TAQWA Eco-Food
Zainab Khan is the new director of Taqwa Eco-Food, replacing Shireen Pishdadi, who appears in RENEWAL. (Zainab was at the Iftar dinner that ends the "Food for Faith" story in RENEWAL.)
Taqwa is commonly translated from the Arabic as "God-consciousness." In a practical sense, the term incorporates the notions of seeking those things which lead to God's pleasure and love, while avoiding those things which may lead to God's displeasure. TAQWA Eco-Food hopes to draw God's pleasure and love by supporting high ethical standards in the raising of livestock and poultry.
Zainab attended the Forum on Religion and Ecology Conference "Renewing Hope" at Yale University where she expressed great interest in using RENEWAL with her work. She plans to screen it at a large event hosted in the Muslim community where she will discuss food issues and the importance of eating locally and sustainably-raised food.
Zainab also frequently speaks to congregations and universities, and she plans on integrating RENEWAL into two upcoming events in April, one at the University of Chicago where she is speaking to the Muslim Student's Association and at an Earth Day event where she has been invited by David Rhoads of the Greening of Seminaries Initiative to speak about Islam and food issues.
Zainab has featured RENEWAL in the TAQWA newsletter and has provided us with a short video on the chicken farmers with which they work that we can stream on our RENEWAL Project websites. She also provided loads of information for the April 24th GTU screening which will be available via the RENEWAL Project.
