other institutions belong to ISNA, varying in size,
membership, ethnicity, and styles of leadership.
Despite this diversity, constituent members are
perceived by local Muslims as representing ISNA.
ISNA headquarters lie in Plainfield, Indi-
ana, in a complex of buildings, which includes
a mosque, library, and offices. It is a notable
example of contemporary Islamic architecture,
designed by Gulzar Haidar and built in 1979
with funds donated by the United Arab Emirates.
The Office of the General Secretariat oversees all
departments and services, is involved in adminis-
tration and management of offices and facilities,
and is accountable to the elected president of
ISNA. Subsidiary units include Conventions and
Conferences, Membership, Community Outreach,
Leadership Development, Youth Coordination,
Community Development, Publications, and the
ISNA Development Foundation.
The executive council and the board of direc-
tors (Majlis al-Shura) are the two policy-making
bodies recognized within the constitution of
ISNA. The latter body presently consists of 23
members, including representatives elected by the
general body of ISNA and others elected by the
presidents of regional chapters and affiliates. The
society has a membership and support base of
about 400,000 Muslims, with its leadership drawn
predominantly from immigrant communities,
although native-born Americans are increasingly
prominent. Members receive Islamic Horizons, the
bimonthly flagship publication of ISNA edited by
Omer Bin Abdullah, which addresses national and
international affairs. Annually, ISNA hosts a major
convention in addition to numerous regional and
specialty events.
See also coUncil on american–islamic rela-
tions; mUslim pUblic aFFairs coUncil; United
states.
Gregory MackFurther reading: Yvonne Y. Haddad, The Muslims of
America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991);
Islamic Society of North America, 2004 Annual Report
(Plainfield, Ind.: ISNA, 2004); Sulayman S. Nyang,
Islam in the United States of America (Chicago: Kazi
Publications, 1999).Islamism
Since the 1990s, Islamism has been used by
Western scholars and some journalists as a term
covering a variety of modern Islamic revolution-
ary groups and ideologies that have the goal of
implementing Islamic law (sharia) as the absolute
basis for every aspect of life in majority-Muslim
countries.
Typically, Islamist groups strive to overthrow
governments that are secular or that the Islamists
believe are not properly implementing Islamic
principles. Islamists seek to replace such regimes
with governments they believe would embody
what the Islamists perceive to be genuinely Islamic
ideals. Some examples of many Islamist groups
are the mUslim brotherhood, which has chapters
in egypt and many other countries, hamas among
the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, hiz-
bUllah among Shiites in lebanon, Jamaat-i islami
in pakistan, and al-qaida globally.
Islamists believe that the Islamic governments
they institute must give their financial and politi-
cal support exclusively to Islamic schools and
universities and ban all other forms of edUca-
tion, establish economic systems wholly free of
dependence on Western countries, create societ-
ies where wealth is distributed equitably among
all groups and where the large gaps that exist
between the rich and poor are reduced, and enable
the availability of health care and a wide array of
social services, including orphanages and welfare
services for all individuals in the Islamic state.
Islamists also have the objective of establish-
ing Islamically based moral codes that involve
men and Women being required to dress in accor-
dance with the Islamists’ interpretation of Islamic
law, the legally enforced separation of men and
women who are not part of the same family, aK 376 Islamism