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Accenture Informal Muslim Network… The story so far.

By Ihetsham Ashraf

It is my week off as I sit in front of my notebook with a well deserved cup of tea and hoping no one calls me in the next couple of hours I reflect on how far we’ve gone. The last plethora of emails have been sent to advertise our next event and we look set to go into the deep end again.

I joined Accenture just over a year ago and after a month I was sent an Email by a brother called Adil Malik with upcoming events for Muslim’s and some advice for Muslims in the workplace. Having worked in two other major companies I had never seen anything like this. I thought this sounded like a good idea. A few weeks later we were all invited to Dinner in a restaurant in London. About 30 of Muslims from within Accenture turned up and I met people of the same thinking and background. I found an enthusiasm for Muslims working in companies such as Accenture and how when we all come together we can make a difference.

Ideas fly by and people make suggestions but usually nothing much materialises. I finally send an email to Adil suggesting that we should maybe do a fundraiser for victims of the earthquake in Bam. Many Muslims at Accenture felt like that something needed to be done and maybe this was the ideal opportunity to do it. After sending off a few mails and making calls the ball finally gets rolling and we have a few more people who join in. And so it began our first big event with all the proceeds going to Islamic Relief and the victims of Bam. Just looking back on it I am proud on how professional we were in our approach and how successfully it materialised in the end. The Excel sheets were flying, the things to do list were being amended, and the profit/loss sheets by our fellow Muslims at Deloittes were constantly being reviewed.

After having reviewed the 234 emails that were sent back and forth between the Muslims at Accenture we came up with a bigger and better approach. This time I feel like most of the people within Accenture are really contributing as we have more people on board. I believe what we have learnt during our time working in a professional environment is finally being used effectively to help people in need, especially when Muslims are considered to be some of the most disorganized communities in the world. Furthermore we have thrown the notion of ‘Muslim Mean time’ out of the door and our event started and finished smoothly at the right time. This is an affirmation in our belief in being organised and using the skills that we have learnt to great effect. This is evident in other corporate organisations using our events as a model to carry out similar activities.

We have increased in size in the past year to 150 odd Muslims and we are still growing! We are spread as far as China but still are a very close knit community. Just a fortnightly email has proved to be powerful enough to get so many Muslims together. Furthermore we are working closely with the Inclusion and Diversity people at Accenture to get our opinions and suggestions heard at the highest echelons of the company. This has meant nearly every Accenture office has a prayer room and recently we were asked on what kind of Ablution facilities would be required for the new Accenture offices! In addition in a recent newsletter that gets sent to all the Accenture employees there was a mention of alternative team gatherings and socials that would not focus on Alcohol. Furthermore managers at Accenture will get trained on how to cater for Muslim employees.

I feel that I am proud to be known as a Muslim within Accenture and our needs are finally being looked at. At a recent brainstorming session with all the other faiths we were proud to be one of the most active and the largest faith group represented. I hope that others can take our example forward and bring this togetherness to giving dawah and for the betterment of the whole community of Muslim professionals.

About Accenture
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 100,000 employees in 48 countries.