Faith

March 2, 2020 Does Religion Help You Heal? 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 [...]

November 21, 2019 Islamophobia in Western Media: Spreading from the West to Other Parts of the World? 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 [...]

November 6, 2019 An Islamic perspective on how to avoid negative effects of NGO programmes 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 [...]

October 8, 2019 Faith-based charities face ‘additional level of scrutiny’ based on ‘inaccurate’ perceptions 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 [...]

July 31, 2019 The Values Underpinning the Muslim Charity Sector 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 [...]