The First North American Muslim Pow Wow was held in June 1993 in New Mexico, United States. The event brought together Muslims of diverse backgrounds to know one another, to increase trust, and to discover a common voice. The original Pow Wow was largely the result of efforts by Sheila Musaji and Hakim Archuletta.
'Pow-wow' is a native Algonquian word, and was used to indicate a desire for Islam to become native to the American Continent. The word further expressed the intention of the gathering, as a conference, a council meeting, a caucus, a time to hear each other out. The gathering was a grassroots, three day camping event which took on a spirit of celebration.
Annual gatherings continued over the next three years, and within the last decade such transformative study & worship circles have become formalized into what are known as “Deen Intensives”.
Deen Intensives have spread to different places in North America and as far abroad as England. The Pow Wow is currently inactive.
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“The Anglo-Saxon hive have extirpated Paganism from the greater part of the North American continent; but with it they have likewise extirpated the greater portion of the Red race. Civilization is gradually sweeping from the earth the lingering vestiges of Paganism, and at the same time the shrinking forms of its unhappy worshippers.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
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—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
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—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“For the salvation of his soul the Muslim digs a well. It would be a fine thing if each of us were to leave behind a school, or a well, or something of the sort, so that life would not pass by and retreat into eternity without a trace.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
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—Kenneth Fearing (1902–1961)