Salma K Farid Academy

Michael Mayko of the Connecticut Post, Fairfield County, interviewed me numerous times in preparation for this article. He even attended our Grand Opening with a camera man .

We are grateful to get a tiny paragraph, since we are not located in Fairfield County–we are in New Haven County.

The Salma K. Farid Academy, a preschool and elementary school for Muslim children, opened Oct. 6 on Leeder Hill Drive in Hamden. It’s next door to the Bible Gospel Center and across the street from the Highville Charter School. The academy, the first of its kind in southwestern Connecticut, is hoped to have the first Islamic library and reading center in North America.

Thank you Connecticut Post for reaching out to us. WE appreciate your interest in researching us.

We are very proud to have one of our teachers and her 2 children attend Salma K Farid Academy–traveling over 45 minutes from Fairfield, CT each and every single day!

May Allah SWT accept your work and reward you in this life and the Hereafter. ~ Ameen.

Islamic center to have grand opening

By Alexandra Seltzer Special to the Register

Also published in Meriden’s Record Journal on Sunday, July 10, 2008 along with the article discussed yesterday, this is a most optimistic view and look at the Academy. Alhumdulilah.

Some positive quotes include:

“We’re here to stay”

Tariq and Kamran Farid are now trying to fulfill their moth­er’s wish many times over. They are nearing completion of a school in Hamden, called the Salma K. Farid Islamic Acade­my, and are trying to win ap­proval for a mosque in Walling­ford, to be called the Salma K. Farid Islamic Center.

The private school, which will serve up to 75 children, will incorporate Islamic and Arabic language instruction with basic core courses. The school will routinely hold community pro­grams, such as an evening event in which non-Muslims can learn more about the Islamic faith, said Ponn M. Sabra, ad­ministrator of the school…

…Sabra said the Farids are clearly committed to their faith. “Working with the Farids has been just incredible,” she said. “First and foremost, they are extremely successful business­men but they believe in their faith as wholeheartedly as I do.”

Allahu alam (Only Allah knows best).

Alhumdulilah, our hometown newspaper Meriden’s Record Journal “covered” some “good news” of Salma K Farid Academy in their feature story today, entitled “Both sides adamant in mosque dispute”:

…Asked about the role of women in Islamic society, the 16-year-old mentions a hadith, which is a saying or report of a deed attributed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad, which says that under the mother’s foot is the gate to heaven.

“If your mother’s not happy with you, Allah’s not happy with you,” she explains.

It’s to honor his mother that Tariq Farid wants to establish the mosque in Wallingford. Her efforts played a pivotal role in his entrepreneurial career, which started with a small flower shop and today is a multinational business.

Once a place is designated a mosque, it can never be anything else, he said, so his effort is a way of honoring his mother, who died in 2005, in perpetuity.

“That’s why it’s such a wonderful thing to do in the name of someone,” he said. He is also establishing a learning center in Hamden in his mother’s honor, the Salma K. Farid Academy…

…Ponn M. Sabra is the administrator of the Salma K. Farid Academy in Hamden, which is looking to start in September as a full-time learning center for children from 3 to 12 and an after-school center for those up to 18. It will be the first Islamic academy in New Haven County, she said.

Born and raised in Meriden, Sabra is the daughter of a Buddhist father and a Catholic mother. She was raised a Catholic and attended Saint Joseph School, in Meriden, and Mercy High School, in Middletown, graduating in 1991.

Sabra, who is also an author, earned a degree in biology from Providence College and in 1998 received a master’s degree in public health from the University of Connecticut. After getting her master’s degree, she converted to Islam.

“The very essence of Islam is there is only one God, and that god is God,” she said. “I always believed that, and Muhammad is the messenger, the very last messenger.”

For my full personal commentary of this very interesting story, please click here.

I’d love to hear what you have to say. Please share your thoughts and commentary below.

Tri-State Muslim Newspaper has a bi-weekly distribution to 25,000 Muslims in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Insha’Allah, they will be distributing, approximately 4,000 more at the ICNA-MAS Conference that began today in Hartford, CT.

With great honor, we were featured on Page 5 of the July 1st edition available here. Receiving nearly a full-page and having a full-colored floorplan was a Big Surprise, Alhumdulilah!

By the way, did you find the one typo in the article? Come on kids (and parents), although it’s summer time, I’m sure you find the one little typo. Let me know in the comments area below

Masha’Allah, the publisher, Brother Salaudeen Nausrudeen was very enthusiastic about Salma K Farid Academy and our mission. Insha’Allah, we look forward to working very closely with them to further the mission of the newspaper and TSM Media: “Sharing Good News from Our Community”.

I was also very surprised to learn that the Muslims in the Tri-State area make up 20% of all the Muslim population in the entire U.S. Did you know that? To learn more about our demographics, click here.

Again, Jazaka Allahu Khayrun Tri-Sate Muslim newspaper.