Since my childhood, I've heard masjid boards talk about how "the youth is our future." This is a nice phrase, but does it hold up to scrutiny? In my experience, masjid fundraising typically is for "expansion projects" while imams and scholars often barely make a livable wage.

By and large, the average masjid community strongly supports projects for infrastructure: a new dome, minaret, or carpet, bathroom remodeling, parking lot expansions, and so on. Sometimes they're needed, other times not. Aside: Masjids often falsely say these are zakat-eligible.

On the other hand, what is ALWAYS necessary for a thriving Muslim community? Good personnel and human capital. An alarming number of people in our communities (a) don't know what they're looking for and (b) aren't willing to pay money to support them.

While not universally true, the masjid model in the US is often an utter failure. Boards are composed of people (doctors?) with no coherent Islamic framework guiding their decisions and are often on a totally different page from an imam whose job description exceeds his capacity.

In general, the operation of the masjid and disputes all localize around the physical masjid space: how to get money for it, who gets to use what space, when it will be open. Nurturing and challenging the people who come there intellectually and spiritually is an afterthought.

Masjid leadership and families fail to allocate resources towards targeted youth development, mental health, thoughtful scholarship which can engage with both men and women and then wonder why "the youth" are misguided and don't return to their communities when they leave home.

I say all of this out of frustration towards the fact that I have watched my home community stay in a constant state of dysfunction for 20 years. It has changed physically over those two decades; operationally, culturally, and ideologically, it remains stuck in the mud.

I remain unconvinced that this will change simply from one generation replacing the other. A lack of rigorous intellectual engagement is inherited. Certainly there will be some good changes, but the passage of time does not intrinsically equal progress or development.

Our generation also brings a new challenge: Unqualified yet charismatic professional young Muslims prematurely being thrust into the limelight. The answer to unqualified out-of-touch leadership is not unqualified leadership with an Ivy league degree and proficiency with Excel.

I don't have an answer to all of these issues, but of this I'm sure: The successful communities I've seen organize around clear principles, epistemologies, and the conscientious scholars who apply them and lead a community. They don't organize around MDs, dollars, and domes.