Consultative Resource 4/ OUR DEMOCRACY

The below is for consultation on in regards to the Al-Ansaar Association 

OUR Democracy

The Al-Ansaar Association fervently believes that the Democracy of small people is embattled, constantly in danger from the undue influence of big money, and is therefore in need of protection.

And that this protection is best afforded through the support of small businesses. 

That small bussinesses are the cornerstone of our Democracy, and indeed lifeblood of Our Communities.

THE ACADEMY OF EXCELLENCE

Towards these ends, The (Al-) Ansaar Association believes that to learn business, it is enough to do business.

The Al-Ansaar Association will set up a fund open to everyone, and not just to Muslims, to build experience in and to promote and support small and new businesses.

The Al-Ansaar Association will

1- act as a facilitator for the work of management oversight teams of Muslim financiers/ accountants/ solicitors/ consultants to provide their time and expertise on a pro-bono basis to successful candidates/ applicants.

Each successful candidate/ applicant will have one point of refernce mentor from this team, and if available then one mentor from The Academy of Excellence Alumni (See below).

However, they will also be provided access to the expertise of the whole Management Oversight Team.

Candidates will present their proposals for consideration to the (Al-) Ansaar Association who will consider convening an intervew and methods session with a pre-formed pro-bono management oversight team for that purpose and with one Trustee from the Al-Ansaar Association also being present. That Trustee's decision to fund or not to fund will be on the advice of the convened pro-bono Management oversight team.

2- carry 100% of type B Shares of no value in any Company formed, split equally between existing Trustees of The IAl-) Ansaar Association, by the suucessful applicant, in order to explicity prevent the sale of the Company via buyout to any National or Multi-National or other Company directly employing over 50 people.

3- approve Bookkeeping services to the formed Company. With a service providers giving assurances to complete and ongoing oversight of the accounts to the Al- Ansaar Association, on a daily and whenever needed basis, and appointed Management Oversight Team.

4- Initial loans made by the Al-Ansaar Association will not attract any interest repayments, and will need to be underwritten with personal assurances from the successful applicant with a stipulated deadline for repayment.

5- If the formed Company is in need of recapitalisation for further investment, then the Al-Ansaar Association will be afforded first refusal.

We will seek to provide further investment Capital in exchange for part ownership of the Company at a pro-rata market value; So for example if the Company is valued at 100k, and requires a 25k capital investment then this will be afforded at 20% ownership of the Company in shares.

If the applicant refuses, or cannot gain, recapilisation via the above means irrespective or reason and seeks recapitisation elsewhere then they will not avail themselves of variable interest loans, only being allowed to accept fixed repayment loans over a limited period of time. 

If recapitalisation can only progress as sale of part ownership of the company, then following negotiations with a third party, the Al-Ansaar Association will be given first refusal to meet the negotiated settlement before progression can occur.

6- The formed Company will neither accept nor provide finance based upon usury or interest based models which seek not to mitigate risk but to fully eliminate it. 

This ethos is in line with the Islamic vision that risks should be accepted and mitigated but not fully eliminated. 

That taking risks is the fire blood of innovation and best Muslim practice.

7- Type B Shares, of no value, will also allow for the Al-Ansaar Association to liquidate the Company in case any of the 6 points above fail, and this will be by majority vote of trustees following a meeting called to address their concerns. 

In case of liquidation of assets, after liabilities have been satisfied including to the (Al-) Ansaar Association, the (Al-) Ansaar Association will gain half of the value of the remaining assets with the applicant taking the remaining.

8- The Proposer/ Successful Applicant is free to form other businesses, become part owner in other bussinesses, work in or for other businesses, sell on his/her busniess share to another small business owner, or new applicant, only after a specified evaluantion time has elapsed, or after agreement to liquidation,. whichever is the sooner.

9- The so formed Company will carry the (Al-) Ansaar Association logo for THE ACADEMY OF EXCELLENCE on its letterhead and in all email and other communications in a prominent position with pride.

ACADEMY OF EXCELLENCE ALLUMNI

Former and Existing Applicants will be asked to maintain thier contact with the work of the (Al-) Ansaar Association through providing support for new and potential applicants through once yearly conferences and conventions.

And also when asked by providing a mentoring service for successful applicants.

OUR HOPE

It is hoped that the (Al-) Ansaar Association fund will be used to great effect to launch the careers of many successful businessmen and businesswomen, who will champion Democracy through the support of Small Business Enterprises and the (Al-) Ansaar Association.

The name of the fund will be "The Academy of Excellence Fund". Please donate generously to this not for profit fund.

Who be the Fascists?

In our book we are constantly told that the believers are the successful ones.

Most commentators will say that this is in reference to our eventual outcome, since many a time we are also reminded of the great reward that awaits us in Jannah.

However when we consider the revelation within the context of it's prior manifestations then it's clear that God here is willing for us to be successful, and for us not to be scared to put into action HIs will. For one reading of the Umm ul-Kitab; al-Fathihah, the Opener, the bringer of success; is that it is in response to the ask of Nabi Isa ( Jesus (as)) when he asked- "thy will be done, thy kingdom come, on Earth as it is Heaven."

That whilst in al-Maedah, Allah t'ala informs us that there are monks from amongst that Nation that love God, and when they hear the Quran then their eyes well with tears recognising something of it's truth.*1 

That they love Him so much that they have forsaken life, and dedicated themselves to Him even as Maryam (as) herself was so dedicated.

But for us, that path is forbidden to us by the words and way of our Messenger (saw). *2

Because we as a Nation were sent with a most sacred mission to put into action the will of God, to answer the ask of Nabi Isa (as). And how can we put it into action if we are weak and powerless, rather we are the successful ones when we act to surrender to His will and act to free people from the oppression that is their everyday mead.

Indeed the ways of God are simple.

For Imam Al-Ghazali (rm) when he examined the variety of Muslim thought, even then there were many schools, he developed a methodology which was both painstaking and laborious in trying to differentiate correctly between them.*3

And yet the most powerful way expulsed by God is easy- discount those with contradictions. 

Indeed the ways of God are powerful and simple.

Our mission, so many times we are told, is to remove oppression from the people and to not worry about belief, that is for God to guide whom He will.

The tiller of the soil simply cleans and turns to freshen the soil.
He does not cause the crop to grow, but simply sows.



MashaAllah look at us.
Islam has made of us an international people who see their relevance everywhere.



The defining wars of the prior century saw the rise of Fascism within Europe. And when we look to define the essential characteristics of those movements within Germany, Spain and Italy we would see them as the rise to full exposition the Nation State. *4

That Fascist Germany was the expression of the German Nation State at it fullest expression, that for their people what simply mattered was the German Nation, and they had no regard for our common human story. 

No regard for other peoples' rights and needs, and no regard for a common obligation to neither help them, others, nor even to treat them as equal.

The route to facism does not need a singular start, for it doesn't matter if it comes from a social democractic perspective, or a communist perspective or even a socially conservative perspective- it is an end in itself from whereever it began.

It is a narrowing of a view, where no one else matters.

At the defining moment of the long confict between Fascist Germany and England, Winston Churchill on the brink of failure stood before the House of Commons and gave a fighting speech at the last he said that when England laid waste and starving that beyond the seas "the new world, with all it's power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old".

That England was not fascist, then. 


That the United Kingdom was not fascist, then. 

That we, Muslims, being necesarilly Internationalists are the New World.

For when the United Kingdom supports Fascist Israel, it becomes a Fascist country in its own right.

For Israelis do not see a common bond between all people, do not see an obligation to treat with equanamity and justice. 

They take what they want of lives and land.

They are the heirs to Fascist Germany.

And when Great Britain support them, and when we allow this our Great Britain to support them- then we too become what this Nation once fought and stood against. 

The Swastika even now rises on the House of Parliament, even as Churchill warned it would- but now it is replaced by the redolent Israeli banner.

And when our Government uses all of it's legal apparatus, and judicial processes to put to trial a man who simply happened to be put at the head of a boat of refugees bound for our Isles and when some of these perished at sea.

When our Government seeks to label him as a criminal and gulity of manslaughter, then that Government is a fascist Government. *5

And our legal apparatus and our Police forces are instruments of a fascists Government.

For they do not care for our common human story.

But they care to deter others by branding one such unlucky fellow as criminal- seeking to destroy his very soul.

And yet each of our souls is precious, and all of them too.

Then needs us, the New World, to come to the resuce of the Old.


That Islam is relevant, and we will free the People from that ugly threat that they once fought tooth and nail against- only for it to now appear in their support of Israeli policy, and in the Government of the now.

Knowledge is sought through action. 

Deliberating is an action that occurs within you. So think well. 

NOTES

*1 v82 Al-Maedah. 

Which ends with “We do believe, make us one then with those who bear witness” The Shuhadah all of the Muslims recognise to be the Martyrs who bear ultimate witness to the truth with their lives.  

*2 Muhammed (saw) expressly forbade us to become Monks and Nuns. 

*3 Al-Ghazali, “Deliverance from Error”. 

*4 off course the dictionary definition paints a different picture of centralised government or one party but does no justice to the origins of such movements. Hitler was himself a socialist democrat. 

*5 the ongoing criminal case against Ibrahima Bah. The first case the jury could not bring themselves to convict, when he was as much a victim of circumstance. 

And so the Government and the CPS are currently trying him a second time. 

DRAFT RESOURCE: Articles of Association of The (al-) Ansaar Association

ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION

1- The (Al-) Ansaar Association, herinafter referred to as the Association, will not hold any assets other than monetary funds that it shall seek to distribute according to its aims.

2- The Association will not be a charity, but will be an association of people with shared values.

3- The Association will be run by a board of six trustees, each leading the work of the Association in each of its five aims, with the sixth holding the position of chair and amir.

It is preferred that each remit is held by a different individual, but on occasion multiple remits can be delegated to be held by one such person when the board of trustees is in agreement. 

OUR HIGH STREETS- working to provide space throughout this greater country for the people of it to fully grow into their appreciation of Islam, free from the baggage of prior cultural expressions of it.

OUR FREEDOM- a popular movement of people that seeks to challenge to staus quo of a Criminal Justice System that seeks to convict people based upon sentiment and not fact, that does not uphold justice but is the epitomisation of oppression and tyranny of the State upon it's citizens.

OUR HERITAGE- Islam is intelligent, brave and relevant. We will provide resources towards those ends of making our heritage come alive. 

OUR MASGIDS- will seek to bring together Muslims, within local areas, holding our common aspiriation that Islam is grassroots, accessible and revolutionary. 

And will seek to build Masgids throughout this our land through the incorporation of those Masgid Associations. 

These will act as centres to serve all of our people, according to the blueprints provided by the Association.

THE MUSLIM PARTY- We believe that Politics is in the job of inspiring people towards both doing good to others, and self-betterment. 

That hitting people with sanction, monetary or otherwise, does not help in those regards. 

We will work at the centre of power to hold power to account, both in all of our communities, and at that centre.

And will seek to right the wrongs of unchecked power, and harmful laws.

4- Each Trustee holds an unlimited mandate in regards to membership and trust in regards to the Association until and unless he is voted out of his role by a majority of other Trustees.

5- Each Trustee on seeking retirement, or being forced, from his post will nominate another to take his position, and this must be ratified by majority vote of all those in the Association that attend a meeting called for that express purpose, giving at least one months notice on our website.

If the position is not ratified then the remaining Trustees can appoint a Trustee of their chosing, via majority agreement.

The remaning Trustees cannot chose the nominee whose vote was not ratified by the Association attendees.

6- ACCOUNTING FOR FUNDS. 

We will collect funds according to each of our five aims, accounts will be updated at least weekly on our website. 

Transfer of funds between the arms and aims of the Association will be affected by majority vote of the Trustees according to need.

A sixth general fund will be as per 7- below.

7- MEMBERSHIP. 

Members will be Muslim, according to the deifinition of Sunni Islam as defined by Yusuf al-Qadri's "The Lawful and Prohibited in Islam".

Members will pay a nominal standing order into the general fund of the association of £3 per week, thereby stipulating that they hold similar views to those expressed by the Association, and its members.

Membership can be revoked by majority trustee decision, on the occassion that information comes to light regarding the Member in question. 

The Member in question will be afforded the right of answering questions that may be put to him/her by the Trustees. This meeting will be scheduled to take place after 30 days of sending a letter to that effect to the held address of the Member, but not later than 45 days. 

The decision of the Trustees will be final and binding on all former Members, and existing Members, all will accept it as final and binding, and will not seek to challenge it in court.

At the meeting to withdraw Membership rights, the Trustees will not deliberate on a reason for withdrawl of Membership, the decision to withdraw Membership will be a simple show of hands. No argument will be given as to the withdrawl of Membership other than the Trustees do not believe that the Member who has their membership revoked still holds similar views to those held by the Membership of the Association, and the Association itself.

8- MEMBERSHIP RIGHTS- Members will have full access to our published resources, and other events that we will hold for them, will be able to vote concerning the articles that dictate each of the five fields of our work, when so consulted by the board of Trustees. And will have preferred access to the work of the Association and its trustees.