Are there any. I don’t want to go the local university one because hey i’m not 18 anymore so no.\
In the Atlanta, any part of South Carolina, North Carolina. Tell me people. I’m living under a rock…that’s how i’m feeling lately.
Re: Pakistani Associations in the Southeast US?
Have you tried google’ing? Or a Facebook search?
These two came up right away
Re: Pakistani Associations in the Southeast US?
I googled south carolina for a Pak association because that's the state I live in but I came up empty. Atlanta is a 3 hr drive and for Cary, NC that's a 4 hr drive.
I was really hoping for something in SC but thanks.
Re: Pakistani Associations in the Southeast US?
where in SC are you? I'm sure there are many pakistani orgs, may be not on that bigger scale but still. Are you connected with your masjid community?
Re: Pakistani Associations in the Southeast US?
In my experience, you don't need an association. You just need to find a masjid and a restaurant. We pray farz in one, and render sunnat in the other.
I can speak for Atlanta. There is a Br. that maintains a google group called atlantanews. There are announcements for events ahead of time, so if you want to make the trip you will have some advanced notice. It is not a Pakistan-specific group, but most of the folks involved are Pakistanis. I hear there is another mailing list for qawwali/mushaira/concerts etc. But I dont have any info on that.
Looks like the muslim population of Atlanta is growing; when I moved here, we used to share a cemetery with christians, now we have one of our own and people are working on two more.
Re: Pakistani Associations in the Southeast US?
I think Pakistani cultural organizations are ABSOLUTELY needed. And they barely exist. APPNA puts on good cultural events on a consistent pattern.
It's really hard to meet people once you're done with college. Only way to maintain a consistent contact with a steady stream of new desis/muslims in the states is to stay in academics. Medical students go onto residency and continue training into their early 30's so we feel this all later in life.
People who do college and start working experience this earlier.
It's hard in general to meet people, even if you're not muslim and not Pakistani. Mainstream americans experience this too, but if they're open to alcohol, they go to bars. And even then, Americans with more cleaner habits, have a hard time with this because they aren't into the bar or club scene. You don't always meet desirable people there.
So what do you do?
Americans join Bible study groups, and church groups. Synagogues have lots of activities also. Masjids have really not caught up to this yet, but some masjids will hold family nights. Problem is that I have no idea where this stuff is advertised. Most masjids - their websites aren't regularly updated, so you need to go to jummah to hear the announcements - and even then, most of us work on a Friday and jummah isn't easy for us.
The other thing you can look into is the facebook group - Young muslim professionals of Atlanta - google those words and you'll see them. They're actually pretty active in planning events. That's what is happening now. Go to meetup dot com and see if there is a group in your area. For the atlanta area, this facebook group is a major group. Contact them. Their community leader recently left, and went elsewhere, so I'm not sure if they have an active replacement, but contact them and volunteer to set up an activity, if they have nothing in the pipeline.
I've met some many new contacts through these meetup groups, actually.
Re: Pakistani Associations in the Southeast US?
And when I was in Dallas, I would hear ads for these groups - Social something? Not sure the exact name, but they plan events around town and you can just join them and show up to events to meet people.
I think we need something like that for Pakistanis.
Re: Pakistani Associations in the Southeast US?
OP, try to look for meetup groups at meetup.com
Again i've no idea about where u live but its helpful in bigger cities
Re: Pakistani Associations in the Southeast US?
That reminded me of this: AtlantaMuslim.com
They are thinking of starting a chapter in Atlanta. That website atlantamuslim.com also has a lot of other info. Again, not Pakistan-specific, but mainly run by Pakistanis.