Tag: Faith

Does religion help you heal when you’re in an unstable mental state? Many people have a belief system, whether that be in the form of organised religion or not. Some of us may just be spiritual people generally and some may believe in Mother Nature and send their prayers to Mother Earth.

Religion appeared centuries ago – the ancient man had different forms of worship: the sun, the moon, or a higher hidden force named God or Allah. Today, there are various religions and rather than religion becoming less popular, it is in fact growing. More than 80% of the world’s population is part of a religious groups and “members of this demographic are generally younger and produce more children than those who have no religious affiliation, so the world is getting more religious, not less”. Although each has different beliefs, many of their characteristics and morals are similar.

Freedom of Religion

Children and adults have the freedom to choose and practice their religion. This right is protected by Article 9 of the humans rights act: “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.”

The 1999 African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child also defends religious freedom in Article 9. Freedom of thought and religion, for both children and adults, are protected by Article 9 of the European Convention of Human Rights, which applies to the 47 countries forming the Council of Europe. The European Court of Human Rights may hold to account a country that does not abide by this. Religious freedom is important, not only because it is part of the broader structure of human rights globally, but because it promotes a positive force in many people’s lives. Research conducted by the Pew Research Centre found that “people who are highly religious are more engaged with their extended families, more likely to volunteer, more involved in their communities and generally happier with the way things are going in their lives”. Protecting this kind of activity through freedom of religion laws is therefore important in any society as it is show to be associated with positive outcomes.

Mental Health and Religion

For most, believing in a religion is the belief in a hidden power to return to at all times, whether good or bad. Having that comfort and hope to return to plays a vital part in a human’s mental state. Religions are a constant that make a chaotic life more comfortable and bearable. It also helps in self-settling and assists in the reconstruction of the misplaced refugees. Research has indicated that practicing a religion can reduce the chances of alcoholism, anxiety and suicide. The programmes conducted by Pew further supports this through the finding that 40% of highly religious US adults would consider themselves to be “very happy”, as compared with just 29% of those who are less religious.

Religion in Displacement

In a study on religious diversity and practice in refugee camps, it has been concluded that the practice of religion is not actively supported or accepted. This is evident through the lack of facilities made available, such as a prayer room; or a collective ritual exercise, such as a group prayer. However, in some camps, Muslim dietary rules are acknowledged such as the prohibition of pork. In many camps, Christmas is regarded as a cultural heritage rather than a religious celebration. Therefore, many camps put up a Christmas tree and participate by giving presents to refugee children.

Stories shared with Kat Eghdamian during her programmes in Jordan illustrate why religion matters in the context of displacement and suggest why it is overlooked or misunderstood by actors supporting those in displacement. One of the reasons is the rise of global Islamic terrorism.

To date, religion has often been viewed in one of three ways:

1. Religion as a potential resource to be operationalised in humanitarian service delivery (the instrumentalisation of religion);
2. Religion as a source of conflict among and between groups (religion as divisive identity politics); or
3. Religion as an unimportant feature of displacement (religion as pertaining only to the private sphere).

Although different aspects of the above may be true in some cases, it is not an extensive account of the multiple ways in which religion plays a role in humanitarianism in general, or displacement specifically. To support the previous statement, programmes by Kat Eghdamian on Syrian refugees from religious minority groups has demonstrated that the non-instrumental roles of religion (e.g. religious ethics and motivations) and the numerous constructive ways in which religious values and religiously-motivated practice shape and inform displacement experiences, are yet to be fully investigated.

The agencies responsible for providing humanitarian relief and facilitating camps for refugees are not fulfilling the rights of refugees if they are not enabling them to engage in their religious practices. The severity of a refugee’s circumstances, the trauma they may have experienced and the contrast of their new life to their old one can be overwhelming – allowing these individuals to maintain a connection with their religion could be a useful to preserve their dignity, identity and mental health.

Written by Reham Al-Eryani

Learning & Development Administrator

Research has shown that Western media coverage of terrorism is often based on Islamophobic assumptions. Islamophobia in Western media is increasingly spreading to other parts of the world, which rely on Western news outlets, yet have little everyday exposure to Muslims.

The Power of the Press

Since the late 1700s, news media and the press have been considered some of the most important sources of power, being referred to as the “fourth estate” or “fourth power”. The term was derived from the traditional European concept of the three estates of society: the clergy, the nobility, and the commoners. The term acknowledges the media’s capacity of advocacy, but also its ability to frame political issues. The media’s most significant role is agenda-setting – the ability to choose what issues become part of public discourse. This makes the media responsible and powerful enough to construct and present certain images to the public. According to agenda-setting theory, the press does not reflect reality as it is, but it does filter and shape events towards their own view. As Bernard Cohen famously said, “the press may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about”. That is why it is important for news media to be transparent and to deliver the best sources of information.

Islamophobia in Western Media’s Coverage of Terrorism

Many studies have suggested that, since 9/11, the amount of Western media outlets that communicate content containing Islamophobia has increased considerably, especially in their reports on terrorism. Research has shown an existing prejudice against Muslims from Western news organisations, and that media coverage is often framed in a negative light. Muslims are “regularly depicted as out-group extremists and are linked to terrorist acts in terrorism news”. A recent study by the University of Alabama showed that in the US, terrorism attacks by Muslim Extremists receive 357% more press attention than any other non-Muslim terrorist attack.

The Situation in the UK

In the UK, there are many examples of news headlines and coverage that could potentially instil fear and the possibility of ‘othering’ in readers. Mainstream newspapers such as the Daily Express, The Sun and The Times have been authors of offensive headlines, including “Ramadan A Ding-Dong”, “Christianity under Attack”, “Muslims ‘silent on terror’”, “Britain’s Goes Halal…but Nobody Tells Public”, and others. The editor-in-chief of the Daily Express actually recognised that many of the stories published in the newspaper contributed to an “Islamophobic sentiment” in the media. While these are some of the most obvious examples, instances of Islamophobia also exist in other parts of the media and entertainment, including newspapers, radio, TV and films.

Comparing the Coverage of Radical Muslim and White Supremacists’ Attacks

If we look into the current international context, the past year has been marked by a series of terrorist attacks, notably White Supremacists and radical Muslims that have shocked the world. News coverage of Christchurch, Sri Lanka, El Paso and the recent attack in Halle, Germany, are some examples of how the media has reported on terrorism. A recent study by Signal AI where 200,000 articles of 11 attacks were analysed in 80 different languages, found that Islamic State (ISIS)-inspired attackers are three times more likely to be described as “terrorists” than far-right and White Supremacist attackers. The analysis showed that radical Muslims were called “terrorists” in 78% of the articles analysed, but extreme-right attackers were only called “terrorists” in 27% of the news coverage.

The Spread of Islamophobia to Non-Western, majority-Christian Countries

So far, this blog post has focused on “Western” countries, including Northern America, Europe and Australia. However, there is evidence that Islamophobia could potentially begin to spread to other countries that are influenced by the West. For my Masters Dissertation, I programmesed how the Chilean press is influenced by Western Media in the communication of terrorism. As a country where Catholicism is the predominant religion and the Muslim population is very small (0.04%), it is not surprising that Chileans do not know much about Islam. Chilean media generally base their own coverage on international information from mainstream Western media (such as the BBC, The Guardian, The New York Times, CNN, El Pais, etc.) or news agencies (Reuters, AF, France Presse, AFP). Therefore, it is likely that if any of these sources of information include content that transmits any form of Islamophobia, Chilean news media could reproduce the same representation of the Muslim community. It therefore seems like Islamophobia in the media of the West, could spread to non-Western countries.

Control, Bias and Fear

It would appear that if radical Muslims are portrayed significantly more often as terrorists than other attackers, the public can potentially also adopt a negative opinion of Islam. There are many studies that have shown that news about terrorism can provoke a sense of fear in individuals. However, the level of fear can vary “depending on the specific information provided or the way terrorism news are presented”. This is why it is so important for news media and agencies to have the correct tools and processes in place, in order to avoid creating stereotypes or promoting fear of a specific community. Elizabeth Poole for example, states that the absence of ‘normal’ articles about Muslims in their every-day life results in a “consistently narrow framework of representation”. Because of this framing, Poole explains that in the UK, newspapers construct social meaning and promote a ‘way of seeing’ Islam to readers. Including other communities like the Muslim population in every-day media coverage can escape that negative framing.

Lack of everyday exposure

During my programmes, the articles that I studied failed to explain or contextualise that there is a large proportion of Muslims who are not involved in terrorism. According to Von Sikorski, this point is vital, because failing to do so can influence readers’ perceptions, leading them to believe that all Muslims are terrorists. Chile is a country with a small Muslim community, where the lack of everyday exposure and communication with Muslims, together with constant media representation of Islam as a “terrorist religion”, can change the attitude of the audience.

Western Responsibility

The Chilean press (or any non-Western news media) have an ethical responsibility to invest in and train their journalists on knowledge about terrorism. This could help stereotypes being reproduced in the same way that they are in the Western world. It is also a statement to the importance of ethical and professional communication, and that Western media have an even bigger responsibility to deliver facts and not stereotypes. Because not only are they communicating with people in the West, but also with the rest of the world.

Written by Gabriela Hagedorn

Marketing & Communications Intern

The recent publication by House of Peace of a collection of stories from the field of humanitarian/development operations in Lebanon and Syria is a reminder that while humanitarian relief operations are far more cognisant of the potential negative effects of their work than was the case twenty years ago, negative effects do still occasionally happen. Humanitarians, development professionals and peacebuilding actors all have stories of initiatives that have failed, projects that have unintentionally caused harm or people who have behaved in undignified ways. A conflict sensitive approach to programming aims to prevent negatives effects and mitigate the damage if they occur, but what does an Islamic perspective on conflict sensitivity look like? This blog explains Islamic Relief’s thoughts on the topic and offers some practical suggestions for busy professionals in the field or in headquarters.

Negative effects of programmes continue to be reported

The report by House of Peace highlights a number of negative effects that have been seen recently in Lebanon and Syria. Although the following examples come from this report, Lebanon and Syria are neither unique nor unusual, there will be similar stories elsewhere and others besides.

Fraught aid distributions

“A local NGO team visited a camp and asked the residents to register their names and those of their neighbours for oil distribution. One of the residents wasn’t present in the camp and his neighbours didn’t register his name. A verbal conflict started between neighbours and escalated to a physical one. This tense relationship lasted for 8 months until one of the camp residents intervened and solved the conflict.” (Sadkni, 2019:8)

Aid distributions are often fraught with tension, especially between those who receive aid and those who do not but feel themselves to be just as needy. These tensions can escalate into hostility between refugee and host communities and outright violence, especially when they reinforce existing divisions.

“In Wadi Khaled, a group of volunteers decided to organise some activities for kids during Eid Al-Fitr. Since their budget was limited, they decided that the activities will target refugee kids only. During this implementation, kids from the local community felt frustrated because they were forbidden to participate, and they sabotaged the team possessions and eventually forced them to leave the area.” (Sadkni, 2019:13).

Deciding on aid criteria together with local stakeholders and communicating criteria clearly can help to mitigate this tension, but it may not eliminate it entirely. Understanding the divisions in a community is important because projects can be altered to work across dividing lines rather than reinforcing them. In the story above, a more sensitive approach would have been to organise activities for refugee and local children together and use the activity to break down prejudices and tensions between the two groups.

Aid distributions can also be fraught with tension when distribution staff or recipients engage in poor behaviour, such as striking recipients off an aid list out of spite or verbally abusing staff because of perceived affronts to someone’s dignity. The asymmetrical power relations between those giving and those receiving aid can exacerbate problems of malpractice.

Worlds apart – differences in values and culture

“During an outdoor activity, a group of youth approached female volunteers and harassed them verbally. The volunteers didn’t know that the community was very conservative, so they didn’t take this into consideration in the way how they dressed up. Moreover, they chose the location of the activity to be next to the mosque. The music and the noise bothered the Sheikh who went out and forced people to boycott the activity.” (Sadkni, 2019:10)

The values and cultural differences between international NGOs and local communities can cause problems in perception and action. For example, Muslim communities may view the promotion of human rights as an attempt to undermine Islamic values and local culture and promote ‘Westernisation’ of their society. Women’s empowerment projects tend to be particularly sensitive. Overcoming these problems of perception is possible by staff with excellent knowledge of the local culture, the ability to communicate ideas and meaning between different languages and the ability to build trust between different stakeholders.

Elitism and perceived bias

Very often staff within international organisations are recruited from a country’s highest strata of educated, English-speaking elites. Staff are then not just from a different social class to the recipients of aid or development projects, but they are very often also from an ethnic or religious group that has historically benefitted from preferential access to education. This can make it difficult for them to build trust with local communities and it can create negative perceptions of NGOs by suggesting they are biased in their recruitment processes.

There are many more stories and examples from Lebanon and Syria in the House of Peace report, as well as some excellent recommendations for improving the delivery of humanitarian and development programmes in these countries, but being conflict sensitive is easier said than done.

Context sensitivity within Islamic Relief

One of Islamic Relief’s five core values is Ihsan (excellence) and in our day to day engagement with local communities we strive to do the best possible work that we can. An increasingly important issue for our operations in fragile and conflict-affected states is sensitivity to the context we work in to avoid exacerbating tensions and making the situation worse. Do No Harm as a guiding principle for humanitarian action arose out of the ashes of the Rwandan genocide and has now developed into conflict/context sensitivity. This is a broader concept that applies to development and peacebuilding practitioners as well as humanitarians and seeks to not just avoid negative effects but also seize opportunities to reduce social tensions and rebuild positive relationships.

Being context sensitive means taking the time to talk to a wide range of people in the places where we work to build a deeper understanding of the root causes of problems, the tensions beneath the surface, the divisions between different class, religious, ethnic or linguistic groups and the political and economic forces that exacerbate divisions or bring people together despite them. This implies a humility in our engagement with communities. As stated in the Qur’an:

“Do not follow blindly what you do not know to be true: ears, eyes and heart, you will be questioned about all of these. Do not strut arrogantly about the earth: you cannot break it open, nor match the mountains in height” (Q17:36-37)

It also implies a broader understanding of the context than one which might be assumed when we talk about ‘conflict’. Focusing on ‘conflict’ too often limits discussion to armed groups and agents of violent conflict.

Islamic Relief’s toolkit for working in conflict states “In Islam, the goal of development is to create an environment that enables people to enjoy spiritual, moral and socio-economic well-being” (Salek, 2014:19). In order to work towards this environment, Islamic Relief has adopted the Maqasid al-Shari’ah which places human dignity at the centre of an Islamic framework for development. There are five crucial dimensions of human development in this framework: faith (deen), life (nafs), the intellect (aql), posterity (future generations, nasl) and wealth (maal). The Qur’anic notion of justice (adl) is related to this framework because it states that peace cannot be attained without justice, meaning also social and economic justice.

When we strive towards the objectives of the Maqasid al-Shari’ah we are urged in Islamic legal theory to seek benefit and reduce harm (through maslaha), thus we must look at the impact of our interventions on all of these five areas of life (Salek, 2014:19).

Understanding the context where we work

“My Lord, increase me in knowledge” (Q20:114)

Ideally, we would seek a deep understanding of the context where we work before designing a project so that we are as sure as we can be that it is sensitive to local dynamics, appropriate to the cultural context, meets identified needs and is sustainable over the long term. How do we do this? We use tools to map the context (problem tree, historical timeline, geographic mapping, stakeholder mapping, connectors and dividers etc.) and should, ideally, engage local people in our analysis discussions to ensure we have understood all of the local sensitivities in the project location.

The constant challenge, though, is the lack of time available to do a good enough analysis before a project is designed and a funding proposal written. Projects are often designed very rapidly and locked into place once funding is received. This makes it difficult to change a project when we realise that things are not working out as expected or we can see a better way of delivering and supporting sustainable human development. This challenge is common to all NGOs and it is here to stay, at least in the short term. So here are five simple suggestions for busy professionals seeking to integrate context sensitivity into their organisation’s work.

First, instead of trying to do a context analysis for every project, cluster projects together into geographic regions or thematic issues and do an annual analysis of that region or theme. While some of the finer detail may be lost, the main issues will be captured and considered. If there is a lack of confidence in the office in doing a context analysis, employ an expert consultant for a few days to help. Schedule in annual reviews of the analysis because things do change and make sure that you use the analysis to review the appropriateness of projects.

Second, put a fixed agenda point into project review meetings to review the project’s interaction with the context.

Third, focus on improving project risk assessments and broaden understandings of risk to encompass the risk of unintended negative effects on relationships between social groups as well as fiduciary, reputational and project risks.

Fourth, ensure project monitoring and evaluation mechanisms (indicators, stakeholder meetings and evaluation terms of reference) look for unintended negative effects of projects. They could also look for unanticipated opportunities to build positive social relations and collective approaches to peace.

Fifth, engage in country-level or sub-national inter-agency coordination mechanisms. These are often a valuable source of contextual information about the places where we work and they very often provide experience, advice and a coordinated approach to some of the many dilemmas our field staff face.

A famous hadith states “Tie your camel and trust in Allah”.

This hadith means that people should strive their utmost to be prepared within the limits of their ability and power, after which they should put their trust in Allah to bring their striving to its conclusion. So before we trust in Allah to bring our humanitarian or development work with local communities to its desired conclusion, we must first do all we can to plan and prepare well.

See Islamic Relief’s publication ‘Working in Conflict: A Faith Based Toolkit for Islamic Relief’ for more guidance about how to plan and prepare projects in fragile and conflict-affected places.

Dr. Sylvia Brown

Conflict Advisor, International Programmes Division

Charity leaders have raised concerns about the “challenging climate” faith organisations are working in, during Civil Society Media’s inaugural Faith Charities Forum yesterday.

Islamic Relief Worldwide’s head of governance Khaleel Desai and head of media and external relations Simona French led a session about protecting reputations, drawing on their own experiences at Islamic Relief. They addressed some of the issues faith charities can experience and how to tackle them.

Desai said Islamic Relief has faced an “additional level of scrutiny” from some of the public and media. He said it comes from a “negative attitude” that is based on “complete inaccuracies” about what people believe the charity do.

The duo explained the special challenges Islamic faith-based organisations can experience. For example, being incorrectly linked to terrorism, “unparalleled” financial scrutiny and islamophobia and racism.

Personal attacks

French used the example of the charity’s Subhanallah bus campaign, which saw “personal” and “islamophobic” attacks on people who worked for the charity.

The campaign was initially set up to highlight the amount of charity work carried out in Ramadan and to raise awareness, but it quickly “took on a life of its own”.

Its bus campaign attracted more than 500 items of news in two weeks, and for more than 24 hours Islamic Relief was trending as the number one topic on Facebook in the UK.

But there were “accusations of political correctness gone mad” and “accusations of cultural insensitivity,” French said.

She added that “social media added fuel to the fire”, as “we live in a very polarised world”. But she said that the charity had handled the crisis quite well, by using the opportunity to spread its message.

Desai and French offered advice to faith organisations tackling similar issues:

• Consider who to approach to do interviews and programmes journalists.
• Think about case management teams “in advance of the crisis”.
• Ensure those in governance at the trustee level are “fully engaged in the risks”.

They also spoke about some of the long term reforms that the charity has now adopted. These include a stronger social media policy, expanding inter-faith programming and a new crisis communications toolkit.

Written by Harriet Whitehead for Civil Society

In the last 10 years the wider aid and development community has started to become aware of the magnitude of philanthropic giving and wealth redistribution within the Muslim World (not least in the UK) as data on annual zakat and charitable flows became estimated for the first time by the UN and other agencies.

What is less understood by the wider community are the drivers behind the Muslim charitable sector. At its heart lies the huge emphasis in Islamic teaching on the protection of life, the fulfilment of social obligations, and belief in our accountability in the next life for the rights the poor and needy have over us. There are important distinctions in the Islamic understandings of human rights, indeed in the rights of all living creatures that are distinct from the secular understanding. Similar to Catholic social teaching there is an understanding of subsidiarity and moral autonomy at an individual and community level whilst the Universal Declaration of Human Rights tends to focus heavily on the social contract at state level with its citizens. So within Shari’ah, more rights start to get defined at a family and community level with detailed obligations between spouses and to parents, children and wider family members as well as neighbours and those living in proximity.

Another driver of Muslim giving is the obligations around wealth management. Although there is no restriction or censure around acquiring wealth, there are strict ethics around its redistribution. Hoarding wealth is strongly discouraged since wealth is the life blood of communities and needs to circulate and bring benefit to all. Muslims are obligated to transfer two and a half percent of their standing wealth each year to the poor every year in the form of Zakat as well as ten percent of crops and agricultural produce for farmers. Whereas once this would have been collected by governments, in many countries this is now distributed through charities and faith based organisations. Wealth is viewed as being God’s providence which is not strictly ours but something we are given custodianship over (Mustakhlafina fih) on behalf of those who have rights over it, including family members and needy members of the community. The Qur’an makes reference to this in several verses: And those in whose wealth is a recognised right; for the needy who asks and those who are deprived’ (Qur’an, 70:24-25).

Increasingly today Muslim charities are also involved in just social financing which forms part of ethical wealth management with interest free micro finance and ‘Qard Hasan’ (a good loan) making up part of a myriad of Islamic social financing that ensures the redistribution of wealth at every level of the community. The tradition of endowment (Waqf) which the Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) encouraged once formed the largest sector providing social services in the Muslim World with many countries such as Algeria having as much thirty to fifty percent of arable land owned by this third sector. Today civil society in the form of faith based charities are once again becoming prominent following a period of repression and nationalisation by many autocratic governments in the post-colonial period who saw them as a rival.

As the role of faith based organisations has been provided greater encouragement to revive these traditions, so has the values and skills around their administration. The teachings inherent in prophetic guidance around empowerment and social sustainability have started to become more evident, with an increase in innovation and cross fertilisation from the wider development sector. Many Muslim charities have welcomed the inclusive and integrated nature of the UN’s sustainable development goals which enable Muslims to see their contributions within a wider community contributing to a global movement towards poverty reduction and environmental sustainability for all. This enables the inherent Islamic values and obligations towards an increasingly inter-dependant World to be fulfilled.

Written by Atallah FitzGibbon for Muslim Charities Forum

Faith and Partnership Advisor IPD – Islamic Relief Worldwide

Muslim Charities Forum (MCF) is the UK network for British Muslim charities working for social good in the UK and abroad. Through their network, MCF aim to collectively build a more accountable, transparent and efficient British Muslim charitable sector, in order to improve our ability—both as individual organisations and as a sector—to contribute to a more just and sustainable world.