Mission and Effectiveness
Muslim Advocates is a 501(c)(3) founded in 2005. It focuses on public advocacy, government advocacy, and relatively few legal cases, with only one new case in 2021 dealing with Facebook, and cases in previous years having to do with the Muslim Ban and zoning issues for Mosques, among a few other issues. Private law firms do this work pro bono, and this work has been shrinking, both in volume and significance. The organization is in flux as in June of 2021 its founding Executive Director, Ferhana Khera, resigned in a dispute with the organization's board of directors.
The organization has been transitioning from advocacy against the “domestic war on terror” (NYPC Spying and Countering Violent Extremism) to focusing on social media and cultural issues. Ferhana Khera emphasized as she left the organization its focus was the the voices of not just “Sunni Muslim Men,” but also “cultural Muslims” (a consequential nonprofit term now), LGBTQ advocacy, and “Ahmedi Muslims” a religious tradition based on a purported prophethood that took place in the Indian subcontinent at the turn of the 20th century. By doing this, Muslim Advocates implicitly took a theological position on what Islam is that other Muslim organizations have largely not decided to adopt.
The organization does no “foreign policy” advocacy (namely, they stay away from Palestine in government advocacy). Ignoring Palestine has perhaps helped them with institutional donors and relationships with government officials. It also means Muslim Advocates is less relevant to the advocacy needs of the Muslim community.
Under Ferhana Khera, the organization successfully developed relationships with government officials, which is essential for its advocacy mission. However, based on the reaction to her resignation letter by what would have been Muslim Advocates’ staunchest allies, Khera appears to have taken all of those relationships with her, much like a portable book of business. As an institution, Muslim Advocates seems short of friends.
Muslim Advocates has had some wins, particularly in court. However, this type of legal work has waned over the past few years.
⭐️⭐️☆☆☆
Transparency is about as bad as it gets
I attempted to reach out to the organization recently when it was in the middle of investigations, allegations, and the apparent threat of litigation. The staff and board appeared to be in “bunker mode.” The current co-executive director even refused to provide a recent 990, despite it being a requirement under federal law for a public charity to make it available. I’m sure we will see it eventually.
Several aspects of this organization are opaque. This organization's issues are severe and require scrutiny. My longest-running concern at Muslim Advocates is that it does not take zakat seriously. Even when I reached out to them years ago, staff members had stated they are unable to share their justification for accepting zakat, the same position they hold today.
Muslim Advocates fails at several levels as a public trust. I have never seen a less transparent nonprofit organization operating in our community purporting to represent it in the “halls of power.”
⭐️☆☆☆☆
Social Benefit (Anti-Muslim Bias?)
The organization's board has decided to investigate claims made both by the former executive director about sexism and misogyny at the organization’s board, and the employees’ allegations that their now former executive director exhibited racism, sexism, a hostile work environment, anti-Muslim bias, and poor management skills. Many of the allegations are credible. The charge of anti-Muslim bias at a Muslim organization is quite shocking at first glance, even unbelievable. However, it is perhaps the best-substantiated set of allegations from my limited review. The most surprising examples of such bias are the denial of reasonable accommodations for prayer and the derision of other Muslim organizations.
Peers within the sector have had low regard for Muslim Advocates for some of the same reasons addressed by the former employees. Muslim Advocates has a reputation of acting in a non-collaborative manner that treats other Muslim organizations as the enemy. Advocacy in this model has the distinct flavor of a demolition derby.
The organization does not have a grassroots presence in Muslim communities and historically tends to see itself as aloof. Ordinary Muslims in the San Francisco Bay Area (where Muslim Advocates is headquartered) typically don't know of the organization, except for lawyers and the wealthy donors the organization tended to cultivate.
⭐️☆☆☆☆
A Zakat Policy that is Insulting
The organization accepts zakat but does not justify how this is possible, not even a “fi sabillillah” figleaf. It does not segregate its zakat-eligible and non-zakat-eligible donations. Former employees allege senior management were profligate spenders, using organization funds for personal expenses including last-minute first-class airfare, such a policy seems even more absurd. Though this allegation has not been proven yet, the fact that the organization does not segregate zakat funds should make it abundantly clear this is not an organization a Muslim donor should trust with their worship.
It is evident the organization as an institution takes Islam less seriously than any other purported Muslim organization I have reviewed. Zakat for Muslim Advocates a pure cash grab. It has a zakat policy an organization would come up with if they thought their donors were rubes.
⭐️☆☆☆☆
Financials
I was not able to review the 990 from 2020. However, I understand Muslim Advocates’ fundraising numbers will be lower for that year because of the pandemic. The organization has had strong support from the Ford Foundation in the past few years. Before Khera left, billionaire McKenzie Scott announced Muslim Advocates would be the beneficiary of an apparent multi-million dollar grant in 2021.
The organization's funding tends to be uneven because it is reliant on institutional grants. The organization's individual Muslim donations were steady through 2019, but they appeared to have been reliant on house party fundraisers where the executive director is present.
Unfortunately, I do not have access to recent financial reports or filings other than what was available with the California Attorney General and the IRS. I do not know if Muslim Advocates’ “independent investigator” will review claims of financial impropriety made by former employees. .
Muslim Advocates has a solid financial position. They are weakened in this review by a lack of transparency, the unrebbutted allegations of mismanagement and too much dependence on non-Muslim institutional funding sources.
⭐️⭐️☆☆☆
Governance
We have three sides to the story on Ferhana Khera's management of the organization: the Board's (as expressed by the new co-executive directors), the former employees’, and Ferhana Khera’s. The former employees are anonymous (though not necessarily to everyone).
The main issue for the board is that if Khera is as awful as she allegedly was all these years, where were they? It appears from my review that the board played too obsequious a role for years. According to the new co-executive directors:
Farhana voluntarily resigned on May 31st after refusing repeated requests by the Board for a review of workplace culture under her leadership following numerous complaints primarily from female employees.
The board asked for Khera to investigate herself, and she refused repeatedly. We don't know how many requests were made or how long this was going on since the board did not tell us. However, the problems of chronic employee unhappiness and constant staff turnover through the organization’s history would have been evident to anyone paying attention. The board was dysfunctional here, offering an undue amount of deference to an executive director. The board could have always ordered its independent investigation. Indeed, they were willing to hire a law firm to investigate themselves over Farhana’s allegations, presumably about them in 2020, something the new co-executive directors pointed to in the same statement. Instead, the board appears to have seen itself as a mere supplicant to Khera.
Transparency continues to be a problem here. It is not evident to me that there is a strategic plan for the organization beyond the whims and shifting interests of its former executive director. However, I am not certain since the organization won't provide me with its plan. Opinions of the board from insiders with whom I have spoken appear to corroborate this narrative. As is always the case, a poor zakat policy is also going to weigh negatively on this rating. Muslim Advocates is about the worst of the worst here.
Boards are complicated. I have great respect for some of the board members, either personally or for their other work. This rating is not a reflection on any individual board member or the actions of a board member over a specific period of time (many decisions may have been good). Rather, it is an assessment of board performance from the perspective of a prospective donor given the information we have and the information withheld.
⭐️☆☆☆☆
Executive Leadership
Muslim Advocates has no full-time executive director and is paralyzed as the board chose to over-invest in one person. Co-Founders (there are several) Farah Brelvi and Asifa Qureshi-Landis now serve as co-executive directors, though they have other responsibilities. Both are pretty accomplished; however, neither has the relationships or experience approaching what Khera had. The organization desperately needs new leadership and direction if it is going to survive. The money it gets from outside the Muslim community gives it plenty of room to run.
⭐️⭐️☆☆☆
Ethics
A poor zakat showing will always weigh on this category. A Muslim organization that cannot take Muslim worship seriously has grave ethical problems. Until we have some substantiated denials of the allegations made by the former employees, it appears Muslim Advocates was run horrendously for years.
If the board knew leadership was hostile to Muslim daily prayers (assuming the employee’s allegation is true) and refused accomodations for worshippers, it raises deeper problems. In my view, the head of a Muslim nonprofit should have respect for Islam. It is unethical in the extreme to hire a leader of a Muslim nonprofit who is hostile to prayer. A Muslim nonprofit leaders are designated as faith community leaders. Muslims who do not pray and are hostile to prayer have no business representing themselves as a Muslim organization and certainly have no reason to ask for zakat. This, where it takes place, is akin to fraud.
This opinion can change once the results of a transparent and independent investigation are made public, if they ever are.
⭐️☆☆☆☆
Conclusion
There are several challenges in the Muslim advocacy sector. A major challenge is being an authentic community organization while getting substantial amounts of money from outside the Muslim community. Muslim Advocates has the problem of figuring out what it wants to be in a post-war on terror world, but more importantly, leaders of the organization must decide if they want to serve the Muslim community or if they want to serve funders. While some may question if the war on terror ended, the record is clear it has ended for Muslim Advocates and others in the sector.
There is a professional class of Muslims that sees Muslim “identity” as a ticket to professional opportunities and funding. For them, the term “Muslim” is a valuable box to check in a grant application. However, the category “Muslim” should have meaning beyond serving as a term one can trade on for money. Some in this professional class are often actively hostile to Islam as a lived practice. Those are the people Muslim Advocates and all Muslim nonprofits should actively avoid.
Muslim donors should demand that if an organization is going to take the name “Muslim,” they should respect Islam. They should appreciate prayer, zakat, the finality of the Prophethood of Muhammad (sws). Unfortunately, Muslim Advocates, though its longtime and now former leadership, appears to have had demonstrated contempt for these things.
Perhaps new leadership will see to improving the organization’s respect for the community it purports to serve.
Thank you to Muneeza Rizvi for editing.