Okay, it's 8:30 p.m. I just set the timer for an hour. What am I going to do? I mean, it's kind of intimidating to think about what I could possibly do that could impact Gaza in any way. But I think it's helpful to just step back and think about the bigger picture.
Where to start?
I saw a tweet the other day from an Islamic scholar that I follow. He's not actually a scholar by profession, but he knows a lot about Islam. I've been following him for a while, and the he's been a big source of inspiration. I look to him whenever there are current events where I want a truly independent take. I know his perspective comes from the heart and from caring for Islam and Muslims in general.
ما يحدث يلين الحجر...قصف مراكز الإيواء والخيام المهترئة، حرق المراكز الطبية بمن فيها، المزيد من الناس في العراء بلا مأوى ولا طعام ولا علاج. كم نحن خاسرون إذا مرت الأيام على مجازر غزة ونحن عاجزون -لا عن نصرة إخواننا فحسب- بل وعن أن نوظف هذه الأحداث لتُحدث ثورة في تفكيرنا وسلوكنا
So here's the tweet.
He describes what's happening in Gaza, reflecting on all of the atrocities committed by the Israeli army there. He starts reflecting on us in particular, seeing the events as an opportunity to revolutionize our thinking and behavior. How do we prevent future events like this from happening? Each of us has a role to play, within our own field of work or domain of influence.
The Right Question to Ask
The big question that hits anyone trying to make change is: "What am I going to do? What could I possibly do to impact what is happening in Gaza?"
This is exactly the wrong question to be asking.
What you want to ask instead is: "Have I done what I can to support Islam and Muslims?"
You don't necessarily need to impact Gaza directly. But if you're able to support Islam and Muslims in general, then the next time a similar situation comes along, we'll be better prepared. We'll be stronger. If everybody just does their part, collectively that's going to be a massive move forward.
So the point is: don't be overwhelmed, don't lose hope.
Because that'll kill you, and ultimately result in internal angst for not doing more. My goal is to get some sort of early win, that I can then use to snowball into larger and larger wins, God willing.
A Concrete Approach
So what's that look like concretely?
Eyad Qunaibi has a ton of excellent resources, but they only really exist in YouTube videos. He's got some PDF books too, but the only channel where he has a strong presence.
I was thinking: what if there is a way to extend and amplify his reach? He could reach more people, especially those with the same concerns about Gaza or general questions about Islam. People might have doubts or questions they'd like help answering. He has excellent source material.
Maybe it's because his background is not in religion or Islamic studies. It's something he picked up of his own volition. His core area is pharmacology. He's a published pharmacologist with a PhD. The guy is an academic first and foremost who picked up Islamic knowledge along the way. He's extremely well-read.
Instead of me trying to figure out how I can influence people directly, maybe I could just amplify his reach. He's already got excellent content and resources, but he doesn't have a strong online presence. That's something I could build pretty quickly.
I could take his existing material and present it in different forms. I could convert it to text or graphic form and make it accessible via SEO. People searching for these topics would be able to find answers. This would be a measurable way for me to gauge my impact. Through analytics and some assumptions, I could see how I'm directly improving lives through his message.
I'm sure there are other things I can do, possibly some things related directly to Gaza. But like I said, the point is to maintain motivation and get some quick wins that I can snowball into other things. I don't want to get overly ambitious in the beginning. I just want to get something out the door relatively quickly.
The Plan
Let's come up with a plan for what we can do, break it down into tasks, and then just do it. First off, let's see how many videos he has on YouTube. Okay, so 826 videos. He runs a global channel which has videos in Arabic but with English titles and captions. There's quite a bit we can do here content-wise.
Some of his content is evergreen. He has series on evolution, the role of women in Islam, and many other topics. That stuff is timeless. Then there's content about current events, which is more time-bound.
If we can figure out how to process everything he's got, whether from YouTube or other sources, we could categorize that content. We'd need to determine the optimal way of displaying it and making it accessible. On the supply side, we'd have all his content organized. For the demand side, we'd need to look at what people are searching for SEO-wise. We'd then map his content to those search queries.
I'm not sure how I'm going to do this. Honestly, this domain is pretty new to me. I'm not even sure exactly how that's going to work. But I feel like that's probably the right approach to take here.