Community Organizing in Chicago with Rami Nashashibi

On July 17, 2007, the MPSN interns met Rami, a man who dedicates much of his time bridging communities, empowering the poor, and representing the highest virtues of Islam.

His talk began with an introduction of his background and how he became involved in addressing poverty and community building in the first place. He described the personalities he met while at DePaul, ranging from the African American man who introduced him to an understanding of the social inequity in southeast Chicago to the indifferent Muslims at his local masjid. He painted a picture of a tie between the plight faced by the poor near his college and the oppression faced by others in the Middle East.

But the story continues, for unlike his contemporaries, he was not satisfied to witness injustice faced by minorities in the Chicago central city. He choose to try to mobilize some of the Muslims he knew to commit to outreach to the African American and Latino communities and founded IMAN, the Inner-City Muslim Action Network, a non-profit designed to provide much needed social services to needy individuals and families in Chicago.

As time progressed, he was able to build alliances with the main players in various ethnic, religious, and political entities, and created a brand that is now known not only in Chicago, but across the United States. Part of this branding came through an event called "Takin' it to the Streets", a summer festival held to celebrate the diversity of Chicago and to encourage its residents to get together to enjoy music, art, and learn more about Muslims and Islam.

Although IMAN is known for this event, the organization and its volunteers also operate a food pantry and offer medical services to low-income people. They also advocate across religious and ethnic lines for the rights of laborers to earn promised income and engage youth in productive activities to ensure that they do not become involved in crime.

Rami says that he models his commitment to service after our beloved Prophet Muhammad (SAW), and explains that it is incumbent on all Muslims to serve their communities and to stay engaged. He also suggests that only through building alliances and being active in local communities can the American public ever come to respect, understand, and care about Muslims and their issues.

This raises the following questions:

With Islam's heavy emphasis on providing for the poor, the orphans, and the wayfarers, why are Muslims behind in contributing to these groups, especially when compared to other religious groups?

What are the direct and indirect benefits to Muslims in America from contributing to the well-being of the less fortunate in this society? Should Muslims even consider their potential benefit in choosing to become socially active, or does that kind of consideration defeat the purpose in the first place?

Even still, do inherent biases affect the Muslims in America, thus preventing them from even attempting to address poverty? Further, does the relatively high socio-economic class of Muslims discourage them from helping others because of their perception of the hard work they themselves have done to get where they are today? What does this say about arrogance in our community? More importantly, what does Allah (SWT) say about those who are arrogant with pride about their money, and what end such people will face in the next life?

All of these questions are only beginning points for reflection, and ought to be addressed by this MPSN class and other interested parties.

Eboo Patel on Talk of the Nation

MashaAllah he did a brilliant job on this show! He even metioned MPSN!

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12098469

24:30

I’m so proud to be a part of a generation of American Muslims that are building institutions that have a civic impact with a religious ethos. Institutions like IMAN in Chicago, the Inner-city Muslim Action Network and the Muslim Youth of Chicago and the Islamic Networks Group, and the Muslim Public Service Network, the Nawawi Foundation. These are institutions that are being built by young Muslims of my generation with the religious inspiration of an Islam that is compassionate and merciful that seek to serve others. The UMMA clinic in South Central L.A. I could literally name dozens of these things.

Allah Knows

It's all very beautiful! (This is for you Radeyah!)

Weekend with Asifa Qureishi and Mohja Kahf

Mohja Kahf and Asifa Qureishi's stay in the house this weekend has inspired a lot of meaningful discussion. Some reflections.

I felt uneasy listening to Mohja Kahf's more sexually graphic poetry Friday evening. I left the room and sat in the hallway, so that I would at least be out of sight. It feels immodest to sit and discuss sensual pleasures in a mixed, public setting. (Note: the 'mixed' and 'public' aspects are the root of my uneasiness, not necessarily (for now) the content of the poetry). I've asked Mohja about how she justifies what I feel is stepping over boundaries. For fear of misrepresenting her views, I won't put her response here. Instead, some questions for myself as I try to parse out where I stand in all of this:

What is the root of my feeling uncomfortable? Is my feeling uneasy about this (arguably) gratuitous sexual narrative rooted in an Islamic principle? Is the "boundary" I feel that her writing crosses rooted in Islam or in some construct separate from Islam?

Are there things that are haraam to actually speak about? I'm pretty sure certain ways of speaking about God are haraam. What are the clearly-defined boundaries?

Iraq, Bush, and Prayer

I wish (sometimes), that amid the stomach-churning news of the increasing dead in Iraq (i.e. 94 dead on July 8; 186 dead on July 7; 84 dead on July 6; 75 dead on July 5; 84 dead on July 4; 78 dead on July 3; and so on ad nauseam), I could be as firm in my resolve as George Bush seems to be in his:

"I wouldn't ask a mother or a dad -- I wouldn't put their son in harm's way if I didn't believe this was necessary for the security of the United States and the peace of the world. I strongly believe it, and I strongly believe we'll prevail. And I strongly believe that democracy will trump totalitarianism every time. That's what I believe. And those are the belief systems on which I'm making decisions that I believe will yield the peace." -- George W. Bush, Cleveland, July 10, 2007

I mean, seriously George? What belief system are you operating on? What about these numbers support your machismo-hinged calls for “staying the course”? …even if we conveniently, as has been done (cast back to General Tommy Franks: “We don’t do body counts”) forget the consequences of war on Iraqis, do you honestly not feel remorse for the thousands of American families who are loosing their children to this catastrophe? (I'm just a bit frustrated here)

Anyway, The Nation recently released an immensely powerful piece on vets returning from Iraq and I find myself, despite my knowing that it’s not good for me, reading and re-reading their stories since I first came across it over the weekend. Hopefully you guys will get a chance to go through it too (definitely worth it, albeit being lengthy). Here’s a telling quote from Spc. Michael Harmon, 24, a medic from Brooklyn:

“I go out to the scene and [there was] this little, you know, pudgy little 2-year-old child with the cute little pudgy legs, and I look and she has a bullet through her leg.... An IED [improvised explosive device] went off, the gun-happy soldiers just started shooting anywhere and the baby got hit. And this baby looked at me, wasn't crying, wasn't anything, it just looked at me like--I know she couldn't speak. It might sound crazy, but she was like asking me why. You know, Why do I have a bullet in my leg?... I was just like, This is--this is it. This is ridiculous.”

With such a personal investment in this war, I’m finding it really hard to go on with my day-to-day activities. Egh -- what's happened to respecting the sanctity of life???

To follow Taha’s lead on extending prayer: May Allah (swt) please enable peace and safety in Iraq and, beyond that, enable us to (always) make a difference – extending our young power and influence to relieve (every) people from (every) burden or oppression they may unjustly be under in whatever (effective) capacity we can.

Sheikh Dimashqiah

In light of our new tajweed courses (may Allah reward Yasser!) here is a clip of my favorite reciter. He's now at the mosque in Ediburgh.

Framing the issue - Do Business and Islam Mix?

I came across this great article that really reflected Edina Lekovich's advice about framing your issuse for the media. The story is from the New York Times and profiles the Aga Khan and his philanthropy with the greater issue of his religion guiding his actions. It's a really well done, humanizing story of a prominent Muslim figure. The way the pieces ends just leaves such a wonderful, lasting impession of Aga Khan and his faith.

“In Afghanistan, the Aga Khan is creating an enabling environment for business,” says Mr. Patel at the World Bank. “While producing results, these are early days. It’s too soon to see a payoff from his investments.”
That does not bother the Aga Khan. Building businesses, he says, “is part of the ethics of the faith.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/08/business/yourmoney/08khan.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

Enjoy the articles and I want to see feedback and criticisms about it on the blog!

Moz in the Media

Yesterday, Edina Lekovic, the Commications Director at the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), gave us a wonderful talk on "Muslims in the Media"

Here are some highlights:

• There wasn't really much coverage of Islam in the media pre-911 so it's false to conclude that the coverage post-911 has declined. Pre-911 you only really heard of Islam around Eid time or when there was a conflict in the Muslim world.


• Media is driven by personal stories, this can be our greatest friend or foe.


• Entertainment media (like the movies) also gives us information (like the news).


• Internet/Blogs/Newspapers/TV are all becoming equal in terms of credibility in the public eye.


• People think programs like "The O'Reilly Show" are news shows because they're broadcast on news channels but they're really opinion shows.


• If you want to reach the average American, then you need to target local media like local news programs and newspapers. Much more people watch these shows than shows on CNN or Fox News.

FRAMING

• Effective communication needs good framing--we need to use vocabularly and language that is most effective to reach our target audience. How you tell your story is as important as what your story is.

Edina gives us an example of positive framing and the Imam...doesn't.

• FRAMING AND SPINNING ARE NOT THE SAME THING!

For an example of spinning, check this out around the 7 minute mark: (WARNING--This clip will really piss you off!)

• And finally, remember that you have to start from an area of commonality to effectively change hearts.

Introduction to Islamic Microfinance

On July 5th, two speakers from the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), the microfinance center of the World Bank Group came to speak to the MPSN class on the new area of Islamic microfinance. Nimrah Karim and Sami Ahmed introduced the general concept of microfinance before delving into the impetus behind the nascent Islamic microfinance movement and the challenges it faces. The topic was presented so that everyone in the class, many of us with little or no finance background, were able to understand the issues being discussed. Nimrah and Sami also showed us how we can contribute to this movement by giving small loans to people in need accross the world through websites such as www.kiva.org.

Ronald McDonald House Volunteering

Movers and Shaikhers volunteered at the Ronald McDonald House on Saturday June 30th to cook dinner for the families staying there. We prepared dinner for approximately 35-40 people.