They are young, enlightened, outspoken and determined to change the face of Islam in America and the world.
"We are the next generation of Muslims," Rushda Majeed, director of the Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow group (MLT), told IslamOnline.net.
The MLT was launched in 2004 by a group of young, civic-minded Muslims who championed a revolutionary network.
Majeed, who grew up in Northern India, said the founders wanted to address the vacuum of leadership among Muslim communities whether in the US or Europe.
"The aim was to cultivate the next generation of Muslim leaders."
She believes they are not filling the vacuum of Muslim leadership per se, but rather making such leadership visible.
"We do have community activists working in all fields of life. But people do not know much about Muslim leaders and community activists. What the MLT is trying to do is to make sure people know about them."
The MLT gradually expanded and is now a global program and a grassroots movement that groups hundreds of Muslims from across the world.
Its second conference was held in Copenhagen in 2006 with the participation of some 175 Muslims from more than 25 countries.
"In 2009 when we held the third conference in Doha, Qatar, we decided to make the program truly global," said Majeed.
Today the MLT is the biggest group of its kind, with some 250 members from 70 countries.
"We have all groups with diverse ideologies, and different cultural and professional backgrounds," she noted.
All MLT branches work to create a platform for informed, collective and sustainable action true to the diversity and advancement of the Muslim Ummah.
"The MLT is very value-based, and we ask the members to subscribe to six core values of Islam: freedom, justice, pluralism, intellectual development, creativity and leadership," asserted Majeed, saying they welcome Muslims aged 20-45 who commit to these values.
Building Bridges
MLT’s focus in the US is not only to create Muslim leaders but to build bridges between their community and the bigger society.
"The biggest challenge is to build bridges between ordinary Americans and Muslims," said Majeed, who graduated with a Masters in International Relations from Columbia University.
She noted that after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, some Muslims who were not ready to answer all the questions about their faith.
"There are a lot of perceptions; there is the lack of information, the lack of knowledge."
For Hussein Rashid, a PhD candidate in Harvard University's Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, MLT also helps build bridges among Muslims from different countries.
"My first time to attend the MLT conference was in 2009 in Doha. It was eye-opener for participants especially those from the Muslim world," he told IOL.
"When they think about life in America, they think it is about alcohol and women running around naked."
Rashid, who was born and raised in New York and studied Islam academically, says that the young American Muslims have to look at the progress done in the past few years and add to it.
"We have a responsibility. We should correct our faults when we do them.
"We are always challenged to make ourselves better."
"We are the next generation of Muslims," Rushda Majeed, director of the Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow group (MLT), told IslamOnline.net.
The MLT was launched in 2004 by a group of young, civic-minded Muslims who championed a revolutionary network.
Majeed, who grew up in Northern India, said the founders wanted to address the vacuum of leadership among Muslim communities whether in the US or Europe.
"The aim was to cultivate the next generation of Muslim leaders."
She believes they are not filling the vacuum of Muslim leadership per se, but rather making such leadership visible.
"We do have community activists working in all fields of life. But people do not know much about Muslim leaders and community activists. What the MLT is trying to do is to make sure people know about them."
The MLT gradually expanded and is now a global program and a grassroots movement that groups hundreds of Muslims from across the world.
Its second conference was held in Copenhagen in 2006 with the participation of some 175 Muslims from more than 25 countries.
"In 2009 when we held the third conference in Doha, Qatar, we decided to make the program truly global," said Majeed.
Today the MLT is the biggest group of its kind, with some 250 members from 70 countries.
"We have all groups with diverse ideologies, and different cultural and professional backgrounds," she noted.
All MLT branches work to create a platform for informed, collective and sustainable action true to the diversity and advancement of the Muslim Ummah.
"The MLT is very value-based, and we ask the members to subscribe to six core values of Islam: freedom, justice, pluralism, intellectual development, creativity and leadership," asserted Majeed, saying they welcome Muslims aged 20-45 who commit to these values.
Building Bridges
MLT’s focus in the US is not only to create Muslim leaders but to build bridges between their community and the bigger society.
"The biggest challenge is to build bridges between ordinary Americans and Muslims," said Majeed, who graduated with a Masters in International Relations from Columbia University.
She noted that after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, some Muslims who were not ready to answer all the questions about their faith.
"There are a lot of perceptions; there is the lack of information, the lack of knowledge."
For Hussein Rashid, a PhD candidate in Harvard University's Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, MLT also helps build bridges among Muslims from different countries.
"My first time to attend the MLT conference was in 2009 in Doha. It was eye-opener for participants especially those from the Muslim world," he told IOL.
"When they think about life in America, they think it is about alcohol and women running around naked."
Rashid, who was born and raised in New York and studied Islam academically, says that the young American Muslims have to look at the progress done in the past few years and add to it.
"We have a responsibility. We should correct our faults when we do them.
"We are always challenged to make ourselves better."
