Relatives and friends are by far the primary source of assistance for people mired in unemployment, with about 70 percent of the long-term jobless saying they’re received no help from churches or community organizations, according to an NPR/Kaiser Family Foundation survey.
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Grass Roots Development May Hold Promise in the Muslim World
I would actually hope that it holds promise for everyone: There is, Khan averred, a “dominant player fallacy” or the tendency to place “too much reliance in national governments and other institutions which may have relatively superficial connections to life at the grass-roots level.” Thus, “urban-based outsiders often look at these situations from the perspective of the city center looking out to a distant countryside, searching for quick and convenient levers of influence.” The secret, then, is to work “from the bottom up” and not from the top down, as is so often the case. As he told the dinner…
Action Call: Ask Pres. Obama to keep his promise on Islamic Charities
From Muslim Advocates: One year after President Obama pledged in Cairo, Egypt, to ease hurdles to charitable giving, American Muslims are asking President Obama to keep his promise and help them fulfill their religious obligation, while building bridges to Muslim nations for a more secure future. … On Friday, June 4th, Muslim Advocates is urging Muslims across the country to call the White House (202.456.1111) and tell President Obama to keep his promise and reform the many federal laws complicating our ability to give zakat freely. Download a PDF of the Action Alert!
Dave Eggers and “Zeitoun”
From Zeba Iqbal: — Hello All – Have you heard about a fantastic new book by Pulitzer nominated author Dave Eggers? The book, Zeitoun, called an ‘instant American classic’, is about a Muslim American man, Abdalrahman Zeitoun and his family in New Orleans. Zeitoun stays behind to help neighbors after Hurricane Katrina only to be detained and suspected as “Taliban” and “Al Qaeda. Timothy Egan writes in his upcoming New York Times Book Review (on August 16, 2009): “Imagine Charles Dickens, his sentimentality in check but his journalistic eyes wide open, roaming New Orleans after it was buried by Hurricane…