You’ve probably heard about the unfortunate news of the recent bombing attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound airline jet on Christmas Day by Nigerian terror suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

Turns out, in one of the news coverage videos they played the trailer I produced for AlMaghrib back in December 2007. The trailer plays from 2:00 – 2:26

Click here to view the embedded video.

You can find out more on the new coverage on Houston’s local ABC-13 website: Terror Suspect Attended Classes in Houston

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I hope that this doesn’t affect the good work that people at AlMaghrib and the students are doing.

Seriously, I don’t understand what people like Umar Farouk Abdulmatallab are thinking. They’re not helping the Muslims or society. They’re simply making lives as Muslims harder.

Some of you may have seen Imam Qatanani in a promotional video I had worked on for AlMishkat Institute. He’s the imam of one of the largest Muslim communities in the state of New Jersey who has been dealing with deportation issues. He’s someone who has built up the community in Paterson, NJ like no other mashaAllah.

There is a short news style documentary that has been produced describing his situation (see below):

Click here to view the embedded video.

There was a rally today in support for him. There will be another rally tomorrow and (5.9.08) and Monday (5.12.08). If you are in the New Jersey or New York area, I highly encourage you to attend.

See his website for more information: http://www.americans4qatanani.org/

How can YOU help?

• Show up for the rally, but if you can’t inform and encourage others to do so as well.
• Share this page with other people you know via the “Share This” button below. “Stumble” it, forward it on Facebook, digg it, email it to others.
• Sign the petition online: http://www.petitiononline.com/qat5871/petition.html
• Join the following two facebook groups (create an account if you don’t have one): (1) Peaceful Support for Qatanani — (2) Friend of Qatanani

I’m looking for people who have YouTube accounts (and who actually use them) to upload Message Mastery Videos inshaAllah.

Also, I’m requesting people make Stumble Upon accounts – http://www.stumbleupon.com – and Digg accounts – www.digg.com -That way when we submit our articles, our websites, etc. the more people who “digg” a page (or review a page on stumble upon), the more hits we’ll get.

Whoever has accounts on these sites already, please contact me. We’ll agree to “digg” or “review” your site if you do the same for us (provided there is no haram content.)

This marketing stuff is getting to be a lot, and so I’m also looking for more volunteers to split the work. I must say it’s a lot of fun, but I definitely need more help. The last people to volunteer turned out to be awesome and they are doing a great jog, mashaAllah (that’s why you guys see Br. Belal literally everywhere.)

We’ve made a Google Group for marketing and PR purposes (or as my mom with her accent calls it, “RP” lol), let me know if you want to be on team and i’ll add you to the group inshaAllah.

leave a comment, add me to your Facebook, or email me at media [at] leechon.com

Barak Allahu feekom,

Shirien

This was printed in The Daily Reveille, LSU’s daily newspaper.Who this Shirien Elmasraya girl is…no one knows.

Hurricane relief workers experience prejudice

By: Shirien Elmasraya

Posted: 3/28/08

Imagine trying to save someone on the verge of death, but they refuse. No, they are not insane or suffering from depression – they are prejudiced.

The room was dim. Dark, wooden walls surrounded him as he was being filmed on camera. He leaned forward in his chair, slowly telling the chilling stories he encountered after the hit of Hurricane Katrina. The darkness of the room coincided with the darkness that surrounded his narrative.

“It was like a ghost town. It was like a horror movie,” said Islamic Relief worker Ruben Vaughan. “You saw helicopters, humvees and you saw dogs, some were dead. And then you’d see cats and some were dead. And you wouldn’t really see anybody else.”

As he explained the situation, those who were interviewing him looked on as if they were frozen in time – as if they were in complete disbelief.

“We [Muslims] are a small group here, but we were able to help people in mass scale,” Vaughan said. “The best thing we’ve been able to do is to deal with people individually, let them know we’re Muslim, and even though you aren’t Muslim, we can still help you. We can still get along, we can have a friendship and learn from each other.”

Vaughan was being interviewed for a documentary produced by Leechon Films, a Muslim owned and operated film company, to debut at LSU in August.

The film is called “Tufaan,” which is Arabic for “Great Storm.” It is about the stories of the Muslim victims and relief workers of Katrina.

“If people who aren’t Muslim just realize that Islam has been around since the first man Adam, that we aren’t aliens, that we aren’t foreign and that Islam comprises of every race and background out there, then they can realize that they don’t have to fear Islam,” Vaughan said.

During the first week after the hurricane, Vaughan said he saw two very different reactions from non-Muslims who saw Muslim volunteers driving supplies.

“I remember there were a group of brothers bringing supplies to the affected areas,” said Vaughan. “On their trip they were asked by different people what they were doing. One group of people would say, ‘We don’t need your help. You can just take it back.’ And the other group of people would load up their cars and help them on their [the brothers'] way.”

Vaughan, former firefighter and former squad boss for FEMA back when the Columbia Space Shuttle blew up over Texas, sought out relief organizations to join after Katrina. He wanted to make sure he got to the affected areas to help in any way he could.

He contacted Islamic Relief, and because of his background in relief work, he was allowed to go to New Orleans at a time when only select individuals could go into disaster-ridden areas.

He explained how some of the male volunteers have beards and the women volunteers wear hijab, a head cover. Unfortunately, some of these volunteers faced difficulties from the very same victims they were helping who were prejudice against Muslims.

“I want the non-Muslims out there to know that they don’t have to fear people who are trying to help even though they see a hijab,” Vaughan said. “And they don’t know what to do or say because they are caught off guard because of all the negative things they see in the media.”

Vaughan still remains in Baton Rouge and is continuing with the hurricane recovery effort.

Prejudice is real. And while human beings see race and religion, disasters know no prejudice. It affects everyone.

I encourage everyone to attend the debut of the documentary when it’s released in August.

Leechon Films plans to donate a percentage of the money made by selling DVDs of the documentary to the hurricane recovery effort.

** To see the original column click HERE , and you can see the comments students have made below, warning they’ll mostly be hate comments lol ***

Dear Facebook,

If you were a person I’d heckle you. All of my hard work you destroyed. My 50 minutes of adding random people to my list is gone. I want my 50 minutes back. You disabled my account because in your opinion I was “Spamming too much.” But I disagree. I was not spamming too much, I was spamming just the right amount. What you call spam, I call dawah. You are a kaafir, and I call you to the oneness of Allah.

Love,

Shirien

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For all of you who want to use Facebook as a marketing tool, don’t try to add 100 people to your list in one day. Me and Facebook had our odds before. I’ve always hated it and it hates me. I had to start anew by creating a new account again for the public relations work for Leechon.

Anyway, I’m looking for as many people as possible willing to help me with some of the PR work. (this is pretty effortless work, so don’t think I’ll be asking you to do something hard or time consuming) If you support Leechon Films and (preferably) if you already have an account with Facebook or YouTube or Myspace, then you can either leave a message in the comments section saying you can help me or email me at media @ leechon.com or add me (Shirien Elamawy) to your Facebook friends list and send me a message.

So who’s going to help me?

(and no, I didn’t actually send that message )

I’m currently taking an English class that focuses on the news media called, “Who’s Watching the Watchdogs?”

One thing we covered this week which I found extremely interesting was how photos – a lot of the time – are not a proper representation of reality. If you disagree, perhaps you want to see the examples I’m about to give you. Depending on what instance you decide to capture a photo, it could make a world of a difference as to the emotional reaction people have when seeing it.

Below, is one of the most famous pictures in American History. It’s a picture of soldiers raising the flag at Iwo Jima, Japan during WWII.

This is one of the most reproduced images of all time. I want you to stop and analyze the picture for a minute… what type of emotions does this picture evoke? What is the story or the message this image tells you?

Well, most of us see the representation of struggle. The soldiers placing the flag amidst the rubble. Patriotism. That they are exhausted yet determined to raise the flag of victory… correct?Now, look at the video of the same incident. See if the photo evokes the same emotions as the video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here’s another:

This image was altered for no other reason than to create drama. The man who altered this photo was later fired from the Los Angeles Times.You know what gave it away? Look closely in front of the soldier’s leg.. you’ll see the back of the Iraqi man that is sitting behind him also in front of him.

If you are interested in photography or plan to make films – specifically photo journals and documentaries- make sure that you are depicting reality for what it really is. Don’t take a picture of the one kid at Islamic school sleeping, while the others are captivated by the teacher and say that Islamic School is not of the same quality as public schools.

WAllahu ta’ala alem.
~Shirien

If you have your own business or are working on a major project you must have a media kit. If you don’t have a media kit available to give members of the media, your business or project looks very amateur and hardly worth promoting in the news.

So what is a media kit? This is something usually put together by your PR person/firm working for you. It includes press releases, a backgrounder, a fact sheet, a bio, an image bank and more. And it’s getting to the point to where media kits are best done digitally. Make a kit and put it all on a CD, make sure you package it creatively and send it to media outlets.

I created a media kit a while ago for Leechon – and more specifically for Tufaan. The “Press Section” on Tufaan’s website is composed of a couple of things I included in the media kit, including the image bank. I plan to update the media kit and create a creative, graphically appealing digital version of it soon.

Also, it’s pretty important you get someone in public relations do to this for you. Why? Because if you want to send press releases to print media (like newspapers), then you have to write in AP style (associated press style) it was a pain to learn most of the AP Style book by heart. For example:

Wrong: Leechon gave 20% of their profits to charity.

Right: Leechon gave 20 percent of their profits to charity.

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Wrong: She lived on Burbank Dr.

Right: She lived on Burbank Drive.

BUT

Wrong: She lived on 123 Burbank Drive

Right: She lived on 123 Burbank Dr.

There are a lot of subtle differences. If you don’t write it the correct way in your press releases, they will most likely be thrown in the garbage by the editor. Your job is to provide everything for them and make their lives easier so they willingly give you free publicity by writing about your business or project. Also, if your writing – particularly news writing- isn’t strong, make sure you hire a PR person.

If you want to know exactly what goes into a media kit, I’ll go into detail on my blog since it might get pretty lengthy. I also would like to do a series about each element in a media kit including how to write a good press release, fact sheet and backgrounder. And hopefully at the end you’ll be able to do your own PR work (well, some of it at least).

Finally, I plan in the near future to run my own PR firm for Muslims. Alhamdulillah it’s something I can do at the comfort of my own home and alhamdulillah it’s something I can do quite well, bi’fadhlillahi ta’ala. I’m currently compiling a Muslim Media Database (MMD) with the information of all media outlets and the preferred way they’d like to be reached.

If you are looking for someone to do PR for your business or project go ahead and send me an email @ media (at) leechon.com . I plan now – and in the future – to only accept a few clients at a time. And most of all, it has to be something halal and something worth promoting.

To learn more about how to make a media kit, check out my post.

~Shirien

*apparently I’m going to have to go back and talk about what exactly a press release is and why we send them out. What PR people do is still something a lot of people aren’t aware of. But until then, know that half the stuff you see on the news are things covered due to someone sending a press release. Reporters aren’t always just at the right place at the right time (or know what’s going on everywhere). PR has a lot to do with that.

“New Media” includes anything from blogs, podcasts and wikis to things such as RSS feeds and webinars (seminars on the web).

My first part of this series was about RSS feeds. If you are not familiar with RSS feeds then consider yourself behiiiind, baby- behind in technology. To catch up follow my tutorial. Subscribing to RSS feeds will save you so much time during the day and make things so much more convenient.

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Recently, I’ve stumbled upon something addictive – something that can be extremely beneficial for you in terms of marketing, but could also become an addiction that wastes your time. And I don’t want to be the one responsible on the Day of Judgment for people wasting their time and not doing beneficial things, so as a disclaimer: I waaarned you.

So what is this beneficial/non-beneficial thing, you ask? Stumble Upon, of course.

Stumble Upon is a tool that lets you “stumble upon” websites of your interest (Islamic websites, photography websites, media websites…etc). You can even submit your own website or blog as well as any other website you like to this system. People submit their pages so that other people can come across them randomly- with the hope that they will bookmark it, add it to their RSS feed or add it to their favorites and come back to it. This is a good tool for marketing, because you can reach out to (and are more accessible to) your target audiences.

So how does this baby work?A little tutorial I like to call: “Waddle Waddle Boom Bam Waa” <– that would be a little baby trying to walk…. stumbles upon a toy… and … well, you get the point. I know, therapy tomorrow inshaAllah. Sooo…

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Step 1: Go to www.stumbleupon.com, and create an account by clicking the “Join Stumble Upon” button.

Step 2: Download the “Stumble upon tool bar” by also clicking that button also on the front page. I have to admit I HATE extra tool bars, but this one really doesn’t bother me because I use it all the time.

Step 3: Pick the category of websites you want to “Stumble Upon.” I suggest cats, “Meow.”

Step 4: If you want to start randomly coming upon websites, click the “Stumble!” button on your tool bar. And you if you like or dislike the website, click the “I like it!” button or the thumbs down button.

Step 5: If you would like to submit your own site or another website you like, then simply press the “I like it!” button, and if it was not already submitted to Stumble Upon, a new window will pop up asking some basic info on the site you are submitting.

I don’t recommend always stumbling upon sites for a couple of reasons: some of those sites have music that automatically start playing when you come across it and some have bad advertisements or images. So It’s best to use it for your advantage without going into something haram. Wallahu ta’ala alem.

But this was by far the funniest thing I’ve ever stumbled upon: (I told you to add the cat category, )

Click here to view the embedded video.

Enjoy,

Shirien

MashaAllah, La Qowwita illa Billah.

Seeru fil Ard… “Travel in the earth”

Again, any project you want to produce- feel passionately about. And do it for the sake of Allah ‘az wa jal. A long time ago I make a rinky dink video called “Jannah How Badly Do You Want It?”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Not only was it done with windows movie maker, but the grammar! Anyway, the point is that this was something that I wasn’t doing for the sake of making a video but rather, I did it because at a time when my iman was high and I wanted to express that. Little did I realize later, that people were actually sending the video around. Ironically, my brother-in-law sent it to my sister when they were engaged and my sister was like “Hey wait a minute… my sister made that…”

Anyway, I decided to demonstrate the video that was tripod-less and shaky that I mentioned in my previous post. Be creative… This is accompanied by recitation from Salman Al ‘ataybi from my favorite surah in the Quran- Surat Ghaafir.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Bismillah,

If you want to produce films, Islamic commericals, make stories or even just be a photographer you should always carry your camera around with you. I can’t tell you the number of times I regretted not having a camera with me to catch a priceless moment.

During my trip to Egypt last summer, I took my video camera with me everywhere. I usually go to Masr every year and always regretted not bring my video camera. I know it looks “touristy” but, I didn’t care… because I wanted to show all my friends what I do over there and the places I go.

My problem? I didn’t have a tripod with me. I shot some great footage (really funny moments and all of which I will never put up here to bring shame to myself) but it wasn’t professional; It was shaky. So what do you do when your footage doesn’t turn out the way you want it to be? Turn it into a photo journalism project by freeze framing the footage at the right time. And i’ll demonstrate this with some of the footage I took this past summer. The key to a photo journal are the captions. If you take 3 photos and you put a caption, those pictures should represent everything that story is telling. So I want to share some of my favorite moments from my trip to masr… and remember with every project you do, feel passionately about it. And do it for the sake of Allah ‘az wa jal:

Click the pictures to view the captions and the slideshow, inshaAllah. 

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