Specific VisionariesThere are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.
Henry David Thoreau
Shaykh Hamza Yusuf on the Roots of Our Crisis.We are in dire need of volunteers, activists, thinkers, and institutions who are wisely and intelligently working at reforming society, visionaries who see the pitfalls in our times and are helping us redefine the way we look at the world to develop more meaningful, purposeful, and harmonious lives and communities. Specifically those seeking to make balanced, grassroots, progressive change in the areas below among others. The point is to encourage ourselves and our applicants to renew our intentions and to focus efforts on the root causes of societal problems.
COMMUNITYAs we have become disconnected from our Sacred Traditions and traditional from the Earth and the sources of our nourishment, we have also become disconnected from each other – our families and communities continue to face enormous challenges. We seek to support initiatives that aim to restore the centrality of family and community to our lived experience of the Sacred Tradition of Islam. See some of the great work by
Ta’leef and
Tarjuma.
EDUCATIONA tremendous amount of work has been done by many people who show that the conventional mass schooling model typically used in the West is a failed or even harmful model and that alternative methods are far superior for individuals and society at large. For example, see the insightful of the late
Mr. John Taylor Gatto,
Sir Ken Robinson, John Holt (the father of modern homeschooling), Chris Hedges, Noam Chomsky, the documentary Race to Nowhere and many others.
FOOD – HEALTH – ENVIRONMENTWe believe that our bodies, minds, and hearts are sacred trusts and that their nourishment affects our health, states, actions, and the environment-at-large – we cannot separate our individual health from the health of the planet, we are all connected, and in the Islamic Tradition, this goes further as the states of our hearts and the purity of our deeds affects our bodies and our world. The
organic and
fair trade food movements have been increasing in popularity. Furthermore, much work is being done to help people understand the harms of the normal modern diet full of processed foods and artificial ingredients. For example, see the outstanding work of
Dr. Robert Lustig in advocating against sugar, and the many documentaries that resulted from his work (like
Fed Up) – similarly,
Michael Pollan and others have worked tirelessly to help offset the harms of the modern diet. We seek to support people and causes that will help advance a holistic and honorable relationship between humanity and our sources of nourishment.
While there are many who would like to serve humanity in the capacity of medicine or health, there are relatively few who dig deep to get to root causes of modern health problems: for example, often there is little appreciation for holistic and traditional medicine and a dogmatic approach to ‘scientific medicine’ (see resources compiled by
S.Hakim Archuletta and excellent research on the website of
Sheikh Nuh Keller, and
Shaykh Hamza Yusuf: Medicine and Islam – A Holistic Approach to Healthcare)
See this insightful critique of modern medicine by
Zelicoff and Bellomo that discusses, among many things, a modern preference for high cost treatment when simpler, cheaper, more effective treatments are available. There is widespread corruption in the pharmaceutical industry (Sheikh Nuh Keller
touches on this on his website). There are institutional problems specifically in the US with similar issues in other countries, see
Sicko by Michael Moore, and then see some of the pioneering of organizations such as
www.ummaclinic.org and
www.muslimmeds.ca.The point being: medical practitioners often only deal with micro band-aid solutions at the individual level; and while this may be good and praiseworthy, we are in dire need of critical thinking visionaries who can see through these colossal challenges and go to the roots of the problems and then advocate and dedicate themselves for solutions that will literally save and benefit hundreds of millions.
As for the environment as a whole, modern ways of living have had devastating affects on the entire planet including the land, air, and water we all share as well as specific harm to countless animal species. As stewards of the Earth, it is our sacred duty to restore the balance in the world such that we live in harmony with all creatures.
For example, see what is being done by:
David Suzuki Foundation;
Environmental Working Group;
Environmental Defence;
Council of Canadians, and many more. Many modern mass agricultural methods are harming each of us and eco-systems across the planet – see
Cowspiracy. There is a renewed push for small-scale solutions and local food movements are taking way across the globe; see the
permaculture movement and
www.soilassociation.org. Similarly, what we wear has a tremendous impact on the world; the
Organic Cotton movement, as part of the organic textile movement, is growing and needs much support, see the efforts of GOTS
www.global-standard.org.
Then there are wide-spread use of chemicals and plastics in modern life, see
Plastic Pollution Coalition and
www.tappedmovie.com. Stephanie Soechtig’s team also made this great clip giving a tip of the iceberg of personal harm behind
modern cosmetics (not to mention environmental harm!) – amazingly, they report, newborns are exposed to ~300 chemicals via the umbilical cord; 1100 chemicals are banned in the EU and still allowed in the US; of the 80,000 chemicals in use in the US only 200 have been tested for safety. That takes us into the wonderful world of scents, it is reported that “95% of chemicals used in scents are derived from petroleum” (i.e. the same stuff we put in our cars). This is really harmful for us, our children, animals, plants, air, water, and land – for more information, see:
http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/myths-on-cosmetics-safety/ also see
Story of Cosmetics.
May God grant us pure food and great health and a pristine environment on all levels. Ameen.
ECONOMICSIANA in its entirety is one humble effort to help combat the widespread oppression by the modern economic systems. Much work is being done by other organizations to explore alternative local currencies, to
advocate for credit unions over large banks, to prefer cash to over credit cards, and even to make a push for real currencies over cash. See the work of Bruce Livesey in
Thieves of Bay Street, or the documentary
Money as Debt, and many more. The inherent inequalities of modern economic systems hurt us all and lead to poverty and war – we need to do much more to raise awareness and to establish fair economic institutions and programs. We believe adherence to the principles of Islamic Finance will solve our problems.Economics, aside from the purely financial side, is in effect a means to affect all other areas of life, if we appreciate that ethical spending is a way to vote with our dollars – which causes, companies, organizations, or concepts to support or not support. As such, there are many efforts in this regard such as:
www.thegoodshoppingguide.com;
www.betterworldshopper.org;
www.ethicalconsumer.orgBy trying to be careful and intentional in how we spend our money, we can help reform our world on many levels including the environment, human rights, child welfare, animal rights, and more. While Iana does not fully endorse any of these works in their entirety, they are providing tremendously beneficial services to help people be more ethical in their spending and to avoid being complicit in human and environmental injustice.
There is much work being done here, on ethical earning and spending, and the over-arching Islamic Economic System by
Dr. Adi Setia and others as highlighted in the international
Journal for Islamic Sciences.
Journalism & MediaHonest and courageous journalism and media help safeguard and protect the rights of the oppressed and disenfranchised and make the world a better place. See some of the great work by Real News Network, Democracy Now, National Observer, the Intercept, and many more.
Indigenous PeoplesIndigenous communities in Canada and across the world have suffered over the centuries and many sincere efforts are aimed at righting the wrongs of the past and reconciliation. See some of the works of John Ralston Saul and Dr. Howard Johnson among many others who seek to support the healthy renew
Other areas include: 
