The Legacy: Grandfather’s footsteps echo throughout granddaughter’s career
By Raad Alawan • Apr 5th, 2009 • Category: Features
Rana Abbas learned the basics of leadership and community service from her grandfather Mohammad Chirri in the late 1980s and early ’90s.
“My shift in my (current) direction came around (his) death,” Abbas said. “I admired him a lot for what he did.”
Most Muslim faithful recognize Chirri as the founder and director of the Islamic Center of America, which resulted in a vibrant Islamic community and dozens of area mosques.
Chirri’s ability to lead and make change has been rekindled and fanned into a flame.
“That, to me, was so admirable,” Abbas said. “Then I thought, ‘How am I going to affect change?’”
Today, at 29, she is following the footsteps of her trailblazing grandfather as a leader in her own right.
Beginning in April, Abbas takes over as corporate communications manager for a multi-billion dollar company. Abbas will oversee all communications for Global Linguistic Solutions (GLS), a company contracted by the government to secure translators for U.S. efforts in Iraq.
“It’s a dream come true,” Abbas said. “What makes me happy, it’s impacting policy for a government agency to strengthen relationships between government and the Arab-American community,” Abbas said.
Rana joined GLS last year as the recruiting manager and Arab American outreach director for the Detroit office. Before her work at GLS, Abbas was the deputy director for the Michigan office of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee for eight years.
Pursuing and improving community affairs and issues has always been the goal of Abbas, like her grandfather before her. And like her grandfather, who moved a world away to pioneer change, Abbas too will step out of her box to carve out her niche. As this story is filed, she’ll be settling into her new home in Washington, D.C. She’s leaving behind what’s familiar – family, friends, and places – to continue making a difference, a dream that did not die with her grandfather.
“I can’t let fear conquer me,” Abbas said.
Sounds like an old cleric’s unknown journey to a new frontier six decades ago.
“I’ve been able to make change for my community,” Abbas said. “I like to think (my grandfather) would be proud.”*
Raad Alawan is head writer at Your Community Voice. You can contact him at yourvoice1@aol.com.
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