Second Muslim Spelling Bee

Second Season of Muslim Spelling Bee competition concludes on Thanksgiving Weekend

Press Release

CHICAGO, November 30th, 2013

At the Des Plaines Theater, in the suburbs of Chicago, the atmosphere was electric! Families from all over the United States were converged for the World’s First Muslim Spelling Bee Finals. The premise of the bee is to connect Muslim students from all over the United States who attend public, private and Islamic schools.  Regional winners hailed from Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, New York, New Jersey, California, Florida, Houston and Dallas.

The event started at 8.30 AM with registration and followed by recitation of the Holy Quran by Abdullah Hussain, a young Islamic Scholar studying Alim course from Darul Qasim.

The participants were divided according to their ages into 4 groups A, B, C & D and they were guided by the volunteers to their respective sitting arrangements.

Tausif Malik, the founder director of Muslim Spelling Bee welcomed and introduced the program to the attendees.  He thanked the media & Sponsors for supporting the event and read out the names of the sponsors, media sponsors to the audience. He also thanked the teachers, principals and parents for their support in making the competition a grand success.

He then introduced Sister Sohair Omar-Muslim Liaison,Office of the Governor AND Deputy Director, Illinois Finance Authority, who read the Honorable Pat Quinn, State of Illinois Governor’s message for the Muslim Spelling Bee Finalist. She also gave a inspiring speech about the diversity of the State of Illinois and encourage participants to excel at the competition.

This was followed by talks by Dr.Hasnain about how to excel at competitions and he said everyone should support Muslim Spelling Bee. Aijaz Hussain, Vice President, UIF www.MyUIF.com  said they support Muslim Spelling Bee and said “Tausif is doing an amazing job for increasing competitive skills amongst the students”.

Ahmed Irfan Khan, founder and chief executive officer of Taaz2u.com & Barkaat Foods sent a message from Dubai, that he supports Muslim Spelling Bee as it enhances skills and increase opportunities for students showcase their skills.

This year Muslim Spelling Bee in their second season was nominated and shortlisted for Global Islamic Economy Award by Dubai Chambers of Commerce & Thompson/Reuters. Also the Social Enterprise format developed by TMA Worldwide, promoters of the Muslim Spelling Bee has been recognized and featured in UK’s Guardian News Paper, Harvard University and etc.

The regional winners showcased their skills and expertise and raised the level of the competition. The audiences were dazzled and spellbound by their knowledge about spellings of words. The Judges exhausted their wordlist and championship and challenging words were introduced, but still the regional winners braved all the odds and excelled.

The Pronouncer for the event was Sister Samantha Sanchez, Darul Arqam School, New Jersey.

The winners for the competition :

Group A (Ages up-to 7 years)

1st -Ali Ala- International Academy of Cincinnati, Ohio
2nd- Alayna Zayb- ICOB Academy, New Jersey
3rd – Yasin Ahmed- Darul Arqam Academy- New Jersey

Group B (Ages 8- 9years)

1st -Rabya Hasnain-Maroa Forsyth Grade School, Illinois
2nd Osman Muhammad Khan -Hillside Elementary School, New Jersey
3rd -Asweel Mehaboob Kumbalakkuzhiyil, MDQ Academy, New York

Group C (Ages 10- 11years)

1st -Aya Mehmli, Noble Leadership Academy , New Jersey
2nd – Ali Razvi, Islamic School of Irving, Texas
3rd-  Zayna Motiwala-Darul Arqam School , New Jersey

Group D (Ages 12- 14years)

1st -Yasir Hasnain, Maroa Forsyth Grade School, Illinois
2nd -Syeda Maryam Beyabani, K12, Texas
3rd-Ridaa Dadani, Baytul Iman Academy, New Jersey

The 12 winners also launched the World’s First Muslim News Portal www.GlobalMuslimObserver.com. www.GlobalMuslimObserver.com will offer a platform for the individuals and organizations to create an account and submit their news, press release, events, pictures etc and this will be then shared with other newspapers and media outlets.

The event concluded with award ceremony and awards were presented to the winners .
The following organizations provided gifts to the winners:

1    Tourism passes by Museum of Science & Technology, Chicago
2    Galaxy & Lenovo Tablets By TMA Worldwide
3    Books By Iqra Foundation
4    Comics by The99.0rg
5    Scarves by Nahda Designs
6    Scarves by Sabika Seatle
7    Exclusive hand crafted Chocolates by Chocolat Uzma
8    DVD’s by Unity Productions Foundations
9    Fordson Movie DVD’s by Rashid Ghazi
10    Exclusive paintings painted by Dr. Saima Qureshi
11    Islamic Perfumes by www.InsiyahAtoor.com
12    Water bottles by MuslimCoupon.com

Founder Tausif Malik  thanked everyone for participating and announce that the next season of the Muslim Spelling Bee will held in month of March, April & May and registration will open on December 2013.

The Muslim Spelling Bee was supported by Taaz2u.com, UIF & K12.com.

Media sponsors in alphabetical order Al Hikmat TV, Al Jumuah Magazine, Asian Lite, Azizah Magazine, Desi Express, Dinar Standard, Dunya, Global Muslim Observer, Indian Express USA, Indian Muslim Observer, Infocus California, Islamic Focus South Africa, Islamic Post, Lone Star Crescent, Muslim Coupon, Muslim Backyard, Multicultural Familia, Muslim Digest, My Education Key, News Pakistan, New York Awam, Pakistan Chronicle & Pakistan Journal, Pakistan Post, Pakistan Times & South Asian Gazette, Pakistan Express, Pakistan Voice, Radio Sargam/News Pakistan, Radio Sohni Dharti, Sadaa-e-Pakistan, Saavn.com, The Desi Times, Tribune Asia, TV ONE GLOBAL, Urdu Times Chicago, Urdu Times, Ummaland.com, Ummah Design & Ummah Linked.

According to Muslim Spelling Bee founders all the participants are winners as they worked hard and learned value of education and competition and hence they were awarded with participation certificates.

If you are interested in getting involved in the Muslim spelling bee, please visit www.muslimspellingbee.com
For further information please contact

Tausif Malik, Founder Muslim Spelling Bee
media@muslimspellingbee.com; cell:773-536-9786

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