ICPC FOOD PANTRY

This Halloween, Saturday, October 31, 2009 marked the 15th Monthly Food Pantry held at the Islamic Center of Passaic County. When we began last year, the neighborhood (which is primarily low income/homeless African American and Latino) was hesitant to come inside an Islamic Center to receive aid. I promoted the project giving out flyers in the streets, stopping by liquor stores, corner stores and laundromats. We went to some of the poorest and toughest neighborhoods (you know the ones where there are more liquor stores per square mile than people).

In the last few months, attendance at the food pantry has grown tremendously, with about 30-35 families coming each month to receive food. The overwhelming majority of the visitors are non-Muslim. They come inside an Islamic Center, sit down or walk around, as I prepare their bag for them. We give them a bag of food without any efforts to proselytize. This is purely a humanitarian effort. The tough economic times has even brought in people who normally did not receive assistance, but now have no choice since they lost their jobs.

This effort is totally grassroots with no formal organization supporting it. It has been completely spearheaded by myself and a few friends. Even the Islamic Center that we use as our location has not financially supported our efforts. We raised the money ourselves, we make the arrangements for the food (either through donations or by going to the grocery store and buying it), we promote it and we are the ones who work to distribute the food to the people directly. Alhamdulillah, we have been successful so far in keeping this project flowing smoothly in terms of logistics.

I want to reach out to the community and ask for some help. Any form of help is beneficial. If you are local to North Jersey, you can come donate food to the Food Pantry. If you are not local, you can send money which will be used to purchase food only. Everyone can help by spreading the word about the Paterson Food Pantry and making it known all across the U.S. that such an effort by Muslims exists. All type of help is sought and appreciated.

This cause is local and any money is coming to us directly and I will make sure that it is spend on food for the pantry only.

Please keep our efforts in your du'aa. Insha'Allah, in the future we plan to add a meals on wheels campaign, where we will go to the poorest parts of North Jersey and deliver lunch to people. If anyone has any other ideas/suggestions, I would love to hear them. Thank you.

Judge Rules in Six Imams Case

Minnesota District Judge Rules in Favor of the Plaintiff 6 Imams.

June 24th marked a major victory for our clients in the "Six Imams" case, with Judge Montgomery issuing a sharply worded opinion and order which, for all intents and purposes, voided a law that would proliferate racial profiling and discrimination against minorities--particularly those of Muslim or Arab descent by extending immunity to law enforcement officers. In its written decision, the Court denied the defendant airport officers' motion for summary judgment, and affirmed an individual's freedom from unreasonable search and seizure under the 4th Amendment.

Read about it here

Islamic Wills: A Primer

I recently co-authored an article with some colleagues at my law firm about Islamic Wills. The article is a good primer on Islamic Wills and their relationship to American Courts.

Remembrance of death and the afterlife is a cornerstone of the Islamic ethos. Nevertheless, when it comes to inheritance many Muslims living in the United States fail to make the arrangements necessary to ensure their legacy will pass under the precepts of Islamic Shariah law, and as a result their possessions will be disposed of in a manner suitable to the State, but not Shariah law. After one’s death, it is too late, in any American jurisdiction, for relatives to dictate to a court of law how the decedent would have wanted his or her possessions to be distributed. All jurisdictions, without exception, will ignore such pleas and apply their own laws of intestacy, laws that govern how an estate will be distributed upon death absent a will. Such laws will hardly conform to Shariah law.

In order to best illustrate how the laws of intestacy function, it is best to use the example of Husband, H, the decedent, who has not drafted a will during his lifetime. H dies survived by his wife, W, one son, A, and one daughter, B. H had an estate of $240,000 with no outstanding debts. According to Shariah law, W is entitled to one-eighth, or $30,000, and A and B share the remaining $210,000. Since A is male, he receives a share twice that of B. So A is entitled to $140,000 and B is entitled to $70,000.

If H died in New York, for example, the above distribution would be dramatically different under the intestacy laws of those states. W would be entitled to $50,000 plus one-half of the remainder, for a total of $145,000. A and B would share equally in the remainder, getting $47,500 each.

In comparing Islamic intestacy laws with those of New York, it is clear that the distributions are vastly dissimilar, but all parties are still represented. However, if H was survived by a mother or father, then they would also be entitled to one-sixth under Shariah law. Under New York state law, the distributions would be the same as above, and the parents would get nothing. Essentially, U.S. state laws permits disowning a blood relative, which is forbidden under Shariah law.

In order to prevent this, those wishing to comply with Shariah law should have a carefully drafted, enforceable will that upholds Shariah law under U.S. jurisdiction.

Indeed. Read it all here

The Lawyer's Diagnosis

I see many doctors looking to make the transition to a private medical practice. It seems like quite a daunting task. As a lawyer, I am more amazed at the astounding number of legal issues that surround the medical profession, that many doctors cannot even fathom.

Even aside from the obvious regulatory issues for doctors, such as compliance with Medicare and Medicaid, compliance with state and federal medical standards, and the big issue of medical malpractice, there are so many other issues that can pop up and distract a solo practitioner from patient care.

Inherent in any business venture is the obvious task of selecting the corporate structure. This is usually not to difficult, but the wrong selection can have a drastic effect on a doctor personally. After the business is all set up, there are a plethora of other issues like commercial leasing, office design and, of course, personnel management.

Commercial leasing can be a headache especially when commercial leases that used to be about 20 or so pages now number about 100 pages--not to mention the added complications of leasing to a medical office. Personally, I've dealt with a commercial lease for a doctor's office where a single clause in the lease went on for about 7 or 8 pages. They call it the "killer" lease.

Of course, let's not forget the 900 pound gorilla in the room--medical malpractice lawsuits. Medical malpractice continues to be a strain on physicians in a highly litigious society such as ours. There are many easy things to remember that can help you prevent medical malpractice lawsuits from even popping up or help getting rid of them fast if they do pop up.

I am currently preparing a presentation for doctors to give them a primer on legal issues they can expect when entering private medical practice. I hope the presentation will serve as a heads up for physicians before jumping into private practice. Moreso, I hope that all the physicians entering or currently in private practice can be more prepared when they do confront these issues.

If you are in the New York/New Jersey area, let me know if you are interested in attending the presentation. I don't have a date set yet, just looking to see how many would be interested. Thanks.

The Law Blog

You might recall my posts on this blog in my past life. Now that things have been dead for a while, I figure I would revive the blog by incorporating my new life.

Perhaps this will breathe some new life into my new life.

With that said, welcome to my new law blog. I will post my thoughts on life and the law and how the twain meet. Working with the Law Firm of Omar T. Mohammedi, LLC, I have to opportunity to be an intimate part of some high profile cases and cases which are more than mere dollar signs for others. I hope to share some of the views from the inside on some cases that the media often distorts.