What’s the Future of Islam in the US With No Plans or Goals, No Institutions

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Part One

The conscious and comprehensive level of learning Islam among Muslims in America is far from where it needs to be. This is not a casual observation but a serious crisis that requires urgent attention. Islam is not merely a personal belief system but a complete way of life revealed by Allah ﷻ through the Qur’an and embodied in the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. It is a religion of knowledge, governance, spirituality, and justice. Yet within the American Muslim context, much of this richness has been reduced, diluted, or neglected altogether.

In its current trajectory, Islam in the United States risks becoming confined to ritual practice without institutional strength, cultural influence, or intellectual leadership. Without plans, goals, and institutions, the future of Islam in America will remain uncertain.

The United States is fundamentally a nation built upon capitalist and secular principles. Religion in general has been steadily removed from education, government, and public life. The separation of church and state has translated into a separation of faith from the very structure of society.

Yet Islam is not a private, compartmentalized religion. It is a comprehensive dīn. Allah ﷻ says:

قُلْ إِنَّ صَلَاتِي وَنُسُكِي وَمَحْيَايَ وَمَمَاتِي لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ
“Indeed, my prayer, my sacrifice, my living and my dying are for Allah, Lord of the worlds.” (Qur’an 6:162)

This verse illustrates that Islam governs all aspects of existence. To confine Islam to the masjid or to Friday prayer is to betray its wholeness. Unlike secular systems that relegate faith to the private sphere, Islam insists that knowledge, governance, economics, and spirituality remain intertwined.

Because of this contrast, Muslims in America face a greater challenge: how to preserve Islam in its fullness while living within a system that pushes religion to the margins.

Most Muslim organizations in America today focus on visible, short-term projects: constructing mosques, hosting fundraisers, or seeking public recognition. While building masājid and collecting donations are not inherently negative, they often lack a clear vision. The Prophet ﷺ said:

الْمُؤْمِنُ الْقَوِيُّ خَيْرٌ وَأَحَبُّ إِلَى اللَّهِ مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِ الضَّعِيفِ وَفِي كُلٍّ خَيْرٌ
“The strong believer is better and more beloved to Allah than the weak believer, while there is good in both.” (Sahih Muslim)

Strength here is not only physical but also intellectual, organizational, and communal. Strength comes from having vision, institutions, and sustainability. A community that limits itself to fundraising without long-term educational strategy remains weak.

By contrast, other minority religious groups in America have prioritized institution-building. Catholics established universities like Notre Dame and Georgetown, ensuring that Catholic intellectual life had a permanent home in America. Jewish communities invested in seminaries, publishing houses, and think tanks, allowing them to preserve their identity while influencing broader society. Muslims, on the other hand, remain in a cycle of survival rather than strategy — investing in bricks and mortar, but not in knowledge and vision.

At the core of the crisis lies education. While Islamic schools and universities exist in the U.S., many are not accredited, lack proper standards, or function primarily as online programs. More concerning, the preservation of Islamic sciences is being attempted largely in English.

Arabic, however, is the divinely chosen language of revelation. Allah ﷻ tells us:

إِنَّا أَنزَلْنَاهُ قُرْآنًا عَرَبِيًّا لَّعَلَّكُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ
“Indeed, We have sent it down as an Arabic Qur’an so that you may understand.” (Qur’an 12:2)

The sciences of tafsīr, fiqh, usūl al-fiqh, and ḥadīth cannot be preserved in their full precision when stripped from the Arabic language. Translation is useful for accessibility, but preservation requires transmission in the original tongue. The danger is clear: if American Muslims attempt to rebuild Islam in English without Arabic, they will create a diluted version detached from its scholarly tradition.

Furthermore, without accredited, rigorous universities that offer face-to-face Islamic education, Muslims risk leaving the next generation with fragmented knowledge. Compare this to Catholic seminaries or Jewish yeshivas in America, which function as centers of training, research, and leadership. Muslims must ask: why have we not prioritized the same?

If Muslims in America do not build real institutions of higher learning and intellectual production, Islam will remain vulnerable to assimilation. The Qur’an warns:

وَلَن تَرْضَىٰ عَنكَ ٱلۡيَهُودُ وَلَا ٱلنَّصَـٰرَىٰ حَتَّىٰ تَتَّبِعَ مِلَّتَهُمۡ
“Never will the Jews or the Christians be pleased with you until you follow their way. Say: Indeed, the guidance of Allah is the [only] guidance.” (Qur’an 2:120)

Chasing public acceptance rather than building strong Muslim institutions leads to compromise and dilution. Today, many Islamic organizations measure success by how “acceptable” they appear to non-Muslims, not by how faithfully they preserve Islam. This pursuit of inclusion without vision erodes identity and leaves Muslims spiritually weakened.

One of the most pressing weaknesses is the lack of serious scholarly work coming from American Muslims. Encyclopedias, textbooks, volumes of fiqh, and rigorous academic publications remain largely absent. Where are the great works of Islamic scholarship being produced in America?

Instead, much of the energy of imams, teachers, and da‘wah workers is spent on short-term tasks: calling people to pray, fighting for basic adherence, and maintaining minimal community life. While necessary, this is not enough. A dīn that has produced vast libraries of knowledge throughout history cannot survive on pamphlets and sermons alone. The Prophet ﷺ said:

إِذَا مَاتَ الْإِنْسَانُ انْقَطَعَ عَنْهُ عَمَلُهُ إِلَّا مِنْ ثَلَاثَةٍ: إِلَّا مِنْ صَدَقَةٍ جَارِيَةٍ، أَوْ عِلْمٍ يُنْتَفَعُ بِهِ، أَوْ وَلَدٍ صَالِحٍ يَدْعُو لَهُ
“When a person dies, his deeds end except for three: ongoing charity, knowledge that is benefited from, and a righteous child who prays for him.” (Sahih Muslim)

Where is the lasting knowledge being produced in America that future generations can benefit from? Without books, research, and institutions, Muslims are neglecting one of the very deeds that sustains Islam across centuries.

The way forward requires a shift from survival to strategy, from short-term fundraising to long-term institution building. Some proposed steps include: establishing accredited Islamic universities; creating waqf endowments; founding think tanks and research institutes; developing publishing houses and curriculum; and embracing digital learning with depth, not superficiality.

The future of Islam in America cannot rest on buildings alone. It must rest on knowledge, institutions, and a vision that transcends short-term acceptance. Without accredited universities, endowments, scholarly production, and leadership, Muslims in America will remain vulnerable to assimilation and irrelevance.

Allah ﷻ reminds us:

إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَا يُغَيِّرُ مَا بِقَوْمٍ حَتَّىٰ يُغَيِّرُواْ مَا بِأَنفُسِهِمۡ
“Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves.” (Qur’an 13:11)

If American Muslims do not change their priorities — shifting from mere survival to building a future — then Islam in this land will remain stagnant. But if they rise to the challenge, with sincerity, planning, and sacrifice, they can establish institutions that preserve Islam for generations to come.

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Arabic language – Where is the Future of Salafiyyah in America with No Educational Plan

Part Two

Now, if the condition of Islam in America generally is fragile, then what about the Salafi da‘wah in America? What will its future be when there are no plans, no goals, and no institutions? This is an even sharper crisis, because the Salafi community claims to be the closest to the truth, the most authentic methodology, the ones who follow the Qur’an and Sunnah upon the understanding of the Salaf. Yet when we look closer, we see disunity, fragmentation, superficiality, and dysfunction.

I do not see from the Salafi community in America any serious plan for education. Not in the Islamic sciences, not in Arabic, not even in combining Islam with the challenges of living in a Western environment. I do not see a serious curriculum. I do not see collaboration. I do not see students of knowledge working together to build institutions. Instead, I see division, I see personal projects, I see scattered translations. Allah ﷻ commands:

وَاعْتَصِمُوا بِحَبْلِ اللَّهِ جَمِيعًا وَلَا تَفَرَّقُوا
“And hold firmly to the rope of Allah all together and do not be divided.” (Qur’an 3:103)

But what do we see in America? We see exactly what Allah warned us against: تَفَرُّق, division.

If I go to Saudi Arabia, the Salafis are together. If I go to Egypt, the Salafis are together. If I go to Indonesia or Nigeria, I see unity, I see Salafi students of knowledge working collectively, teaching, building. In Indonesia, for example, I saw Salafis from different backgrounds — some who studied in Saudi, some in Jordan, some elsewhere — working hand in hand. But in America? No. Division, splitting, groups attacking each other.

And the consequences are visible. In Philadelphia, one of the largest Salafi populations in the U.S., what do we see? We see numbers, but we also see dysfunction. We see sisters in hijab openly with lesbian partners. We see brothers caught in sins but still holding the banner of “Salafiyyah.” We see divorces piling up, marriages collapsing, children growing up confused. How does this happen in a community that claims to follow the Qur’an and Sunnah? It happens because there is no curriculum, no Arabic, no institutions.

Whole generations of Salafis in America have been raised without Arabic. They call themselves Salafi, but they cannot access Qur’an, Sunnah, fiqh, or usūl in the original language. They depend on translations. And translations, while useful, are not preservation. You cannot preserve Islam in English alone. You cannot preserve fiqh, tafsīr, or ḥadīth sciences without Arabic. So what we are producing is a generation of Salafis who are Salafi by label, but not by knowledge.

At the same time, there is no fatwa council. No committee of scholars in America who can guide the community on new issues. There is no joint curriculum that every Salafi school follows. Instead, there are separate schools, separate masājid, each with their own way. And when new issues hit — LGBTQ curriculum in schools, atheism on TikTok, feminism, mental health crises — there is no unified response.

This vacuum leaves the youth vulnerable. Young people are being pulled away by the culture around them, and the Salafi da‘wah has no structured institutions to hold them. Instead, too much of the energy of leaders is spent fighting each other. Online, on social media, one Salafi speaker refutes another, one organization warns against another. Meanwhile, the youth are leaving Islam, or being swallowed by the culture of kufr around them.

Even in counseling and social issues, the Salafi da‘wah is failing. Muslims run to non-Muslim therapists and counselors because they cannot find help in their own community. The du‘āt are not equipped to handle real mental health struggles, marriage crises, or family dysfunction. They only know how to repeat “this is ḥalāl, this is ḥarām.” And when people seek help outside, they are condemned, instead of the leadership realizing they themselves have failed to provide solutions.

Without Arabic, without institutions, without curriculum, and without collaboration, the Salafi da‘wah in America is devouring itself. New misguided trends, from feminism to LGBTQ acceptance, will continue to snatch the youth away, because the Salafi institutions do not exist to protect them.

The future is bleak unless there is a radical change. Without knowledge, there is no production. Without production, there is no growth. And without growth, Islam in America — and especially the Salafi da‘wah — will collapse into irrelevance.

Allah’s Messenger صلى الله عليه و سلم says:

وَمَن يُرِدِ ٱللَّهُ بِهِ خَيْرًا يُفَقِّهْهُ فِي ٱلدِّينِ
“When Allah intends good for someone, He gives him understanding of the religion.” (Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim)

Where is the fiqh being produced in America? Where is the understanding of the religion? Without institutions, without Arabic, without unity, the answer is: nowhere.

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Closing

The message is harsh but necessary: no plans, no goals, no institutions — no future. The Muslim community in America cannot survive on buildings, donations, and slogans. The Salafi community in America cannot survive on translations, disunity, and superficial da‘wah. The only path forward is building serious institutions, preserving Arabic, uniting upon curriculum, producing scholarly works, and addressing the real crises facing Muslims.

If not, then the next generations will look back and see that Islam in America stagnated — not because the deen is weak, but because Muslims in America refused to build what was required.

By Abul Baraa Muhammad Amreeki