Share what you thought of the 2006 ISNA conference in Chicago (Rosemont, actually).
I went with my family and met up with a few friends there. We arrived there on Friday morning. Jummah namaaz was amazing. I’ve never done namaaz with such a large group in my entire life (there were around 2000 people there for Jummah namaaz). The cardboard flooring to serve as the ground for the musullah was genius. It worked out wonderfully and I was really impressed. 
I didn’t get to go to all of the speeches I wanted to. I missed the Young Muslim Journalists Association speech because I woke up late and the stupid hotel alarm didn’t work 
. I also missed the in-depth discussion of verse 4:34 due to the same reason. However, I did attend sessions with the greatest scholars of North America, which was really exciting. Humza Yousaf, Zaid Shakir, Siraj Wahaj, Abdullah Idrees…they were all there! =) Some of the new people whom I’d never heard speak before were Suhaib Webb, Altaf Hussain, and Dr. Bazian (sp?) - all of which were really good.
Dr. Bazian (sp?) is an absolute genius. He’s actually listed as one of the top 100 college professors (so I heard) and I was so shocked at how he delivered his speech with such grace and was able to come up with the perfect answers to questions and he just knew…everything!!! =) It made me soooo happy to see that there are Muslims out there that are so educated :). I was exceptionally impressed by Suhaib Webb’s flawless Arabic, which he managed to learn in the past 12 years of his life as a Muslim. Altaf Hussain is my new favorite Maulvi. He’s really funny and his speeches are very encouraging. I learned he was from DC (woo hoo! 
) because he mentioned something about the DC metro in one of his speeches. =P
Friday night I went to that concert thingy that was organized by the Allah Made Me Funny tour. It wasn’t exactly what I expected. I mean, the poetry was reallyyyyyyyyyyy good and I enjoyed it. 786 (a group of singers) were also really good, given that they made all the noises to their music from their mouth and a simple drum. Iman Ali was pretty funny 
I couldn’t stop laughing at his immitation of Abdullah Idrees doing an advertisement for Jello hahahahhha =D. Yea but then there was the kinda awkward part where these Puerto Rican rappers come out dressed like total thugs running around stage chanting Islamic lyrics. Didn’t go together well =\ I was kinda laughing at them 
Sunday night, after the big speech with Zaid Shakir, Humza Yousaf, and Suhaib Webb, I stayed for the entertainment program. Native Deen was waayyyyy overrated =S. I got up and left after their 2nd song lol. Kareem Salama is a good singer but I can’t get over how hilarious his country accent is hahhaha. Mohammad Amer was really funny - better than Iman Ali. He has me in tears, kasme…very funny comedien!
The bazaar was fun, as always. I must’ve walked through it about 20 times. I bought a shirt that says “Punjab” on it and has a black and white shadow picture of these dudes in pagriis and dhotis in a Bhangra pose 
and it says “it’s all in the shoulders” LOL…and then I bought a mug that says “Make Chai, Not War”..And I bought a Chinese silk purse =>. My little brother bought a shirt that says “Whoops…there goes my Wudu” =D and my older brother bought one that says “My name causes national security alerts. What does yours do?” hahhaha. There was a booth in the bazaar that was fundraising for the first musjid in Alaska. Pretty interesting, given that there are over 2000 muslims in Alaska and not a single musjid. I think it’s a very good effort to donate towards if anyone is interested.
Yea so basically that’s it. I had lots of fun in Chicago. Didn’t get a chance to get to Devon Street but whatever. The trip was completely worthwhile and I’m really glad I went. My Iman is so up there now.
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too bad it was too far from here 
