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Tag: Fight Against Hunger

  • Hunger: Our Responsibility and Ultimate Reality!

    Hunger: Our Responsibility and Ultimate Reality!

    For the first time in human history, the number of people suffering from chronic hunger has reached one billion! Today, one out of every six persons in the world is starving. According to a UN report, about 25,000 people die every day of hunger or hunger-related causes. More unfortunately, it is children who die most often. Even in America, 49 million people go hungry every night. The other picture, however, reveals that there is plenty of food in the world for everyone. Why then, is there such a sad scenario? Addressing the issue of hunger, therefore, is not only important—it’s imperative!

    Sure, there has hardly been a time in history when hunger has not touched humanity. The question is how we can and should deal with the current alarming situation—a situation that is no less than a calamity. Given that many factors cause and contribute to famine and hunger, dealing with them is undoubtedly a daunting task. The problem becomes even more insurmountable when the hungry are trapped in systemic, silent and severe poverty.

    Hunger is a ‘silent epidemic’ that is very seldom addressed in our society with utmost care, urgency or seriousness. It’s almost like a slow poisoning, where the symptoms don’t appear serious, but death is inevitable. In our society, when poor people don’t have any money or means to buy (or get) food, they are unable to nourish themselves. Persistent food insecurity thus causes tremendous health damage to both kids and adults. .As they are constantly malnourished, the adults become weaker and often sick and because of this they become unable to work which then makes them even poorer and hungrier. Studies show how this downward spiral often continues until death visits these ill-fated people.

    In the sight of God, harshness, carelessness or even insensitivity to the suffering of the poor, helpless and hungry is tantamount to denying the religion and the Day of Judgment

    Our war against hunger, therefore, needs to be not only stronger, but also humane, effective and comprehensive. We shouldn’t forget that the current hunger situation exposes the ugly face of our societal injustices and corrupt practices. While there is no denying that numerous organizations, agencies and individuals are working sincerely to address the challenge of hunger, it is also true that our sadist mentality of letting people suffer is much more dominant than our efforts to help people out of this hellhole. “Greed is good” is still the guiding mantra and obsession for many of us. Even when we want to take any new initiative to address hunger, we think repeating rhetoric will suffice. This is actually a sign of our insensitivity, if not insanity!

    It’s time that we look at our own lifestyles dispassionately and determine if we are positioned to perpetuate hunger or committed to eradicate it. We can’t deny the gravity of the situation, our responsibility and our ultimate reality. One may ask: what is that reality? The Qur’an tells us, as do almost all the religious scriptures in one way or another: Does the human being think that no one has power over him because he has at his disposal enormous amount of material wealth? Does the human being think that no one sees him?(90:5-7) In another place of the Qur’an, God Almighty warns us: But you prefer the life of this world, although the Hereafter is better and everlasting. (87:16-17)

    Sometimes people think that prayer and performance of certain religious duties will suffice for them to earn the pleasure of God. Some also believe that fighting hunger is the duty of the government alone, not theirs. But these are mistaken views, for in the sight of God, harshness, carelessness or even insensitivity to the suffering of the poor, helpless and hungry is tantamount to denying the religion and the Day of Judgment. In the Qur’an, Allah (SWT) says: “Have you observed the person who belies the religion and denies the Judgment? That is the person who repulses the orphan without care or consideration and does not concern himself nor encourages others to feed the hungry and help the needy.”(107:1-3) In Surah Al-Mudathir, a moving scene from the Day of Judgment has been presented in which the righteous people in their heavenly gardens ask the disbelievers and liars, who are encompassed by the fires of Hell, the reasons for their punishment. They are told that among the reasons are “neglecting the rights of the poor, letting the hapless people get afflicted by hunger, lack of clothing and suffering, and turning faces away from this suffering humanity.”

    Hunger is a test for those who are inflicted by this calamity, but it’s a bigger test for those who have wealth and yet they are not helping those who suffer. To attain the grace of God, we have to be God conscious, remember our accountability to Him and be compassionate to His creation. He is indeed our Lord and to Him is our return. That is our ultimate reality!

  • Hunger Next Door: What Needs to be Done?

    Those high powered celebrity chefs! The single mother watches cooking shows while sitting on an old couch with a bag of salty chips and a crying baby. Meanwhile, the young professionals blog about new restaurants and very strange new dishes they have discovered in farflung corners of the city. What fun! The wedding feast piles up food, sculpted fruits, oily curries, mountains of rice—and who knows where the leftovers go? Into what trash? Sound familiar? And don’t we know people in all these categories and situations?

    The main problem is not hunger. Hunger is the symptom of a system-related disease and disaster: modes of production, distribution and consumption that are hugely wasteful and that reflects and maintains inequalities in income and in access to nourishing food. This is true whether it is only the US situation we are considering or the more challenging global disparities.

    Of course, no one with a hungry family wants to hear that the problem is not hunger. In November 2009 the US Department of Agriculture released a report that claims that more than 49 million Americans—or one in seven—struggled to find enough to eat last year. This translates into 11 million to 17 million children affected in this wealthy country. Sometimes this struggle for food is due to the multiple dimensions of poverty in America, and often is a complex of reduced expectations, mental depression, lack of family resources, lack of education, and endemic lack of work made far worse by the economic crisis. It is frequently made worse by racism and xenophobia and internalized stigma. However there are many causes and states of poverty—one size does not fit all.

    What to do? Currently Congress is considering over 4 billion in funding for child-nutrition programs, including school meals. These bills to help children are relatively easy to get bipartisan support for and more difficult to attack. It has been noted, however, that the Senate version of the bill takes money from the existing food stamp program to help pay for better school lunches. The Senate also cut food stamps to help pay for a $26.1 billion aid-to-states bill to help states sustain Medicaid and avoid teacher cutbacks. It remains to be seen how well the final bill will address concerns about this tricky “three-card monte” approach to funding.

    Nevertheless, faith communities may hope to receive funding through this bill. And mosques and Muslim organizations should certainly be part of this social safety net. If we Muslims lack resources to offer we can give of our time—and not just in Ramadan. It has been calculated that the zakat percentage of a week’s worth of time comes to 4.2 hours. How many of us offer that many hours of service to the Ummah every week? You and I can volunteer to provide basic human needs locally as well as globally. For example, the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) runs soup kitchens in various neighborhoods—in some places it runs these alone and in other places ICNA does it in collaboration with interfaith organizations. The Muslim Consultative Network, the group I am personally associated with, has joined with another house of worship (in this case, Holy Trinity Church) to help provide dinner for the needy once a month. And once every other month we team up with the very active “Muslims Against Hunger” group that is volunteering in over 13 locations.

    Beyond this model of engagement, there are also local Muslim food pantries that need your support. Though we are finding that volunteers prefer this service to some other work (like anti-torture advocacy or immigration reform) it is at the same time important to link this service to social justice action that changes the structure of society—that offers long term hope of healing and does not simply place a Band-Aid on an infected wound.

    In signing congregations up for food justice or service programs, an imam must delegate to a committee. Some are slow to do this, but it is an essential part of management. An advocacy coordinator (a well prepared volunteer is OK) can address proactively a variety of issues that create problems that our charitable giving seeks to address after the fact: the impact of our enormous waste through massive expenditures on war; the lack of sustainable development; the dismissive treatment of the poor and vulnerable; policies that reduce foreign assistance and the percentage of tax monies that help the needy. In a world where politics corrupts, we Muslims can amplify our giving through efforts to prevent future disasters and injustices.

    As human beings, we are part of the problem but we can (and must) be part of the solution. With the urge to build new economies, to prove ourselves personally and to succeed collectively, most of us forget the urgent need for drastic change in the way we expend resources. To avoid recycling or cutting back on travel by car, or switching to solar energy, we ask, “If my neighbor does not do it, how can I? Will I not become weaker than he? And how much money will it cost me?”

    To address reducing waste, there is a growing interest in sustainable living with groups of Muslims “going green” from San Francisco to Washington DC. IMAN and ISNA are collaborating on the Green Re-entry Project, to provide green jobs for men leaving prison. Ibrahim Matin has written his book “Green Deen,” an important wake up call to us all. Ameena Jandali has started a YahooGroup “MuslimsGoingGreen”on YahooGroups to discuss practical measures. Seeds of change to come.

    And yet, many mosques are not coming up to take the lead. Even churches and synagogues now provide not only food pantries for the poor but also cooperative food shares in local food programs (like “CSA”) as part of food justice and local food movements to reduce the carbon footprint. Many Muslims had hoped to see more mosques go green this Ramadan, by making the simple decision to not use harmful Styrofoam (which is not biodegradable) and to recycle all paper plates and cans and cutlery.

    But all of us buy food pre-prepared; learn our news and views through the ever more pervasive media, live in an environment that is more and more a man-made hall of mirrors. Surrounded by images and demand for instant gratification, it is easy to lose one’s inner self while shopping in the million miles of aisles. We begin to ask “What do I want next?” instead of “Who and what am I really, what is my purpose in my time on earth?” Marketing replaces morality; peer pressure replaces human conscience. And it is at this moment that the wound in nature appears, bleeding oil, a symptom of the spreading cancer of wasteful consumption. We the consumers are all consumed.

    As we Muslims struggle to realize the implications of our deen in the modern world, we must promote healthy lifestyles that reduce obesity and diabetes and also tobacco addiction, along with addiction to wasteful consumption of all kinds. Affiliated with my organization Muslim Consultative Network’s health programming, a youth group called Off the Hook is currently urging Muslim youth to avoid Hookah cafes as the gateway to greater tobacco addiction (see www.mcnny.org). And our deep and dangerous addiction to oil is like addiction to tobacco—it keeps our society dependent on big corporations that don’t consider long-term interest as much as the immediate profit to be extracted. The earth is sucked dry in this way and so are we.

    US Muslims consume and waste as much as fellow Americans. This is clearly not halal (see Quran 7:31; 6:141) and the effects of this behavior will harm the poor with rising seas and plunging economies and our charity will prove only a tiny Band-Aid for an enormous wound we ourselves are creating. For the faith of Islam to transform society we Muslims need to apply its creative spirit to all we do. It is not a matter of rules and charts– but a greater awareness of our place in nature, not only immediate desires or sustaining cultural norms.

    When we Muslims give to charity, and establish structures to provide and empower the needy for long term solutions, are we simply measuring out money or are we giving of ourselves? Do we deposit pale green paper into the bank or are we also making deposits into a vaster Trust, the green and beautiful creation that Allah has provided into our care, hanging in such precise and beautiful balance? (Quran 55:01-13)

    Our community can promote green jobs; we can green our mosques. The good news is that there is additional funding for both from the Obama Administration; in fact 1.1 trillion dollars for programs paying citizens and community groups to develop solar power and sell it back to the power grid. This builds a new infrastructure, less dependant on oil and oligarchies–and the cost is earned back after a few short years. There are important opportunities for us under this Administration, and we need to recognize them and act.

    Islamic awareness is first of all God consciousness, but next includes a strong social conscience; no terror; no waste; awareness includes health awareness and environmental awareness and not only political sophistication. Islamic awareness is not reactionary or fearful; we Muslims may instead patiently reflect and then take action for the benefit of all creation. As the hadith teaches us, even on the Day of Judgment, the End of Days, as mountains dissolve in air, we are asked to still plant the tree—the green tree of life you and I hold in our hands. Charity flows on eternally—let’s be part of its living, creative force.

  • Interfaith Action on Hunger: A Shared Obligation

    With more than 1 billion undernourished people – many of them children – across the globe, hunger is a problem that affects all religions and nationalities. The roots of hunger are as diverse as the communities that it affects; conflict, natural disaster, water shortages, disease, climate change, and, of course, poverty are among the many other factors involved.

    Solving a problem that affects people of all faiths requires the active support and participation of people from all those faiths. Individually, all major faiths call upon their adherents to exhibit compassion by helping the needy. Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus and others have since time immemorial supported projects, activities, and organizations dedicated to helping feed the poor, sick, and hungry. Maximizing the impact of these efforts by increasing interfaith collaboration is an important next step to eradicating hunger; fortunately this collaboration has already begun in the United States and abroad.

    A Shared Compulsion to Act

    Muslims, Christians, Jews, and others all find clear language in their holy books and traditions that compel them to fight hunger and poverty.

    For Muslims, this fight is fundamental to the faith; it is the essence of zakat, the third pillar. The importance of charity is underscored throughout the Quran (e.g., Surah 2, verse 110). This charity is not only directed toward fellow Muslims. The Quran (4: 36) calls believers to “do good – to parents, kinsfolk, orphans, those in need, neighbors who are near, neighbors who are strangers, the Companion by your side…” Charity should be directed broadly, not limited to fellow Muslims. Recall that “If Allah had so willed, He would have made you a single people, but (His plan is) to test you in what He hath given you: so strive as in a race in all virtues” (Quran 5:48).

    This broader sense of community, and the individual’s responsibility toward those in need regardless of identity, suggest that Muslims should extend their hands across faith lines to collaborate in the struggle against hunger. The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is commonly quoted as having said that “the person who sleeps full while his neighbor sleeps hungry is not a true believer.”

    Similarly, the Bible calls all Christians to take action and provide for the poor and hungry without discrimination. “If a brother or sister lacks food and one of you says, ‘go in peace,’ and yet do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? Faith if it has no works is dead” (James 2:15-17). Helping the hungry has great spiritual benefits for Christians: “If you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday” (Isaiah 58:10). The Good Samaritan parable in the Gospel of Luke (10: 25-37) makes clear the importance of loving and helping one’s neighbor regardless of identity.

    Recent Christian thought has emphasized the unambiguous value of helping the hungry. A powerful statement about the importance of fighting hunger came from Pope Benedict XVI in his 2009 encyclical Caritas in Veritate. Drawing inspiration from earlier writings by his predecessor Paul VI, Pope Benedict XVI stated that feeding the hungry “is an ethical imperative for the universal [Roman Catholic] Church.”

    For Jews, the Torah places hunger and poverty at the center of the faith. Leviticus (19:9-10) calls on Jews to give to the poor the corners of their fields and to leave them any fallen fruit. This is in the context of a concern for others that is not limited to fellow Jews; it is in the spirit of “Love thy neighbor as thyself” (Lev.19:18).

    Alleviating hunger is of great importance to those outside of the great monotheistic traditions, as well. The Mahabharata (XIII.59.11), one of Hinduism’s great Sanskrit epics, states that “[t]here is none other who does greater good than the one who removes the hunger of those in a difficult situation, helpless, weak and disturbed.” Gandhi and other leading thinkers and activists throughout the faith’s history have been inspired by Hinduism’s call to action against hunger.

    If the concern for the poor and hungry is shared across religious boundaries, and there is agreement that this concern must not be limited to co-religionists, then there is reason to work together to defeat the scourge of hunger. Interfaith action to fight hunger is therefore a way for members of each religion to practice their personal faiths, while strengthening their capacity to have a positive social impact through coordinated action across faith lines.

    Interfaith Action against Hunger

    Why is it important to increase the number of interfaith approaches to the hunger problem rather than to develop free-standing initiatives for each faith tradition?

    The efficiency argument dictates that interfaith initiatives are more likely to succeed in reaching a greater percentage of people in need. In much of the world, adherents to different religious groups live side-by-side within their communities. An interfaith approach can help compassionate projects reach more of society’s neediest and thus maximize a project’s impact. The spirit of compassion that can be found in all major religions is best expressed by an approach that builds bridges and extends a helping hand to all who are in need.

    Tackling hunger – or other pressing issues – in a joint manner can also have noticeable side benefits. In the United States, working together with non-Muslims can allow members of the country’s diverse and growing Muslim population to contribute positively to both the fight against hunger and the struggle against unfair negative stereotypes of Muslims. For example, in New York City, the Islamic Cultural Center on East 96th Street collaborates with the Jewish Theological Seminary and a Presbyterian church to operate a soup kitchen. The shared compulsion to feed the hungry and protect the vulnerable in one’s community drives a collaboration that has forged bonds of friendship and respect among volunteers of multiple religions.

    Other examples, both small and large, can be found around the United States and the world. The Indiana-based Interfaith Hunger Initiative – a partnership between local Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Sikh congregations – is founded on the belief that “working together across faith lines on an important project will strengthen our community.” The initiative supports several local food pantries in Marion County, Indiana and a school lunch program in Kenya that feeds some 2700 vulnerable children, including many AIDS orphans. Other programs, from the New Jersey-based Middlesex County Coalition to Combat Poverty and Hunger to the Idaho Interfaith Roundtable Against Hunger, provide opportunities for local interfaith action.

    In countries with a history of conflict characterized by friction between members of different religious groups, interfaith projects can help build trust and reduce tensions. In this way, programs that seek to relieve the most pressing hunger can alleviate conflict and thus address an important root cause of hunger.

    Internationally, a significant example comes from Nigeria – a country of about 150 million people split roughly half-and-half between Muslims and Christians and with a history of ethno-religious strife. The Nigerian Inter-Faith Action Association (NIFAA), a non-governmental organization co-chaired by the leaders of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs and the Christian Association of Nigeria, has mobilized tens of thousands of imams, pastors, and priests to become active partners in an interfaith campaign against poverty and disease, beginning with malaria, a disease that costs the country 12 percent of its annual GDP, according to one study. The economic loss associated with malaria is a major contributor to hunger in Nigeria. To the extent that an interfaith approach can both reduce this burden and forge peaceful ties of friendship between Muslim and Christian leaders, NIFAA’s program can strike at multiple root causes of poverty and hunger.

    An additional vehicle for interfaith action is advocacy designed to change policies and increase investments in programs to end hunger. A leading advocacy group is the Alliance to End Hunger, which includes influential Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and secular organizations in its campaign to raise the issue of hunger on the national agenda.

    Around the world, Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, and others are hard at work, working together to eliminate hunger. Individual Muslims and other can support these efforts in any number of ways, as interfaith action is valuable in a wide range of initiatives that target hunger, from local soup kitchens and food banks to programs that invest in international food security or engage in global advocacy.

    Growing Interfaith Action on Hunger

    With these and countless other examples of interfaith collaboration on hunger, there is little doubt that the idea has caught on, and that people of all faiths are acting upon their religious duty to care for the needy among us and broaden our conception of the global neighborhood. As the Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) said, “None of you has faith until you love for your brother what you love for yourself” (Sahih Al-Bukhari, Kitab al-Iman, Hadith no.13), and “None of you has faith until you love for your neighbor what you love for yourself“(Sahih Muslim , Kitab al-Iman, 67-1, Hadith no.45). When such love turns into acts of true compassion across faith lines, it can forge a better future for everyone.