IEC Keynote

1. Restoring dreams

4. Barbara’s Creator said:
Talaaq 65:2-3 And whosoever fears (to
displease) Allah and keeps his duty to Him, He will
make a way for him to get out (of every difficulty).
And He will provide him from (sources) he could
never imagine. And whosoever puts his trust in Allah,
then He will be sufficient for him.
Because it is faith that enables
you to attempt the impossible

5. What is the root of the problem?

6. Our actions show what’s in our hearts

7. A world of contrasts
That speaks to us in the
language of signs – readable
only by those who can see.
“There's none so blind as those who will not listen.”
― Neil Gaiman, American Gods

8. We believe that..
1. We are at the peak of knowledge
2. We are at the peak of civilization
3. We are at the peak of prosperity
4. We have the secret of everlasting
happiness and contentment
But claims must be substantiated

9. Versus what the data shows

10. Eradicating hunger

11. Basic Necessities
 3 billion live on less than $2.5 per day.
 Tonight more than 1 billion children will go to
bed hungry.
 22,000 children die everyday due to poverty
 On this planet 805 million people do not have
enough food to eat.
 More than 750 million of them lack adequate
access to clean drinking water.
What is a basic necessity?

12. Environmental Protection Agency
Discarded Food
USA: 34.7 million tons, $162 billion
UK: 7.2 million tonnes, $ 17.7 billion a year
India: $ 9.12 billion

13.  Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
estimates that one-third of food produced for
human consumption worldwide is annually lost or
wasted.
 At $ 4.14 trillion, that's enough sustenance to feed
three billion people.
 Pile all that food on a football field and the layers
would form a putrefying casserole miles high.
How much food is wasted?
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/10/141013-food-waste-national-security-environment-
science-ngfood/?rptregcta=reg_free_np&rptregcampaign=20150202_invitation_c_all#

15. Money to burn

16. Investment is made to
Maximize ROI

17. What will it take?
 In 1998, the UN estimated that it would take
$40 billion annually to offer basic education,
clean water and sanitation, reproductive
health, and basic health and nutrition to
every person in every developing country.
 That would be about $58 billion today.
Compared to $ 1.406 Trillion on weapons

18. Hunger kills
 The World Food Programme says, “The poor
are hungry and their hunger traps them in
poverty.”
 Hunger is the #1 cause of death in the world,
killing more than HIV/AIDS, malaria, and
tuberculosis combined.
Believe it or not

19. Protection of people and the
environment

20.  The Center for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) collects data about mortality in the U.S.,
including deaths by suicide.
 In 2013 (latest data), 41,149 suicides were reported,
making suicide the 10th leading cause of death
 In 2013 someone died by suicide every 12.8 minutes
Happiness doesn’t cause suicide –
despair does
Suicides

21. Our Dying Planet?
 WWF’s (Worldwide Fund for Nature)
Living Planet Report – 2014, the number
of wild animals in the world has been
halved during the last 40 years!
And that’s only the ones we counted

22. Eradicating Poverty

25. Gender equality

26. As on 2014 women are paid 20% less than men for the same work

27. We are responsible
 What exactly is the cause of this insanity?
 Who is responsible for this madness?
 Where are we as humans headed?
 Who is minding the fate of this planet?
Religion, politics, ideologies, national
borders and cultural identities all fade out
and shy away from these troubling questions
https://www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-global-poverty

29. Or is it an issue of
the Conscience?

30. “We cannot rely on technological fixes.
We cannot rely on the market. And we
cannot rely on the global elites. We need
to help strengthen the power of the
people to challenge the people with
power. Securing a just and sustainable
world means challenging the power of
the one percent.”
Adriano Campolina, ActionAid; Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah,
Civicus; Kumi Naidoo, Greenpeace and Winnie Byanyima, Oxfam

31. Money makes the world go around

33. 1. The modern financial system says the opposite
2. Maximize consumption, glorify greed
3. Consumption is God, malls are the temples,
salesmen - high priests and admen -
evangelists.
4. Retail replaced spirituality and the sale of anti-
depressants has sky-rocketed
All religions say that money
must be shared
But where does morality enter this game?

34. Four Horsemen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fbvquHSPJU

35. But about humanity

36. Our Beings
1. Are not our bodies alone but perhaps
more importantly our spirits
2. Our spirit needs nourishment and
sustenance like our body does
3. Only faith education can address this need
Because we become our best only
in the expression of our spirit

37. Faith empowers
Esa (Jesus) said to his Apostles:
“I tell you the truth, if you had faith even
as small as a mustard seed, you could say
to this mountain, ‘Move from here to
there,’ and it would move.
Nothing would be impossible.”

38. 1. To build bridges – not walls
2. To open the heart to the best of human values
3. To awaken the spirit to connect to the Creator
4. To teach nurturing, caring, compassion and the
courage to stand up for the truth
Goal of Faith education
Because in spirit we are all one

40. How do I define the problem?

41. Change the definition
Their’s
Our

42. Narayanan Krishnan was a top chef in a five-star hotel,
but gave it all up to feed the poor

43. For decision making

44. Our actions define us
Hujuraat 49: 13. O mankind! We have created
you from a male and a female, and made you into
nations and tribes, that you may know one
another. Verily, the most honourable of you with
Allah is the one who has the greatest Taqwa [the
concern to please Allah].
Verily, Allah is All-Knowing, All-Aware.
The best one is the one whose actions are best

45. Is Technology good or bad?
Who decides what technology is used for?

47. Because we have to teach the
impossible

49. When all around them is despair

50. Edhi Foundation runs the world's largest ambulance service and operates free
nursing homes, orphanages, clinics, women's shelters, and rehab centres for
drug addicts and the mentally ill.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Sattar_Edhi

51. When they have been brutalised
by cruelty

52. Treatment of prisoners
Insan 76:8 Who give food, however
great be their own need for it, to the
poor, the orphan and the captive.
Possible only when you believe
in the judgment of the Hereafter

53. After Malik al-Kamil, Salahuddin Ayyubi’s
nephew defeated the Franks during
the Crusades, Oliverus Scholasticus
praised the Islamic laws of war,
commenting on how al-Kamil supplied
the defeated Frankish army with food.
They left us benchmarks

54. “Who could doubt that such goodness,
friendship and charity come from God?
Men whose parents, sons and daughters,
brothers and sisters, had died in agony at
our hands, whose lands we took, whom we
drove naked from their homes, revived us
with their own food when we were dying
of hunger and showered us with kindness
even when we were in their power.”
~ Oliverus Scholasticus

55. When their environment
rewards arrogance

57. When that is a capital crime

58. Nisa 4: 135. O you who believe! Stand
out firmly for justice, as witnesses to Allah,
even though it is against yourselves, or
your parents, or your kin, be he rich or
poor, Allah is a Better Protector of both
(than you). So follow not the lusts (of your
hearts) so that you may not be unjust and
if you distort your witness or refuse to give
it, verily, Allah is Ever Well-Acquainted with
what you do.

59. Harvard Law School quoted this Ayah of
the Qur’an as one of the greatest
expressions of justice in the world.
https://www.cair.com/press-center/american-muslim-
news/12359-harvard-recognizes-quranic-verse-as-one-
of-the-greatest-expressions-of-justice.html

60. Stop injustice
Abu Sa`id Al-Khudri reported: Rasoolullah‫ﷺ‬
said, “Whoever amongst you sees an evil, he must
change it with his hand; if he is unable to do so,
then with his tongue; and if he is unable to do so,
then with his heart (he must hate it in his heart);
and that is the weakest form of Faith.” [Muslim].
Because the silence of the good
is the best aid to the evil

61. About problems that don’t
directly affect them

62. Criterion for the Best
A’al Imraan 3:110 You are the best of people
selected for the benefit of the people
The Prophet‫ﷺ‬ said, “The best of people is
the one who is the most beneficial to the
people.”

63. Spread Peace
The Prophet‫ﷺ‬ said: O! you people, spread
peace, feed people, be kind to your
relatives and pray at night when others
are asleep, and you will enter Jannah
(Paradise) safely. [Tirmidi, Ibn Majah]
Because only actions deliver results

64. Dasrath Manjhi took 22 years to chisel this passage to carve a short route from his village to
the hospital. His wife died because there was no passage and she had to travel 19 Km.
Courage comes in many forms

65. When that will not win them
friends

66. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
 “Cowardice asks the question - Is it safe?
Expediency asks the question - Is it politic?
Vanity asks the question - Is it popular? But
conscience asks the question - Is it right?
 And there comes a time when one must take
a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor
popular…..
But one must take it because it is right.

67. Courage to speak the truth
Abu Sa`id Al-Khudri reported:
Rasoolullah‫ﷺ‬ said, "The best type of
Jihad (striving in the way of Allah) is
speaking the truth in the presence of a
tyrannic ruler.” [Abu Dawud and Tirmidhi].

68. When they have power

69. Treatment of non-Muslims
Rasoolullah‫ﷺ‬ warned Muslims in
authority:
“If any man oppresses a non-Muslim or
tries him beyond his strength, I will be the
advocate for the oppressed before
Allah‫”.ﷻ‬

70. Treaty of Omar ibn Al Khattab
“In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. This
is the assurance of safety which the servant of God, Umar,
the Commander of the Faithful, has given to the people of
Jerusalem. He has given them an assurance of safety
for themselves, for their property, their churches, their
crosses, the sick and healthy of the city and for all the
rituals which belong to their religion. Their churches will
not be inhabited by Muslims and will not be destroyed.
Neither they, nor the land on which they stand, nor their
cross, nor their property will be damaged. They will not be
forcibly converted.”

71. She’s surrendering because she thinks the camera is a gun

72. That’s Why!
 I submit to you that Faith Education is
the only way in which we can return to
those ethics, morals and values that
defined us when we were at our best.
Faith education awakens the conscience
and gives us criteria to judge our actions

73. Without them life is reduced to
commercial expediency