THE MISSING ISLAMIC PHILANTHROPY
11 September 2017
THE MISSING ISLAMIC PHILANTHROPY
Tens of millions are donated annually towards poverty relief programmes but the root cause of generational stagnation among Muslims is often overlooked.
By SIDDIQ BAZARWALA
Ordinary Muslims, young and old, men and women, at schools and the workplace are coming under attack today. There are Muslims that are being forced to either publicly distance themselves from their faiths by calling themselves secular non-practising Muslims or defend their Islamic faith and beliefs, out of fear of association.
While most Muslims and large businesses around the world count themselves fortunate to be away from conflict zones and are able to go about their business, contributing to the economy, and trying as best as possible to assimilate themselves into the nation we call home, it is now more important than ever – that something is done collectively to counter the normalising trend of Islamophobia and bigotry in the global mainstream media, online social networking sites and the West.
We simply cannot leave the task of establishing the counter-narrative to “Muslim community leaders”, who rely far too much on euphemism, with limited follow-through, especially since this is not about proselytising Islam but about ensuring ordinary Muslims, including the entire generation of Muslim youth and teenagers today, don’t have to bury their heads in shame every time an individual with a Muslim name does something in the name of Islam or when Islam is unfairly shone the critical spotlight.
The key however, is not to stifle the overly exploited “freedom-of-speech” justification that is used by the global mainstream media every time they are accused of carrying articles that are visibly biased against ordinary Muslims and Islam. If there are invisible red lines with joking about abused children, dead pensioners, rape victims, women’s rights, child pornography, the Holocaust or the Jews, why then is it acceptable to provoke the sentiments of one fourth the world’s population, ordinary Muslims often wonder?
Unless ordinary Muslims pushback by occupying the narrative space that is set on misinformation and hypocrisy, terror groups and deranged individuals with Muslim names let alone Islamophobes backed by a US$200 million network will continue to occupy, let alone dominate this ever-expanding lucrative space.
In light of the unveiling chaos from the ongoing unprecedented assault of being a Muslim citizen in the West, the Center for American Progress’ in its February 2015 report titled, “Fear, Inc. 2.0,” wrote with remarkable foresight: “In their attempts to alienate Muslim Americans and prevent them from partaking in American political life, these groups have clear malevolent motives, which they in fact often openly state. These have to do with their fundamental desire for more aggressive U.S. foreign policies and providing the rationale for the ever-growing national security state”.
Admittedly, it will take us years to get past the damage done by decades of well-funded Islamophobes and misguided individuals with Muslim names who act in the name of Islam but it is crucial we stop delving on this matter less and start funding projects that actively combat media’s anti-Muslim denigration and tirelessly calls for the elimination of anti-Muslim intimidation and violence worldwide by bridging the gap with factual information about Islam and ordinary Muslims.
At present, there are too many of us sitting in silence, unable or unwilling to take action. In other words, instead of overcoming irrational Islamophobia, we help legitimise it with our inaction.
As an example of an important initiative, we Muslims today need to identify, train and create a primary group of between ten to thirty well-informed, presentable and confident Muslim professionals who can speak eloquently about Islam as a religion of peace to non-Muslims worldwide, using actual facts sourced from non-academic contemporary history, political science, the Qur’an and Hadiths. These individuals will first and foremost need to be honest, well-educated, credible and come from countries around the world with race, gender and ethnicity playing no role as to who gets shortlisted for this global initiative.
Apart from media training and instilling these individuals with the basics of public speaking skillsets, every effort will need to be made to ensure these future leaders are well-grounded with in-depth knowledge of political science, history, geopolitics and broad-based religion.
Culturally conversant, quick with logical arguments and able to look at any thought process and expose the inconsistencies, these individuals will primarily act as a leading voice to local, regional and global media outlets, policy makers, bloggers, op-ed columnists, television talking-heads and global think-tanks.
This ought to be a powerful tool to reinvigorate self-confidence in our millennial teenagers and youth today with the ultimate goal of helping raise the self-esteem of the next generation of young Muslims around the world. Given how long this initiative is likely to take, it is therefore important we start now – not tomorrow, next week or next month, or before the next act of terrorism appears in the news headline.
Unless we amplify the ongoing contribution of Islam and Muslims to mankind today, the microphone will be left to right-wing politicians, terrorists and “lone-wolves” living on the fringe with the loudest, most disturbing views and voices.
Such actionable, focused global initiatives need to be transparently funded by ordinary Muslims and Muslim philanthropists everywhere with the ultimate goal of reengineering the revival of self-confidence among ordinary Muslim youth and teenagers that is, the Islamic population of tomorrow, or else this spiral of madness against Muslims and Islam, which has no sensible origin – will see no end.
Siddiq Bazarwala is Founder of Ordinary Muslim Productions and Author of forthcoming book titled “Q&A with an Islamophobe” that contains responses to over 200 most vile, widely debunked and yet variedly repeated Islamophobic comments levelled against ordinary Muslims today, in an easy-to-reference Q&A format.
THE MISSING ISLAMIC PHILANTHROPY
Tens of millions are donated annually towards poverty relief programmes but the root cause of generational stagnation among Muslims is often overlooked.
By SIDDIQ BAZARWALA
Ordinary Muslims, young and old, men and women, at schools and the workplace are coming under attack today. There are Muslims that are being forced to either publicly distance themselves from their faiths by calling themselves secular non-practising Muslims or defend their Islamic faith and beliefs, out of fear of association.
While most Muslims and large businesses around the world count themselves fortunate to be away from conflict zones and are able to go about their business, contributing to the economy, and trying as best as possible to assimilate themselves into the nation we call home, it is now more important than ever – that something is done collectively to counter the normalising trend of Islamophobia and bigotry in the global mainstream media, online social networking sites and the West.
We simply cannot leave the task of establishing the counter-narrative to “Muslim community leaders”, who rely far too much on euphemism, with limited follow-through, especially since this is not about proselytising Islam but about ensuring ordinary Muslims, including the entire generation of Muslim youth and teenagers today, don’t have to bury their heads in shame every time an individual with a Muslim name does something in the name of Islam or when Islam is unfairly shone the critical spotlight.
The key however, is not to stifle the overly exploited “freedom-of-speech” justification that is used by the global mainstream media every time they are accused of carrying articles that are visibly biased against ordinary Muslims and Islam. If there are invisible red lines with joking about abused children, dead pensioners, rape victims, women’s rights, child pornography, the Holocaust or the Jews, why then is it acceptable to provoke the sentiments of one fourth the world’s population, ordinary Muslims often wonder?
Unless ordinary Muslims pushback by occupying the narrative space that is set on misinformation and hypocrisy, terror groups and deranged individuals with Muslim names let alone Islamophobes backed by a US$200 million network will continue to occupy, let alone dominate this ever-expanding lucrative space.
In light of the unveiling chaos from the ongoing unprecedented assault of being a Muslim citizen in the West, the Center for American Progress’ in its February 2015 report titled, “Fear, Inc. 2.0,” wrote with remarkable foresight: “In their attempts to alienate Muslim Americans and prevent them from partaking in American political life, these groups have clear malevolent motives, which they in fact often openly state. These have to do with their fundamental desire for more aggressive U.S. foreign policies and providing the rationale for the ever-growing national security state”.
Admittedly, it will take us years to get past the damage done by decades of well-funded Islamophobes and misguided individuals with Muslim names who act in the name of Islam but it is crucial we stop delving on this matter less and start funding projects that actively combat media’s anti-Muslim denigration and tirelessly calls for the elimination of anti-Muslim intimidation and violence worldwide by bridging the gap with factual information about Islam and ordinary Muslims.
At present, there are too many of us sitting in silence, unable or unwilling to take action. In other words, instead of overcoming irrational Islamophobia, we help legitimise it with our inaction.
As an example of an important initiative, we Muslims today need to identify, train and create a primary group of between ten to thirty well-informed, presentable and confident Muslim professionals who can speak eloquently about Islam as a religion of peace to non-Muslims worldwide, using actual facts sourced from non-academic contemporary history, political science, the Qur’an and Hadiths. These individuals will first and foremost need to be honest, well-educated, credible and come from countries around the world with race, gender and ethnicity playing no role as to who gets shortlisted for this global initiative.
Apart from media training and instilling these individuals with the basics of public speaking skillsets, every effort will need to be made to ensure these future leaders are well-grounded with in-depth knowledge of political science, history, geopolitics and broad-based religion.
Culturally conversant, quick with logical arguments and able to look at any thought process and expose the inconsistencies, these individuals will primarily act as a leading voice to local, regional and global media outlets, policy makers, bloggers, op-ed columnists, television talking-heads and global think-tanks.
This ought to be a powerful tool to reinvigorate self-confidence in our millennial teenagers and youth today with the ultimate goal of helping raise the self-esteem of the next generation of young Muslims around the world. Given how long this initiative is likely to take, it is therefore important we start now – not tomorrow, next week or next month, or before the next act of terrorism appears in the news headline.
Unless we amplify the ongoing contribution of Islam and Muslims to mankind today, the microphone will be left to right-wing politicians, terrorists and “lone-wolves” living on the fringe with the loudest, most disturbing views and voices.
Such actionable, focused global initiatives need to be transparently funded by ordinary Muslims and Muslim philanthropists everywhere with the ultimate goal of reengineering the revival of self-confidence among ordinary Muslim youth and teenagers that is, the Islamic population of tomorrow, or else this spiral of madness against Muslims and Islam, which has no sensible origin – will see no end.
Siddiq Bazarwala is Founder of Ordinary Muslim Productions and Author of forthcoming book titled “Q&A with an Islamophobe” that contains responses to over 200 most vile, widely debunked and yet variedly repeated Islamophobic comments levelled against ordinary Muslims today, in an easy-to-reference Q&A format.
Comments
Post a Comment