Dallas: Dr Basheer Ahmed receives Peacemaker Award

DALLAS: A prominent social activist of Pakistani descent Dr. Basheer Ahmed received the Peacemaker of the Year Award last week for his extraordinary commitment to breaking the cycle of fear that many American experienced in the aftermath of 9/11 through creative use of human services, education and constructive dialogue between several communities in North Texas.

He received the award at the Dallas Peace Center's 26th Annual Peacemaker Award Dinner in Dallas last Thursday.

Dr. Basheer, a long time social activist and physician, founded the Muslim Community Center for Human Services (MCC) in 1998 to provide free medical assistance and treatment to members of all communities in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Since then, Muslim doctors and volunteers of MCC have been serving the community with their professional expertise.

Speaking at the award ceremony, Dr. Basheer said he has been working in the United States as a psychiatrist for a long time he thought it was time to give back to his country that gave so much to him and his family. MCC was his dream project that has been serving thousands of people from all religions, ethnicities and cultures for the last 14 years.

A Center's board member, Aftab Siddiqi told this reporter that he is so proud of Dr. Bahseer who has served all communities without any distinction. "He deserves this award more than anyone else" he said.

"Through his selflessness and hard work, Dr. Basheer has proved that building bridges of love among communities is more important than creating walls of hatred" said another board member, Dr. Qaisar Abbas.

Other prominent peace activists and organizations also received awards at the ceremony including Vivian Castleberry and Richard Sambrano, the Lifetime Achievement Awards; Bob Ray Sanders, the Media Peacemaker of the Year Award, and Unity of Arlington, the Peacemaking Organization award of the Year.