providing resources and opportunites

Lubabah wrote:
“The last thing, is having myna advisor training programs. A lot of times, if the masjid has a youth group, they just assign anyone who shows interest, or anyone who seems to have a good relationship w/the elders to this position.. and that’s the worst thing.. not everyone can do youth work, and we need to work w/those ppl who are doing youth work to help them do their work better (in the future, if we continue and have a BOD and exec for myna, this can be something that the BOD does), execute training programs for youth advisors.. and these ppl will be our best references and workers.”

* Very true, simply stated: good local youth work is done by local youth who get the encouragement, assistance, and resources they need from parents, advisors, and masjid leaders. Someone must be there to help and train those who want or need help and training. That someone should be MYNA. This was going to be one of the highest priorities.

In fact, after the ISNA Majlis officially appointed us to the MYNA Board of Advisors in April 2003; our very first target was the revival of the Winter training program as a kick off event not just to introduce the new MYNA to the youth, but to the Parents, Advisors, and Masjid leaders who work for them. With only 8 months to do all the prerequisites to make it a success, the last thing we needed was ISNAs bureaucracy getting involved.

What would make this training program successful? - We had to determine what it is that we are training the youth and adults to do exactly.

MYNA had no vision - it was mostly a slogan: “by youth; for youth.” we can’t train people until we know what MYNA does.

-so we had to craft a vision, create goals, and design a strategic plan.

HOW?...
Getting together in Dallas to determine priorities, and having teleconferences every week afterwards:
Before we advise any youth, before we revive anything, we need to know for ourselves what the bigger picture is. We were these youth not too long ago. The biggest problems have not changed: the feelings of isolation, the pressure to conform, opportunities to think and do for themselves, access to resources, etc. etc. these were to be the core of MYNA. Youth would do all the local MYNA activities, which is where they can grow the most and make the biggest impact. The local community needs them, or else it cannot grow. The national org that they are affiliated with simply needs to be there for them with resources and opportunities (and money). This was to be the essence of the new MYNA. Whats so bad about it? Why such an opposition from Hana and some ISNA leaders? Why the pressure to bring back the old MYNA? Would it have hurt to try this for a while and see if things could get better? So... this is the vision we crafted. The training program was to be for us as much as the youth.

MYNA had no structure – its old structure based on ISNA is not good enough to deal with current dynamics of Islam in America. (based on the fact that it died out, and many people (including youth) had said we need a change.

-so we scrapped the old strucutre. We decided that we would not fill any positions until a new national role for youth was created. The new structure was to be created AFTER the training program.

WHY?...
The strategic planning process that I was coordinating included the creation of small groups to study important subjects (the ideal group would consist of a parent, a youth leader, a scholar on the subject, a leader of a masjid, and a MYNA advisor), figure out options, and prepare a report with their recommendation. This was to be done in November and December. We would have had the reports before the training program, at which there would be more youth leaders to discuss the recommendations of the groups. The role of youth in the national organization, and what sort of youth structure MYNA would have was to be one of those study subjects. I think only after this process would we have had a new MYNA structure ready for youth to take positions that actually meant something.
ALSO...
The hired non-youth was necessary to deliver professional youth related services to masjids, youth groups, youth leaders, and parents. That’s it. Isn’t that a reasonable addition to MYNA? What’s wrong with trying it out? Still, if any national activities were going to take place, they would have had a youth chairperson, and a youth organizing committee from the host city (not much of a change). We all came from a MYNA background; we know the importance of empowering youth. But we also know the realities of running a national organization, we learned the hard way, through MYNA. I used to be a local MYNA chapter president that got little from the national org other then an annual conference.

MYNA had no database – it had no easy way to find all those who should come to such a training program.

-so we started to build one.

HOW?...
We’d create the internet infrastructure, and log, type, or scan in all the data we have into a web accessed database. For this we needed to hire someone immediately: to find contacts, find resources and opportunities, do the paperwork, build an archive to learn from the past, create a 1-800# and maintain the website for new contacts to get in touch with us.

All of these things are what we were doing for the past year. It’s sad that this received little support at the Majlis meeting (except Sr. Ingrid Mattson, she was extremely supportive). We determined that all of these things were necessary before we took part in any type of training program for anyone. I don’t know about you, but before I drag another youth into the messy world of Islamic activism, I want to do as much as possible to make sure that it will be a rewarding experience, not one that will turn any more youth into jaded, bitter, or brain washed young adults. Yet some in ISNAs leadership seemed more interested in pushing us to bring youth into a failed and irrelevant structure immediately. I was amazed at the lack of understanding and support for what we wanted to do, and offended at the lack of trust.

end of my response to the issues raised by Lubabah.

high school MSAs

Lubabah wrote:
“Second is to check out the msa national student union. One of the threads on there is for high school MSAs.. they are a lot of issues that students have brought up and a lot of events that is happening for youth work, that u should be aware of and trying to help with and possibly build upon. Like there’s a conference this weekend in MI, and there’s a camp in new mexico in june.. etc. that we should be aware of and ideally helping out w/.”

* Absolutely! ...very early on, we decided that it was important for the MYNA advisory board members to personally attend any major youth event taking place at a driving distance. I presented a list of events we planned to attend at the April 2003 Majlis meeting, where we gave our first progress report to ISNA leaders. Our staff was to visit cities in between and find out what local activities the youth were doing and what they wanted from us. This is another reason why I don’t get it when told that “youth are not involved.” I’ve always asked youth what they think MYNA should do for them. There was a youth sports tournament in FLA earlier this year at which I passed out a survey. At the last Majlis presentation we did, we showed a list of all the events we attended from December 2002 till October 2003. But the board was dissolved by ISNA leadership in December and things faded out.
-------------------------
She wrote:
“Third, have focus groups at ISNA or any conference where there will be youth (I know the isna cz conf is coming up in stl at the end of may, perhaps start there). Offer a questionnaire and food. Cuz right now we’re all building on the assumption that myna is good and is what needs to be brought back to address the problems of the youth.. maybe our base assumption is wrong. The only way to find out is to talk to the youth. We should do this at conferences and also pick 20 or 30 random big cities and find contact ppl that could administer this questionnaire there.. and we can also put it up online and through the student union high school forum.. the biggest thing that I’ve noticed right now, is that high schools, seem to be moving from the masaajid (and myna is a masjid based organization) to starting and forming MSAs in their high schools. Maybe the real solution is not to work on having a natl myna, but work w/these msa’s in the high schools…“

* I’ll get to the focus groups we were going to create in a little bit, first, Let me correct some wrong assumptions. I don’t assume MYNA is good. MYNA died out. Several of us are ready to walk away from MYNA and move on. Some of us already have. Also, we don't assume that MYNA was an organization for masjid youth groups only. Our assumption has always been broader than that. Lubabah kind of hints at it when she says “Maybe the real solution is not to work on having a natl myna, but work w/these msa’s in the high schools. “The key words are “work w/these...” So what is our assumption? I say it’s that: youth can gain benefit from a national organization dedicated to issues they face growing up Muslim in America.

And even though it’s vague, there are a few out there who assume that MYNA is identified by youth as an organization for youth (very general, not about masjid youth). There are also those who assume that it is not an organization at all (ISNA leaders). In fact our own local chapter of MYNA was not affiliated with any masjid, these days it works out of an islamic school. In fact MYNA has had no role in local youth work for a long time, except in small pockets, it is assumed to be all about camps and conferences (all talk/no action).

But I get her point. And she's right, there is a new dynamic of youth starting groups in high schools rather than at the masjid. It’s a good idea, and these groups need resources, maybe not the same resources as the masjid youth committees (which by the way still exist in most cities).

And she's right, finding out what high school youth group leaders need and figuring out the best way to get it to them should be a priority. And guess what, we DID make this issue a priority early on in our MYNA revival process (its in the strategic plan near the top of the list). A questionnaire for leaders and parents of these high school groups is a good idea.

Also when she says “put it up online” this requires an online presence, which we were working on establishing before things went bad. www.MYNA.org was going to be a place for us to get feedback from youth. I checked out MSA’s student union board, it’s a good resource, so is Islamica. And lets not forget the local youth group discussion boards or e-mail lists.

Speaking of MSA... When I was a local MSA officer, I wanted MSA natl to focus on building on its resources for local chapters. MSA natl was becoming irrelevant to me because it did nothing for me other than a conference here or there, If it gets into the business of doing activities for High school students it would become even more irrelevant. (except for providing mentoring experience)

Sure, right now there is no place for high schoolers to go. If MYNA is not to be revived and MSA is willing to reform itself to be an org for high school and college students, then MSA natl should propose a plan to ISNA on what it will do and it should get the resources it needs to be good at it. I’m down with that. Hey, many Masjid youth committees seem to be doing just fine without MYNA. True, MYNA can become a great resource for smaller cities youth, but the big city youth groups will do fine without it. They have been for several years now.

Anyways, I’ll try to stay under the assumption that a national organization dedicated to youth issues is a good idea. Plus I’m sure MSA doesn’t want to deal with 14 and 15 year old minors at its programs. I don’t think they can handle it, and if they can, I don’t think they would want to, if given a choice. High schoolers call their groups MSAs because it is a natural name to call a group of muslim students. But they are youth.

MYNA should have taken them in long ago. But, the high schoolers came to MSA. If the leaders of MSA natl had referred them to MYNA and helped the MYNA president respond to them (through MYNA), it would have helped both organizations. High school youth would have found MYNA to be relevant to them and MSA would be able to focus on being great at whatever it is that they should be great at. Hana and her predecessor should have basically taken these high school youth groups in as MYNA chapters years ago.

She and the new MSA pres were making a big deal about the issue of high school MSAs at the Majlis meeting, not even noticing that we had already listed it as a high priority item for the new MYNA. The strategic plan we submitted to ISNA even had details, if people were not hung up on the whole “no youth are involved” issue, they probably would have noticed.

End of part 6

strategic plan

This is a big one... Lubabah wrote:
“And that we also add youth to the committee.. a lot of youth from different backgrounds and levels of involvement… even if we just form a separate committee of additional youth that don’t have the time or level of commitment to just bounce ideas from.. have them all on a yahoo group and once a week or a month, before taking on any event, just email it to them and be like what are ur thoughts.. this is in addition to the youth on the actual BOD.”

* creating a separate committee of youth to bounce ideas off of is good. But it assumes that we were NOT bouncing ideas off youth. We were. Many members of the board said they were. I can only tell you what I did. I talked to the 13-15 year olds I teach at Islamic school. I periodically talked to the leaders of the local MYNA group in Miami. I surveyed youth at regional events. I have a brother in high school. So does Assim.

By the way, Ayesha is a social worker and older sister, she knows what problems exist among youth. Asad BaYunus, Ilyas BaYunus’s son, lives here in Miami and works as a prosecutor for juvenile crimes, I discussed our ideas with him quite often. It is wrong to think that just because a youth did not sit on the board, that we were out of touch with the problems faced by youth.

Don’t get me wrong, I definitely think that youth input is critical when deciding HOW to implement an idea. Here’s an example:

Idea- youth benefit from doing community service
(I don’t need a youth to tell me whether or not this is an important part of youth work. Maybe even leading the youth to think they figured it out themselves is a good strategy. But either way, advisors come together beforehand to say that it’s an idea that is good for youth development and should be part of the mission of MYNA.)

Implementation- do youth prefer to do this through a youth group, through school, individually, through a MYNA national program, or in conjunction with other community institutions or organizations; several options exist. And, where on the list of priorities they would place this item, maybe another issue should be dealt with first. But we guide them to know what the priorities are. (It’s good to empower youth to think for themselves about these options and decide HOW to implement this idea of service or any other priority.)

Let me explain how we were planning to get them involved.

Like I said before, I was appointed by the board to coordinate the creation of MYNAs strategic plan. Before I started, I researched the strat plans of the national 4-h council, National Boys and Girls club, etc.

A good strat plan has 3 aspects.
1-State org’s vision and mission and goals
2-List highest priorities
3-Define strategies on how to accomplish them

The vision and mission are the bigger picture. They come from ISLAM, they come from being an American, from knowing where we came from and where we need to go. If any advisor needs to assist a youth anywhere in MYNA, this advisor must work within a framework. This vision is as much for advisors as for the youth. I was these youth. I know that I understand things better now than I did when I was in high school (more about Islam, more about America, more about myself). Difficult discussions take place to craft a good vision and mission. We discussed sectarian issues, we discussed the failures of islamic movements, we argued about 9/11 and the importance of citizenship, we argued about the importance of college and education. A good argument can be made that to bring in a youth who is not ready into these discussions the will hurt that youth. For example, a stubborn libertarian quasi-sufi like me and a conservative proto-ikhwani like Riyad arguing about the importance of “dawah.” It was quite difficult to come to some sort of consensus.

Here’s another way of looking at this issue...
I explained it to Hana at the ISNA convention. There are two types of responses to a problem - Reactive and Proactive.

The general problem at hand can be summed up in the following phrase: “It is challenging to grow up Muslim in America.” We don’t need a youth to tell us this, like I keep saying, we were these youth not long ago.

1-Reactive response: survey the youth about the hardships they face and go about trying to ease those particular hardships.

Now if our work was going to be about addressing particular hardships with any real long term success, We would have to bring professionals into the picture. It can’t be “by youth, for youth.”

For example, youth and parent communication problems need trained counselors. Youth with drug or alcohol issues need professional help. Youth doing bad in school need good tutoring. Youth wanting to go to college need test prep. Youth with no positive role models need good older mentors.

Youth with issues of “not being taken seriously” are the only ones that don’t need professionals. They need to be empowered to organize activities for themselves. And as a grassroots activist, I say empowering youth to organize good deeds at the local level, as a group, can be a most rewarding experience.

2-Proactive response: figure out what it means to be a muslim in america. Then design activities to build and reinforce particular characteristics.

Let me state it another way, Lubabah's father is a scholar, i don't think, she-the daughter, could have told him what sort of Islam she should be taught. Also, i don't think, she-a student of arabic, should tell her teacher the best form of arabic to teach. I’m not talking about HOW, I’m talking about WHAT.

When it comes to designing activities, of course again Youth should be empowered, I am who I am because I was empowered as a youth to organize activities. But like I said earlier, It would be the advisor who should guide the youth to do the high priority things (like community service). And that is what we were at the stage of doing; coming up with those bigger picture things that MYNA advisors would guide youth towards.

If we had been allowed to proceed, the plan was to:
1-create some initial priorities
2-create several “discovery” groups with youth on them to investigate these priorities, and give us recommendations.
3-review those recommendations with the youth at the winter leadership program and turn them into implementation guidelines for local youth.
4-Turn all of this into an official strategic plan. every few years, do this again so that the organization keeps up with changes in society.

I was very close to taking us to level 2 in November, when things began to unravel. I was preparing resource packets for various discovery groups. Then we were forced by ISNA’s EC to revive the old failed MYNA structure, bring youth into leadership positions immediately, and cease “doing” anything. Only then would we be allowed to proceed. How absurd? We did not get involved in this effort to play games and politics. ISNAs foolish actions caused resignations in protest. extremely disappointing. Just think about where we would have been by now.

In conclusion...
Our elders desire a generation with good leaders after them. You become a good leader from the experiences of doing good deeds and leading others in the doing of good deeds. The most rewarding good deeds are those that can be carried out locally, where you can see the results immediately. It builds confidence, and optimism.

Sticking to the example of promoting community service:
Youth can Think about and Decide what service activity to do. Youth can Lead an effort to clean up a neighborhood, a mosque, etc. Lead an effort to give assistance to local poor people. etc. etc. let the youth decide which community service they want to perform. We Give them advise and support. Let them gain real experience, build real character.

We wanted youth to stay where they can grow most. The national organization should be there to support them, step in with professional assistance when they need it; with Money when their local masjid or high school will not sponsor the activity THEY WANT to do. Wouldn’t that be great. If only ISNA, or any other national Muslim organization did this. There was no one, so the board decided as a group to make MYNA that type of organization.

While talking about this to Hana at the convention, she seemed to not want this, she wanted MYNA to simply be an organization where youth respond to problems that they themselves determine are problems. That We should let youth tell us what we need to be about. I think this approach is extremely short-sighted. When I asked her what was the problem with what I was saying, she could not tell me anything other than “youth are not involved”. Her arguments were not convincing, and she offered no details.

Our board had made these decisions after long discussions, compromise, and consensus. And I’ve just told you how diverse the board was. It’s not right that she still got to undermine our effort by going to Shk. Nur and Shk. Idrees. I could be wrong, but I think this is why we did not get support from them. They had doubts about us. Where did they get these doubts? I don’t get it.

As far as placing youth on the board goes. its easier to say that a youth should have been on our board, than it is to suggest a name. And ask that youth’s parents if they want their child to take part, after we explain that we have mandatory teleconferences every Monday night that last till 11pm. And aside from these teleconferences there are also tasks that are assigned. Of the many youth that I know, I don’t think any one of them had the background needed to be able to join and keep up as board members. Of course, I could be wrong.

End of part 5

a board and a director

Lubabah wrote:
“monem, jazaahu Allahu khair, took something that we had all been thinking about and contemplating and put it into action by getting us all involved and starting us off w/mtgs and such which was good.. but at the same time he was running it like a corporation, which is good and ideal, but at the same time that's not the way islamic work has ever been in the states, esp. not in the beginning of it, and that’s the phase that we were at..”

* What is “good and ideal” is what we should strive to do. The fact that it is not the way it had been done in the past is no excuse to not do it. At the roots of ISNA is student activism of the 60s, they were very experimental, they were progressive, some were radicals in the countries they came from. Why not allow that same spirit to reform MYNA? Why not do something for youth that might work better than what exists now? Why not experiment, America has evolved since the 60s, maybe Islamic work also needs to evolve? Why not? We shouldn’t fear change.

Anyways it wasn’t about running it like a corporation. It was about being professional and efficient in doing what must be done so that resources weren’t wasted. Even Non-profits have a board and director, ISNA has a board(majlis) and director(sect.general). A board has a chairperson, we made Monem the chair of the board. I don’t understand her problem with it.
--------------------------
she wrote:
“another problem I saw and had, was that at times I was the one informing hana of mtgs and of the fact that an office staff was hired, etc, and she as acting president of myna, so nothing should have been done w/o her consent..”

* She did not have the time needed to do the work. Its wrong to think that nothing should have been done without her consent. Since the very beginning of MYNA, even in the days of the ISNA youth committee, the idea was that the advisory board would be appointed to guide the youth to what is best, not the other way around.
---------------------------
She wrote:
“First off, I’m not sure who is on the board of advisors right now, but I would suggest that we add variety to it.. ppl with different backgrounds, some who weren’t involved in MYNA, maybe MAS or YM, maybe they weren’t involved w/youth work when they were young, but now they ‘re doing a lot of work w/the youth.”

* The board we had created had plenty of variety. Finding people is not an easy process. Anyways, more important than variety was finding people who had the experience, expertise, and time to commit to the effort of reviving a national organization for youth. Some were asked and said No, others were asked to resign, a few dropped out after a few meetings, but after a few months a solid group emerged (by May 2003). It was as diverse as it could be. With the hired staff who we included in all the discussions, there were - 3 women, 2 arabs, 1 turk, 1 pakistani/bengali, 1 hydrabadi indian, 2 siddiquis, and we would have had an African American if Naeem had not resigned to go work for Islamic Relief; 2 were never involved in MYNA as youth, 2 MYNA ex-presidents, 2 former MYNA workers who never took part in the national organization, 4 were leaders of local MYNA chapters as youth; ideologically, we were all over the place. Now, we did not have an Ismaili, a Qadiani, or a Nation of Islam follower. But then, some would probably complain about us being too diverse.

Here’s who they were:

Staff:
1-Inayet Sahin, past MYNA president at its “high point” in the early 90s , extensive youth and student organizing experience, studying “traditional Islam”
2-Iman Salam, past local MYNA organizer, west coast perspective
grew up at a masjid where Hamza Yusuf was the Imam.

Board:
3-Adil Asaduddin, never involved in MYNA, local MSA experience, brought an outsider perspective

4-Ayesha Kazmi, past MYNA officer, social worker, brought East Zone experience from the “high point” of MYNA in the early 90s, and experience in counselor training.

5-Hassan Siddiqi, past MYNA officer, internet experience, son of former ISNA president, brings experience of organizing youth activities at one of the largest mosques of LA – was assigned to coordinate the creation of the new internet infrastructure.

6-Assim Mohammad, past MYNA officer and advisor, student activism experience from the revival of MSA in the mid 90s, involved in development of Peace-Net in the late 90s, and a former member of MAS, he brought professional etiquette with a been there/done that wisdom. He understands movement oriented activism and is a much needed critic of it.
He wants Muslims to become much more professional in the services they provide.

7-Asad Siddiqui, me, past local MYNA organizer and advisor to local and regional level MYNA officers in Texas and Florida, brought grassroots youth and student activism perspective. I was never a member of any global movement or sufi tarika, I have a very traditional family background. But I’m also wanderer and wannabe anarchist. I don’t like hierarchy, patriarchy, oligarchy, monarchy, or any other type of archy.

8-Lubabah, as the MSA representative, eventually could not commit because of other things that required her time. We did not go out of the way to bring another MSA rep into the board.

9-Hana Unus, as the MYNA president, she would also be unable to commit due to other things that required her time. We had decided that if she resigned, we would not go out of our way to find someone to become a new MYNA president. It would be a better use of our limited time, and better for the youth if we filled the position after the reform. I’ll explain later.

10-Naeem Muhammad, as a recent East Zone advisor, he would eventually resign because his job at Islamic Relief would require much of his time. But he was a key member in the beginning, before we became formalized into a board.

11-Riyad Shamma, as the MYNA national advisor, knowledge of MYNA history, he was there when it all began, he was there when it died out. He brought his knowledge of ISNA/MYNA relations. He understands movement oriented activism like MAS/YM/Ikhwan,etc and is not critical of it. He also is very resistant to change. He was a check to ME and Assim

12-Monem Salam, as the ISNA representative, never a MYNA officer, never an MSA officer, an experienced grassroots activist, he was the one person on the ISNA executive committee who got us off our butts, he brought an outsider perspective of growing up having not been involved in any mosque during his youth, he also had the leadership skills to keep the process going. In the mid 90s, he led a group of us in Texas as we struggled to analyze the problems of the muslim community.

There were many disagreements in the beginning. But as we began to understand each other, the discussions got better. Lots of compromises were made by everyone involved. The major decisions were based on consensus and it was very important for people to keep up. So after a certain point we stopped adding people to the board. Too many people can limit progress.

We involved people from previous MYNA reform efforts:
Aiman Mir, past president
Jawad AbdulRahman, past organizer, youth leader, advisor

I would bounce ideas off of:
Naeem Muhammad and Zubaid Kazmi, involved in East Zone reform
Asad Ba Yunus and Mustafa Saied, involved in MSA reform
Feiza Naqvi and Yasir Billoo, involved in regional MYNA and MSA work

So...
The idea that the board should have variety is good. But she says it as though we didn’t already have it. We DID! And here’s what bothers me: If she was not sure about what we were doing, I wish she’d first asked those of us who were still involved. (I know Monem or myself would have gone out of our way to fill anyone in if they had asked). Not only about who’s on the board, but about other things as well. The board agreed with almost all of her concerns.
We could have used her support much earlier. Her talks with Hana, and probably her father (I could be wrong) may have given him doubts about supporting us. I can understand how this could happen. But it’s unfortunate. I was very disheartened when we didn’t get his support.

EVERYONE else I talked to about our ideas supported us. It’s puzzling why some in ISNA leadership did not.

In the end, you won’t satisfy everyone. I really don’t know what more we could have done. Oh yes, actually there is one thing: “no youth involved”

End of part 4

by youth for youth

Now...lets go over some of the specific things Lubabah wrote. Like her, I’ve spent most of my life serving my muslim community in one way or another. I’ve always been an advisor for my local youth group and I absolutely agree that “it's an issue that's bigger than us...”; yes, it does involve entire communities. Its why, when I was assigned to oversee the creation of a strategic plan for MYNA, I wanted to go the route of creating “discovery” groups that consist of a parent of a youth, an expert, a former MYNA leader, an imam, and a few youth. I’ll explain later what these groups were going to be for.

People should understand we saw two stages to reviving MYNA:
1-initial actions we take to bring life back to the national organization in the short term. These actions are temporary.
2-a strategic plan with reforms for long term success. Its recommendations would become the core of new MYNA, not the temporary actions from stage 1.

We reported to the ISNA majlis, requesting approval to proceed at every stage.
--------------------------
She wrote:
“i feel that we went through a lot of motions w/o really thinking about it properly and preparing properly.. like w/hiring the office staff. we had some things down, but at the same time we had no youth on our committee that could tell us if these things were relevant.. the fact that hana and i were the youngest ones involved and i had been out of high school for 4 yrs and hana for 2, is kind of scary b/c the entire dynamic of youth work is radically changing in many cities and states.. it’s moving from being masjid based to being school based, w/the formation of high school MSAs and such...”

* without really thinking?!? I don’t know how she can say that, this issue of hiring a director/staff had been discussed and re-discussed since 1998. I was there at meetings during the ISNA conventions in 1999 and 2000 when the youth officers of MYNA participated in those discussions. We took action on it only AFTER reviewing all the past discussions and presenting it to the ISNA Majlis, which approved it.

Now, the issue of youth involvement... I’ll address it from different angles as I discuss her other concerns. Hopefully I can answer some of her questions, but, it could get confusing. I have a complicated way of looking things. I can’t speak for the entire board, but here's my perspective on what was going on. I’ve been involved in this effort since 98. I hope it helps clear up things.
-------------------------
She wrote:
“one of the beautiful things about MYNA when we were young was that it was by the youth for the youth.. this seems as though it was a bunch of concerned elders who are just trying to think of a solution (and a lot of the solution are the same things that we did when we were in MYNA so many years ago, or things we wanted to do w/myna).. I think ideally in the future we can have separate functions, like an adult (or older ppl plus some youth) on a BOD, w/an exec that is all youth w/1 or 2 older exofficio type ppl.. but until we have some more infrastructure and groundwork done I don’t think that will be possible..”

* Her comments are puzzling. The ideal “separate functions” she speaks of IS exactly what national MYNA WAS in my youth. It IS the system that died out. What's meant by “infrastructure”? What's meant by “groundwork”?

Maybe concerned elders thinking of a solution when the youth themselves have been unable to prevent the organization from deteriorating is EXACTLY what we need. Maybe ISNA failed to step in long ago.

Lets look at it a different way, since she mentioned it... Back when MYNA was formed “by youth, for youth” it was the young leaders of ISNAs youth committee (some in college by the way) who rallied other youth to form MYNA.

Maybe the last few MYNA presidents failed to organize the youth to revive this organization (which by the way, ISNA never really recognized as an organization). Maybe they let it die out. Maybe they wanted to work at their local level now that their own communities have grown? Maybe they need something different now? Should we wait for them to rise up and organize for themselves? Maybe.

I wasn’t there, but I hear that it WAS the MYNA president who noticed a problem, Khurram. His MYNA EC commissioned a study. The advisors reviewed the results of the study WITH the youth EC back in 1999 and 2000. I know because by this time I was invited to participate on the national level. The proposed solutions in the study were revised and resubmitted. Then... nothing happened. Maybe the youth let it die? Maybe the youth moved on! Maybe we should have moved on as well? But, as you surely know, LOCAL youth still need support. Something different IS needed.

It was the infrastucture of this new MYNA that we were creating; the groundwork that we were laying... for the rise of a powerful SUPPORT organization for youth doing good deeds together at the local level. We wanted to bring BACK, the idea of local affiliated youth groups (whether at masjids, in high schools, or independent) that were “by youth, for youth.”

It’s simple. The old MYNA was made back when youth from all over the country had no other option than to create a national youth group themselves to get anything done. The local communities are much larger now. So why not encourage more LOCAL youth work “MYNA style”, “by youth, for youth” and create a national organization to provide real and professional support.

End of part 3

about past reform

Our effort was an experiment... We weren’t members of any larger islamic movements (no Ikhwans or Jammats), for us it’s not as easy as following the teachings or the methods established by leaders of the “islamic movement”. If we were, we’d be involved in MAS-YD or the likes...

* The history of MYNA can be seen as the story of a group of American Muslims trying to define a role for themselves while working for youth. As we grew in understanding and experience, as we noticed various problems, we attempted reform. I’m sure the most innovative solutions were watered down by those who preferred to keep things the way they were, it comes with the territory. But the best activists see a problem and rise to the challenge of fixing it by any means:

# 1-some tried to solve the problem of youth empowerment. It led to the idea of a national youth organization, there were no local MYNA youth groups back then. Only when youth from various cities across the nation got together, were there enough people do anything. (mid 80s);

#2-some tried to solve the problem of grassroots organizing. It led to the creation of local chapters. (late 80s);

#3-some tried to solve the problem of being recognized as a real organization rather than a committee or program of ISNA. It led to the creation of a constitution for MYNA. (early 90s);

#4-some tried to solve the problem of training new officers and continuity of work. It led to the creation the FYLTP. (mid 90s);

#5-some tried to solve the problem of providing professional youth services. It led to the proposal to hire a full-time director. (late 90s);

#6-we tried to solve all of the above. Incorporate the best ideas of the past, while creating a strong and stable foundation for future growth...

* Previous efforts were done when natl MYNA still functioned; when there were active zonal and regional youth officers; and there were no other youth organizations like YM or MAS-YD trying to recruit them. Some local MYNA chapters were still out there but not much else. This last effort of ours was almost like starting a national org for youth from scratch. Natl MYNA had become nothing more than a name, one advisor, and one person as acting president attending the ISNA Majlis meetings (who wasn’t even officially a youth elected by other youth, as MYNAs own constitution required)...

You know, towards the end, it was emphasized to us that MYNA was NOT to be seen as a real organization at all. It’s advisory board and president really had no power, and only allowed to sit at Majlis meetings because the ISNA president let it...

* We were informed that technically, MYNAs advisory board was under the ISNA President’s control. And could be dissolved by the ISNA President, regardless of what the Majlis authorized us to do. We were told that reviving the old MYNA was all we should do; to find youth to fill all the old youth positions; that’s it. We had no power or authorization to DO anything else. SO no reform I guess, just find youth and have them organize a camp or conference or something...

Sadly, that attempt to “put us in our place” is what brought our effort to an end. Its like not even acknowledging MYNAs past efforts to reform and evolve; like wanting to go back to a mythical MYNA of 1985. To me this is absurd....

* We strongly felt that MYNA shouldn’t get lost in ISNAs bureaucracy at this critical early phase of its revival. We proposed that before anything can be done, MYNA should be recognized as and made a REAL organization under ISNA’s umbrella. Since the MYTH was that it WAS a real organization, and its youth and advisors believed it was a real organization, we felt there was nothing wrong in making it official by empowering our officially Majlis appointed advisory board. To me, this is the “groundwork” and a good “infrastructure” that Lubabah also says is needed. It also settles a long overdue issue....

What’s the problem with it? In our proposal, the ISNA Majlis would even have representation; and the ability to replace us if it felt we were not doing the best thing for the youth. Everyone would be happy, everyone would have power. Why the fear? Why the lack of trust?...

* I know what you are probably wondering:
“What about the youth? SO the youth have no real power now? But they would still have no power if the name MYNA is handed over to a strong advisory board; “by youth, for youth” would still be a myth, right?”...

Let me respond to that:
We wanted to make “by youth, for youth” an official part of a real organization. How? By making it the official way MYNA activities take place on the local level, where youth empowerment is most effective....

End of Part 2... Part 3 about “by youth, for youth”

clarifying and moving on

Lubabah said, “i pray that we're all guided to wisdom in some form or another..” AMEN to that.

Her perspective is very important and her e-mail was very informative. But, her e-mail also showed me that she had an incomplete picture. The issues she brings up are good. AND As you will see, they WERE being addressed. I want to counter some of her assertions about MYNA, and the work that we were doing to reform and revive the organization. She may disagree with what I present, but please read it with an open mind and know that I only desire more knowledge and better understanding on all sides. I’m not sure, but I suppose that somewhere along the line, her father may have asked her about her thoughts on what we were doing. Something seemed to have made him apprehensive of supporting our effort. If she had told him what she told me, I’m sure this could’ve been a major cause of the misunderstandings that existed. misunderstandings that made things end badly.

* One problem she mentions is this:It seems to have lingered in the background and caused much confusion, and frustration...- youth involvement in the reform process...

When we, the MYNA board of advisors, presented our ideas at the Majlis meetings, we received no questions, comments, critique from Hana, Lubabah's father Shk. Nur, or Shk. Idrees about any other issue as much as this one. It’s why I will address it from many angles....

* The cause... It can’t be miscommunication. Or maybe it can? I never had a chance to talk about it with Lubabah, Shk. Nur, or Shk. Idrees in detail. So, I know she doesn’t know my own views on this subject. But I did talk about it with Hana at the ISNA convention and at other times, I totally understand her perspective, and maybe she totally understands mine. In the end we didn’t agree. So, it appears, it could be a clear difference of opinion about the reform process, or the nature of the organization. I can argue either side, so I know I understand the problem.

* What I don’t understand is the problem with hiring a staff; eventually the ISNA EC ordered us to fire them (an order that angered the entire board). very very disappointing....

I don’t get it. Hard work was undermined, work done by temporary part-time staff persons Inayet, a former MYNA president, and Iman. They’d been hired by the board for the short term only, to do work we could not leave to volunteers. Eventually we wanted to replace them with ONE full-time director to keep the revived organization and its services running. An idea that the Majlis approved. We received no criticism about this idea at the Majlis meeting when we presented it....

I only mention this because Lubabah seems critical of our decision to hire a staff. Maybe we could have asked her or Hana, to build a MYNA archive, build a MYNA database, establish a toll-free #, create MYNA promotional materials for us to have at the ISNA convention, visit cities with old MYNA chapters, follow up with all the people who sign up for more information at the ISNA convention, update and maintain the web-site, etc, etc. Not just say that these things SHOULD be done, like we all do, but actually DO them... All before December of 2003 when we were planning to bring back the winter leadership training program! She would have said that she did not have time. I definitely did not have the time. Neither did the other members of the board....

* No volunteer youth has been able to maintain these things. I’m not talking about a committee of youth organizing a national conference; I’m talking about maintaining a national organization....

She should ask the local youth group here in Miami (called “MYNA Miami” since 1989), if they’ve been contacted by any MYNA president to see how everything was going or update contact information or request items to add to the national archives. They would answer No. I’m sure the number of still active youth groups that were official MYNA chapters at one time is less than 25. But no one really knows, because these volunteer youth never kept up....

Let’s look at it realistically; youth volunteers have limited time and limited knowledge about the resources available to do such things. We wanted real progress and we needed people who can do what needed to be done immediately. We only had one year to show results; to show that we were serious about making the new MYNA a reality....

MYNA had money. This work would help MYNA. Why not let us spend our money towards making it happen? ISNA’s Majlis approved our plan after we presented it; and its own accountant did not see any problem with it. If some ISNA EC members had concerns, why not talk to us about them; why not discuss them when we presented our ideas at Majlis meetings; why order us to stop before the work was done; why make us jump through hurdles when our effort was at such an early and critical stage?... The answers are not clear. Maybe they began to have doubts about us. But why, how, who, I can only guess. If ISNA really felt that it is a priority to start working for youth, I’d imagine the removal of hurdles, more encouragement, and more trust in those who are willing and able to tackle the work. Am I wrong?...

* Anyways, it’s good that a few things now exist for any future effort; I hope she and others who care about youth services get a chance to read them, If not let me know and I’ll e-mail them to you:...

#1-a study and proposal for reform commissioned by, I think, the then MYNA President Khurram Siddiqui, and carried out in the late 90’s by Aimen Mir, Waheed Mustafa, and Jawad Abdul Rahman and then revised in 2000....

#2-the beginnings of a strategic plan and an action plan to make the proposal a reality, crafted over a year and a half, through weekly meetings by this last Board of Advisors led by Monem Salam and submitted to the ISNA leadership....

#3-a long overdue Horizons article we commissioned about the history of MYNA, its rise and fall and what led to our reform effort....

End of part 1... Part 2 about past reform...