Manchester Muslim Raising Money for Those Affected
Manchester, 27 Sha’ban 1438/24 May 2017 (MINA) – At least 22 people, including children, killed and nearly 50 others wounded in Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena in London Monday night.
The attacks which reportedly claimed by ISIS militants have been condemned by leaders arround the world and even Muslims in Manchester. Muslims are often the target of hatred if such an attack takes place in a country with a Muslim minority in it.
A campaign entitled “Muslims United for Manchester” appeared on LaunchGood, a crowdfunding site that works like a blend of both Kickstarter and GoFundMe.
To that end, “Muslims United for Manchester” seeks to raise at least $65,000 in short-term aid for the arena-bombing victims and their families.
The campaign is led by the British Muslim Heritage Center, with support from a coalition of national Muslim rights and culture organizations including Forum For Change, The Federation of Student Islamic Societies, the Islamic Society of Britain, European Academy of Quranic Studies, and the Altrincham Muslim Association.
“We wish to respond to evil with good, as our faith instructs us, and send a powerful message of compassion through action,” reads the fundraising description, which includes a positive faith-based message: “Our Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said: “Have mercy to those on earth, and the One in the Heavens (God) will have mercy upon you.” And the Quran teaches to “Repel evil by that which is better” (41:34).”
LaunchGood was cofounded in Detroit in 2011 by Chris Blauvelt, Omar Hamid, and Amany Killawi-Began, three Muslim entrepreneurs who groomed the company through a local incubator program called Bizdom. The site officially launched in October 2013, and now has an all-Muslim team of roughly 20 people in five countries.
Fast Company reported, while numerous campaigns work to directly support everything from scholarship funds to rebuilding mosques to paying for bone-marrow donations, the group has sadly grown exponentially over the last three and a half years as its projects supporting victims of mass violence have gone viral. That includes “Rebuild with Love” which focused on rebuilding black churches and supporting arson victims after a rash of fires in June 2015, about this same time as a deadly church shooting in Charleston, and “Muslims United for San Bernardino” in response to another mass shooting in California, which because of the shooters’ proclaimed support of ISIS, took on the much the same tone as the current response to the arena attack. Those campaigns engaged thousands, raising $100,000 and $250,000, respectively.
So far, the company, which takes 5% of every transaction, has raised $19 million for more than 1,800 campaigns in 83 countries and has more than 100,000 donors. That’s a drop in the bucket compared to GoFundMe’s multiple billions raised by contributors in the double-digit millions but the question for all crowdfunding platforms is whether their donors will continue to give repeatedly.(T/RE1/P2)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)