On 29th August 2026, the Niya Summit filled the Computer History Museum with founders, investors, technologists, and entrepreneurs, and IFTANA, the Islamic Finance Trade Association of North America, was on the program.
IFTANA’s Founding President, Irshad Rasheed, joined two founding board members for the panel “Unmet Demand in the American Muslim Economy: Focus on Finance, FinTech & Investment.” With him were Monem Salam, Executive Vice President and Portfolio Manager at Saturna Capital and Amana Funds, and Aijaz Hussain, Executive Vice President Sales & Director at UIF Corp. The conversation centered on building resilient mainstream companies by proving them first within the Muslim ecosystem. That idea sits close to home for the association. Millions of American Muslims are looking for financial products that align with their principles, and meeting that demand at scale takes shared standards, sound policy, and institutions willing to work together. Building that foundation is the reason IFTANA exists.
Monem Salam also delivered a featured talk, “Faith, Innovation, and Capital: How Muslim Founders and Sharia-Compliant Investors Can Redesign Finance for the Next Generation.” His message carried the day’s most hopeful thread. The next generation can inherit a larger industry without losing the values that define it.
The range of the summit spoke for itself. Banking, wealth management, fintech, insurance, and entrepreneurship all shared one room, and that range mirrors IFTANA’s own membership. A summit brings these voices together for a day. A trade association keeps them working together for the rest of the year on regulation, advocacy, standardization, research, and education.
The demand is real and well documented. Meeting it is collective work, and that work is underway.
