Category: Charity

Charity Inter-faith Intra-faith

Dave Eggers and “Zeitoun”

islamoyankee

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…

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Charity

Text to donate money to refugees

islamoyankee

Via Aziz: Earlier I mentioned a few ways you can donate to various relief agencies working for Pakistani refugees in the Swat valley and other areas affected by the ongoing warfare with the Taliban. Now comes the most innovative initiative for fundraising I’ve ever heard of: donations via SMS. In a nutshell, you text the word SWAT to 20222 from your cell phone, which automatically adds a $5 donation to the UN relief agency via a simple charge on your cell phone bill. The service is powered by mGive and can be used for essentially any fundraising initiative. The Pakistan…

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Charity Inter-faith Intra-faith

Grass Roots Development May Hold Promise in the Muslim World

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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…

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Books Charity

AIRLift – Buy a Graphic Novel, Save the World

islamoyankee

I have lifted the following wholesale from Aziz P.. He says it. I wouldn’t say much different. It’s a good cause. I will feature the post until the weekend (or I remember to take it down) so it stays on top. —–Begin Verbatim Verbiage—– My friend, the writer G. Willow Wilson, is the author of the comic book series AIR which has been getting rave reviews and recognition. But AIR is more than a book, it’s also a cause! I’ll let Willow explain: Whacky as it is, AIR is a book with a message. So, for every copy of AIR…

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Charity Intra-faith

Islam, business, Aga Khan

islamoyankee

I am a Nizari Ismaili, and hold that the Aga Khan is the direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) through his daughter Fatima (PBUH) and his cousin/son-in-law Ali (PBUH). The New York Times ran a decent story yesterday on the Aga Khan and his humanitarian efforts. I don’t call it philanthropy, because according to the Imam: I am fascinated and somewhat frustrated when representatives of the western world — especially the western media — try to describe the work of our Aga Khan Development Network in fields like education, health, the economy, media, and the building of social infrastructure.…

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