Northern California Islamic Council Launched

Dec 8, 2007, San Jose, California

The Northern California Muslim community achieved a milestone on Dec 8, 2007 with the formal launch of the Northern California Islamic Council (NCIC). NCIC is a peer-to-peer network of advice and support for the Muslim non-profit organizations with an aim to providing a united Muslim voice to the community at large.

The inauguration event was held at the Shia-Muslim Association of Bay Area (SABA) center in San Jose, California. Around 250 attendees, comprising of  Directors, Imams and members of Masajid and Muslim non-profits across California attended this momentous inaugural function.

Dr. Muzammil Siddiqi and Shakeel Syed of Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, Imam Nabi Raza Abidi of SABA, Imam Faheem Shuaibe of Masjid Waritheen and Dr. Munir Fareed, Secretary General of ISNA spoke in support of the council and stressed the need for unity and cooperation among Muslims. The program was moderated by Ahsan Baig. The event itself was a testimony to a renewed united front amongst Northern California Muslim leaders from various schools of thought, ethnicity, and gender, who had come together under a single Muslim umbrella organization for the first time.

Never before had many of the participants met, interacted or socialized with each other in such numbers from such diverse backgrounds.  Never before had many of the Muslims from the Sunni schools of thought gathered at a Shi'a Masjid, although it was close to their homes or place of work.  Attendees were filled with hope and a determined focus to unify the local Muslim community. This heartfelt zeal was highlighted in an emotional moment when sister Mahjabeen Rizvi from SABA shared with the group that her prayer at the Ka'bah from 14-year ago, for unification of Muslims, was finally being answered.

Currently, there are an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 Muslims living in Northern California with over 80 mosques and 40 small to large organizations, including Islamic schools. Most are unaware of each other’s existence and therefore are unable to leverage collective strengths often causing duplication of services. There is also an absence of specifically authorized Muslim voice to speak up for the community in the mainstream.

The first known attempt in Northern California to establish an Islamic Council was during 1976 in San Francisco that started with four organizations when the local Muslim community was relatively nascent.  The leaders of the local Islamic Association were called together to discuss the importance of cooperation and coordination among the Muslim organizations. Albeit a significant first step, it was derailed, some believe, due to perceived sectarian, philosophical and ethnic differences.  However, the contacts and connections created by this first effort proved useful in times of stress to the Muslim community, the most recent being after 9/11/2001.

Meanwhile, there has been limited but sure success in the Sacramento Valley. In March, 1999, the Council of Sacramento Valley Islamic Organizations (COSVIO) held its first meeting at Masjid Ibrahim.  Today, COSVIO is a coalition of almost 12 mosques.

The most successful California experience has been in Greater Los Angeles area. In 1994, local Muslim leadership agreed in principle to establish the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California. The formal establishment was realized in November, 1995, with 60 organizations under its umbrella today.

NCIC’s most recent roots go back to the periodic meetings of Bay Area Muslim activists sponsored by the United Muslims of America (UMA).  Br. Abid Malik, NCIC’s Executive Director and Founding Member, made a presentation of a community website which demonstrated a tool for coordinating Muslim activities. This small seed finally led to a meeting in August 2006 in which 28 community leaders and activists agreed to form an ad hoc committee to revive the Northern California council. Sixteen Mosques and organizations become founding members.

The central philosophy of NCIC is based in “Shura” or collective wisdom. Shura is rooted in a central idea that people are equal in their rights and responsibilities, that collective deliberation is more comprehensive, accurate and stands a better chance of leading to a sound and fair judgment than a decision made by a minority or an individual.

Mutual consultation can include, challenges dealing with legal, socio-political, and economic issues, or items of general interest to a community. Muslims have been commanded to undertake consultation (Shura) and Allah has praised "...those who conduct their affairs by counsel" (Quran 43:38).

Coming back to the event, speakers and commentators from the audience tacitly and overtly recognized that we may have “differences”. But these differences need not be divisive, that there is in fact strength in “diversity” if we undertake Shura within the framework of mutual respect and mutual understanding of each other’s viewpoint and history. Imam Faheem Shuaibe discussed  this last point when he reminded the audience that many Muslims with countries of origin in Asia or the Middle East do not know the history of African Americans and vice versa. Imam Nabi Raza Abidi emphasized that we need to focus on our commonality rather than our differences and that we are ready in the local community to co-exist as one Ummah.

Br. Shakeel Syed stressed that we are not credible working in the community at large in such areas as interfaith or fighting harmful stereotypes if we do not also learn to work on an intra-faith basis within our own Muslim community.  It is crucial, he said, that to be effective we need to work to develop intra-community harmony, understanding, tolerance and ultimately acceptance of each other as members of one community.

The evening ended with participants signing a resolution to formalize their approval to establish the Northern California Islamic Council. The NCIC will be comprised of Mosques & Muslim Organizations, without any preference or prejudice toward any ethnicity, gender or school of thought; to conduct the affairs with mutual consultation and consensus and serve the interests and concerns of Muslims at all times; to reach out to everyone and build coalitions and alliances for the larger good of the local Muslim community and for the community at large.