Investing has never been just about returns at Azzad. It’s also about responsibility to our clients, to the companies in our portfolios, and to the ethical principles that guide our work. Shareholder advocacy is where that philosophy becomes action: we use the leverage that comes with being an investor to push companies toward greater transparency, accountability, and ethical conduct.
Three Tools, One Mission
Our advocacy work runs through three main channels:
- Proxy voting. Every vote we cast on our clients’ behalf is guided by both fiduciary duty and Shariah principles, aiming to reward sound governance and penalize poor practices.
- Collaborative engagement. We frequently team up with other institutional investors, often through joint letters, to open direct dialogue with corporate boards and executives on issues of concern.
- Shareholder resolutions. When conversation alone doesn’t move the needle, we file or co-sponsor formal proposals asking companies to disclose or address practices that carry ethical or financial risk.
Where We Focus Our Energy
Our advocacy tends to cluster around a few recurring themes: human rights and complicity in abuses in conflict zones, corporate conduct in high-risk jurisdictions, and the ethics of AI and surveillance technology. The common thread is our belief that unchecked corporate behavior in these areas creates risk not just for society, but for shareholder value itself.
A Track Record of Follow-Through
This isn’t advocacy for its own sake. We have a history of engagements that produced real outcomes:
- We helped pushed Chevron to exit Myanmar amid the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya minority and secured humanitarian donations for Rohingya relief efforts in Bangladesh.
- We worked with Alphabet to shelve Project Dragonfly, a censored search engine designed for the Chinese market that could have been used to target religious and ethnic minorities.
- We negotiated with Thermo Fisher to stop selling DNA testing kits for use by Chinese authorities in occupied regions.
- We convinced Apple to improve its disclosures around app removals tied to government censorship requests.
More recently, we’ve turned our attention to the intersection of artificial intelligence and human rights. In the 2025–2026 proxy season, we co-filed proposals at both Microsoft and Alphabet pressing the companies on how their AI and cloud computing tools are used in conflict zones. And we filed our own proposal at Meta calling for an independent review of the company’s human rights due diligence, with a particular focus on the treatment of Palestinian voices on its platforms. These campaigns echo our broader pattern: we identify where technology intersects with human rights, and we use the shareholder process to demand accountability. Coverage of these campaigns noted that independent shareholder support, even where dual-class share structures prevented outright wins, has been substantial. That’s a sign that these concerns are resonating well beyond our own client base.
Part of a Bigger Movement
Our advocacy doesn’t happen in isolation. We’re part of a growing sustainable investing landscape that, according to recent industry tracking, now represents trillions of dollars in US-domiciled assets under management. Our ethically screened funds and portfolios sit squarely within that movement, proof that faith-based investing and shareholder engagement can reinforce one another and activate assets for positive social change.
Looking Ahead to 2027
As we head toward our 30th anniversary in 2027, our advocacy work shows no signs of slowing. The AI-and-human-rights campaigns we launched in 2025 and 2026 are likely to carry into new proxy seasons, and the growing coalition of investors willing to co-sign these efforts gives us real momentum. Other initiatives are also in the works. Each engagement, win or lose at the ballot box, has expanded the conversation about what responsible technology and responsible investing look like. If the last three decades are any indication, 2027 won’t just mark a milestone anniversary for us; it will be another year where our clients, through their invested dollars, have a genuine voice in shaping how the world’s largest companies treat human dignity. That’s a legacy we’re proud to keep building on.
