Islamic Networks Group

Islamic Networks Group is based in San Jose, California.

Islamic Speakers Bureau

ING’s Islamic Speakers Bureau sends speakers — all volunteers, ranging from housewives to high-tech entrepreneurs — into schools, colleges, community centers and other venues in the San Francisco Bay Area to deliver presentations on Islamic perspectives on a variety of issues, including how Islam is lived out by American Muslims, the place of women in Islam, Muslim contributions to civilization and the history of Muslims in the U.S.

Audience surveys conducted before and after ING presentations show that after a presentation, the number of students believing that Islam promotes peace rises by almost a third, while the number of those believing that the religion promotes terrorism falls by two-thirds. The number of those believing that Islam oppresses women falls by nearly two-thirds.

Likewise, ING presentations help students see Muslims as ordinary people integrated into American society. After an ING presentation, the number of those seeing Muslims as insular and foreign drops by nearly two-thirds, while that of those seeing Muslims as integrated into the community rises by almost a third. The number of those seeing Muslims as “Americans like myself” rises by almost a third, to 66 percent of respondents.