BY RAYNALD C RIVERA
DOHA: Muslim American community activist Rami Nashashibi urged the youth to be innovative, courageous and be an inspiration to others as he opened the third edition of the biannual Youth Change Everything conference yesterday at the Coral Hotel.
Nashashibi, co-founder and currently executive director of Inner-City Muslim Network — a leading Muslim charity organisation in the US, told over a hundred young participants to think outside the box, be courageous leaders and “be inspired and inspiring.”
“I want you to think of the idea of being innovative, of thinking not just new ideas but ideas that challenge the logic of existing ideas which means asking the right questions. Some of the greatest innovations and the most successful startups were led by people who were willing to ask different questions,” he said.
Rami has been named one of the ‘500 Most Influential Muslims of the World’ by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center, among the ’10 Young Muslim Visionaries Shaping Islam in America’ by the Islamica Magazine and recently one of ‘Top Ten Chicago Global Visionaries’ by Chicago Public Radio.
“You will not succeed without some degree of courage. Great leaders required tremendous courage: courage to look at the face of extraordinary odds, courage to have conviction, courage to believe in others, courage to challenge the norms,” he stressed.
“You cannot be an inspirational person unless you are inspired. Being inspired means being open to new ideas and it takes courage because sometimes it requires you to get out of something you are comfortable with, and it takes innovation to challenge something that others have set before you,” he said.
He encouraged the participants to “make dreams a reality, take a vision and be willing to see that vision grow to its completion and willing to take long strategic plans to make it happen.”
As a good example of making change possible he cited the Takin’ It To The Streets, a Muslim-led festival in Chicago where artistic expression, spirituality and urban creativity inspire social change held at the Marquette Park where Martin Luther King Jr was stoned in 1966.
“The park which was once a symbol of intolerance and division had been transformed into a space which is a source of inspiration that brings different communities together celebrating commonalities and differences,” he said.
Yesterday, the participants attended a series of workshops such as managing change in a changing environment, creating intelligent organisations, building high performance teams, and goal setting, creative thinking and kick starts.
Today’s agenda focuses on business challenge wherein participants would be divided into teams to create and present their own projects in front of judges. The projects are planned to be published on The Youth Company online book and business publications in Qatar to attract potential investors.
Youth Change Everything conference is the concentrated version of two programs run by The Youth Company namely You-Training and You-Start, the former aims to enhance personal development of youth in Qatar while the latter provides them support for their entrepreneurial ideas.
Aya Abu Issa, Acting CEO of The Youth Company said they are working on organising a Youth Change Everything regional conference which would bring young leaders from the region to Doha for several days of collaborative work and networking.
The Peninsula
