The role of seminars, universities, research centers, and the media in the  development of the civilization of modern Islam.

Introducction

First of all I consider important to determine the historical place of the civilization of modern Islam, which probably is not the same for all of us   and perhaps we do not have the characteristics of it as common indicators. However I will take the contemporary term and place it in the period from the post war of the Second World War to our days.

We all know that France and England gave away their colonies to the United States  and under the administration of this  super power rich and poor countries interact using as a  framework new supra structures which imposed social economic models accompanied by theories and long terms geostrategic plans

In the creation of these frameworks, the racism and western Christian religious tradition were introduced by the centers of power to our peripheral countries. This is the case of my country El Salvador. And from this last the globalized campaign against Islam.

1.                 General Historical Background of El Salvador 

El Salvador went from being a country dependent on the agriculture of coffee, cotton and sugarcane to a post-civil service economy that lasted twelve years. In the post-war period, the economic boom of international cooperation arrived to rebuild the infrastructure damaged by the war, accompanied by an increase in the cost of living and other social changes.

A structural adjustment of the IMF was imposed and later this measures produced the sale of strategic assets and privatizations of banking, telecommunications and labor flexibilization through the destruction of traditional unions, freedom of contracting for private enterprise, with measures which do not protect the worker to mention only a few post conflict examples .

The change of economic activity resulted in the loss of jobs by the population that were formerly agricultural and industrial workers and since the new national situation there was no space for them, therefore, the export of this labor begins. Agricultural and other more qualified who either has no space to work since it will no longer be produced in the processing industry or import substitution, we are now only service providers, especially a logistics corridor given the smallness of the territory, modern highway and efficient communication technology.

Another consequence derived from what has been said were the need to reform the educational programs meaning a decreasing of quality of contents and study time in educational centers.

At the same time there is a turn in the religious life of the population. The civil war was attributed to the influence of international communism from the USSR and Cuba but in the countryside of our country there had been left behind the peasant and workers population with unjust living conditions. All those people became organized people and created popular organizations where children gathered with young adults’ men and women.

The previous postulate about the intrusion of the international communism was used as an excuse against the two universities existing before the armed conflict. These were the public University of El Salvador, supported by the State and the Jesuit University known as Catholic, private, both centers were accused of  been nested subversive ideas and reproduced. All this led to the birth of private universities of dubious academic quality, in the post-war period, in order to counteract student access to the universities initially mentioned.

In the sector of national religiosity, the Catholic Church was also accused of having adopted the thought of the Popular Church, and of generating the actions of the base ecclesial communities and their study of national reality, reflection and action. This criticism and campaign from the new post-war authorities, brought in response external funding to make possible foundation and proliferation of Protestant sects, a phenomenon that was reproduced in most Latin American countries and more specifically in Central America by the level of social upheaval present, with the civil wars in Nicaragua and El Salvador both relatively successful and which managed to revolutionize some aspects of the life in both countries.

Returning to the issue of our peasant and urban labor force, those continuum left to the United States, which brought with it family remittances, dollars reaching our banks, a phenomenon that stimulated our new financial oligarchy to promote migration. mass of the workers sectors mentioned.

Twenty-five years later we have a generation of successful professionals in the United States who do not return to the country, but in parallel there has also been developed a young delinquent population known as mareros. The latter are the objective and motive of our current war, which has been prescribed to us and unfortunately the Salvadorans themselves have not understood that it is our terrorist recipe imposed on Central America and more specifically on the Triangle of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

The three factors religious, educational and forced migration has given way to a society disarticulated in its principles and values ​​as well as unemployment and the growth of dependence on the United States again

In this described scenario, our small Muslim community, poor in resources is moving, but in the last year we have managed to grow, not precisely in numerical terms but in incidence on population sectors that we could not reach.

2. What motivated us to reflect on the current task

In the small Islamic community we have brothers coming from Protestant sects and others who come from Catholic Christianity like me.

Among the Protestant members was the concern that our community does not grow like some Protestant churches that have become very powerful and numerous in membership. 

In response we analyzed that in the first place Islam is not a simple religion that changes the human being without commitment to the community. It is a way of life that has a policy for the application of justice and solidarity.

We also clarify that the existing Protestant Churches are not except for some historical calls such as the Anglican, Lutheran, Baptist, Reformed, Western Catholic Christian etc. The latter as a common feature have a unique authority, with pyramidal vertical structures, as well as armies, private companies, churches. etc

Once this was clarified, which I considered to be very important, we entered the next stage on what to do to attract new blood to our activities. We consider the need to have a human element with a higher cognitive level that would allow us to raise the academic level of the message that we intend to deliver.

Expanding the range of professions of people who participate in our activities has  contribute to complement the formation of the individuals, and developed the ability to discern by raising the academic level of the contents in the workshops or seminars. To achieve better results  we developed a new strategy

a.                 We determine the target population of University Young people from the careers of Political Sciences, International Relations, and Anthropology in the most important Universities. Eventually we have discussed with the director, working with young people who does graphic design, based on the fact that Iran works in this field in an exceptional way..

b.                 We select topics that we think may be attractive for participants in the workshops or seminars. We attach great importance to the historical political and geopolitical approach to examine the tools of domination. For example, it is one thing to talk about women in Islam and another about women in contemporary Islam.

In the first topic, we talk about the role that the Coran assigns to the woman within the Muslim family and in the second topic we see how the woman plays a role and is affected by the politics in the socio-economic and political models in historical moments.

 c.      Attractive posters or posters are made taking care in colors and type of paper used.

d.       Posters are placed at the selected universities in public places near the classroom buildings. This is done to reach young people with fewer resources who do not have a computer or use the networks, possibly with the same intensity as others.

. g.       The poster is also promoted on social networks, especially Facebook. This means has been the most effective to launch the message and for preliminary inscriptions, clarification of information etc.

h.       The topics that we consider may be attractive for participants in the workshops or seminars are selected.

i.        The preliminary investigation of one to two months is crucial to achieve the desired effect in the assistants in the workshops.

This process has been successful in terms of obtaining content with aspects that attendees are unaware of due to the poverty of the training they receive in their study centers

In our association also we have a small library in which we are coding the books to open it to the public that you want to consult. When we speak of the public we are referring to young people or adults, friends who come to workshops, seminars or book presentations, recitals etc. In other words, frequent visitors to our association who are reached through their participation in the various events we offer.

3. The importance of the media. Social networks.

 Here I am going to refer more specifically to the role played by the installation of our online radio minarete.net

Through radio it has allowed us to introduce the music of the Middle East Afghana, Pakistani, India, Irani, and others. Which is extraordinary in a country like El Salvador where the North American and tropical musical penetration is atomizing and does not allow the population to know this cultural expression so different and educational.

 In the radio little by little it has been incorporated programs like the one of geopolitical analysis and news of the middle east, program on subjects of the Muslim woman, Environment, Literature and poetry

At the national level there is no other radio with a serious, varied and attractive programming for people who are curious about these difficult subjects to catch on other radios. The geopolitical issues we believe have aroused much interest for two central reasons:

• The absence of truthful news about conflicts in the Middle East due to the predominance of Western press news.

 • The focus of Salvadoran news does not handle the analysis of Eastern television

• There are many good political analysts in El Salvador, but the geopolitical issues of the Muslim world are ignored or known in their deliberately distorted versions by the regional power. And speaking the truth is already dangerous in the Islamist tendency islamophobia that we have all perceived through the written media and others.
These gaps have been covered in a certain way, although not in the intensity that we wanted, we received positive comments from European, South American, Caribbean and Central American countries and Mexico.

In short, radio is what has allowed us to become known as a community and also as a transmitter of a very exotic culture for our people. But the most important thing is to expand not in terms of membership but in the reach towards national and foreign population sectors that we could not reach before the presence of the radio.

 4. National and local leadership importance. .

  At all levels, and the local or national is of extreme importance because it is the one that leads each day the real activity of the brothers. In our large or small communities the role of directing and leading all the activity requires a lot of creativity, and clarity about where we are going with all the activity developed. If we do not know where we are going, we are simple Muslim activists.

. In each large or small community we have diversity of ideological thinking, economic level, educational et. And this is why it is not easy when we start a new direction at work we can have voices for and against, attitudes of support and boycott of work. Populist activities or not. In order to deal with these differences, the need for having a  fair communicator, visionary and supportive leader who knows how to discern instead of taking positions of complacency without reflection and approval before any event that may cause contradiction.

• The continuous evaluation of what we are doing should be assumed as a normal and periodic function. This can serve as a thermometer to measure progress and setbacks.

• It is also clear that the failures of a local director may be due to overwork and little or no collaboration in the community. Or the existence of an inappropriate or inopportune collaboration in the absence of better alternatives

• Periodic visits from a higher level to the local level is necessary not only to stimulate the community’s spirits but also to observe the scope of work, the needs, correct practices in the field of the practice of our religious practice and more.

 5. Women in our communities.

Because I am a new Muslim, I do not know other communities other than mine. In this we are less women and it has not been nor is it easy to attract women to our community for several reasons

·                    • The existing spread in the West about the mistreatment of women in Islam and Eastern cultures.

·                     • Ignorance of the behavior of the prophet and women

·                    • The negative fame of the veil in the lives of Muslim women.

Some men from our communities who are accustomed to treating women as the secondary gender of society in all levels and spaces

In my community, the incorporation of women has not been easy, perhaps because in my country women play a very important role in politics, national economy and the home. Statistically we constitute half of the population and therefore we are necessary as active votes for politicians of any party, speaking in pragmatic terms. Therefore, for a Salvadoran woman with a certain academic background, it is not attractive to fully incorporate into a community where men are the decision makers of all the work. And where women are seen as necessary for certain joints

In my particular case, I came to Islam by

My admiration for the Ayatollah Khomeini, since the 90s, peace be upon him and his descendants.

For the triumph of the Iranian revolution

For the role that Iranian women have played in the history and revolution of their country

For the culture of this multi religiosity and ethnicity of nation

My old curiosity that accidentally took me to the Musala Chiita from El Salvador and that brought me here and for which I feel very blessed.

I would conclude then saying that in this valuable attempt to modernize Islam, the issue of the role of women should be a national and international agenda issue.

Thank you and  Ala spill the blessings for our meeting.

6. Geopolitic subjects.

Geopolitics as a subject it deserves to be incorporated in our workshops.

The Geopolitical allows us to understand and understand the actions of the powers over the countries not powers. Why

They are very long-term plans

Enclosing many aspects or factors to consider in the life and development of countries and societies

Because the activity of the geostrategas, it is an everyday activity that feeds the work of governments and social sectors.

Until now it may be considered a subject that does not concern us given the level of the structures that analyzes, however, at the level of national or local leaderships, it should even be considered as a necessary subject of study.

6. Geopolitics.

As a subject it deserves to be incorporated in our research and seminars, workshops.  Allow us to understand the actions of the super powers over the non-powered countries.

Since are long terms plans and enclosed many aspects of the realities in countries and societies which feeds the work of governments and social sectors.

In national or local leaderships of our Islamic communities, it should be considered as a necessary subject of knowledge.