Liberal Arts Forum

Some suggestions for organizers: Make fund raising dinner a positive experience.

-Give a gift to donors as a token of appreciation.

-Recognize the donor by mentioning their family name, children, or good work.

-Welcome people to the dinner. Smile and hug them and let them know how grateful you are for their presence.

-Always have snacks/drinks available.

-Have a slideshow about your institution (put some effort into it).

-Appreciate the giving, whether little or lot. Send people thank you letter/card.

…continue

chime in

Ramadan is that time of the year when money flows, mashAllah. People take part in giving and helping for the sake of God. There are many beautiful stories about sahaba and righteous people and how they gave in the past. However, generosity is not a thing of the past, Muslims still give and will continue to give based on faith and splendor of their love.

With this post I want to point out some negative aspects that have become entrenched in fund raising. Again, my intention is to work with the community to better ourselves in all endeavors for the sake of God.

Pitfalls/my concerns for fundraising committees:

Ever wonder why the community doesn’t show up for the bi-annual fundraiser?

*Do not hold people hostage during the event. If they want to give, let them do it on their own accord. Individuals should never be singled out in public and ask to donate an amount, thus embarrassing them and their family.

*Do not be melodramatic. “Muslims are dying and our women are being raped…” Yes, there are instances like that and it is very sad that this is happening in some parts of the world but please don’t make this sentence a cliche for fund raising. People become dehumanized when they hear this talk and their natural response “there’s always a catastrophe some where some time”.

*Do not scream over the microphone. When a speaker starts yelling and screaming, he will get the attention of his audience for 30 seconds and that’s about it. Please, there is no reason for over the edge doom day analysis that sounds something like “Brothers if you don’t pay for this school, don’t come back and complain that your kids are drug addicts”.

Do not hold iftar/dinner so one could raise more money. Some organizers/speakers think that they can milk a cow by delaying dinner/iftar an hour or two. The logic is that the more we ask the more shall receive. However, people may or may not donate a little extra but they will surely walk away with a malice. Please do remember this malice will hurt the next fund raising dinner that is planned six months down the road. Clearly, most organizations need fund raising in some capacity but they harm themselves by making the dinner/iftar a negative experience for someone who took time off from his/her busy schedule and donated for the cause.

Do not be cheap with food. Be frugal, but treat your guests well. Show the incoming guests hospitality and generosity by offering a good meal and a relaxed environment. This is a Qur’anic & prophetic teaching. How can we ask for a good cause in a bad way?

Recently published comments in The Home News Tribune on the sixth anniversary of the terror attacks of September 11, 2001.

“God is a place we can to turn to”
Home News Tribune Online 09/11/07

Post a comment. View latest comments.By GENE RACZ
STAFF WRITERgracz@thnt.com

A wide range of emotions will flood every corner of American society today — the sixth anniversary of the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Thousands lost loved ones in the attacks, and thousands more have been lost and hurt in the ensuing war on terror — a war that has tried the soul of the nation.
Among those for whom the events of six years ago — and the war that followed — have posed a continuing challenge are members of the clergy whose congregants seek to put such things in the context of their religious faith.

From the vantage point of 2007, several area clerics shared their thoughts on what these events mean to them and to the spiritual well-being of the congregations they serve. Each called on the tenets of his faith for spiritual strength and renewal.

At the Grace Alliance Church in Piscataway, for example, the pastor — the Rev. Mark Kincade — remembered calling his congregation for an evening prayer session the night of the attacks. After learning of the carnage and destruction in New York City, Washington, D.C., and rural Pennsylvania, he phoned and e-mailed members of his church to come and pray.
“Normally, on a week night, you don’t get people out,” said Kincade. “That night, I remember just the large number of people who came out. And I remember that night was a turning point for someone who became a leader in the church. For him it really changed everything — the whole purpose of life and what this all really is about.”

Among Kincade’s congregation at the time was an FBI agent who was present when the towers of the World Trade Center fell. Kincade remembers offering himself as a person who would listen to the images of horror and devastation and help the man sort through the emotions.
“I just listened,” said Kincade. “I just told him, “Hey, I’m someone you could talk to. I can’t understand what you’re going through, I’ve never seen anything like that.”
At Grace Alliance now, Kincade leads his congregation in prayers for troops engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan and also in prayers for peace.

“As Christians, our goal is not just that Americans are safe, but that the people of Iraq, that they would have peace and freedom — that the Christians have freedom to worship, the Sikhs have freedom, the Sunnis, the Shiites, the Kurds and everyone,” said Kincade, who preaches on a theme of the unchanging nature of God.

“When the world is falling apart, God is a place we can to turn to,” said Kincade. “He never promised that there wouldn’t be trials. As a matter of fact, in this world, he says there will be trials. But there’s the fact that he will not leave us in the midst of them.”
For Jews, meanwhile, the anniversary of the terror attacks comes as they anticipate the holiest days on their religious calendar — Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg of Congregation Beth-el in Edison said he will mention the attacks in his sermon this week for Rosh Hashanah — the Jewish New Year.
“People need to be reminded that we are still under attack — there are people who still want to destroy America — and to understand that our solders who are dying are doing so for a belief in democracy,” said Rosenberg.

The rabbi said reflecting on such matters is “very important during the High Holidays, because it’s a time when we ask for God to give us life in the upcoming year, a time when we pray that we live another year, that during this time we hope we are inscribed in the Book of Life.”
Rosenberg said he and his wife narrowly avoided calamities around the time of the attacks. A month earlier, Rosenberg said, he and his wife were in Jerusalem when a bomb blew up at a pizzeria they were headed to. Rosenberg’s last-second decision to eat at another place one block down the street may have saved them.

Then, Rosenberg said, his wife was on a train bound for lower Manhattan when the World Trade Center fell, and it was hours before he was able to contact his her by phone and learn that she was safe.

“I think people need to know that one minute you can be here and the next minute you can be dead — whether it be 9/11, whether it be, God forbid, a car accident or (a matter of) health,” said Rosenberg. “So, it is so important that we take life into consideration and understand that it’s a gift, and that we should do something positive with that gift of life.”

Drawing on another tradition in order to find context for this anniversary is Imam Faraz Khan, who works through the Office of Muslim Chaplaincy at Rutgers University and through he New Brunswick Islamic Center. Khan said he recognizes the observance as a time people are thinking about their lost loved ones.

Khan said he has revisited the Quran for messages of peace and love that he considers crucial to reconciliation.

“I am reminded of the statement in the Qoran where God mentions, paraphrasing it, that saving an innocent soul is like saving humanity, and that murdering an innocent soul is like murdering the entire humanity,” said Khan. “So, one has to do the utmost to save humanity and bring love and peace and reconciliation. That’s how we should look at the world.”
Khan notes that one of the names Muslims recognize for God is peace and another is love — something that’s in the Bible as well.

“There are extremists on both sides of the fence,” said Khan. “So what we want to do is not play into the ploy of these people who are sending the message of hate and bigotry. We should look at a bigger picture of humanity as one big family. And with that family mentality, we should make an extra effort in spreading peace and love among the children of God.
“We can’t control the agenda of other people or some extreme people who have different thinking,” added Khan. “We should not buy into it or be reactionary. 9/11 and calamities can be a reminder to all of us that we can’t let hate and anger get the best of us.
“The best way to eradicate extremism is by showing love and compassion.”

After serving OMCRU for the last nine months as a chaplain, I have decided to leave Muslim Chaplaincy. This decision may come as a surprise to many but I believe there is good in this decision. Pray that God will guide me to the right course.

photo: I believe this is old city Damascus (Suk Hamidiya entrance).

Fasting from pollution… How can Muslims contribute to global good?

Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course. Human activities inflict harsh and often irreversible damage on the environment and on critical resources. If not checked, many of our current practices put at serious risk the future that we wish for human society and the plant and animal kingdoms, and may so alter the living world that it will be unable to sustain life in the manner that we know. Fundamental changes are urgent if we are to avoid the collision our present course will bring about.

The Environment

The environment is suffering critical stress:

The Atmosphere
Stratospheric ozone depletion threatens us with enhanced ultra-violet radiation at the earth’s surface, which can be damaging or lethal to many life forms. Air pollution near ground level, and acid precipitation, are already causing widespread injury to humans, forests and crops.

Water Resources
Heedless exploitation of depletable ground water supplies endangers food production and other essential human systems. Heavy demands on the world’s surface waters have resulted in serious shortages in some 80 countries, containing 40% of the world’s population. Pollution of rivers, lakes and ground water further limits the supply.

Oceans
Destructive pressure on the oceans is severe, particularly in the coastal regions which produce most of the world’s food fish. The total marine catch is now at or above the estimated maximum sustainable yield. Some fisheries have already shown signs of collapse. Rivers carrying heavy burdens of eroded soil into the seas also carry industrial, municipal, agricultural, and livestock waste — some of it toxic.

Soil
Loss of soil productivity, which is causing extensive Land abandonment, is a widespread byproduct of current practices in agriculture and animal husbandry. Since 1945, 11% of the earth’s vegetated surface has been degraded — an area larger than India and China combined — and per capita food production in many parts of the world is decreasing.

Forests
Tropical rain forests, as well as tropical and temperate dry forests, are being destroyed rapidly. At present rates, some critical forest types will be gone in a few years and most of the tropical rain forest will be gone before the end of the next century. With them will go large numbers of plant and animal species.

Living Species
The irreversible loss of species, which by 2100 may reach one third of all species now living, is especially serious. We are losing the potential they hold for providing medicinal and other benefits, and the contribution that genetic diversity of life forms gives to the robustness of the world’s biological systems and to the astonishing beauty of the earth itself.

Much of this damage is irreversible on a scale of centuries or permanent. Other processes appear to pose additional threats. Increasing levels of gases in the atmosphere from human activities, including carbon dioxide released from fossil fuel burning and from deforestation, may alter climate on a global scale. Predictions of global warming are still uncertain — with projected effects ranging from tolerable to very severe — but the potential risks are very great.

Our massive tampering with the world’s interdependent web of life — coupled with the environmental damage inflicted by deforestation, species loss, and climate change — could trigger widespread adverse effects, including unpredictable collapses of critical biological systems whose interactions and dynamics we only imperfectly understand.

Uncertainty over the extent of these effects cannot excuse complacency or delay in facing the threat.

Union of Concerned Scientists
96 Church Street
Cambridge, Mass 02238-9105, USA
Phone – 617-547-5552 Fax – 617-864-9405
ucs@igc.apc.org

[Warning issued on November 18, 1992]