Camil Cerimovic , Rafi Ahmad, Dr. Muhammaed Z Iqbal, Congressman Dan Maffei, Tahir Ahmad and Mirza Naseer Ahmad, from left to right

By Dr Muhammad Zafar Iqbal, President of Ahmadiyya Community Syracuse, NY

I have been trying to present book by His Holiness, Mirza Masroor Ahmad, the Worldwide leader of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, World Crisis and Pathway to Peace, to local, regional and national dignitaries.

Dr. Muhammad Zafar Iqbal

I emailed a request for an appointment with US Congressman Dan Maffei and NY State Congressman John D’ Francisco in late November. Few weeks later I received an email from Mr. Maffei’s staff ( Director Operations Washington DC office ) Mr. Peter Mellinger with possible meeting in December. After few email exchanges about the purpose/topic of meeting, number of people attending the meeting and  mutually convenient time, I received a phone call from Mr Mellinger at 8 PM on Thursday January 30, for a possible meeting on Saturday Feb 01 in Congressman ‘s Syracuse office.  I alerted Syracuse Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, of possible meeting and to stay ready. Mr Mellinger confirmed the meeting next evening on Friday at 5 PM. I was out of town and arrived home at 7 PM.

Having such a short notice I started thinking about the meeting. My initial thought was to present the book and chat verbally about our Community. Realizing  that this is a rare opportunity for our community’s introduction to a dignitary like US Congressman I was constantly pondering over it. It occurred to me that few months back I had received an email with a Power Point presentation attachment from National PA secretary Amjad M Khan.

At 10 PM I retrieved that email and reviewed it for presentation. At 11 PM tried to rehearse the slides one more time and realized  that I do not have the adapter to hook up my new  laptop iMacBook Air to my projector.  So I emailed the presentation to Rafi Ahmad.

Myself, Mirza Naseer Ahmad, Camil Cerimovic, Rafi Ahmad and Tahir Ahmad were in Parking lot of Congressman’s office at 8:30 AM. His two local staff members were there at 8:45 AM to open the office and received us. We went in and set up the Power Point at the meeting table. We were served coffee.

Around 9:10 AM Congressman came in with another local staff member. He greeted us. He had some idea about our community. I told him that let us start with a presentation about our community introduction and then we will chat. He agreed. As I started the presentation Congressman interacted frequently and took keen interest in our presentation.

The Power Point continued for almost an hour although originally the meeting was scheduled for about 15 minutes only. Then I presented His Holiness’ book and we had a group photo as suggested by Mr Maffei.

We concluded the meeting with a resolve to stay in touch on an ongoing basis. He promised to represent himself in our important local community functions either personally when he is in town or through his local staff.

Our meeting lasted over an hour, much longer than anticipated and went very well.

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