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Muslim Run
IMAN’s “Muslim Run” Campaign speaks to the challenges and opportunities of Muslim owned inner-city businesses and will introduce a model that can inspire change and hope for a different future. There are thousands of Muslim - owned businesses throughout America’s inner-cities.
Beginning in the early eighties the “Food and Liquor” neighborhood store seemed to be the most prevalent type of business, while subsequent decades witnessed the rise of Muslim-owned gas stations and “fish and chicken” fast food restaurants. More recently, a string of Muslim owned clothing stores, wireless phone outlets and even tax agencies emerged across urban America. In cities like Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland these businesses were often owned by Muslims of Arab descent, mostly Palestinian, Jordanian and Yemeni.Many people associate these businesses with an array of negative characteristics such as: poor lighting; over-priced food; liquor, blunts and pornography; dilapidated and poorly kept buildings; bullet-proof glass counters and shady business transactions that include exploitative cash exchanges for food stamps.
Since its early inception, the founders of IMAN have been keenly aware of this issue and have sought to address it in many ways. The fact that IMAN was galvanizing and bringing together African American, Arab, and other Muslim communities enabled it with direct access to the multiple perspectives surrounding this social phenomenon. Within months of its incorporation in July 1997, IMAN launched what it called its “Alternative Business Initiative” which sought to find ways to stimulate an alternative set of business practices among Muslim business owners.
The “Muslim Run” model lays out five guiding principles that aspire to standards informed by:
1) Specific Spiritual Injunctions,
2) Community Cooperative Models,
3) Nutritional Health and Wellness Regulations;
4) Aesthetic Values & Standards
5) Employment and Training Opportunities.
The “Muslim Run” Campaign will initially seek to find two Muslim owned inner-city businesses that are publicly willing to transform their businesses by adhering to these five guiding principles. IMAN, along with key Muslim institutions, foundations and governmental agencies will raise the necessary financial support to subsidize the costs associated with the campaign. IMAN will take responsibility for initiating a large media campaign that profiles these models as an attempt to create an alternative set of community-empowering business practices. |
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