The Yoyo

People might be forgiven for thinking that humanitarian workers are all saints, prophets and messengers of humanitarianism. I can assure you that is not the case. We are all human and because we are human, we make mistakes.

Humanitarian organisations, small or large, can dictate policies and build artificial boundaries between themselves and others. The contradiction lies in talking about building bridges with the community and actually doing it. We must build new bridges, not destroy existing ones.  The humanitarian culture can have different clouds, atmospheres or temperatures. What topic could be hot in the bottom tiers could be very cold to subzero in the higher spheres.

It reminds me of a yoyo, going back and forth, or staged photo opportunities between politicians, when they smile at the camera, but not at each other.

The cultural change inside the humanitarian family needs to provide inclusivity, determination and willingness to build bridges. Without them, the body of humanitarian movement cannot be saved.

I say no to the yoyo. Who is with me?

The Lawmaker, Law Taker and Law Breaker

The other day I had a discussion with a couple of colleagues from the Somali Relief and Development Forum – Jacquelyn and Robert. It was a philosophical-cultural discussion between a young British graduate, a young Canadian woman and myself.

Jacquelyn was talking about the relationship between business organisations and charity organisations and how to make the law function better between them and how to create a healthy relationship between these types of organisations.

Robert looked at me and my appearance and told me that I remind him of a gangster wearing a trilby hat.  I asked him, who is this trilby wearing gangster? A Lawmaker, law breaker or law taker? The difference between the three is quite simple, in my opinion. One might take a break, but the other two break the law.  The trilby wearing gangster can abuse any law, whether at government level, humanitarian level, business level or community level.

It doesn’t matter how good our law is or the way we make it, the Trilby person will find their way inside all interpretations of the law. We need to be careful with such individuals.

Do you know Trilby?

MCB Leadership Dinner 2012: Celebrating a year of Sport

I was invited by the Muslim Council of Britain to the Leadership Dinner to speak about the best of the British Sport. Since I am not a sportsman and I used to play only marbles, I am not able to behave like a sportsman.

I gave my speech to the British Muslim community and Muslim communities everywhere. I was quite critical of the role, questioning why we should consider ourselves leaders. I challenged the audience to consider ourselves as servants. The community is the one who can decide to accept our services or not. The community is in fact the leader, because it can make you a leader.

I talked about a number of issues and challenges:

1. Who are our friends and enemies? Everyday men and women will say that Muslims are friends with Muslims and Christians are friends with Christians. That Non-Muslims are enemies to Muslims and Islam. Sheikh Mohammed al-Ghazali from Egypt used to say that the worst enemies of Islam are narrow-minded and ignorant Muslim scholars who give a wrong opinion to the wrong people at the wrong time, via the community. We have to struggle to change our enemies into good and close friends.

2.  The second challenge for me revolves around my having been born in Egypt and come to study in Britain and become a citizen. I came from a glass house society controlled by an authoritarian regime to a very open, democratic society. I thought, as a young graduate, that such a democratic society doesn’t have ceilings or borders for innovation. I discovered after 35 years that I moved from a glass house to somewhere under a glass ceiling, with a hallway at the side, so you can leave if you don’t like it.  This is why we should revisit our way of thinking and remove such a glass ceiling from our democratic society.

3.  The third challenge was the relationship between Muslim leaders and technology, media and a newly growing culture. The challenge for Muslim organisations as well as for me is not to be locked inside a box, but to look out of the box, at the surroundings and become relevant in the context of what’s happening around us.

4. The fourth challenge is the issue of hafiz (the ones who memorise the Quran) and Aalem (scholar of Islam).
There is a trend among Muslim organisations and Mosques to have as many hafiz as possible. This is very good, but not good enough. Hafiz can memorise and recite the Quran. Aalem is the one who can navigate through the wealth of knowledge of the past, present and future, to find the right solution for a contemporary problem.  One Aalem could educate millions of different generations. Thousands of hafiz will memorise and recite the Quran to their surroundings only in the time of their own generation.

5. The fifth challenge is our wrong application of the human interpretation of the Quran, which is affected by the philosophy of our village culture. When you bring such a culture into an open society and make judgements on multilateral complex issues, it is difficult to say the least. One of the vital subjects an Aalem needs to master before he/she can be called a scholar of Islam is the Arabic language as most of the original Islamic knowledge is kept in Arabic. Our wrong application of the human interpretation of the scholars of the past is creating differences, bringing divisions and fragmenting the young growing Muslim society in the West.

6. The sixth challenge is the issue of Zakat (alms due). As we understand, the Zakat must be spent within one year on 8 categories mentioned in the Holy Quran. Unfortunately, we find that some so-called scholars deny the spending of Zakat on non-Muslims, without aiming to convert them to Islam, but make them friends of Islam. They also deny spending Zakat on employing people the run the organisations, paying administrative costs, training people, educating generations, creating think tanks, research centres and other institutions that our society and community needs most. We still think traditionally, but we are living in a non-traditional world.

7. The challenge of ALLOW. The difference between “prevent” and “allow” is that “prevent” is the language of the weak, who wants to forbid people from doing things that could be right. The “allow” language is the language of the strong people, who empower others to be more responsible with the community, even if they may make mistakes. If the Muslim community had had policy-making institutions and pressure groups, it would have impacted on this kind of policy. The research and development policy is not a part of expenditure of Zakat at the back of the minds of Muslim leaders in society.

8. The role of women in Islam. Islam has liberated women 1400 years ago; however some opinions of certain individuals are reversing the time machine to before 1400 years ago, by not allowing women to become a part of Muslim leadership in most organisations, mosques and institutions. Not only that, but also denying the Muslim woman daily space for prayers inside the mosque. As the Prophet (PBUH) said: “Do not prevent the female slave of Allah from coming to the houses of Allah”. Who are we to prevent males or females to come to the house that Allah owns?

9.  The role of youth. The Arab Spring has seen a wave of tsunami magnitude changes in many Arab countries, led by brave male and female youth, who went out to receive beatings, bullets and teargas with bare and open hearts. They became martyrs, not only for their communities, but for humanity.  We shouldn’t think of youth as a scout club, a piece of furniture or a decoration. We should consider youth the current and future leaders of our community. I ask myself: what is the percentage of leaders over 60 and 70 running our organisations and how long have they been in office. The issue of governance has to be addressed.

10. History. Our history has been recorded wrongly. We only know of battles, conquests, plots etc. We hardly ever learn about the history of civil society who lived in Muslim countries for 1400 years and produced a magnificent civilisation. We need to know more about the social history which lead to the building of such a civilisation. It wasn’t the army who built Islamic science, technology and civilisation; it was the citizens of Muslim countries.

To conclude, we shouldn’t look at others for our mistakes. We should consider ourselves accountable. What we need is a positive social climate change in our society. My last comment is on the Sunna of the Prophet (PBUH).  Sunna is about renewal, independence and reasoning (tajdid, ijtihad). The Prophet (PBUH) followed the policy of tajdid and ijtihad. If we do not, we cannot claim we are following the Sunna.

With Mohamed Sbihi, Rowing Champion and his father

The Polar Bear and the Money

Climate change, global warming, and industrial pollution – these are all affecting our planet. This is happening because of the greed of mankind, who always wants to find the easiest and most profitable way to exist. In my opinion, oil is important; however science nowadays can find a lot of alternative sources of energy. Recently I heard about a new potential catastrophe: investing heavily in the North Pole to extract gold and oil.

What we need to realise is that mankind has been systematically killing other creations of God over the past centuries through ignorance and greed. Sadly, it seems to me that nobody wants to stop the greed of man. Can you imagine what kind of impact an oil spill would have should it happen in this area? I don’t think it will be the polar bears that will benefit from oil exploitation. Somehow, I don’t think we’ll see polar bears with briefcases full of money.

When we lose sight of the rights of the billions of citizens inhabiting the globe, it isn’t a catastrophe. It’s the end of life on Earth! We are also exterminating the lives of other species.

In my view, we need to think seriously about investing in other climate friendly sources of energy. Oil is not the beginning, nor is it the end. The oil industry is just an industry. Alternative sources of energy will give us the means to save our lives and the lives of generations to come.

We need to stop terrorising the environment and work together to create a better world for you and me and the ones who will come after us.

Mistakes and the City

A while back, I was passing through the new Cairo – newly developed areas, very middle class, on the outskirts of Cairo. There were many villas, mansions, shopping centres, brand new motorways. While I was travelling, I realised the roads were full of cars parked on both sides, with hardly any spaces left for all of them. These “super villas” with swimming pools and gardens did not have parking spaces. I personally couldn’t believe that architects or city planners haven’t thought about this.

I can give you another example, this time from the resorts on the north shore of Egypt. To me it seemed that if there was a piece of available land, an extension would come up from left to right and back to front. This was done to gain an extra yard or two. It felt like there was no greenery left, with people stealing land from nature.
In my opinion, this is a civic issue. Civility is a social moral behaviour, based on community partnership which establishes a public benefit for all. How can we rebuild another magnificent civilisation, if we fight about every inch of land?

Let us nurture our community spirit and work together to live a fulfilling life.

The Six Pillars

My latest visit to Cairo was exciting as usual. In the first two days, I attended the 10th Coordination Meeting between UN OCHA and League and Arab States, where I chaired a session on relationships between the government and NGOs.

An interesting concept came out of this meeting, when discussing Arab Spring events. While in the West, it is thought that the state is supported by three pillars (government, business and civil society), the Arab Spring has added three more pillars (youth, women and legislation).

This is a very interesting concept, because for example in the region 60% of the population is under the age of 35. Also, the dynamic role of women within the civil society was consistent with the teachings of prophets who came through this land hundreds and thousands of years ago. Unfortunately, nowadays the women are not empowered enough and we need to work to achieve that. There is also a need for the legislation to be strengthened.

While I was in Cairo, I received a phone call from a youth worker who invited me to speak to an exciting group of youth at the National Youth Council. I was eager to go and meet the future of the nation. More than 90 young men and women from different districts in Egypt came to network, showcase their initiatives and build coalitions. I spoke to them for at least 2 hours. I asked them: “Who are you?” Some said they want to change the face of history and humanity. Some said they want to become pharmacists. Some said they just want to be good role models to others.

I wanted everybody to focus on a single issue: what is our role in this society? Do we have a role or not? In my opinion, not having a role to play in society is equal to not existing. Everyone can have a role to play by participating in their community in any way they can.

Just as I write this, I have received another phone call from the organiser to ask when am I coming back to give another talk. If it happens, I will write back to you.  See you soon!