt Satellite station who promoted our conference but the mainstream media were not made well-enough aware. We now have a new committee board for the International Revert Conference gathering to start plans for next years event. We intend to have someone handling all Media for the next event and so to pursue local newspapers and TV stations will be a must.  The buzz on the Net was tremendous and we had people talking about this first-of-a-kind conference in many different cities all over the world. We had a lot of positive feedback and support from many Muslim organizations in the US/Canada/UK/Iran  and even Australia. There was some negatives feedback, although minor, from some people over the Net who were reverted Muslims from different sects who felt they were not going to participate in our annual event. We want to reach out to everyone regardless of their beliefs and simply bring people together and inshallah they will in turn either learn the truth that we are trying to propagate or at the very least find tolerance and understanding.   

What problems did you have in holding the Conference? We had some minor issues come up that have only given me new ideas on how to tackle future problems in these specific areas. We had many volunteers set to take on several tasks in many areas of the conference agenda, however many of our volunteers did not show due to the weather. So we had a very small group of volunteers taking on a large part of the responsibilities. Our daycare room was intended to have several young volunteers to take shifts but instead we relied heavily on the participants who had children to take their share of time in the daycare room, including myself. My Mother stayed a good deal of her time in that room helping out.  My Mother is a non-Muslim but she adorn her hijab the entire weekend and showed her support. Next conference I will look to fund full-time daycare workers to not only care for the children but have a structured program. Another issue was having to work around other events that were taking place at the Masjid. This hindered our schedule somewhat and so we worked around the other events as quickly and as efficiently as we could. The catered food was tremendous being catered by Fatmaz Catering and Kawthar Restaurant in Toronto. However due to our lower attendance we had some food that needed to be allocated and so we handed out much to our guests as they left each night.  The lectures were inspiring and the majority of our speakers were Reverted Muslims. The topics covered were well received. Dying and Death was an interesting topic that is not widely discussed and so many in attendance were taking notes. The areas I wish to improve upon would be having the event take place at a hall and to have complete control over how all lectures and schedules play-out. I would like individual rooms for workshops so that sound does not become an issue over divided rooms with partitions. I would like to have full-time daycare workers and a solid volunteer group to delegate the many tasks that are required to make for a successful conference.

How did the 'theme' of the Conference affect the atmosphere of the events? I felt that as a first-time event this theme was most important. Preparing yourself for the eminent return of the Mahdi (as) should be in our minds and in our hearts. If we do what we need to do to prepare for his (as) return then we are, in turn, becoming stronger in our iman and more productive in our lives and within the community. I was happy to see each speaker took the time to relate to this theme within their workshops and so the theme resonated in the minds of each participant through-out the weekend. On the Friday when activities began at the Masjid a homeless woman, a very old Revert Muslim woman entered. She was looking for food and shelter for the day. I, and others made sure that everyone was aware that she was welcome to take part in our conference and to not be alarmed by her appearance. At the end of the conference we had raised money for her Alhamdulillah. Sister Hajar, one of our speakers and a professional Social Worker, took time to work on her case and is still working on helping her find full-time shelter and government funding. Helping this woman was to me the highlight of the weekend. The grateful Muslim woman cried with tears of joy and so I hugged her to comfort her and do you know what she said to me? She said “Oh Sister Jennah please do not hug me as I am dirty and I smell offensive”.. I felt so sad when she said that and I hugged her closer and told her not to worry. Oh my heart was so sad for this soul. Inshallah she will find a good home soon.  Many in attendance were eager to reach out to her.

Our conference workshops/lectures were: History of the 12th Imam’s (as) Occultation & How to develop a relationship with Him, Importance of the Ahlul Bayt (as) and the Characteristics of a Mom’in , Family Issues I  , Family Issues II , Marriage – Criteria for mate selection  , Married -  The Sunnah of Nabi Muhammad (saaw) , Raising Children , Raising Teenagers , Life in Islam –  Workshop for Teenagers , Dying and Death , Roots of Religion - Basic Beliefs in Islam , History of Shi’i  Islam, Origin of The Five Schools of Islamic Thought & Imam Jafar Sadiq (as) , Women’s rights in Islam , Hayya alas Salat – Philosophy and Spiritual Aspects of Prayer , Journey to the Lord of Power ,Concentration in Prayer , The Dimensions of Hijab – A Revert’s Perspective , Role of Women in the 12th Imam (as) Return , Muslims in the Workforce , Integration, Assimilation, Separation or Isolation…Visiting the local masjid  ,Commentary on Ziyaraat Aale Yasin  

Did you have any financial, etc. support from the Muslim countries, including Iran? When this conference first became a thought last summer 2006 we started on a zero budget. Sister Fatimah Ali, my events coordinator, assured me not to worry as she said provided my intentions were good the funds would eventually come. Sister Fatimah, myself and sister Agnes started with our own contributions but soon word got out and in the last two months of planning received some cash donations from the UK. We really didn’t have enough volunteers to help find the support we so badly needed. However we are now pleased to have many new volunteers eager to help RMA and the beginning plans of next years International Revert Conference. We have interested people ready and willing to represent us in the UK, the US and to travel to Iran to speak on behalf of the Revert Muslims Association.