POMONA, Calif. – A Muslim youth center to parallel the YMCA thirty years ago, the idea might not even have occurred to the mainly immigrant Muslim population. But today, with the American Muslim community firmly planted into the American scene, the idea is not far from reality.

In fact, the Muslim American Society (MAS) has already constructed 25 such youth centers nationwide.

On Sept. 23, MAS’s newly founded Inland Empire Chapter hosted a fundraiser at the Pomona Valley Mining Company’s banquet hall in order to bolster financial support for their newly deliberated youth center in the area.

With encouragement from Shaikh Suhaib Webb and Dr. Ahmed Sakr, the chief fundraiser most known for being one of the original founders of the Islamic Society of North America, the audience pledged $122,000 in support.