[Dar-us-Salaam] An Urgent Communique for the Community

[Safi Khan]

Dear Community Members,

Assalaamu 'Alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh:

I would like to thank you for your overwhelming support and presence at our
Ramadhaan dinners this year at the Greenbelt Marriott. It is heartwarming
for me to break my fast with you. This Ramadhaan has been unique for us
all.  As you know, we don't have the freedom to enjoy and share our own
facility for Ramadhaan dinners and taraweeh this year. This leads to some
special concerns.

I feel sad to say that last Friday, community members and hotel staff
observed due to a lack of supervision, many children roamed the halls of the
hotel by themselves, rode the elevators, visited the bar areas to watch TV,
banged on the walls of the hotel, went to various floors of the hotel by
themselves, ran around the hotel parking lot barefooted, and threw food and
dates on the hotel carpets. A toddler was seen standing at the propped-open
door of the indoor swimming pool. At the end of the dinner, the hotel
cleaning crew was in disbelief at the mess which was made.

Despite requests to the parents to diligently supervise the movements of the
children on tuesday's dinner, some children were still seen wandering in the
hallways of the hotel on their own. This is an incredibly dangerous
situation for the children - as we all know. Sadly, there are many cases
around the country of kidnapped children. Remember that the hotel is a
public place.

Dear community members, we all know that at this time Darussalaam's
resources are stretched thin. Providing childcare on a large scale is
presently beyond our manpower and financial capabilities. Therefore, we are
asking parents to please make childcare arrangements (for children ages
1-11yrs) for our next dinner night (the special Qur'an and Hifzh program
night) on September 6th. If anyone absolutely cannot make any arrangements
and has children accompanying him/her, then the children must be with a
parent or caretaker at ALL TIMES. If any unsupervised children are found,
the security will ask the parent(s) and children to leave the premises.

For parents with infants, please note that we have reserved a room
especially for mothers with infants, with full speaker connection, where
they can hear the prayer and also tend to their young child's needs. When an
infant cries loudly it makes it very challenging for the imam who is leading
the taraweeh prayer, so in these cases we also ask mothers to use the room
we have reserved for mothers with infants.

This decision is as hard for me as it is for you. However, our children are
priceless. We cannot allow them to run around unescorted. They can get hurt
by cars going in and out of the hotel, get lost on various floors of the
hotel, or Allah forbid get abducted by any passerby. Let's work together to
make our dinners and taraweeh at the hotel safe and peaceful.


Was salaamu 'alaykum wa rahmatullah.

Sincerely,

Safi Khan
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