Understand how the world works. Ethica recommends these websites for broadening your understanding of the global context in which Islamic finance operates:
The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power
A Canadian documentary film written by University of British Columbia law professor Joel Bakan, and directed by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott that examines the nature of the modern day corporation and its rise as the dominant institution of our time. Part film and part movement, The Corporation is transforming audiences and impressing critics with its insightful and compelling analysis. Taking its status as a legal "person" to the logical conclusion, the film puts the corporation on the psychiatrist's couch to ask what kind of a person it really is.
The Rules
Change the rules and you change the world. The richest 300 people have as much wealth as the poorest 3 billion. This is no accident. A global movement to bring power back to the people and change the rules that create poverty and inequality around the world. With a decentralized network and hubs around the globe, The Rules campaigns to empower the world’s citizens to reclaim their rights by working together to create viable alternative rules and strategies to uplift the underdog majority.
Positive Money
The current financial system is responsible for the highest personal debt in the world’s history, unaffordable housing, worsening inequality, high unemployment and banks that are subsidized and underwritten with taxpayers’ money. All these problems have a common root: Money. Positive Money is a movement to democratize money and banking so that it works for society and not against it.
War On Want — Fighting Global Poverty
At the frontlines of the struggle against global poverty and injustice. War on Want works in direct partnership with some of the bravest and most inspiring grassroots organizations in developing countries to address the issues faced in rural communities, factories, sweatshops and conflict zones. Campaigning for human rights in the fight against inequality, War on Want aspires to bring about real, lasting change in government policy and the way international institutions operate.
Sacred Economics — Money, Gift And Society In the Age of Transition
A book by Charles Eisenstein — a teacher, speaker, and writer focusing on themes of civilization, consciousness, money, and human cultural evolution and now also a short film that traces the history of money from ancient gift economies to modern capitalism, revealing how the money system has contributed to alienation, competition, and scarcity, destroyed community, and necessitated endless growth. Today, these trends have reached their extreme – but in the wake of their collapse, there is great opportunity to transition to a more connected, ecological, and sustainable way of being.
Inequality.org — Connecting the Dots on a Growing Divide
Behind every great fortune is a crime. The richest 1 percent of households owns over 35.6 percent of all private wealth, approximately $20 trillion. A portal for data, analysis and commentary on wealth and income disparity launched by the Institute for Policy Studies with the aim to determine and address the impact of extreme inequalities. Together with advocacy groups, think-tanks and active academic centers for social change, Inequality.org strives to identify and tackle the dangers and devastation the growing inequality poses.
Inequality For All — A Documentary by Robert B. Reich
“We make the rules of the economy and we have the power to change those rules." Robert Reich, Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, former Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration and author of the best sellers “Aftershock,” “The Work of Nations” and “Beyond Outrage,” aims to help people understand the challenges they face through a film that grabs the audience and moves them to action.
The Equality Trust
People in more equal societies live longer, have better mental health and better chances for a good education regardless of their background. Community life is stronger where the income gap is narrower. Supporting a dynamic network of campaign groups across the UK, The Equality Trust aims to build a social movement for change by analyzing and disseminating the latest research and promoting evidence-based arguments.
NEF — Economics As if People and the Planet Mattered
The UK and most of the world's economies are increasingly unsustainable, unfair and unstable. Many of the richest countries in the world do not have the highest well-being. From climate change to the financial crisis it is clear the current economic system isn’t working. NEF is the UK's leading think tank promoting social, economic and environmental justice. Its mission: To kick-start a great transition to a new economics that delivers for people and the planet.
Enactus
A non-profit organization that brings together a community of student, academic and business leaders committed to using the power of entrepreneurial action to transform lives and shape a better more sustainable planet. Team Enactus aspires to create and implement community empowerment projects around the globe — its goal: changing lives for the better and developing just the kind of leadership essential to addressing the growing challenges of a complicated world.
Lead — Inspiring leaders for a sustainable world
The world’s largest non-profit organization dedicated to building leadership for sustainable development. Combining initiative, courage and a relentless will to improve lives and preserve the planet, the Lead network of fellows and partners are catalysts for change, turning imagination into reality, asking provocative questions and coming up with actionable and impactful solutions to the world’s most pressing problems.
P2P Foundation
An international organization focused on studying, researching, documenting and promoting peer-to-peer practices to bring about a shift in consciousness geared towards individual and networked participation. It aspires to promote a new public domain for common knowledge, use open source and open access movements to improve social and productive life, reconnect with older traditions to attempt to build a cooperative social order and offer youth a vision of renewal and hope to create a better world more in tune with their values. It aims to build awareness by combining new values, new relations and new forms of organizations that strengthen each other mutually.
Share — The World’s Resources
A non-profit, independent civil society organization campaigning for a fairer sharing of wealth, power and resources within and between nations. Works to implement economic sharing as a pragmatic solution to a broad range of interconnected crises that governments are currently failing to address — including hunger, poverty, climate change and environmental issues.
Community–Wealth.Org
Brings together information about the broad range of community wealth strategies, policies, models, and innovations. CWO aims to facilitate collaboration among those working within the field, encourage the support and participation of new constituencies, draw attention to how neighborhoods and communities can address economic challenges using an asset-based, community wealth approach. CWO works to lay the groundwork for changes in policies more supportive of community wealth-building programs.
Institute for New Economic Thinking At the Oxford Martin School
A multidisciplinary research institute and philanthropic foundation dedicated to innovative economic research that addresses major economic and social challenges. To make the global financial system more robust, to invigorate economic growth and innovation, to tackle rising economic inequality and to create an economic growth model that is environmentally sustainable requires new economic thinking. INET Oxford researchers work closely with policy-makers and leaders in business and civil society to bring new economic ideas and thinking into debates and practice in the public, private and non-profit sectors.
Qibla — Islamic Sciences Online
Traditional Islamic knowledge: The knowledge learned and passed on from teacher to teacher all the way back to the Messenger of Allah (May Allah bless him and give him peace) in an unbroken chain. An online institute offering a wide-range of courses imparting traditional Islamic knowledge to all Muslims seeking to practice their Deen. From programs in Arabic and Tajweed to Islamic jurisprudence, law and finance, Qibla endeavours to make the knowledge of authoritative Islamic scholarship accessible to all those eager for practical know-how in their path to the Divine.
Schumacher College — Transformative Learning for Sustainable Living
Having offered 20 years of transformative courses for sustainable living, deeply grounded in an ecological and holistic worldview, Schumacher College helps organizations and individuals understand and find solutions for the most pressing ecological and social concerns of modern life through an innovative approach to cutting-edge learning with experts from around the world.
Post Carbon Institute
A megaphone for some of the world's best thinking on the 21st century's global sustainability crisis. PCI works to build awareness and collaboration, create integrated knowledge and inspire relevant action by providing individuals, communities, businesses, and governments with the resources needed to understand and respond to the current economic, energy, environmental, and equity crises. It envisions a world of resilient communities and re-localized economies thriving within ecological bounds.
YES! — Powerful Ideas, Practical Action
Today’s world is not the one we want — climate change, financial collapse, poverty, and war leaves many overwhelmed and hopeless. YES! Magazine empowers people with the vision and tools to create healthy communities and a healthy planet. Online and in print, YES! outlines a path forward with in-depth analysis, methods for citizen engagement, and stories about real people working for a better world.
Geoff Lawton — You Can Solve the World’s Problems in a Garden
How can you create a self-sufficient farm with all the food and water you need? What do you need to know when choosing the right kind of land to survive? How can you ramp up an abundant ‘urban food system’ in your small backyard? Geoff Lawton in these free videos tells you all you need to know about creating paradise on earth with permaculture.
