Belica Family Video/Selamin Belica

Includes the words of Jay R. Crook Ph.D (Md, Nur) and Professor Mahmoud Ayoub.

Selamin Belica

(BOSTON) - Selamin Belica is a man loved by many. His rich understanding of history exists because of his own life path, and his experiences have long been a central part of the Belica family. This husband, father and grandfather, and his family, are facing tough times as Selamin has been diagnosed with a serious illness. The videos, edited in part by Selamin's son, our very own writer and musician, Agron Belica, are a strong tribute to a man whose life has impactd and inspired so many.

-Editor

With their loving sons...

A family is a microcosm of humanity. It has been the basic building block of society since the beginning of civilization. It is also under attack by the contrary winds of social change, growing economic inequality, a culture of conspicuous consumption and political correctness, the shift in gender roles, the growth of single parenting and the marginalization of fathers (one in three of our children does not have a resident father), ill-considered legal changes to the definitions of marriage and family... the list goes on and on. No wonder so many traditional families feel under siege and out of step with fashionable social trends and pressures. Not so the Belica family.

Belica Family Video/Selamin Belica - Song by Adem Ramadani Song by Cemal Kuru - Babam Video by Bekim, Agron, and Nderim Belica

They came together and held their first family reunion since the patriarch of the family, Selamin Belica, came to the United States nearly half a century ago from what was then Yugoslavia in search of a better life. Millions of people emigrated to the United States in the past two centuries in such a search. Each one had a story; this is Selamin's:

The son of a prosperous landowner in southern Yugoslavia, after completing his secondary education, Selamin was sent to the University of Belgrade where he began to study Philology. Two years into his studies, disaster struck in the form of the socialist government's program of land confiscation and redistribution. The Belica family holdings were reduced to sustenance level and Selamin's father, Shukri Belica, could no longer afford to pay for his son's higher education. As a result, Selamin left his homeland for the United States in 1968.

After getting settled in Waterbury, Connecticut, he was soon able to send them regular remittances, enabling his parents and his siblings to live more comfortably. In 1972, he married Didar, also from Yugoslavia and arguably the most beloved member of the clan. With her he began the family who, with their spouses of and children—about two dozen in all, enjoyed last weekend at the Franklin Marriott Hotel under his watchful eyes, with games, talk, and playing catch-up on family news.

Alas, all that news is not good. The founder of the clan, Selamin Belica, is facing serious medical problems.

With his characteristic faith in God and his gratitude for the gift of his family, he radiated affection and care for those who came to give him solace and returned their concern with his own concern for the continuance of the family unity that this reunion represented. Again and again, he reminded his family that there is strength in unity and comfort in the love of one's relatives. Aesop said it well: "United we stand, divided we fall." We all pray that Selamin will be around with his Didar to preside over many more such family reunions in the future, inshallah!

—Jay R. Crook Ph.D (Md, Nur)

God created humanity out of the family. The family is the primary unit of human society and all civilizations. The family is based on the interrelations of its members. The prayer that we were all taught to repeat by God is: "O God, grant us and our spouses and our children a comfort of the eyes." And God decreed that after the worship of Him, comes kindness to parents in importance.

Parents deserve to be treated kindly, listened to and obeyed, loved and cared for in the family. Older parents particularly want peace in the family and unity. The unity of the family is indicative of the unity of the Muslim Dogma. And so, I wish the Belica family a happy reunion and God's blessings and the blessing of the father of the family, and I ask God in His mercy and wisdom to give him good health and healing and to make him a focus of the unity of the family. May this not be the last meeting the family gets together to celebrate itself, but rather the first meeting of many more such happy reunions.

—Professor Mahmoud Ayoub