Assalamu Alaikum Sisters and Brothers,

Every now and then we, the Muslim Community in America, find ourselves facing new challenges in: performing our duties as Muslims, preserving our Islamic culture and moral values, and defending our religion and our identity against waves of negativism. Along with these challenges we also foster the desire of conveying the message of our peaceful religion and fulfill our duty of giving Dawah.

In some U.S. States the Muslim Community has organized itself considerably and today they are benefiting from the fruit of this effort. Although there are about eight thousand Muslims in Rhode Island, unfortunately we hardly reflect the image of a community. We are still divided on the ethnic and lingual lines and we forget that Muslims should be ONE NATION, ONE BODY and Islam alone should be our identity. Nourishing misunderstandings and hindering coming together neither benefits us individually nor our community at large.

The time has come for the Muslims in Rhode Island to take up the challenge of joining our community which spreads between many mosques/associations such as Al-Kareem, Al-Rahman, Al-Hoda, Al-Islam, Zumratul-Jannah, Ar-Razzak, Dawah Center, Muslim Student Associations, Islamic School of Rhode Island and others.

Our vision is the formation of a committee by the name of "Rhode Island Council for Muslim Advancement" (RICMA) whose main goal will be to draw together the RI Muslim community in order to achieve the benefits that a community provides.

The committee consists of brothers and sisters from each organization in RI. These members function as liaisons with strong dedication to serving RI Muslims for the sake of Allah's blessings.. Thus, RICMA is: FROM US (community); BY US (community); TO US(community). All RICMA's activities are within Islamic laws.

Let us start to work together and build the foundation needed for our children and their future