CIC Muslim Ministries

Imam Yilmaz Basak is our Muslim chaplain. He is from from Istanbul, Turkey. Imam Yilmaz graduated as an Imam from Imam Hatip High School in Istanbul. He then went to Cairo, Egypt to study Islamic Law at Al Azhar and earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Islamic Law. He returned back home to Turkey, but soon accepted a position with Kazak-Turkish High School and relocated to Kazakhistan. Between 1996 and 1998 he served as a religious history teacher and a dormitory director. Imam Yilmaz finds joy in meeting people from different cultures and learning from each other, so he accepted a job offer from Afganistan's Afghan -Turk Cag Educational NGO as an Arabic teacher and general advisor in 1998. He came to the United States in 2010, first living in New Jersey followed by Massachusetts before moving to California in 2015. He has a Master’s Degree in Religious Studies and an Islamic Chaplaincy Certificate from Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut. He is fluent in English, Arabic and Turkish.

He and his wife currently live in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. His wife works as a teacher. They both like to travel, read and volunteer for different nonprofit organizations in the community. If you like to volunteer as a Muslim chaplain with CIC Ministries, please contact him via email at chaplainyilmaz@cicministries.org.

CIC MUSLIM CHAPLAINCY

We are serving hundreds of male and female Muslim inmates and other inmates who wants to learn about Islam. We serve at the Santa Clara County jails: Elmwood Men and Women jails, Main jail, and Juvenile Hall. We minster to the Muslim inmates so that each individual can perform his or her daily prayers and connect with God.

CURRENT ACTIVITIES:

CIC Muslim Volunteer Chaplains and Imam provides these services at the Santa Clara County jails to all Muslim inmates:

  • Weekly, 50-80 face to face meetings with inmates to respond to the spiritual needs of each individual. Provide inmates with Qur’ans and various study materials.

  • We provide prayer rugs to inmates.

  • We provide hijabs to female inmates.

  • We review halal diet requests coming from Muslim inmates and authorize diets for them.

  • We make all necessary arrangements before Ramadan starts so that any Muslim inmate who wants to fast during Ramadan can do so.

  • We hold weekly Friday Prayers at the Chapel.

  • We hold weekly Islam Classes led by volunteer chaplains in various dorms.

FUTURE PLANS:

  • We need more volunteer chaplains so that we can provide Islam Classes at many dorms in Elmwood and Main jail.

  • We are in need of Qur’ans and other Islamic books in English, Spanish and other languages.

Please consider joining us, or making a financial donation by clicking button above, to allow this ministry to continue. Thank you!