About the T.I.C.

About Texas Muslim Congregations (Mosques):

The overwhelming majority of Texas Mosques (congregations) are independent and run by a general individual membership elected governing board. These elected boards then elect a representative to the Texas Islamic Council (T.I.C.) who then votes on the statements concerning our state's social public policy challenges. This democratic process allows for the Texas Islamic Council's statements to truly represent the views of many more tens of thousands of Texas Muslims then any single entity previously was able to.

Who are the members of the Texas Islamic Council (T.I.C.)?

The members of the T.I.C. are Muslim Congregations (Mosques) and full-time Islamic Schools from around the Lone Star State. F&J encourages every Islamic Center (Mosque) and Islamic School to join the T.I.C. and help us build a state-level representative body for Muslim congregations in Texas to stand shoulder to shoulder with our brothers and sisters in the Mainline Protestant (Texas Conference of Churches), Catholic (Texas Catholic Conference) and Baptist (Baptist General Convention of Texas) communities. We are working diligently to build up a strong network in all five regions of Texas (east, west, north, central and south).

How does the T.I.C. work?

Each member organization is a fully independent organization with its own board, finances and decision making. The T.I.C. does not speak on behalf of any specific member organization, but provides a platform for a collective voice on behalf of all the membership organizations. The elected managing board of each T.I.C. member votes to join the T.I.C. as a member congregation and pays an annual membership fee to F&J.  Currently the Coordinator (Director) role of the Texas Islamic Council (T.I.C.) is being performed by the President of F&J, Mohamed Elibiary, with the intent to build up the T.I.C. membership, hire staff and develop the TIC's own spokesperson. The current membership of the T.I.C. includes Mosques from Tyler to El Paso and Dallas-Fort Worth down to Austin and Houston giving it a collective representative strength of more than 85,000 Texas Muslims, thereby making it the largest single representative body for Muslims in Texas.

What statements have the T.I.C. released?

1.  The Texas Islamic Council (T.I.C.), an independent statewide coalition of Islamic Centers (Mosques) across the Lone Star State coordinated by the Freedom and Justice Foundation (F&J), voted in June 2006 to expand the expansive interfaith partnerships Texas Muslims have built over the decades to include all of civic and political society in order to clarify the language used in the Global War On Terror (GWOT). The T.I.C. members voted unanimously that the hijacking of Islam in public discourse at home was just as detrimental to American interests as are any terrorists oversees.  The purpose of the T.I.C. membership making this decision was to bring more support to efforts by F&J and other groups already working to clarify the use of such controversial language. To learn more about this Triumph Over Terror (T.O.T.) Interfaith Statement, please visit here.