Here is a clear case of the importance of rejecting group-think, stereotypes and prejudices about Islam and Muslim people. Andrew Denton interviewed Muhammud Yunus on Monday. See also: Meet the New Heroes and the Yunus Centre:
ANDREW DENTON: Your dad, have I got his name right? Doula Mia?
MUHAMMAD YUNUS: Doula Mia, yes.
ANDREW DENTON: You described him as, you were what you were largely because of him. What was it he taught you?
MUHAMMAD YUNUS: Well he didn’t have much education, he went to school up to eighth grade, my mother went to school to about fourth grade. But he always wanted his children to go to school. He valued education very much, so every single child he wanted to put in school and kept them in the school. Usually in a business family of that level they always want to get their children to come and work with them, expand the business and so on, but my father never tried to do that. My father always said "No no, don’t waste your time, you stay in school and continue with your education". So that was very important. He was a very religious person.
ANDREW DENTON: He did the Hajj I think three times didn’t he? He went to Mecca three times.
MUHAMMAD YUNUS: Yeah, that’s right, he performed his Hajj.
ANDREW DENTON: What’s your memory of him going doing that?
MUHAMMAD YUNUS: Well, at that time going to Hajj was a big thing because there was no plane to take you, so you go by ship. So for them it’s a big journey to go and we, as kids, we waited for all the gifts for us, when he gets back.
ANDREW DENTON: Like kids everywhere.
MUHAMMAD YUNUS: Like kids everywhere, yeah.
ANDREW DENTON: What sort of gifts would he bring back from the Hajj?
MUHAMMAD YUNUS: From Hajj he’d bring … dates, this is a very favourite one so we would like to wait for them and lots of trinkets for kids… even the coins, we loved the coins he would bring for us, the coins of another country, so that’s another attractive thing for us.
ANDREW DENTON: So exotic.
MUHAMMAD YUNUS: Exotic, yes…
Hannah Roundtree
December 29, 2009 at 7:52 am
How did you find microfinancing … did you visit a village then have a inspiration… or did you just had friends anfd family that were in poverty and you wanted to help.
Neil
December 29, 2009 at 8:13 am
I had heard of it before, but was led to write this post from the interview mentioned in it.
James
December 31, 2009 at 10:45 pm
I’ve seen this before but it’s still brilliant. Thanks for sharing the scan, too.