In probably the greatest crossovers of all time, Rumi is taken from the esoteric to the symbol of Hip-Hop Culture itself, bringing the thoughts of the world’s greatest Sufi to a knew generation of leaders, thinkers, and change-makers.
It’s also my top song for my morning work out routine.
Over the summer, the Department of State invited me and 75 other Muslim young leaders to their official Iftar on September 7th, 2010. I was honored to be invited, and had a wonderful time. The 75 of us Muslim leaders were also asked to attend a full day program at the State Department entitled “Generation Change”, referring to our roles as change-makers in our communities and (if God wills) the world.
We began our afternoon together with speeches by leading Muslim voices in American society (and believe it or not, there are a lot of them), and then moved on into break-out session discussion groups where we were to talk about important issues regarding and affecting Muslims in America and abroad.
While some of the thinkers in my discussion group were intelligent and thoughtful, others took a more histrionic approach, and one rudely demanded a State Department staffer tell her why we were all invited, insinuating an insidious plot by our gracious hosts. Another member of our breakout session announced while were discussing the ethnic pluralism within Islam, that as a Pakistani Shiite, she fervently believed “Mecca is a myth.” Still another person changed the context of our conversations from the issue of identity and faith into a lecture on women’s rights in Iran, totally flabbergasting all of us.
Needless to say, my favorite part of the day was not the break-out session’s formatted discussion. My favorite was however, the time we spent with the US Representative to the Muslim Communities, Farah Pandith, and the time we had to network with one another throughout the day and evening. I truly believe I met some of my best friends that day, and many of my Muslim role models, too.
In the aftermath of the night, the young leaders who gathered decided it was important for us all to remain in touch, and to develop an online platform for us to share with other Muslims and with other Americans what ‘Generation Change’ was really up to when it comes to making a positive difference in the world we live in. Out of those discussions came the GenChange wiki, a Wikipedia-styled online reference about Muslim American change-makers, and the work they are doing. The wiki’s been up for about 3 weeks, and has had modest success so-far. Our first goal is to bring as many Muslim leaders as possible on board the wiki through informative articles about their biographies and work. Once we’ve made substantial progress there, we’ll work on sharing,recruiting, and expanding our network of proactive Muslims.
What was really special and amazing about the night again, was the networking. I met fellow interfaith activists, feminists, social media enthusiasts, journalists, magazine publishers, playwrights, religious leaders, politicos, poets, and many more. All had stories, all are accomplishing and doing amazing things. Some were working on translating Hafiz accurately into French, others were public policy experts devising unique solutions to Pakistan’s financial woes, and more than a few had started NGO’s dedicated to ensuring women’s rights and girl’s literacy in far-off places like Malawi and Iraq. Some of us were experts at history, and still others were accomplished authors with published textbooks and mind-blowing resumes.
We all shared stories of yearning for an identity, and struggling for our (and within our) faith, heartbreak due to bigotry, and redemption through worship and introspection. It was a very special time for all who came to the State Department that day.
I hope to be invited back again next year, and to continue to work with this amazing group of young, talented Muslim individuals.
Statements by Muslim American Speakers at opening plenary for the Generation Change program:
Here are a collection of photos from the Iftar:
http://s247.photobucket.com/albums/gg147/ulookepatha_2008/Blog/Generation%20Change/
Here is a link to the invitation:
http://www.scribd.com/full/41524028?access_key=key-1baohkufwxnecee9gozb
Rabiah Ahmed and David Hawa have teamed together to create a really cool new project, that is not that far off the mark from what I proposed in a blog post two weeks ago, albeit a little more conventional “let’s throw the kitchen sink online!” than my approach (more on what I mean, later).
In this post I will go over what I think is good, not so good, and in need of improvement from my perspective in the “My Faith. My Voices.” campaign.
The Claim
One of the biggest problems in American PR today is the ability for skeptics to turn anything and everything into a sham or fraud, with a little research and talent of the tongue (or keyboard). First thing’s first: given the aura of mystery and deceit that has been attached to Muslim PR-anything in America, calling ‘My Faith My Voice’ ‘an independent network with no affiliation to any one organization or school of thought’ can be construed as deliberately misleading. Here’s why:
1. Unlike other grassroots movements, where the website comes after the Facebook, the main focus of the entire campaign seems to be a privately owned website: http://myfaithmyvoices.com. This fact will raise suspicions pretty quick of conservative and Islamophobic bloggers looking to discredit the organization right away.
1.1 The need for terms and conditions when uploading a video to a grassroots coalition baffles me. By definition, grassroots means that no single entity or central authority has control over any content, however the disclaimer all uploaders agree to states:
you hereby agree to freely,completely, and irrevocably transfer any and all intellectual property or other proprietary rightsyou may have in said content to My Faith My Voice, Inc., its successors and assigns forever.<sp>
You have to surrender rights to a video you made to support a grassroots cause to specific organization, forever? Again, grassroots causes don’t own content, or anything else, they are efforts by individual citizens to accomplish a given cause–they cause being the only collectively owned item, forever–and that too, by the public, not some shadowy network that issues a legally binding license agreement for a video my kid sister uploaded 5 minutes ago. This is way overboard, and much better newscasters and politicos will tear this and related points to shreds pretty fast.
2. The paypal account on the site directs us to donate to ‘My Faith My Voices’, but very little other information is available, including where the money is going, how it will be managed, why there isn’t a more professional looking form for donations (check out this example of another grassroots organization’s donation page). Again, shadowy.
3. For an organization with a neat, nicely done website, it is puzzling they haven’t at least uploaded a graphic to their YouTube page.
Depending on the principle behind a social media campaign, one or two social media tools become the dominant mode of communication.
This “grassroots” (can we still call it that?) organization has chosen primarily YouTube (duh, you’re uploading videos) as the major social media platform, yet has made zero investment in its vanity appearance. Granted, it’s Ramadan and the organizers might be dressing down (‘vanity’ is a sin in Islam too, you know), but that doesn’t excuse the lack of moderating on some of these comments being posted.
There’s a difference between stifling freedom of speech and allowing the top three comments to use abusive, foul language, and make fun of mentally disabled people:
Seriously, you have an I.P. Disclaimer, but you can't monitor sleazy comments? Kids are watching this channel...
4. Who is the defined audience? Is there one? There’s nothing wrong with Muslim Americans feeling proud of their faith and country, but every grassroots organization I have consulted (and I have consulted a lot) posts their mission and vision on their main medium of communication. All MFMV has posted up till now is a weirdly legalese sounding description:
“Www.MyFaithMyVoice.com is a grassroots effort by American Muslims from across the country looking to present their voice on issues affecting Muslims and Islam in America. It is an independent network with no affiliation to any one organization or school of thought.”
So we know why we’re posting videos: to talk about issues affecting Muslims and our faith in America. But who are we talking to again? There seems to be a lack of defined audience, which would explain why there have been only 2,982 channel views, and ~7,900 upload views since last night.
Also: Each crowdsourced–developed by the “crowd”–video only has between 100 and 300 hits.
This video is not hitting its intended demographic, unless that demographic is proactive Muslim Americans and a couple dozen Islamophobes. Similar videos range from the low tens of thousands to a couple million hits on YouTube. Further, there does not seem to be a strategy in place at all to make these videos garner hits.
5. SEO? Hello? Search Engine Optimization, one of the most important forces behind any social media driven campaign…is non-existent in this case. Google these guys, and neither their Facebook, YouTube, or website come up anywhere near the top. If this was such a ‘grassroots effort’, by now 7,000 hits to the site should have pawed the website or atleast the YouTube into view on the first page of Google. Plenty of re-links from other blogs though.
You're kidding, right? MFMV's website, Facebook, YouTube nowhere to be found.
Conclusion (for now)
Overall, this is not a bad job at all. The idea is novel, and it’s moving. Although, the phrases identifying uploaders as “Muslim” should come before the phrase identifying them as “American”. Why? Because we’re all Americans, and that’s what we want the still as yet undefined audience to take home, right?
It seems that the organizers’ main strategy here is to throw everything and the kitchen sink online in terms of videos and social media in the hope that it catches on with everyday Americans. Given how much “noise” there is present today in all media, I do not know if the results will be favorable.
Either way, we should all upload our videos and help through popular demand, really make My Faith My Voice a grassroots phenomenon
Disclosure: As the topic above is fairly relevant to the times, this pos will overtime be editted and expanded. I do not strike-out text, I simply delete it.
We produced more unique information in 2008 than in the 5,000 years before that point in time combined.
Welcome to the Information Age
-Erik Qualman, 2009.
Social Media is Generation Y‘s printing press.
It isn’t a fad. It isn’t temporary. It’s the beginning of the people driven economy.
By the end of this decade, consumers and electorates will access in real-time to just about all the information they need to make a decision about who to vote for, and what child-labor backed companies to boycott. And they’ll be getting this information through word of mouth, blogs, Twitter and yes, even Facebook.
This poses a huge problem for corporate giants and “election-favorite” candidates.
Because now people can organize and respond to something they don’t like in real time.
That means a serious restructuring of our economy and political culture in the next 30 years, and that small businesses and dark horse candidates have a much more equal playing field if they’re aimed at becoming regional powerhouses and world leaders.
Mr Smith and Mr. Bailey Finally Have A Chance.
This video is from the activist website MOVE YOUR MONEY. MOVE YOUR MONEY focuses on getting Americans to take action against what it perceives as gross excesses by banking giants by getting everyday Americans to move their money to local community banks. It focuses on the theme that community banks look out for the little guy, while large banks have only one rationale: greed.
It’s hosted on the popular social/new media site, YouTube, where it has around 500,000 views from site users with and without YouTube accounts.
About a month later during the State of the Union, President Obama announced his intention to divert TARP funds to help community banks lend more to “the people who need it most”. We can only wonder where the administration might have gotten that idea. The otherwise neglected industry of community banks and savings & loans now have regular meetings with administration officials, as well as national attention to their brand(s), in part because of social media tools like the YouTube video above.
Social Media tools allow for the dissemination of information in real-time. Better than any other mode of communication we have out there (unless you believe in telepathy). It means that we’re becoming a people-driven economy, where the consumer has a lot more power than the institutions they interact with.
Companies and politicians who don’t take heed of that do so at their own peril.
Gen Y’ers, Social and New Media are the innovation of our generation. Almost all Gen Y’ers–especially those of us born in the late 80′s, have multiple social networks subscriptions. Facebook, Twitter, and Blogs are our versions of the printing press. We use them quickly, efficiently, and for free to disseminate research, news, gossip, and our personal feelings.
New media is the art of simple.
We are Maryland’s Premier Consulting Firm for Social Media and Grassroots solutions.”
