Frequently asked questions

Faseelat Ummah is a community platform that connects Muslim researchers, field experts, and policy writers with community members who want to turn research into action. If you have a policy brief, a field report, or a research paper proposing solutions to real problems — and no institution is acting on it, Faseelat Ummah is where you bring it to the community.

The platform is for two kinds of people. Researchers and field experts who have written about a problem and want community support to address it. And Doers, community members, professionals, volunteers, advocates, and diaspora members who want to contribute their skills, time, or networks to causes they believe in. Anyone may browse the platform freely.

Our primary focus is Muslim-majority countries and Muslim communities worldwide, across North Africa, the Levant, the Gulf, South and Southeast Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Central Asia, including significant diaspora communities in Europe, North America, and beyond. However, we are open to researchers and doers from any background working on development challenges in the Global South. Our commitment is to communities that have been underserved by existing knowledge platforms.

No. Faseelat Ummah is an independent platform. It does not represent, endorse, or affiliate with any government, political movement, or religious institution. All research cards reflect the views of their authors only.

Register as a researcher, go to your dashboard, and click "Post a New Project." Fill in the structured template: a problem-focused title, bullet points describing the issue and affected population, a list of what you need from the community, and a link to your research paper or policy brief. Your card is reviewed by the Faseelat Ummah team before it goes live, typically within 24 hours.

Your card appears on the homepage. Community members (Doers) can read it, click "Help This Project," and send you a message describing how they can contribute. You receive these messages in your on-platform inbox and by email. You can also browse the Doer directory to proactively reach out to community members whose skills match your needs.

Any documented, evidence-based work that identifies a real problem, proposes actionable solutions, and relates to communities in the Muslim world or the wider Global South. This includes policy briefs, academic papers, field reports, community assessments, and practitioner studies. Your work does not need to be formally published; it must be accessible via a link and grounded in genuine research.

Yes. Go to your dashboard, find the card, and click "Edit." Changes go back into review before republishing.

You will receive a message from the Faseelat Ummah team explaining why and what revisions might be needed in case relevant.

No. Faseelat Ummah reviews all cards for safety, relevance, and clarity before publishing, but we do not verify the factual accuracy of linked research and do not endorse any specific project, organisation, or course of action described in any card.

No. You can browse all project cards freely without registering. You only need an account to contact a researcher or to appear in the Doer directory so researchers can find you directly.

Anything meaningful: professional skills (web development, legal advice, translation, design, data, medicine, engineering), time (volunteering, fieldwork, organizing), advocacy (sharing, campaigning, amplifying), introductions (connecting researchers to networks or institutions), mentorship, or pointing toward funding opportunities. Faseelat Ummah does not process money, if a project needs financial support, you connect with the researcher directly to arrange it through their preferred channel.

No. Your profile, name, skills, location, and bio, is visible only to registered researchers on the platform. It is never publicly indexed or visible to unregistered visitors. You can also choose to contact researchers anonymously, in which case your name will not be shared until you choose to reveal it.

When you select the anonymous contact option on the help form, the researcher receives your message and your selected help type, but sees only a pseudonym, for example, "A community member from Germany", rather than your full name. Faseelat Ummah retains your real identity on the backend for moderation purposes only. Neither the researcher nor any other user has access to your identity unless you choose to share it.

Yes. Use the bookmark button on any card to save it to your dashboard for later.

The platform does not verify or adjudicate help relationships, that is between you and the researcher. However, researchers can mark a card with "Community support received" once help has been delivered, which will appear as a status indicator on the card and trigger a thank-you notification to you.

Faseelat Ummah is fully compliant with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We collect only the data necessary to operate the platform. Contact messages are automatically deleted after 90 days unless flagged as active by the researcher. You can download all your data or request full account deletion at any time from your Privacy & Data settings.

Every card has a "Report" button. Select the reason, harmful content, misinformation, spam, or other, and submit. Reports go directly to the Faseelat Ummah moderation queue and are reviewed within 24 hours. Content involving violence, terrorism, or incitement is removed immediately upon confirmation.

Faseelat Ummah reviews all cards for relevance, safety, and clarity before publishing. We do not independently verify the factual accuracy of linked research papers. The intellectual honesty and accuracy of all content remain the responsibility of the submitting researcher.

No. Faseelat Ummah facilitates introductions only. No financial transactions are processed by the platform at any stage. If a card lists a funding need, the researcher will describe their preferred donation channel, for example, a personal fundraising campaign or a bank transfer to an NGO, and any financial arrangement is made directly between the doer and the researcher. Faseelat Ummah is not a party to any such arrangement and accepts no liability for it.