The Weekend Islamic School at the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati will be hosting its Tristate (OH, IN, KY) Annual Day Quran Recitation Competition and Basketball tournament on Sunday May 10th, 2015. The main objective of this program is to bring together youth from regional Islamic schools for a weekend of competition and fun. Children ages 8-18 years of age will be participating from Ohio (Dayton, Springfield, Columbus, Toledo, West Chester and Cincinnati), Indiana (Indianapolis, Fishers), and Kentucky (Louisville and Lexington). Quran Recitation Competition will be from 9.30 AM until 2.00 PM with sixty-one children from twenty-three schools. In addition, seventeen boys’ teams and nine girls’ teams will be playing in the basketball tournament throughout the weekend with championship final matches for girls at 10 AM and boys’ basketball played at 3.30 PM Sunday. More than 600 people attend this event.
This year Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir, a valedictorian from a Massachusetts high school who set the state record for both boys and girls, with 3,070 points scored, will be a special guest. She earned a full scholarship to the University of Memphis where she played four years (2009-13) and graduated magna cum laude with a degree in exercise science. She then transferred to Indiana State where she led the Sycamores to a Missouri Valley Conference title on her way to becoming the league’s Newcomer of the Year. She aspires to continue her basketball career playing professionally in Europe, but has been unable due to a rule of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) that prohibits head gear larger than five inches, thus preventing her from wearing her hijab (head scarf) during play. Unwilling to compromise in her beliefs, Bilqis has challenged the international rules, petitioning to the league for an exemption. She has put her dreams of playing professionally on hold as she works to now pave a way for other Muslim women in sports. She has started an online campaign called “Muslim Girls Hoop Too” to raise awareness for Muslim women in sports with emphasis on female basketball players.She will be joining the event from Indiana where she currently works as director of basketball operations at Indiana State University.
Contact persons for this event are;
Shakila Ahmad: President Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati shakila3k@gmail.com
Tilat Rizvi: Program Director tilat.rizvi@cchmc.org
Gulame Asif: Director Weekend Islamic School
Nadeem Qureshi, Faris Ghani, Nabila Tanveer & Jahaan Miden: Basketball coordinators