Friday, June 05, 2009
On MAS-NY Fundraising
MAS-NY has many branches (subchapters as MAS-NY calls it). These branches are taking on a very serious responsibility on implementing the mission of MAS on the local grassroots level. In order "to move people to strive for God-consciousness, liberty, and justice, and to convey Islam with utmost clarity," as MAS mission says, and in order to realize a "Just and virtuous American society," as we see ourselves doing, we need to be very involved. We need to build Masjids, run schools, offer tarbiya programs to all sectors of the community, and to engage in the civic work of the society. We need to take care of our youth and develop them to carry the torch forward.
However, MAS has a unique opportunity that is different from all other local organizations. MAS leverage the large network of local presence in creating a vibrant effort on a larger scale. We benefit from each others' experience; we provide training to local workers; we push in the same directions; we take on responsibilities and challenges that no single local group or organization can take; and we create synergy between all local effort.
Our local work is only successful if supported by work on both the chapter (NY) and the national levels coordinating and supporting this large local network of MAS members and teams. NY is a unique city. It has a unique value in the whole world. It is one of the most important cities and by far the most influential. It is also a city of over 500,000 Muslims and Muslim youth are large in numbers.
Driving the good work of MAS forward in such a city cannot happen by the effort of a local teams only. It also cannot happen on the shoulders of volunteers only. MAS-NY should be able to hire a staff to provide support and training to all local projects, to hold large magnitude projects throughout the large city, to create a strong youth movement in schools and universities, to engage civically on the city level, to defend the rights of Muslims and others, to stand for big causes and to have a political influence, and to make meaningful results from all the huge, yet sparse, effort take place by many MAS and non-MAS work.
All this effort needs 2 things: 1) a group of dedicated people, and 2) financial means. MAS Tarbiya works so hard to develop those people. What is remaining is the fund. MAS-NY needs to hire the best lawyers, the best outreach staff, and the best youth workers. MAS-NY need to fund scholarship for young men and women studying Islam for the ability to teach it and convey it. MAS-NY needs to be able to hire an admin team to take care of the huge city-spread operation throughout the city.
The Muslim New Yorkers have a huge responsibility towards Islam and towards their people. This is a mandatory responsibility in front of Allah that MAS-NY rose to take on. MAS-NY cannot be successful without the help of all.
Please support, June 7th, Laguardia Marriot 7:00PM
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