About the Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow Program

It’s about Change from Within.

Mission, Goals and Objectives
Why MLT?
Future of the MLT Program

The Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow (MLT) is a global program, social network, and grassroots movement dedicated to cultivating the next generation of Muslim leaders. By empowering young, dynamic Muslim leaders from all walks of life, the MLT program creates a platform to promote their message and develop the tools needed to galvanize lasting social change worldwide. The MLT program generates a free and open public space where this community can vigorously debate ideas, share best practices, and help one another become better leaders. With ethnic, religious and social diversity as key strengths, the MLTs are stepping up as spokespersons and activists for peace and tolerance around our globe today. MLT is the largest global program creating a new generation of Muslim civic leadership.

MLTs speak at the 2006 Copenhagen forum

The MLT program’s greatest asset are the dynamic young Muslim leaders themselves, all committed to the values of tolerance, collaboration and improving their respective communities. MLTs come from diverse schools of thought and myriad ethnic, cultural, socio-economic and professional backgrounds, but they all share a Muslim identity and conception of Islam that guides them to face the challenges of the global Muslim community in their own way.

The MLT program nurtures these promising leaders, fostering open, respectful and constructive dialogue on relevant issues. Today’s crises of global magnitude demand creative solutions found through forming partnerships across professional, geographic, ideological and gender boundaries, ties that would struggle to flourish outside of an inclusive forum. The MLT program and its global conferences thus strive to build relationships amongst individuals from all over the world by facilitating their interactions and making them more productive. Woven from the bonds formed at MLT events, the MLT network provides emerging leaders with a platform to act in concert to better represent Muslims in the media, civil society, government, the arts and all other spheres of contact with the non-Muslim world.

Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow is a program of ASMA Society and Cordoba Initiative.

Mission, Goals and Objectives

Mission Statement: The Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow (MLT) program brings together young civic-minded Muslims to help each other more effectively face common challenges.

The MLT Program seeks to:

1. Network emerging Muslim leaders from around the world
2. Share and develop best practices between MLTs
3. Build a platform for collective action
4. Invest MLTs with leadership tools and skills
5. Promote an expression of Islam that promotes pluralism, tolerance and human rights, and marginalizes fatalistic/extremist worldviews.
6. Encourage today’s leaders to aid in the development of tomorrow’s leaders

By:

1. Creating online networking capabilities and hosting networking events in between conferences
2. Sustaining a mentorship program
3. Espousing the MLT Values, working with each other in the framework of a mentorship program, developing a network of chapters throughout the world and helping MLTs secure seed funding for their initiatives through Silatech or other grant-making institutions
4. Holding media and leadership training sessions between conferences and providing MLTs with access to training materials and other resources for their own development through the MLT website
5. Holding MLT Global Conferences

So that:

1. Leaders that would not naturally come into contact can interact
2. MLTs can learn approaches to common challenges from their peers
3. MLTs can magnify their voices in support of their collective agenda, using each other’s skill sets to achieve common goals
4. MLTs can more effectively impact their communities

Why MLT?

Muslims are living in a pivotal period of enormous challenge and transformation.  As debates rage over such issues as theology, identity, integration, pluralism, and globalization, Muslims seeking positive Islamic solutions must directly tackle this situation. If left unaddressed, others will continue to promote harmful ideologies, which will result in more violent reactions and social injustice for Muslims worldwide.

In the Muslim World, sectarian clashes undermine unity; in the West, rising Islamophobia calls for dialogue and leadership on issues of religion and identity. The problems, among many others, demonstrate the need for “change from within.“

The Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow (MLT) program offers critical solutions to this situation. By networking, training, equipping, and empowering young Muslim leaders throughout the globe, it offers a path to more effective global Muslim leadership, as well as promises for prosperous Muslim-West relations. It provides a forum that brings together diverse Muslim voices and communicates their conversation widely, empowering a new leadership that is committed to fostering healthy Muslim identities and to working as change agents in their respective communities.

Future of the MLT Program

Long-term strategy:

Annual Conference - The MLT program will coordinate annual MLT conferences in order to further develop the MLT network, debate relevant issues, and foster new partnerships amongst Muslim leaders.

Establishment of Chapters: The MLT program will grow in its scope and reach through regional chapters.  For example, in 2009, the MLT program will establish regional chapters in the USA, Europe, Pakistan and Turkey.  Over the next three years, the program will create additional chapters resulting in an international network of 12 chapters with over 300 members.

Mentorship: The MLT program will devise and administer a global mentoring program to encourage leadership and activism among young Muslims. The MLT program will craft innovative mentoring strategies that would link mentors around the world and actively engage emerging leaders.  MLT mentors would be encouraged to maintain strong links with the young leaders in the program.

Media Training : Annually approximately 10% of MLTs from across the globe will participate in an intensive media workshop. This network of articulate and media-savvy MLT spokespersons will be given both the tools and the confidence to send a loud and clear message of tolerance from within the Muslim community.

Leadership Training : To further strengthen MLTs and to inculcate key leadership values, such as movement building and sharing of best practices, we will organize periodic retreats, meetings, and events for MLTs.  These events will be focused on developing skills to become social reformers and to galvanize people around ideas, sharing best practices and using creative solutions to resolve community issues.