Organized Outreach

The different forms of Organized Outreach?
Organized Outreach in the American Muslim community contains three components:
a) Education : (or dawa) for the purpose of educating others about Islam.
This is the most direct way of teaching others about Islam. Holding talks and classes on Islam, whether in the mosque or outside; distributing educational material about Islam, etc..

b) Political : for the purpose of becoming more effective in society, and/or the protection of the community:
Reaching out to politicians, community leaders, and interfaith leaders, for the purpose of developing relations, empowering the community, protecting the rights of the Muslim community, etc…. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) treaty of Hudybiya, with the Meccans, is a clear example of this category of outreach or interaction. Political outreach often enables more education about Islam. For instance, the prophet was more able to educate society about Islam in year 15, compared to year 5, since politically, Islam was more established at year 15.

c) Reform : Work geared toward reforming and enhancing society.
Examples include partnering with others to work for the greater good: working for the environment, reducing homelessness, poverty, crime, etc… Eliminating social ills was one of the important goals of the prophets, as each prophet had a number of key social ills that they worked to eradicate in society. Think of prophet Muhammad’s work to eliminate the killing of young girls, subjugation of women in society, slavery, and oppression in general. Other prophets had similar goals.

Isn’t all of this a form of dawa ?
At a high level, all the three categories above are some a form of dawa. But the difference in perspective and priority differs in each category. Each category is important as it plays an important role in our community.

The most effective dawa is at the individual level
The most effective dawa (educating others about Islam) more seriously happens at the individual level. That is: when the person interacts with an individual Muslim who is living Islam, and is able to touch their life. Organized Outreach provides another forum for this interaction to happen. However, the most effective form of dawa happens in normal places around each person as an individual: at work and school, with the neighbor and on the street.