Emerging Muslim Leaders Create Network Of Support, By Kim Daniels

Shahid Buttar defines civic engagement and political activism as his life's purpose. He was in law school at Stanford and on his way to becoming an anti-trust lawyer until September 11 when the trajectory of his life changed dramatically.

Now the executive director of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, Buttar sees his role as a leader in the Muslim American community as an inherent part of his commitment to civic engagement. And when the opportunity arose to meet other Muslims invested in the same cause, he seized it with enthusiasm. 

 

In 2009, Buttar – along with 20 other fellows – became one of the first graduates of the American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute, or AMCLI. 

AMCLI is a faith-based leadership development program formed in 2006 to offer skills workshops and networking opportunities for emerging Muslim leaders in the United States. 

At a time when a majority of Americans report having negative feelings toward Muslims, according to a recent Gallup report, these emerging leaders will be the ones to change the face of Islam in the United States. 

On March 21, AMCLI's second cohort of 22 fellows will celebrate its graduation in a ceremony at the University of Southern California. 

Alumni say the training has changed their lives.

"The people in my cohort were probably the most amazing people I have ever met," said Linda Sarsour. "I continue to work with them now on a local and national level."

Sarsour, a 2009 AMICLI graduate, is a 29-year old mother of three, the Coordinator of Community Initiatives for the YWCA Brooklyn and the director of the Arab American Association of New York. 

She says that while she was well known in her community, she never really had a chance to meet people doing similar work in other parts of the country. Participating in AMCLI, said Sarsour, was one of the best experiences in her ten years of community organizing and has changed the way she approaches her work. 

"I learned to kind of look at things in the bigger picture. I not only look at what I do on a local level in my own community, but how that connects to what other people around the country are doing and … to a larger Muslim American movement," said Sarsour.  

Creating a network of emerging leaders is one of AMCLI's main goals, said co-founder and director Nadia Roumani. 

Roumani, also a Muslim, was another emerging leader actively engaged in the American Muslim community. However, she faced her own frustrations in trying to organize a loosely connected community that was severely in need of a strong, positive voice. As it turned out, she was not the only one with those feelings.

After conducting research about the Muslim community for the University of California and other institutions, Roumani found there were a "lack of capacity in Muslim organizations," and a high burnout rate among people who were leading those organizations. She attributed the crisis in leadership to a lack of proper training and an absence of mentors who would normally provide guidance and support. Additionally, she says, the groups were completely disconnected from one another. 

At the same time, other organizations were looking to engage the Muslim community.

"All these people kept on being invited to places and would be asked to react to something, [such as], 'Why are Muslims terrorists? 'Why are Muslim women oppressed?'" said Roumani. "And we want to [address these issues and dispel stereotypes], but we don't know how to do that without building up our institutions and our leadership."

So, in 2006, Roumani and two colleagues convened a group of 22 young leaders in a closed-door session to discuss these issues. It was "part therapy, part strategizing," said Roumani.  Of the ideas for action that emerged, the group agreed that creating some sort of leadership development program was at the top of the list. 

Roumani then spent the next year researching (mostly) faith-based leadership programs and learning how to teach the same lessons within a Muslim context. They established partnerships with the University of Southern California's Center for Religion and Civic Culture and Georgetown University's Center for Muslim Christian Understanding, and they fundraised. 
Watch Linda Sarsour give a speech at AMCLI 2009 graduation.
AMCLI's first program was launched in 2008. The group recruited for the class was diverse in terms of gender, cultural background, and religious beliefs, reflecting the Muslim population as a whole in the United States, said Roumani. The fellows also represented institutions, mostly non-profits, doing work at the local, regional, and national level.

Because the community is disconnected, the diversity is imperative to creating healthy dialogue, said Roumani. 

And it was this diversity of voices that contributed to participants' understanding of their role in the larger Muslim American community. 

"To me it was very little religion and much more organizing, politics and a kind of socio-cultural analysis – where we were at as a religious community," said Buttar. 

The religious track is a core part of AMCLI, but it does not seek to define only one way of approaching the subject religiously, said Roumani. Rather, the curriculum is trying to better articulate "civic engagement from an Islamic context." But the religion lectures may resonate differently with each fellow, depending on where they are within their own faith practice, said Roumani.  

The cohort had a wide range with regard to religious involvement, including an imam to those who would consider themselves "less religious." Despite those differences, the shared goal of inspiring civic engagement and social justice united the group. 

This cohesion was a defining point for Buttar. In his years as an activist, Buttar said he had rarely seen a "sincere application of faith to social justice."  

Buttar considers his faith a central motivation for the work he does. He was raised with Ahmadiyya Islam, but now considers himself a Muslim Unitarian Universalist. 

"I always thought that I had to redefine [Islam] for myself in order to create that fusion [of religion and social justice]," said Buttar. "And then I sort of realized that no there are lots of people all over the place that are pursuing that shared project – we just didn't have a space before to come together and to me that's what AMCLI was about."

Sarsour echoed that sentiment. As an Arab American who had identified with her Palestinian side before her religion, Sarsour said she learned to put aside differences in nationality in order to see herself in the larger framework of Muslim American. 

"I started feeling more connected with my Muslim side because I learned that Islam encourages civic engagement, Islam encourages non-profit work, and Islam says the work that we do is the work of God – so these things really inspired me," said Sarsour.

The 2009 cohort maintains a listserv to share projects, ideas and support. Roumani says the current cohort's final session – before their graduation – will dedicate more time to giving people ideas on how to work in partnership with one another. 

In moving forward, Roumani hopes the number of fellows continues to increase yearly.

Roumani and the AMCLI fellows expect the program's continued success will help foster the full participation of Muslims in American public life and create a robust picture of Muslim Americans, distinct from communities in other countries.

"By cultivating a culture of civic leadership within the Muslim American community, I think there's a chance to shift what Islam means to people," said Buttar. "So that it's less the Mullah in Iran, burning a US flag, and it's more the African American Muslim working to deliver services and a daycare facility — it shifts the identity of who we are perceived to be."