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In God’s Name! Will We Clean Our House?

1. A clear and enforced statement of tolerance and openness that is hammered into the community members until it is lived. (What would you do if someone came in and urinated in the masjid? What did Muhammad do? And you are going to get uptight over hair or a flash of leg? That doesn’t make sense.)
2. Women are free and comfortable participating in community affairs and expressing their opinions. Absolutely NOT shoved into a basement, small room, or closet. Men and women, side by side, partners together for the sake of God.
3. A resource library filled with research-based practical information on all aspects of community development: how to chair a meeting, how to set goals, how to recruit volunteers, how to plan and evaluate activities, how to run a youth group, activities idea books, financial management, legal issues, etc. (Of course, the information needs to be learned and applied.)
4. An organization that requires a commitment of some service each year on the part of each member according to his or her abilities. And no one is “too good” or "too important" to clean a bathroom or pick up some garbage or stuff envelopes.
5. On-going training programs in all aspects of community development either from paid non-Muslim professionals, or from those Muslims who have already gone through such training and successfully served the community and are thus able to train others. Clear curricula for these should be available in the resource library.
6. Elections where people present their qualifications for particular positions (or at least their enthusiasm and willingness to learn or be trained) just as one would when applying for any type of job. That is not “campaigning”, it is being smart and sensible, and it smells of success. You’ll find no change in the patterns God has placed in creation. People who don’t have appropriate education, training, or experience simply do not know how to do certain things. That is clear sunnat Allah.
7. Specific and attainable yearly goals, (i.e. increase daily salat participation by 20%), clear research-based practical steps towards those goals, clear evaluations of the results, an appropriate budget, and adjustment of plans and goals as needed.
8. Open, squeaky-clean financial records and practices. All money is reinvested into the local community, not sent overseas unless by way of special collection, nor to a national organization unless it is for affiliation dues.
9. Professional-level programs that address local needs such as orientation to American culture, inter-cultural communications and understanding, broad study and discussion of the variety of Qur’anic thought (not just one version).
10. Copies of a variety of Qur’anic translations and commentaries, not just row upon row of Yusuf Ali or that horrible travesty by Hilali & Khan.
11. A refusal to “reinvent the wheel”—no duplication of efforts already underway in the general American community, but rather participation with them in those efforts. Be involved in the greater community! An “open house” every so often just doesn’t cut it.

1. No national organization speaks for all Muslim-Americans unless every single individual is a paid-up member in good standing. You speak only for your membership. Any organization that pompously open their declarations and fatwas with “U.S. Muslims think, declare, believe....” rather than “The Membership of Our Organization think, declare, believe....” should not be supported emotionally or financially.
2. Speaking of skewing numbers, please, polls must be scientific and presented accurately and analyzed by professionals or they tell us nothing other than your skills at playing with numbers. So, for instance, if your organization fields 30 discrimination reports in 1998, and 2000 in 1999, it does not mean there was necessarily an increase in discriminatory acts. It may only mean there has been an increase in the reporting of those acts. An organization that does not or will not present statistics in an accurate manner should not be supported either emotionally or financially.
3. National organizations must maintain focus on their mission statement—which they hopefully have in the first place. That is, if your organization is to focus on a thin slice of the domestic scene, say, employment discrimination, then keep your noses out of international affairs, and your opinions on them to yourselves. This includes ethnic concerns as well. If you pretend to advocate for Muslim-Americans, then don’t focus on the particular concerns of a particular ethnic group. You cannot help but disenfranchise others by doing so, and are more often than not duplicating efforts and setting up an unneeded competition with other organizations. If an organization loses its focus, emotional and financial support should be withheld until focus is regained.

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