“I am often skeptical about Meetings and Committees.
For obvious reasons.
They are often wasteful of time and resources.
At times, they are little more than a refuge for the indolent and the indifferent -- and the generally unproductive.
In some quarters, they end up being devices for distracting people and deferring action.
While I have all these reservations about Meetings and Committees, I want to leave no doubt that Meetings and Committees are important.
And often they are indispensable tools of democracy -- and Islam, which in many ways comes down to being the same thing.
Meetings and Committees are generally the instruments through which a free people exercises Power and Participation in a Democratic Society.
In the language of Islam, it is called Shoora.
In Islam, Shoora means grass-roots democratic participation and involvement on the part of a Free People -- at all levels.
Without such broad-based participation, chanting the name of Islam is mere lipservice.
At worse, it is a way to hoodwink people and distract them from knowing, demanding and working to realize their basic human rights.
So, Committees and Meetings are an instrument of Shoora -- of Islam that is.
To be effective, Committees must be freely elected and fairly nominated.
And they must be efficiently run.
Members and Leadership of Committees must make the best and most efficient use of the time and resources available to them.
And they must be constantly aware of their accountability before God -- and before Society.
That is Islam.” (Dr. Pasha)
