The G and J

November 22, 2011 at 8:00 am · Filed under Collaboration, Communities, Islam, Values ·Tagged , , ,

I recently had a heated discussion with some of my colleagues from Islamic Relief about the religious terminology called Jammat. Jammat comes from Jummah – a holiday on Friday where people come together in congregation and worship in a congregational prayer at midday, with a sermon also delivered.

The blessing of a Jammat is in the togetherness it brings as a community. From togetherness we get inclusiveness, accommodation, tolerance, respect, partnership and progress for the sake of the Jammat, who listens on Jummah, to the common aims and goals of the religion of Islam.

What has that got to do with G? G stands for group – which has a different philosophy to Jammah. Today we have the G20, G8, G10, G13 (the deadly black demon of Friday) and so on which is a collection of countries from around the world based on economic strength.

G’s philosophy is to protect the interests of the inner circle and to prioritising their interests over other countries around the world. While J is using the commonality of everyone as it is more inclusive and diverse.

But when the J behaves like G, using the R (religion), to push the G-J agenda, they can neither become Lady Gaga or Jar Jar Binks. They will become like ZaZa – the Cyclops who does not represent a race colour or value. Because Za Za is one eyed and is a destructive force within the community.

What we experience nowadays, are signs of the illnesses within our community – who create their “G” philosophy, based on the personal interest of the leadership, personal interpretation of their scholars, and personal beliefs in their common value.

Why should we behave like political parties? Why should we become a political party? Why should we let others suffer from the imperialistic, theological approach? Why should we alienate others?

All these don’t represent the philosophy of J –Jummah, or J- Jammat, but of G-Ghetto. Even when you are in the ghetto, you won’t be able to eat the gateaux.

Even in Islam we see divisions and classifications and groups – Sunni, Shia, Salafi or Sufi, Deobandi or Ikhwani – where different people class themselves differently and align themselves with a group rather than look at our common interests, goals and values.

If our theological understanding does not bring calmness to the community our organisational approach, may bring more harm than good. The Muslim Charities Forum has been struggling over the past 4 years to swim against the mighty waves of the deadly theological tsunami, of the new Cyclops which endangers us all. Let’s be a Jammat rather than a group.

With the spirit of Eid just gone and sacrifices of the holy family of Ibrahim (PBUH), we should adhere ourselves to the “J” philosophy and keep the “G” approach to the G13 deadly group and keep them away from us.

Credit goes to Mr Muhammad Tariq and Amjad Ilahi from Islamic Relief who inspired this blog.

By Dr. Hany El-Banna

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Social values vs Islamic values

November 18, 2011 at 8:48 am · Filed under Communities, Values ·Tagged , , , ,

What is the real social value of the Islamic values and what is the real practical value of social values?

This discussion was held at my house on the second day of Eid, where a young Egyptian post graduate lady who was studying her Masters at Birmingham University came to give my family her Eid Greetings – or Eid Mubarak.

The objective of her project in Egypt is to improve the quality of the education system in Egypt. The discussion over a cup of coffee went on for hours in the presence of other guests, and then came the challenge  where we tried to determine our identity and we ended the meeting by asking the definition or explanation of the title of this blog.

What do we mean by social values of a religion? What do we mean by the practical value of social values of our community?

Religion for me has a social, economical, political, cultural and regional or international reform. All religions of God have these dynamics – some of them will be more obvious to the others when the believers of such religions interconnect the dynamics of the social values of the religion in the societal groups which could lead to the fragmentation of the social fabric of society. Such enlightened believers will enable the religion to spread within the fabric of any society like air and water which can benefit, sustain and lengthen the life of such society.

On the other hand, does any society have to wait for a prophet or messenger of God to reform their lives? The answer is yes and no – Yes, we need those wholly guided personalities to show us the way and know we can produce our own social reformers to support, protect, guide and lead our society. And both messengers and reformers will be guided by their creator.

That said, any society on earth is constantly producing social values to cement its societal and social fabric and to distinguish itself from other societies as a part of its nature. But on the religious aspect, we quite often fail to transform our own religions into social values.

This becomes more difficult at the time of the social revolution which is impacting every inch of the globe. So shall we make our religious scholars social workers or shall we connect the social workers into becoming our religious scholars. Which of these is more difficult?

I think we should work on both sides to educate both parties on how they become closer to their chosen community and understand the religion of God. There is no doubt at the back of my mind for both practices to work together.

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A politician, a media magician and a community practitioner

November 16, 2011 at 8:00 am · Filed under Communities, Libya, Somalia, Travelling, Volunteers ·Tagged , , , ,

The title of this blog may sound like the beginning of a joke but I must start with the following statement – I am neither a politician nor a media magician – I dream to be a community practitioner.

I had this idea while coming to London this morning by train being inspired, motivated or demoralised by what’s happening to some of the countries of the “Arab Spring”.

I have visited over the past eight months Egypt six times, Libya five times, Somalia and Kenya three times and Tunisia 2 times. I learned a lot from these field visits especially from the younger generation who paid the most expensive piece for the success of the “Spring Movement” – their lives.

I tried to contact leaders in the top offices but there was no answer, no acknowledgement and no communication. I looked at the leaders in the middle level such as leaders of political parties, religious institutions and groups of independent politicians, think tanks and elite intellectual personalities.

I found that they are all confused, particularly in Egypt, not because they aren’t equipped by intellectual capability, sincerity, and dedication – but because they lost the focus and changed their priorities. The main focus over the last eight to nine months has been euphoric cacophony of oral, visual and audio appearances, since almost all of these people who were prevented from speaking and communicating with the masses.

Due to this, they have lost the focus on their objectives of addressing the needs of the many and instead they prioritise their own needs, ensuring their slice of cake in the different tiers of the political House of Representatives is larger than the others.

The big debate went on about the fear of Islamists to lead, then the fear of the military to lead or which figurehead can unite the country? Would the president have executive powers whether the constitution would be written before or after elections are held?

This is a country which needs a desperate reform in social and economic policy, where almost 30% of the population earn less than $200 per month per family. Look at this layer with its new dynamic made me decide not to work with them at least for the time being.

Looking back to the people I met in March/April this year, I found that my role should not be to unite the politicians, top leaders, or the media tycoons, but it should be to work with the youth and community who have proven the ability to instigate change better than the politicians.

By Dr Hany El-Banna

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The “Zero Cost” myth

November 14, 2011 at 8:00 am · Filed under Good Governance, Humanitarian, Transparency ·Tagged , , ,

This story from trade magazine Third Sector is an interesting as it is a subject that we have been talking about with fellow charities based in our office.

While the story in Third Sector magazine relates to US charities, this could happen anywhere.

The costs which charities incur for fundraising and administration are an important and necessary aspect of humanitarian work. They are not something to be ashamed of or kept hidden. Sometimes investment is necessary to ensure a return in funds for projects.

Promoting low or zero fundraising costs is an attractive way of encouraging donors. The best thing is to be honest with donors. Why hide the real cost of fundraising and administration. Charities want build trust with donors – being honest about how much is spent on fundraising and administration will go further to built that trust than by publishing inaccurate figures.

At the end of the day reducing costs is admirable for any charity, but a donor will give to you if they see how the money they have donated is being spent helping people and honesty surrounding the work that you do.

As our mothers used to say “honesty is the best policy.”

By Mohammad Shakir

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Programme cut backs in Pakistan

November 11, 2011 at 5:54 pm · Filed under Humanitarian, Monsoon, Pakistan ·Tagged , ,

A recent story in The Guardian gave me a cause for concern. Aid agencies say “programmes to help flood victims could be cut back because of a sluggish response from donors”.

This is a worrying trend. We have covered the lack of coverage on the recent floods in Pakistan in recent weeks. Still more worrying is the lack of news coverage which has been saturated with news of financial meltdown across Europe or the sales figures of a well known computer game.

It maybe a case of the Western world keeping an eye out for number one at the moment, which is understandable, but as human we need to look beyond that.

The MCF will continue to raise awareness of humanitarian emergencies with its members to the MPs and the public. No humanitarian emergency should go unawares.

By Mohammad Shakir

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The Characteristics of a Muslim

November 5, 2011 at 8:00 am · Filed under Blogs, Muslim Charities, Travelling, Youth ·Tagged , ,

Last Sunday I flew to Frankfurt, Germany and by car to Wisbaden, to meet over 80 young German Muslims. I was very pleased to see that over 70% were female. My talk was meant to be about the role of Muslim youth in Europe.

I asked them a simple question? Why restrict Islam to Europe? Islam is not a regional, tribal or sectarian religion, nor is it a time bound religion? Islam is much more than that.

Allah has sent his messenger as mercy for all. Instead of talking about Europe I spoke about the characteristics of a Muslim. In total I spoke about 28 diverse characteristics.*

For the purpose of this blog I will focus on three aspects that I spoke about – the role of women, the role of the youth and being cooperatively optimistic. In my view, I believe that women and youth are the main drivers of any society, alongside men. We should invest heavily in both of them as main and leading partners in any society. In particular the youth, telling them that no one can build civilisation alone.

We should be forward thinking in building partnerships with different parts of society to build. Those partners shouldn’t only be Muslim. Those partners shouldn’t just be human. We have to look around and be all inclusive and be patient, because no society or civilisation can be built over night.

It takes years to build together, but takes a few seconds for one person to destroy it all.

By Dr Hany El-Banna

*In case you are interested here is the complete list that I covered:

Belief Knowing the needs of the time, culture and space
Altruism Knowledge seeker
Cooperation Knowing the societal fiqh
Credibility Learns from history
Honesty Brings value to society
Transparency Simplifies faith and religion to the people
Complimentary Presents faith as commands, shared values and community services
Invested in public Identifying the leadership values of women
Forward looking Identifying the value of youth
Optimistic Non confrontational
Giving Loyalty
Helping  
Recognition of the values of the contribution of others  
Ignoring those that are ignorant  

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Timekeeping

November 4, 2011 at 8:00 am · Filed under Blogs, Islam, Travelling, United Kingdom ·Tagged , , ,

I was waiting for a lift to travel to London earlier this week. I was told that the person I would be travelling with would arrive at 7.30am to pick me up.

I was ready by 7.20am and went down to my front room to wait. 7.30am came and went. I sent message as he was not there and got the reply he would be there in 15 minutes.

I sat down and watched a TV documentary while keeping my eye on the clock. I sent another message at 7.50am, with no response. The driver eventually arrived at 8.10am. I was angry but contained it as he apologised and gave his excuses.

My worry was and still is why us who relate themselves to Islam and certain countries have bad time keeping. Why use the word InshAllah (God Willing) when we don’t mean to do what we promise and plan to do. Why not be true to ourselves and our religion and be punctual with our timing.

The difference between us and our ancestors is their ability to time plan, time keep and time manage their lives. They managed to build civilisations, where we may not have much to show for our time on this earth.

Time and timekeeping are very important in Islam. There are five prayers in a day which should be prayed in their prescribed time. For example Maghrib (sunset prayer), should be prayed between sunset and dusk, when the night’s darkest point begins. It is also encouraged to organise our day around our prayers.

Timing and punctuality is a virtue which will hold us in our stead throughout our lives. Let’s see if we can all become a little more punctual in our lives.

By Dr Hany El-Banna

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I’m not going to be a sleeping pill anymore

November 3, 2011 at 2:10 pm · Filed under Travelling, United Kingdom, Youth ·Tagged , ,

I was recently invited by Young Muslims UK to speak about the relationship between the individual and Allah. This was part of their Weekend Leadership Programme. On my way to the conference hall in Markfield, Leicester, I had a discussion with two volunteers which inspired my talk.

I started by asking the audience about the subject – interacting at the beginning of talk is an odd thing to, I know. I talked about the title and why I had chosen it because I didn’t want to leave them living in the beautiful history of Islam or leave them in illusion by giving them a painkiller, sedative, tranquilizer or sleeping pill. A speech as such would simply be a fluff piece. I wanted to leave then engaged and inspired. I wanted to engage them in reality and work with them to sort the problems around us.

While interacting with them and talking about the “backdrop trouser” brothers or the “belly button” sisters, I had a new thought and idea:

Our Ummah is not just made up of Muslims – the greater Ummah includes all living creatures. The meaning of Ummah covers a comprehensive, complex responsibility of individuals to everything around them including animals and the environment.

Of course the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) will ask about the Muslims he left behind, but we have to show the Prophet (PBUH) before Allah how we saved the greater Ummah.

The end result of my interaction with the audience is that each one of them will be able to build civilisations if they can nurture and foster their great ideas, develop them and pass them on to the next generation.

Our failure nowadays is that we make our ideas personaly/party/sectarian… property. This is why they don’t become public and transform into civilisation and society.

I left inspired because I was not lecturing, speaking or teaching but I was listening and learning. I learnt from Julie Siddiqui that someone researched the contribution of Muslim women and that there have been 9,000 female Muslim scholars throughout history, whereas today mosques don’t allow women to come and pray due to a village mentality.

We should seek knowledge wherever we are and pass it on to the next generation.

I was a little concerned about the philosophy about teaching the word leadership to people aged 16-25 for it would be no justice for them because what will they achieve when they are 40, 50 or 60. We don’t want them to peak too early.

Instead we together insisted that we should teach the youth how to serve. Through serving the community your thoughts and ideas can flourish. A leader should be chosen from within the community rather than self appointed. A true leader doesn’t seek leadership, it is thrust upon him.

Dr Hany El-Banna

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Chronicles from Mogadishu

October 20, 2011 at 4:31 pm · Filed under Blogs, Muslim Charities, Somalia ·Tagged , , , ,


It has been nearly a month since I returned from Mogadishu with a delegation of NGOs from the UK. Parts of our activities included:

  • Assessing the humanitarian situation by visiting IDP (Internally Displaced People) Camps and Hospitals
  • Getting firsthand experience so as to carry out awareness activities in the UK
  • Arranging meetings with local civil society organisations and Muslim INGOs
  • Taking part in a Rain Prayer organised by several Civil Society Organisations

I have now been twice to Mogadishu since the month of August.

On my first visit, I assisted Loutfi and Wassim from Islamic Relief Worldwide in collecting data on water that would then be used to mobilise Muslim Donors and NGOs on the need to focus on long term access to Water in Somalia. I was happy to hear that this resulted in the OIC organising a conference entitle “Water for Life” in Egypt where NGOs offered to drill 582 boreholes.

On the second visit, we organised meetings with Muslim INGOs and local NGOs. Two of our trustees, Othman Moqbel (Human Appeal International) and Dr. Hany El-Banna were part of these conversations. We recognised the fact that it would be difficult for International NGOs to scale up their activities in Somalia given the current political context and that it would be better to work with local partners. Working with local partners also meant taking the responsibility and investing in building their capacities.

We were accompanied during this trip by a group of Somalis from the UK Diaspora, from the Somali Relief and Development Forum, who had not been to Somalia for over 20 years and in some cases had never been to Somalia before. Three ladies in particular: Rahma, Samira and Zahra.

The people living in IDP camps were mainly women and children. The accounts they gave to Rahma, Samira and Zahra, were things they would have never been able to say to anyone else. Cases of rape and other serious issues that no one dares to talk about. These women spoke, because the people they spoke to were women, Somalis and persons they felt they could trust.

I had also noticed limited visibility from certain NGOs as compared to Muslim NGOs. This may be due to security concerns, I don’t know. It seems that, in Somalia, new humanitarian actors are coming to light, thus challenging the traditional “Western” model of humanitarianism which may have failed in this part of the world.

We ended up our trip with a Rain Prayer. The Rain arrived on that same night. A blessing from Allah.

By Abdurahman Sharif

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Mediawatch on Pakistan

October 13, 2011 at 1:15 pm · Filed under Humanitarian, Monsoon, Muslim Charities, Pakistan ·Tagged , , , ,

Earlier this week Sir Nicholas Young CEO of the British Red Cross highlighted the silence of the media surrounding the monsoons which have besieged Pakistan. For the second time in as many years the country has seen the negative effect of rain and monsoons.

The point he has raised is a good one. The past year has seen multiple humanitarian crises due to displacement and natural disasters. USA, Japan, East Africa – as the year has gone on each crisis has received less and less media coverage. The number of column inches and news clips about the current crisis in Pakistan has been minimal. They have been linked to other stories such as one about a party for British expats or a simple weather report.

Every news story needs a hook – an angle to draw a reader or viewer to take interest. Despite aid agencies from the UK such as British Red Cross, Islamic Relief and Oxfam  as well as MCF members Human Appeal International, Human Relief Foundation and Muslim Hands are all working in the region to help people who have lost their livelihoods; there has been a lack of interest.

Possible reasons could include fatigue of the different disasters coupled with a perilous financial situation in our economy. We may be more interested in the care of the elderly in hospitals or the latest Blackberry outage – but surely there is space to cover those in need.

An international perception that Pakistan has problems due to terrorism is seen as off putting to donors. The overwhelming majority in the country are like you and I – wanting earn a living and take care of their families. We need to distinguish and separate the political situation in the country and its humanitarian needs otherwise the people that matter and their plight will be forgotten.

The power of the press and media cannot go unnoticed and neither should humanitarian disasters which require attention in order for aid and support to reach the regions of crisis.

By Mohammad Shakir

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