Dear Community Leaders,

Over the years, our extensive engagement with nearly 300 Islamic centers has revealed situations you might not have heard of; Not only that they quietly occur, but also impact the long-term livelihood of the Centers.

Many Islamic centers lack best practices, audit systems/procedures, and fiduciary responsibilities. The boards and finance committees lack appropriate resources, tools, and reports. We are observing a trend of conflicts within and between different levels or structures of the boards.

It is alarming how the assets of Islamic centers are being sold, and accounts are being hijacked. In this newsletter, we are citing just a couple of examples of bank account issues which are easily preventable by making smart choices.

At a couple of centers, when a conflict developed, both parties or one of them rushed to the bank, withdrew the Center's funds, placed them in a different bank, and restricted those who could sign the checks, preventing rightful signers from having access. Those who do have access to the funds are also able to pay for legal expenses with the Center's funds.

1- An Imam holds a general assembly meeting to remove the board and assigns himself the chairperson. He then informs NAIT that he is the new manager of the Center. NAIT doesn’t approve of it due to how it all played out. The matter goes to the court, and the coup gets dismissed. They did withdraw significant amount of funds from the bank's account easily but could not access the more substantial assets invested in the ICCF account.

2- A treasurer at a mosque tries to transfer more than half a million dollars to a different bank account, unrightfully limiting access of the president and chairperson of the masjid. The matter escalated and is currently in court. If the funds were held in the ICCF, the treasurer would never have been able to access them until the matter was legally resolved.

One of the solutions to prevent such situations is placing funds in the Islamic Centers’ Cooperative Fund (ICCF) regardless of the amounts. While the “principal amount remains protected” in the ICCF, it also gains a yield - over 5% a year – in the last 43 years of its existence along with strict withdrawal policies.

First layer of protection: Any request of withdrawal from ICCF requires a board verification based on the initial application to assure its legitimacy.

Second layer of protection: If we become aware of an ongoing conflict at the center requesting withdrawal - unlike a bank - we do not release the funds until we ascertain that the recipient is legitimately authorized to receive them.

Regardless of the amount, instead of the monies in the banks and some other entities benefiting from it, if you place the same funds in an ICCF account, you also help our community. ICCF is a coop fund. It doesn't accrue interest and returns from investment in the form of yield. Interest-Free Loans are also provided through it to other needy Islamic organizations for critical projects. NAIT doesn’t profit from it, only the community does. There is absolutely nothing to lose.

Call me today to learn how ICCF can benefit your masjid, to fill out an application and open an account.

Sincerely,

Salah Obeidallah

President, Allied Asset Advisors

Alhamdolillah! Thanks to the efforts of the Muslim leaders and advocacy organizations, we saw a trend of recognizing Ramadan and Eid across the US at various levels - from schools to universities to local authorities to cities to states and the US Congress itself.

Here is a snap shot of these achievements:

So grateful and proud of the work of Muslim Civic Coalition, especially sister Dilara Syeed who was instrumental in beginning this conversations and gathering support to take the above two Bills to the finish lines.