UNRIBA was officially launched at the World Conference on Riba (RIFCON) in 2012 with a bit of buzz and fanfare. Unfortunately, in the immediate months following the conference, the campaign fell silent as different parties got involved in their own personal ventures. It was only towards the beginning of 2014 that a few core members came together to try and resuscitate UNRIBA.
My initial focus in restarting the campaign was on the issue of money and monetary reform. Specifically, on exposing the obvious flaws in the current fiat monetary setup and pushing for alternatives and complementary currencies more in line with what is in Islamic tradition i.e. gold, silver and other asset-based forms of money.
However, after much discussion with my colleagues Justin and Giovanni, I soon became aware that money is only a part, albeit a critical part, of the entire riba-based economic system. To address systemic problems that have afflicted Muslims and other communities, we need a holistic and not selective approach. Besides educating on riba and money, we need to spread awareness about other economics issues such as debt dependency, banking scams, and the need to revive classical Islamic community markets/entrepreneurs. Beyond this, we need to attack the root of the disease that has resulted in such a system being imposed upon us, topics such as materialism, consumerism, and the values inculcated by the economic machine. In short, we need to look at our own lifestyles first, and the 'UNRIBA' process begins here.
Our campaign is not youth exclusive but it is youth-centric. The reason is that the heart of any meaningful social change should begin with the next generation. It is one reason we have been fortunate to directly address students courtesy of our partners at universities such as UTM, UIA and University of Malaya.
Another promising observation from conducting this campaign has been that the issues we target quite often cross sectarian lines. Problems such as riba, money and debt transcend the normal Sufi/Salafi divisions that have hindered Muslims in the past. and the potential to use Muamalah as a unifying force is still very much there.
The hope is not that we can bring some overnight revolution. The hope is that, through slow and deliberative education and advocacy, we can cause a ripple to become a wave, and our campaign may one day insha Allah become a movement to change the basic conditions in which we are forced to live. Whether this happens is not up to us, but any incremental effort we can do to push in that direction is part of the solution, while indolence is part of the problem.
Over the last year, we've made some headway with a variety of interesting programmes more tied to the nature of money and the Islamic free market. Post-Ramadan insha Allah, we look forward to putting spotlight on some more offbeat topics, such as the effects of the riba-system on corrupting food, media and family. Stay tuned for some updates.
Lastly, our takeaway from UNRIBA is that to avoid riba doesn't mean just changing the bank you use, it means changing how you live. Until we can internalise that message, true progress will remain elusive. Our sincere apologies for any mistakes on our part, and we ask for your kind duas for the success of UNRIBA as we move forward.
www.facebook.com/unriba
www.unriba.org
