NAIF - Goals & Aspirations

An Imam in North America serves as a liaison for his constituents. He is a legitimate representative of his community. He lives within the community, handle its problems, conceals its secrets, lifts its morale, and works for its ambitions and needs.

To help this valuable community leader in his role, the mandates of NAIF are:

  1. Acquaint Imams with one another and provide a common platform for mutual consultation through invitations to deliver speeches at another NAIF member’s masjid. As they exchange experiences, the spirit of brotherly love and loyalty will develop and differences will dissolve among. NAIF believes this exchange will also slacken the tendency for an Imam to become adamant about his own opinion or way of doing things.
  2. Become a link that bonds Imams to the constituents on one hand, and to their administrators on the other hand.
  3. Expand from its four present regional locations to more branch offices on the North American Continent to better serve its mission.
  4. Become the trusted placement office/clearinghouse for Imams looking for a new position and communities looking to hire an Imam.
  5. Provide a specialized screening committee to verify applicant’s employability before forwarding applications to masjids looking for an Imam.
  6. Mediate disputes between Imams and the masjid administrators or Board of Directors as well as the larger community.
  7. Improve qualifications of Imams through training workshops and conferences in all areas essential for Imams to superbly handle his duties.
  8. Certify Imams who successfully complete benchmark training programs to ensure continuous development of an Imam’s scholastic skills such as those needed to improve the profession.
  9. Provide geographic statistics about the average salary for an Imam based on his qualifications.
  10. Help in the establishment of employment benefits to aid Imams with medical bills, help those who become ineffectual, benefit those who retire, and support families of deceased Imams.
  11. Become the formal agency representing Imams at city, county, state and federal levels.
  12. Promote Imams toward active civic engagement and help to improve public opinion of Muslims.
  13. Enhance the Imam’s governance and managerial skills to be better able to interface about the administrative and financial matters in running a masjid and improve their skills as spirtual mentors and jurisprudential advisers to their constituents.