A top priority that was identified in MANA’s “Assessment of the African American Muslim Community” was a focus on African American Muslim youth. The obvious logic voiced in the “Assessment” was that the future of Islam among African American Muslims depends upon the attachment of their youth to Islam. The “Assessment” also expressed a concern that there are not enough meaningful programs to engage our youth.
Through a couple of MANA Townhall meetings, a committee was formed to develop a plan for addressing the development of African American Muslim youth. This committee is being led by Atiba Jones (Founder and Director of SAVE Institute). Other committee members are Muhammad Abdul Warith (Director of Jawala Scouts in Philadelphia), Hanif and Baiyina Khalil (Founders and Directors of Kamp Khalil), Mahmoud Shaheed (Director of a youth program in Cleveland), Kamal Ahmad (Principal of a full-time Islamic school), and Ihsan Bagby (retired Associate Professor of Islamic Studies, University of Kentucky).
The first decision of the committee when it met in January 2024 was to focus initially on strengthening and establishing local African American Muslim youth groups. The rationale was that all other types of youth activities such as camps, rite-of-passage events, etc., start with a strong youth group. Another point is that the success of camps and other activities are not sustained if there is no local youth group.
To fulfill this initial goal, the committee agreed that the first steps are to develop a manual for a youth group, to conduct training programs for adult youth leaders, and to support local groups that wish to establish an African American youth group.
In a subsequent meeting, the committee envisioned the formation of a national association of African American youth groups and leaders which would carry on the task of developing African American Muslim youth. Also, they envisioned the organizing of a national, unifying youth conference to kick off the formation of the national association. The committee and MANA’s leadership agreed that such a national association would be independent but associated with MANA. The prospect is that other national African American Muslim organizations would also be associated with the national youth association.
The full committee held an all-day, face-to-face meeting at SAVE Institute in Atlanta in April 2024 to hammer out a draft for a youth group manual. The meeting was extremely successful and now the manual is in the process of being finalized.
Dr. Bagby obtained his PhD from the University of Michigan in Near Eastern Studies (1986) with specialty in Islamic Law. His research for the last 10 years has focused on Muslims in America. In 2001 he published the results of the first comprehensive study of mosques in America, entitled The Mosque in America: A National Portrait. (available at www.cair-net.org). Based on the 2001 study, Dr. Bagby has published four articles, “Imams and Mosque Organizations in the United States,” in Muslims in the United States, “A Profile of African American Mosques” in Journal of the Interdenominational Theological Center, “Attitudes of Mosque Participants Towards America,” in the forthcoming book A Nation of Religions: The Politics of Pluralism in Multireligious America, and “The Mosque in the American Public Square,” in Muslims’ Place in the American Public Square.
