THE MUSLIM ACTIVIST 53
Islamic jurisprudences as articulated with modern living. These discussions
have become significant on their own because of the continuous influx of
new immigrants as well as new converts to Islam in the existing population.
Because there is no priesthood in Islam, the ISNA program committee care-
fully selects those who are generally recognized authorities in their legal spe-
cialties. Because the ISNA has been successful in attracting a diverse Muslim
population, no one school of thought in Islam dominates its activities
(although one might detect that the middle of the road Hanafi approach of
Sunni Islam is being generally subscribed to).
Evidently, ISNA s success lies in that it has thoughtfully avoided extremes,
for example, Wahabism, Sufism, or liberalism. Being highly educated profes-
sionals in the modern sciences, ISNA leadership centers on the least common
denominators among Islamic belief and practices. However, ISNA has the
potential to do much more. It could, for instance, introduce programs more
attractive to indigenous Muslims, most of whom embraced Islam only recently
and have a history different from the histories and cultures of most who are
relative newcomers to the United States. Immigrant Muslims are more inter-
ested in political and economic problems in the Muslim world. Indigenous
Muslims, who are mostly African Americans disappointed by a long history of
slavery and racial discrimination, are more interested in abolition of racial prej-
udice and civil rights in the United States. Although some notable African
American Muslim leaders, Warith Deen Muhammad being the best known
among them, have served and continue to serve in ISNA s decision-making
bodies, most indigenous Muslims continue to feel more comfortable in their
own national organizations.
Likewise, although the main reason for ISNA s birth has been the conspicu-
ous emergence of the Muslim population in noncampus communities, ISNA
has yet to attract Muslim communities to its governing structure. Of approxi-
mately twenty-five hundred registered Muslim community organizations, only
a handful are formally affiliated with the ISNA at this writing. Although the
NAIT holds the titles of around four hundred mosques, which profit by inves-
ting in the NAIT s business, the ISNA has only one vote in NAIT s delibera-
tions. Because it lacks control over the NAIT, it is hardly in a position to exert
any control over community organizations affiliated with NAIT. ISNA has yet
to call itself a community-based organization.
Because all Muslim talent, resource, experiences, and the next generation
exist in communities spread like mushrooms all over American landscape, the
ISNA, which is autonomous and answers only to the local benefactors, donors,
and long-time Muslims, can better serve American Muslims as well as benefit
by making itself more attractive to individual Muslim community leadership.
Moreover, ISNA s main strength, which lies in its appeal to diversity among
Muslims in the United States, has shown a tendency to recoil upon itself. Two
main constituencies within ISNA Urdu-speaking South Asians and Arabs
have often found the ISNA to be overextended in addressing their specific
questions and needs. This resulted in the formation of the Islamic Circle of