I have been contemplating a project to help the muslim community in Australia to help itself - to raise it's socio-economic standard and be finincially strong in order to exercise better control of its own destiny.
It breaks my heart to see brothers with PhDs and other high qualifications to be driving Taxis (nothing against Taxi drivers, I have done it my self) or stuck in other menial jobs with little control of their own destiny.
Keeping it brief, the reason is we are not united enough, always reluctent to do things collectively for lack of trust or other apprehensions. While we may give hundreds or even thousands of dollars for establishing a brick and mortar building for an Islamic association - we often overlook the individual needs of same fellow muslims that the association is ment for.
Without going to far with it - I believe that it's time we started doing thing collectively and it is not as hard as we think - and can be done safely without burdning anyone.
Starting from Australia - I want to establish a fund that will be used to either buy safe, tried, already running businesses or establish new one's depending on opportunities available in the area - and employ muslims in it as far as possible.
We can use the funding modle already being used by many organisations around the world like world Vision etc - you can sponsor or Invest (buy shares)in a business for let us say 30, 40 50 dollars a month and see it grow. While the returns may not be great but remember the purpose of the fund - depending on your intention it will be Sadaqah Jariah to brother and sisters employed in it plus there is hardly any risk to any one individual - if after a few month you are not comfortable with the activities (which inshallah will not happen), simply stop the sponsorship.
Comprehensive transparent reports and news of activities will be sent to sponsor/investor to keep them in touch.
Of course I have worked out other details -and of course we are going to need a lot of sponsor but if other can do it why can't we?? At the moment I just want to see how many positive responses I get and will decide accordingly if to go ahead or not
wasslam o alykom,
Tahir