The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the charity Just Enough Faith (JEF) is under investigation for some funny business involving its fundraising activities and proceeds. JEF was apparently banned from fundraising in 2002 after breaching Charities legislation some three times.
I first became aware of JEF after reading about the experiences of its founder Jeff Gambin in media reports. Later, in September 2005, I visited JEF's premises near Rozelle Hospital where the al-Ghazali Centre volunteers were preparing food for distribution that evening as part of their "Feed The Homeless" program.
I'm not sure if the AGC people were aware of JEF's issues back then. I'm not suggesting they were in anyway involved. As far as I am aware, AGC were only using JEF's premises and equipment. It now appears that JEF's activities will now be managed by Bill Crews' Exodus Foundation.
Feeding and serving the homeless is indeed among the more noble activities, and has formed an essential component of the dawah (outreach) activities of South Asian sufis for centuries. If only more Muslim groups in Australia followed AGC's lead and participated in this kind of activity.
UPDATE: A group of Muslim students in Sweden are also working with a Christian charity to feed the homeless. You can read about their work here with an English translation here.
Words © 2009 Irfan Yusuf
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