Protecting Muslim Communities From Atheism
Basira Education
Iman-Protection Report
From Ramadan 2022 to Ramadan 2023
The Crisis We Are Solving
1 in 4 Muslims raised in the United States end up leaving Islam. It’s the same everywhere.
That’s just counting those who officially leave Islam. Even though the rest still identify as Muslims, many of them have unresolved doubts and don’t have certainty that Islam is true.
The way that Islam is being taught in our communities is making it worse. Muslims are just being told what to believe without actually guiding them to their own realization that Islam is true. Because many Muslims don’t think that their communities can resolve their doubts, they are losing confidence in Islam.
Muslims are proud of the number of people who convert to Islam but they don’t realize how many of them end up leaving Islam
Our Unique Solution
We are creating communities who are helping Muslims come to their own realizations that Islam is true. This increases their confidence, removes their doubts, and enables them to face modern objections that are circulating everywhere.
We do this by:
(1) creating safe spaces so that students feel comfortable asking whatever they want
We are creating classrooms where students feel comfortable talking about their doubts
(2) Training teachers to engage students in fun activities that help them realize Islam Is true.
Students are realizing and explaining why Islam is true and not just being told what to believe
Even prisoners are having fun with our learning activities
In Order to Solve This Crisis We Need People Not Pamphlets
If we want strong iman in our communities, it’s not enough to write books, create websites, or record videos.
People learn from people.
When we have trained teachers who can show why Islam is true, we just don’t protect people’s iman–we also spread iman to others
Allah didn’t just send a book. He sent us a messenger to teach us the book. And when ‘Uthman sent copies of the Quran all over the Muslim world, he also sent them trained teachers.
We need to create people who are trained in:
the Quranic arguments for why Islam is true,
how to apply those arguments to modern objections, and
how to bring someone step-by-step to their own realization instead of just telling them what to believe.
Our teachers are creating Muslims who are critical thinkers
These people need to exist in many different places in our communities to create multiple points of contact for someone who needs help.
Our Teachers Are in These Institutions:
We Are Creating Safety-Nets in Our Muslim Communities
People who leave Islam used to have multiple points of contact in Muslim communities: imams, friends, teachers, youth-leaders, chaplains, and family. If these points of contact had been properly trained, then at least one of them would have caught them before they left Islam.
If all of the above institutions in every Muslim community had someone who was properly trained, then our communities would have Iman-protection safety nets.
A community safety-net catches Muslims before they fall into atheism. They trust their religious teachers and feel comfortable bringing their objections to them. They grow up realizing that whatever objections they bring, their religious teachers will have the expertise to show them that Islam is true.
Since Last Ramadan, We Have On-Boarded 60 Teachers Into Our Full Certification Training
Our Rigorous Training Produces Certified Teachers Who Can Show Anyone Why Islam is True
Producing a fully-certified teacher takes eight months spread out over the first four stages. Teachers start teaching in Stage 3 (after just two. months).
635 students have formally learned Why Islam is True in just the first year
So far
24 of 60 teachers have taught 635 students
36 of 60 teachers are currently preparing to teach (so more students will be taught)
40% of teachers have reached 635 students in the classroom, 60% of teachers have not yet started teaching and are expected to reach another 900 more students in the classroom.
Every Teacher Will Continue to Teach Year After Year
These numbers represent a year’s worth of students. But the teachers we create teach and guide for the rest of their lives. These numbers will recur year after year. And, as you’ll see below, many of their students will be inspired to become teachers themselves, and similarly teach and guide students of their own.
141 Teachers Trained in Intensive Two-Day Training Camps For Scholars
Imams, ulama, and weekend Islamic school teachers who attend our intensive training camps are ready in just one weekend to clearly articulate rational arguments for the truth of Islam and respond to modern atheist objections.
Between our intensive training camps and full certification training, we have trained 201 teachers in 10 countries to catch Muslims before they fall into doubts.
201 Total Teachers in 10 Countries
Here is some feedback from some imams, teachers, and scholars who attended the Two-Day Teacher Training Camp in Toronto.
The Impact is Much Greater Than the Number of Students Formally Trained in a Classroom
Our teachers don’t just teach in classrooms. They have conversations–with their children, their relatives, their friends, their colleagues at work–even with random strangers!
Our teacher Isa Stewart converted a random stranger from atheism to Islam over a cup of coffee just after meeting him in a gas station.
“Not believing in God is stupidity,” the stranger said afterwards.
He also used this napkin with some former colleagues who were doubting Islam, and they redeclared their belief in Islam after that short conversation.
Watch Isa Stewart talking about the effect of his 1 minute conversations with random strangers he meets throughout his day.
Through our training, teachers, imams, khateebs, and da’ee’s have the confidence, clarity and articulation to turn their everyday conversations into conversions within minutes.
The impact is greater than the number of teachers trained. Students are having conversations.
The students are having conversations. Students are excited to share their realizations with those around them including their parents, their friends, their professors and–in the case of prisoners, their fellow inmates.
Prisoners are able to have intelligent conversations with college professors and spread Islam to their fellow inmates and their families
High-school students are so inspired that they want to grow up to become Islamic-studies teachers and they are even going home and teaching their parents
Students are even starting their own classes.
Some students have been so transformed and impacted by these classes that they were inspired to spread the blessing of conviction and clarity in their own circles. So they have formally started teaching students of their own.
Students of our teachers are so inspired that they are teaching students of their own
Our training works. We are now ready to scale.
Next year we want to train 500 teachers in five different cities to create safety-nets for each of their communities. Children will have families, weekend school teachers, and community members who are trained to protect their iman. Teenagers will have youth-leaders and counselors who are trained to protect their iman. University students will have chaplains and halaqa-leaders to protect their iman. Adults will have imams, khateebs, and friends who will help them protect their childrens’ iman. Prisoners and converts will have chaplains and convert care-groups to protect their iman.
We don’t need new institutions to solve this problem. We just need to help our teachers who are already on the ground to bridge the gap so that they can take what they already know and apply it to do their most important job, which is to protect the iman of their communities.
It takes at least eight months of careful training and mentorship to produce a teacher. But that is the only way for us to solve the crisis of iman in our communities. Solving that crisis needs people, not books or websites or pamphlets. These people we produce will teach for the rest of their lives and permanently become a part of the safety-net of their communities.
We need your support to take our next step and scale. The Prophet Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace) taught us that saving a single Muslim’s iman is better than the most valuable possessions of this world. The value of hundreds of teachers making safety-nets to save the iman of thousands and thousands of Muslims for as long as they are alive is unimaginable.