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.
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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.
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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