In an interview posted on an Indian news portal, Kaleem Kawaja, the founder and President of the Association of Indian Muslims of America, observes that Indian Muslims are not well represented in the leadership of what he calls “major organizations of American Muslims.”:
What is surprising though is the small number of Indian Muslims in the leadership ranks of the major organizations of American Muslims. In the leadership ranks of Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), Islamic Medical Association of North America (IMANA), Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR), Muslim Social Scientists Association (MSSA), International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) etal one finds only a few Indian Muslims like Muzammil Siddiqi, Saeed Ahmad Saeed, Dr Khurshid Mallick, Pervez Ahmad, Abidullah Ghazi. In sampling the leadership ranks of several hundred Islamic Centers in various American cities one comes across only a small number of Indian Muslims, even though a lot of them are members of these institutions. In comparison Muslims from Arab countries and Pakistan populate the bulk of the leadership positions in the American-Muslim community.
It is no coincidence that the organizations identified by Mr. Kawaja comprise the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood and the paucity of Indian Muslims illustrates the dominance that the Arab-led Brotherhood has over Islamic organizations in the U.S.