IISTD Action Plan #4 of 4

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

IISTD/Institute of Islamic Sciences, Technology, and Development (USA)

A General Proposal on Establishing an IISTD Branch
 in a LC/ “Low Cost Country”: Goals, Functions,
Scope, Operation, Budget, and Waqfs

by: Prof. S. Waqar Ahmed Husaini, President, IISTD

 
Revised: Zulqidah 1423/ January 2003

Note:
       The Proposal below mentions IISTD branch in each “Low Cost Country” having three Fellowships created by Waqfs: for one ED/Executive Director, and two ( students ) in the TT,Technical Team; they all work Part-Time, using the computers and offices of their college or university. Each Fellowship can be named after its Donor, or the nominee of the Donor. Waqf for each Fellowship could be at least USD 5,000- 6,000; it could generate, after inflation, 8%-10% profit per year to support the Fellowship. After intensive efforts (esp., visits in 2000 & 2001 to India & Pakistan; visit to Iran in 2001; etc. After a longer visit to India, from 5 Dec. 2002 to 13 January 2003, we have a Functional branch of IISTD-India at Hyderabad, thanks God. It is an Outsourced branch, sending out Covering Letters to “targets” in North   America and India, with plans to expand it to cover other regions or countries too,  insha-Allah.

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INTRODUCTION:
These are my "tentative" ideas for a Proposed IISTD Branch in ANY Country; "tentative" because,  with advice of those better informed, we can change and improve them. This Proposal is presented to a few individuals and officers of certain institutions to Establish a Branch, and to some others for their advice, information, and to seek their help.

The First task would be to constitute a " Board of Trustees", nominate an IISTD Executive Director (ED), select some persons for the TT/Technical Team, and START WORK as soon as I am able to send some funds. (This is to be discussed and decided.) This Proposal can be implemented gradually, and changes made as we progress; we should observe the Islamic principles of gradualism ( tadrij ) and "making things easy" ( taysir ). For example, the "ideal qualifications" for the ED can be "relaxed" initially. MY ONLY REQUEST IS THAT WE ESTABLISH AND START AN IISTD BRANCH WITHIN A FEW WEEKS, in sha Allah! This is in our spirit  of "civilizational jihad" despite my lack of resources.

 A. STRUCTURE OF AN IISTD BRANCH ( IISTD-BR ) :
It will have: a "Board of Trustees"  ( Honorary ) with a Chairman who, or his nominee, will be the "Finance Officer", managing and dispersing "Fellowships" and "Honorariums"; the Board and the Finance Officer will report to me; an Executive Director/ED ( Chief Executive Officer ), receiving a (higher) "Fellowship"; and a TT/Technical Team ( students and non-students who do IISTD work ). The TT will comprise: (1) Fellows ( Fellowship recipients ); and (2) Volunteers ( receiving smaller Honorarium amounts ). Initially, to economize, we MUST have an ED; and two Fellows ( or one Fellow and two Volunteers ). 

 B. QUALIFICATIONS OF ED/ EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR (and AED/ ASSOCIATE ED ):
MUST BE preferably a young LECTURER ( Assistant Professor ), TECHNICALLY QUALIFIED, ABLE TO WRITE AND CORRESPOND IN ENGLISH, AND WELL-SETTLED. MUST HAVE NO "MAJOR" COMMITMENTS OF TIME & RESPONSIBILITIES TO OTHER ISLAMIC GROUPS ( or other pre-occupations ) -- in order to concentrate on the  IISTD Branch. MUST NOT HAVE any group's " `asabiyyah" ( narrow loyalties ), and NOT have affiliation with any POLITICAL PARTY or any other GROUP, to be able to seek and get cooperation of ALL Islamic groups and organizations, both non-governmental and overnmental.

MUST BE CAPABLE OF GETTING COOPERATION OF NATIONAL and NTERNATIONAL Islamic, educational, and intellectual associations, such as students' and professional groups, colleges and universities, United Nations organizations and agencies, and other relevant Non-Governmental and Inter-Governmental Organizations. MUST SEEK and MOBILIZE  "VOLUNTEERS" and "FELLOWSHIP" recipients. I WILL TRY TO GET FOR ED and AED HIGHER  "FELLOWSHIP" AMOUNTS. ED and AED will be "REPLACED" by a BETTER person to ensure good performance. AN ASSOCIATE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ( AED ), of the opposite gender, must also be appointed to fully mobilize men and the Islamic woman-power.  A woman CAN be the ED.

 
C. DUTIES OF ED, IISTD-Branch:
The ED will be (a) in CONSTANT contact with the Board of Trustees, and me;  (b) BUT take all necessary INITIATIVES to get the work done. The ED WILL DIRECT AND MANAGE THE "TECHNICAL TEAM", and Perform all necessary tasks as per above "Qualifications" of ED.

D. INITIAL BUDGET OF IISTD BRANCH:
During the First year, in sha Allah, IISTD-USA ( I as its President ) will provide the funds, managed by the "Finance Officer", to pay the ED, AED, Fellows, and Volunteers; IISTD-USA, with help of an IISTD Branch, will raise Funds in USA and elsewhere to create Waqfs for the IISTD Branch; it should eventually be in a college or university; a Waqfs will create a PERPETUAL and SELF-SUSTAINING IISTD Branch. Each Waqf will support a Lecturer or Professor as ED and AED, and members of the TT ( all Fellows, perhaps Volunteers too ); Each Waqf will be named after its Donor, or a name proposed by the Donor.

E. FUNCTIONS OF IISTD BRANCH INITIALLY:
a.1)  Link "Islamic" web sites in the country TO the IISTD web site: ( www.islamicscience.org ); (Making efforts to update now and regularly this web site)

a.2)  Promote IISTD web site among e-groups in the country;

a.3)  Promote IISTD goals and Action Plans in the nation's colleges, universities, students' and professional groups, NGOs, and others. ( These are given in the Documents of IISTD web site; and the Action Plans are perhaps best summarized in the June and

September 2000 Newsletters of IISTD (Attached); latter are NOT yet on our web site ). 

b) Do Functions in (a) above also in other COUNTRIES or the REGION (identified in Attached letter) unless and until more Branches are established in the neighboring countries or the region to distribute the work. Thus initially the responsibilities of an IISTD Branch could be Regional and International! c) Promote ( and sell ) my Books ( see, web sites in Letterhead ), and get them translated into major national and regional languages. ( This also could provide funds for Waqfs, in sha Allah.

This is because my books, and "Recommendations" of conferences given in my books #2 and #3, give concepts and plans for Islamization of knowledge (esp. the natural sciences and technology), and education; see IISTD web site). Also promote books of other authors on "Islamization of knowledge and education", esp. those on Islamic sciences and technology. E.g., publications of IIIT/International Institute of Islamic Thought; Seyyed Hossein Nasr; 6-volumes edited by Allah-yarham Prof. Syed Ali Ashraf. An Indian and a Bangladesh publication which deserve world wide promotion are: A Simple Translation of the Holy Quran ( with notes on Topics of Science ). By Mir Aneesuddin ( Hyderabad, India: Islamic Academy of Sciences; 2^nd print, 1995 ) (Islamic Academy of Sciences, 5-9-271, John's Lane, Abids, Hyderabad 500 001, India) Scientific Indications in the Holy Quran: Written by a Board of  Researchers ( Bangladesh: Islamic Foundation Bangladesh, 1990/1411).

d)  In course of time an IISTD Branch will be autonomous with its Waqfs. It will have its web site ( in the national language and English ) to concentrate in its national (and Region) context,  its education systems, etc. It will maintain its international links and cooperation too.

F. NOTES:      

1)  We have an Outsourced branch, IISTD-India; and efforts are being made constantly to have branches in other countries. For example, the sphere of action of IISTD-India Branch includes India and North America initially.

2)  We must  UTILIZE the potential of Muslim WOMEN-POWER -- esp. the "YOUNG MOTHERS" who are technically very qualified but have Islamically chosen to be "rabb al-usrah" ( "a nourisher/rabb of the family" ) by NOT working outside their homes; they can CREATE and USE spare time to do IISTD work. There are lots of such women in the West too. TO MOBILIZE OUR WOMEN-POWER, WE SHOULD PROBABLY have a woman as ASSOCIATE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, if a man is the ED! She could mobilize women "Volunteers" to work part-time from home (or elsewhere). In India they have a GIO/ Girls' Islamic Organization, like the men's SIO/ Students' Islamic Organization; they are affiliated with their mother organization, the Jamaat-e-Islami India. We should utilize members of "GIO's" and similar Islamic women's organizations in all countries and regions.

3)  IISTD-India, in "linking" Islamic web sites outside of India, could start with: <www.islam.org/cyberport > which gives numerous organizations in Asia; Africa; North and South America; Europe; and Australia. (This is probably a better source than the one below:
< www.musalman.com > which gives the "Top 100" and total 657 Islamic web sites as of 18 Feb. 2001 (In THIS, and MANY OTHER MATTERS,  the IISTD Branch's Technical Team, including its ED and AED, WILL be better informed; SO THEY MUST TAKE THE INITIATIVE ). 

4)  The FIRST task of an IISTD Branch must be to Link and Promote, in its national CONTEXT, the IISTD goals and Action Plans, through its national web sites, e-Groups, and organizations. We must  "Islamize" the nation's schools, colleges and universities:- the SECULARIZED; the "traditionalist" or "PSEUDO-ISLAMIC" which offer a “reductionist” view of Islam, limited to some humanistic sciences in the Medieval contexts; and the MIXED  which offer all disciplines from the secular perspective with the addition of a few courses in the so-called “Islamic Studies”. This Islamization must be in both the content of their CURRICULA  and COURSES, and the METHODS of teaching and learning, vis-a-vis the IISTD vision.

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