The Mission of The Oasis Journal
Dear Readers,
Salaam. May God’s Peace be with you.
We thank you for joining us on this journey to seek refuge from the desert of the modern world and its destructive economic system. From the wastefulness and inhumanity of the fashion industry, to the cruelty and pollution of the meat and animal industries – everywhere we look we see a system of production and commerce in the modern world which is fundamentally violent and destructive, and there remains no oasis for the conscious. At the nexus of this issue lie diverse questions of justice including racial justice, colonial reparations, income inequality, indigenous rights, health equity, addressing depression and mental health, oligarchy and democracy, safeguarding air and water quality, and the protection of women and girls. But there is also a serious spiritual dimension to this crisis, and this journal will endeavor to be a home for sacred and spiritual opposition to modern capitalism, as well.
The vision for The Oasis Journal is broad, ambitious, and deeply reparative. Our hope is that this Journal will go beyond mere words to generate repair both in the internal world of our hearts and the external world of humanity. In the long term, we hope it blossoms into a community, an Oasis Society, with events, community organizing, and collective, direct action undertaken to advance this mission.
The goals of the Journal are to:
- Point out and analyze the breadth of the unseen destruction caused by this global economic order in all fields of life and all over the world, in its history and its present day.
- Explore alternative communities and histories, philosophies and religious precepts, both premodern and anti-modern, to inspire and expand our minds beyond limited hegemonic thought and to uplift and include those voices which have been most endangered by the capitalist world order.
- Suggest ideas and encourage reflection. Propose, debate, and develop alternative theories within a space of sacred reimagining.
- Organize action and community around these theories as they develop and actualize in the world.
The pieces in this first issue collectively set a strong foundation for beginning this work, of escaping the soulless and creating the soulful, of shunning capitalism and envisioning a new way forward, and of collectively building a platform to take concrete steps towards that goal. We thank the authors and contributors most profusely for sharing their work with us.
Welcome to the Oasis.
Sending Love & Light,
The Editorial Board