An Executive Report on the Initiative to Strengthen Families of African American Muslims (ITSFAAM)
As-salaamu-alaikum,
MANA’s mission is to grow and maintain a network of individuals and institutions dedicated to strengthening the African American Muslim community.
Our approach always begins with listening.
We ask the community what it needs, identify areas where MANA can help, and then bring together people with knowledge and experience in those areas. Afterwards, we work collectively to develop solutions. Finally, we assess the work, share what we have learned with the community, and begin the process again.The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ taught us that the believers are like one body. When one part is hurting, the entire body responds.
For MANA, strengthening our community begins with paying attention to what the body is telling us and then working together to respond.
From Listening to Action
In 2022, MANA launched a national survey of African American Muslims to better understand the needs and priorities of our community. 317 people responded. Their responses helped
MANA identify three areas that required greater attention:
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- Healthy Marriages
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- Youth Engagement
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- Young Adults
Instead of simply reporting the survey findings, MANA used the responses to guide our work.
ITSFAAM was created to bring community members together around these three priorities. MANA recruited volunteers with knowledge, experience, and interest in each area and organized them into three working cohorts. Over the next two years, these cohorts met, discussed ideas, and developed programs and resources designed to strengthen African American Muslim families and communities.
The cohort work was initially led by MANA board members Imam Nadim Ali, Dr. Joshua Salaam, and Dr. Ihsan Bagby, who provided leadership to the Healthy Marriage, Young Adult, and Youth cohorts, respectively. As the initiative progressed, MANA Network Coordinator Malika Umar joined the effort, providing coordination and support to help advance the Young Adult and Youth cohorts’ work. Vice President Akanke Rasheed later joined Imam Nadim Ali in leading the Healthy Marriage cohort and assumed an active leadership role in advancing its work.
Cohort Work and Outcomes
Healthy Marriages
The Healthy Marriage Cohort created space for honest conversations about marriage and relationships grounded in Islamic values. From November 2024 through June 2025, MANA hosted monthly virtual Healthy Marriage Town Halls, led by Vice President Akanke Rasheed and Secretary Imam Nadim Ali. The cohort identified topics, invited speakers, and cultivated meaningful conversations around the challenges facing Muslim marriages and families.Guests across the series included Imam Tariq Khan of the Center for Islamic Counseling and Guidance, Sr. Naamau Tahiru, Shaykh Mateen Sabree, Dr. Aneesah Nadir, and MANA founding member Imam Zaid Shakir.
A dedicated town hall on polygyny featured the Outstanding Personal Relationships coaching team (Coach Nazir, Coach Fatimah, and Coach Nyla), Mecca Nandi and her husband Brother Zaki, and Dr. Jamillah Karim — among other scholars, counselors, and community voices who generously shared their time and expertise throughout the cohort’s eight-month run.
Healthy Marriage Summits
The town hall series culminated in a two-part Healthy Marriage Mini-Summit, presented in partnership with the African American Healing Ancestry & Development Collective (AHAD). In response to the community’s request for more time to talk, MANA and AHAD hosted a session for adults 34 and older on Saturday, September 27, and a second session for young adults under 34 on Saturday, October 4, each running 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM EST.
Each mini-summit offered parallel tracks for singles, married couples, and polygynous families. Presenters included Dr. Aneesah Nadir, premarital educator and author of Before the Nikah, for the Singles’ Sessions; Rufus and Jenny Triplett, co-authors of Surviving Marriage in the 21st Century and cohosts of the Surviving Marriage podcast, for the older-adult Married Session; Na’il and Anaya Salahu-Din and Jafr-Tayar and Hasna for the young-adult Married Sessions; and Mecca Nandi and Brother Zaki, longtime polygyny consultants, alongside Brother Hud Williams, for the Polygyny Sessions across both age groups.
Together, the two mini-summits delivered the extended, structured conversation across singleness, marriage, and polygyny that the town hall series had shown the community needed — closing out the Healthy Marriage Cohort’s work within ITSFAAM with its most comprehensive gathering to date.
Youth
The Youth Cohort brought together experienced youth leaders from exemplary organizations including Kamp Khalil, S.A.V.E. Institute, Jawala Scouts, and other youth-focused groups. The goal was not to create another national youth organization. Instead, the cohort focused on helping communities strengthen the youth work already happening locally.
Youth Training Resources
One of the cohort’s major projects was the development of a youth group training manual [insert link] designed specifically for African American Muslim communities. The resource draws from the collective experience of people who have spent years working with Muslim youth. The cohort also began developing an interactive virtual training program that will allow experienced youth leaders to share practical tools, strategies, and lessons with people doing youth work around the country.
Members of the MANA team also participated directly in youth programs around the country. Network Coordinator Malika Umar served as a Team Leader at Kamp Khalil in Florida, and President Joshua Salaam participated in the Qawamun Brothers Retreat in California. These experiences provided additional opportunities to learn from programs already doing meaningful work with Muslim youth.
Young Adults
The Young Adult Cohort brought together African American Muslims ages 18–35 to discuss what would help young adults build stronger relationships with one another and with the larger Muslim community. After extensive discussion and brainstorming, the cohort developed the idea for the Black Muslim Access Platform (BMAP), a national digital space designed to connect young African American Muslims.
BMAP was designed around three primary areas:Professional Network: Connecting young adults across professions and creating opportunities for mentorship and professional relationships.Knowledge Hub: Providing access to Islamic resources, educational content, and information relevant to young adults.
Nationwide Connection: Creating opportunities for African American Muslim young adults across the country to find and build relationships with one another.
The cohort’s work reflects a larger goal of helping young adults not only participate in the African American Muslim community, but also develop the relationships and leadership needed to help shape its future.
Closing the Loop
ITSFAAM began by listening to 317 African American Muslims who shared what they believed our community needed. MANA’s responsibility was to do more than collect that information. We wanted to respond. Over the course of two years, volunteers from across the country gave their time and experience to turn those concerns into action. Their work has helped create new conversations around healthy marriages, develop resources for strengthening youth programs, and build new opportunities for young African American Muslims to connect nationally.
This executive report shares that work with the community — the survey, the cohorts, and the programs it produced. We are grateful to everyone who completed the original survey, served on an ITSFAAM cohort, participated in a program, shared their expertise, or helped move this work forward.”The work is not finished. But ITSFAAM demonstrates a complete cycle of MANA’s methodology in the work we do: Listen to our community. Connect people and institutions around shared needs. Develop solutions together. Assess what we learn. And report back to the community.
We ask Allah to accept this work, make it beneficial for our community, and guide our next steps as we continue this cycle of listening and action. Ameen.
