Training the ICNA Recruiters
In Preparation for the Membership
Drive
Presented by ICNA – West Region
Objectives
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To enumerate ways / means of recruitment
To introduce tools of activism
To teach some psychological aspects
To explore reasons why people join ICNA
To learn how to increase retention rate
To learn special ways for special sectors
What to do ONE year before ?
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Bring ICNA into positive lime-light
Repair any negative feelings in existing cadre
Purge inactive members / bad apples
Build a good resume for ICNA
Maintain solid bridges and alliances with the
greater community in the area
What to do 6 months before ?
• Before 6 months of a membership drive,
make verbal or written peace treaties with
muslim groups
• Not to use mouth or pen against them
• Not to steal members from them.
• Identify focus groups / segments for
campaign
Why do people join any
Organization ?
• Friendship, Socialization, Camaraderie
• Sense of Identity and belonging
• Fulfilling of some needs – could be material, social,
psychological, legal, matrimonial etc.
• Representation – organization is the mouth-piece.
• Status symbol if it is a prestigious org. with hard to
get membership
• To get something – training, books, entry
somewhere etc.
Why did people join ICNA ?
• Allow enumeration by the participants here
• Presenters : plz. Don’t stifle debate – let there
be a healthy dis-agreement, jokes, puns etc.
Why did people join ICNA ?
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To spread Islam in the USA
To consolidate, to maintain identity
To be in a Pakistani social club
To get approved for loan by MSI
To get discount at convention
Friends asked them to….. (Smile !)
Why did members become MGA’s ?
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Wanted to serve Islam more functionally
Finished the syllabus and demonstrated competency
Vision / Mission of ICNA appealed to them
Ready to give Zakat to the Baitul Maal
Tried other options/ groups and those failed to meet
the criteria (they had miserable experiences)
• Friends in high places promoted them
What do you think helps retention of
new members ?
• This is an inter-active part
• Write comments of the recruiters on the flipchart
• Tear the flip-chart and paste with scotch-tape
to a well-lighted wall on one side of the room
• Come back to that at the end of the workshop
What are the divisions of ICNA ?
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Baitul Maal, ICNA Relief, Helping Hand
Sisters’ Wing
YM – Boys and YM – girls
Muslim Children of North America
Sound Vision / MSI (Historical perspective)
WhyIslam
Civil Advocacy thru’ agreement with CAIR
The Message Magazine
So, let us list them in order of
popularity with newbies …. !
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This is a practical exercise.
Allow people to argue about the list-order
Encourage debate about rank-1st,2nd,3rd etc.
Write on flip-chart legibly.
Keep aside on the opposite wall for future use
How to get ready for a membership
drive ?
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Membership forms (extremely professional)
Sign-in sheets for information @ every event
Delineate eligibility, requirements etc.
Identify avenues, methods, approaches
Train the recruiters and empower them.
Budget time, resources, money, talent.
Have a second line of volunteers to sustain the drive
Schedule a large event at the end of the week to
invite all the newcomers to.
Avenues / Modalities
• Internet Campaign, Mass e-mails, Form
letters
• Table at Jummah prayers for 4 Fridays of the
alloted month for the membership drive
• Table / Booth at mega-events of muslims
• Invitations for NNet, Programs, Fund-raisers
• Newspaper ads- continuous and ongoing
Target Populations of Muslims
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Masjid-going people, Imams, Namazis
Tableeghi Jama’at (need specific tips)
Disenfranchised youth, Ir-religious muslims
Minorities in the USA – Bosnian, Somalian,
Filipino, Indonesian, Guyana (West Indies)
Secular muslims – meaning consciously secular.
Muslims in smaller towns of the USA
2nd or 3rd generation of immigrant muslims
Converts / Reverts – Caucasian, African, Latino,
Russian, Ex-convicts
Sample Exercise # 1
• Divide into groups of 3; Put new people together /
Learn teamwork – Time limit – 5 minutes only
• Select a target sub-sector of the muslims
• Write an e-mail form letter to mass-mail on the
Yahoo-groups that you have joined. Eg:
Bangladeshis in Seattle, Muslims in Idaho, Pakis-inDenver, Salafidoctors-in-USA.
• Complete, sign your names, and hand-over to the
Workshop Facilitator.
• Give 3 T-shirts to the best letter-writing team
Sample Exercise # 2
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Shuffle the groups; mix and match.
You are at a big muslim “EID CARNIVAL”
You have an ICNA booth, selling books and CD’s
You are also recruiting- Pretend to be a gentleman eg:
Tableeghi, Bosnian, Somali, Arab, Latino Convert, Caucasian
Convert etc.
Sisters – pretend to be a sister of some sub-sector
Practice talking and pitching an invitation to join ICNA – 3
minutes only.
Switch roles, stop after 3 more minutes.
Elaborate the difficulties
Approaching the Masjid People
• Highlight the aims / objectives of ICNA
• Advantages of a national organization
• Explain concept of Jamat, Shoora, Iqamat
Deen, Muslim Identity, Collective Society
• Only way to fulfill various responsibilities
• Makes living here easier, not harder
Inviting the Ulema / Imams
• Gives them a legitimate platform for preaching
• Most of them – good for talks; lack in organizing
and mobilizing skills
• Quote the ayaat and hadeeth that form the basis of
ICNA
• Show them the peculiarities of ICNA
• Give them names of other Imams who joined
• Systematically, break-down resistance and answer
their questions
Special attention to Tableeghis
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Extremely fertile ground for new members
They have a spirit of sacrifice and activism
Explain that Deen is more than worship
Quote ayaat that encourage participation of the
muslims in the public square of US
• Explain that Fiqah of Deoband not completely
applicable to USA at this time
• Explain difference between external sunnah and
internal sunnah
More conversation with Joula people
• Explain Islamic revolution not just of long
beards, high pajamas, niqaabs, tasbeehs
• Explain about their promotion / advancement
into 100 % Deen (not just ibadaat)
• Reading Quran with translation and tafseer
• Using pamphlets, TV programs or Dawah
booths is NOT a bid’ah.
What else can you talk to them about?
• Allow active discussion among participants
• Allow debate, dis-agreements, rebuttals.
• Bring it all together
Disenfranchised youth, Ir-religious
muslims
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Non-practicing muslims need love and Mercy
Have raham for them; Be polite.
Do not condemn or scold; don’t loose your cool !
Empower them with Islam, stories of Sahaba.
Remind them of their convenants
Offer them recognition, friendship, camaraderie, a
Social club, place to hang-out !
• Concept of Deen and Duniya (Bird with 2 wings)
• Integration / Acculturation in the US, but with
Islamic Identity
Muslim Minorities in the USA
• As opposed to Indian-Pakistani or Arabs
• Need an ICNA fellow from their ethnicity to
approach them eg: Bangladeshis, Bosnian,
Somalian, Filipino, Indonesian, Guyana (West
Indies)
• May need a separate NNet before integration
• Be acutely aware of past baggage, hostilities, mass
sufferings
• Need to prime / prepare our own members to be
accepting of new people who are different
Secular muslims – meaning
consciously secular.
• Explain Allama Iqbal’s journey
• Explain the secularism of the Bosnians’ did not save
them when the holocaust came.
• Call them towards Civil Advocacy, social services,
building bridges with other faith communities,
INTERFAITH, anti-war movements etc.
• Explain what ICNA has to offer to them
Muslims in smaller towns of the USA
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Extremely under-looked and sidelined
Highly talented and potential workers
Usually, fertile ground without other groups
Will get immediate empowerment on joining
a national movement
• Will get lots of advantages, structure,
literature, recognition when they join ICNA
2nd or 3rd generation of immigrant
muslims
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Sometimes lost in the crowd
Sense of superiority complex over the “FOBs”
Maybe approached using YM- girls or boys
Different directory of words, grammar, accent
Very responsive, eager, hard-working once they join
May result in older members needing to change
attitudes
• May need to make meetings all English, not Urdu
• May need to change food from Biryani to American
food
Converts / Reverts – Caucasian
• White males harder to find in reverts than
females
• Tend to be suspicious of groups / cults
• Immense amount of talent.
Converts / Reverts – African
• Regaining their moral compass of hallaal and
haram
• History of African Muslims in this country
before Christopher Columbus
• Many slaves were muslim princes that knew
to read and write
Converts / Reverts – Latino
• Special affinity groups
• Most active on the list-serve
• Spirit of dawah is the highest in this group
Schedule a large event at the end of the
week to invite all the newcomers to.
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Gives you an opening line to approach people
Enables you to solidify and consolidate
Explain the aims and objectives of ICNA further
Showcase past successful projects on poster-boards
Include pictures in the powerpoints
Include endorsements from Ulema and public
figures, muslim sportsmen etc.
Hurdles, Barriers, Excuses
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Enumerate the hurdles
Verbalize the excuses
Elaborate on the barriers
Discuss if the barriers are perceptions or
reality.
• Are there any fallacies of thought ?
“I am too busy; No time for this!”
• Give me some ideas on how to rebut / explain
this excuse !
“ICNA can be labelled terrorist org.”
• Give me some ideas on how to rebut / explain
this excuse !
“I am a moderate muslim.”
• Give me some ideas on how to rebut / explain
this excuse !
“It is hard to be a father and do this.”
• Give me some ideas on how to rebut / explain
this excuse !
“ICNA is not on the sunnat tareeqa.”
• Give me some ideas on how to rebut / explain
this excuse !
“ICNA peoples beards are not long
enough.”
• Give me some ideas on how to rebut / explain
this excuse !
“I don’t want to join a Desi group.”
• Give me some ideas on how to rebut / explain
this excuse !
“I don’t need what you are selling.”
• Give me some ideas on how to rebut / explain
this excuse !
“You are misogynists !”
• Give me some ideas on how to rebut / explain
this excuse !
“In Rome, do as Romans do !”
• We need to be American here, not muslim.
“I am a convert; What can ICNA offer
me?”
• Very valid question
• Our leaders need to answer this – because
there are serious differences in perception,
our advertisement and our reality
“Forming a group is a bida’ah.”
• Give me some ideas on how to rebut / explain
this excuse !
“You all compromise on the principles
of Islam.”
• Give me some ideas on how to rebut / explain
this excuse !
“It is too far for me.”
• Give me some ideas on how to rebut / explain
this excuse !
“This is a new organization.”
• Give me some ideas on how to rebut / explain
this excuse !
“I don’t know who your Ulema are!”
• Give me some ideas on how to rebut / explain
this excuse !
After the membership drive……
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Consolidation and solidifying
Inviting and keeping track.
2 phone-calls and personal visits for 2 months
Repeated e-mails and reminders
Make some activities, dawah booths, picnics,
potlucks etc. just for the new members
Ideas, Suggestions, Feedback ?
Questions and Critique, please ?
Thankyou for your patient listening
and active participation !
May Allah bless you and protect you
from the Shaitaan who is our Open
Enemy ! Ameen !
Recruiters Tool-Box
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ICNA Pamphlets, Aims and Objectives
Charter and By-Laws
Membership Forms, Sign-in Sheets
FREE pens, T-shirts, Key-chains, Labels
FREE Stickers, Mugs, Mouse-pads, CD’s
Small anouncement sheet about big EVENT
Professional Business Cards with contact info.
Thankyou for your patient listening !
Markaz contact: 166-26 89th Ave Jamaica NY 11432
Tel: (718) 658-1199 Fax: (718) 658-1255
http://www.icna.org