Q&A-Malaysia’s pioneer in English-language Islamic educational tools Anita Abu Bakar eyes regional franchising opportunities

KUALA LUMPUR - In Malaysia, Anita Abu Bakar is considered a pioneer in championing Islamic teaching in the English language. This was not the career she had carved for herself; Abu Bakar has a Master’s degree in Islamic banking and finance from the International Islamic University Malaysia and then she worked in corporate banking for more than 10 years.

She left the industry to focus on motherhood, which was when she found a dearth of English language Islamic books and learning tools for children. Muslim-majority Malaysia--Islam is religion to around 60 percent of the 31.7 million population--may have a big market in Islamic-related materials but these are largely in Bahasa Malaysia, the official national language.

Today, four and a half years later, Abu Bakar’s Qaiser Darussalam Publications has more than 70 resellers worldwide, including in neighboring Singapore and Brunei, and farther abroad in Japan, Korea and Nigeria. It has also expanded beyond books and educational tools to offer classes and courses to both children and adults.

There is a growing demand in Asia for Islamic materials in English, says Abu Bakar, who now senses the opportunity for expansion and is building a franchise model she hopes to roll out by the end of this year.

In this Q&A the corporate banker-turned-mumpreneur-turned-full-time entrepreneur shares her business journey as founder and managing director of Qaiser Darussalam.

Q: How did the idea for Qaiser Darussalam come about?

Anita Abu Bakar: My background is in corporate banking and Islamic finance and I left the banking industry after I gave birth to my eldest daughter Dahlia. In 2012, when she was about two years old, I was trying to find Islamic teaching tools for children but  found them to be scarce. I finally found one in an Islamic bookstore, a very good and colorful Arabic alphabet board produced by (Saudi Arabian company) Darussalam, and I immediately wrote to the company offering to be its distributor in Malaysia.

In the meantime, (while waiting for Darussalam’s response) I started selling online, mostly via social media. I sold the Arabic letter board and flash cards and another locally-developed interactive tool called Baby Khalifah produced by Islamic Kids.

The founders of Islamic Kids had brilliant ideas and products but they did not have the capacity to market them. I got in touch with the team and volunteered to help them market Baby Khalifah. The demand was encouraging; I sold 500 sets in the first year alone.

We eventually bought over the rights to Baby Khalifah, and repackaged and rebranded it to become Qaiser’s maiden product.

Approximately a year after I emailed Darussalam, the publication group replied in 2013 asking if I was still interested to be its distributor. We went to Madinah to meet them and immediately after we came back in January 2013, we placed book orders and started Qaiser Darussalam. In Ramadan the same year, Darussalam offered us a branch status because of the volume we brought in.

Today we have more than 70 resellers worldwide including in Brunei, Japan, Korea, Singapore, and countries within the African continent.  

Photo: Screenshot from Qaiser Darussalam website, showing inside of the bookstore

Q: What did you set out to do with the business?

Initially when we started out the objective was to make Islamic books and learning tools accessible and affordable to all.  But from the support and feedback we received, we aspire for Qaiser Darussalam to not only function as a bookstore but a one-stop-centre for Muslims and non-Muslims to derive Islamic knowledge from the classes and activities available. Since we already had the books, there were requests for us to start looking into providing something academic.

The first class we introduced in July 2013 was for the revert (i.e. new Muslims) – and we had the first 25 adult students back then.

Today we have expanded to provide classes across all age groups, offering Iqra and Quran reading, fardhu ain, hafazan and Arabic language classes for children as well as adult classes and mini workshops covering specific topics. The number of students today has grown to over 100 children and between 70 to 80 adult students.

We also have farming and baking classes for children, instilling Islamic values while making them understand that Islam is a way of life that goes beyond the classroom. Through our “Book and Reading Club” for children that we started this year, we pick Islamic books for discussion and activities to nurture good reading habits while instilling Islamic knowledge and values.

Q: What has been the main challenge in managing your business?

Managing expectations from the team of teachers, other employees and parents.  We continuously try to improve our methods of teaching among the teachers.

I have a team of young teachers at the academy, which I like because they are fresh, motivated and easy to guide. But they lack the experience to handle children, so this is an area which I have to personally guide them.

Q: Besides Darussalam, where else do you source your books and tools from and who are the main target market?

We also source our books from Learning Roots in the UK and Ali Gator in Australia. In Malaysia, we serve about 30 percent of the Muslim population (around 5.4 million) mainly those from English-speaking backgrounds.

In fact I had many inquiries when I started out, asking why I want to focus on the English-speaking market since it is very niche (in Malaysia).  The reason is to encourage English speakers among local Islamic scholars and ulama. I often wonder why it is that we have some great ulama in the country but they lack the exposure and participation internationally. 

For example, when we have Islamic events in Malaysia, we invite English-speaking ulama and scholars from around the world and almost none from Malaysia. I hope, with this initiative, we will be able to groom our children today to be able to spread Islamic knowledge in English.

Q:  How did you get the word out about classes and activities offered by the academy?

Since I first started out, social media has been a strong medium to help us grow and promote the academy till today. We also work alongside television stations such as TV Al-Hijrah for promotional activities.

Q: How much did you invest in paid-up capital?

We invested about 200,000 Malaysian ringgit (about $50,000) to buy stocks and start the academy. We managed to breakeven in three years.

Q: What is your plan for Qaiser Darussalam over the next five years?

We are in the works to develop a franchise system and hopefully we can start to offer this by the end of the year.

The demand for Islamic books and classes has grown tremendously over the years. We were awarded branch status by Darussalam for Southeast Asia so I hope with the franchise system we can see more Qaiser Darussalam centers all across the region. 

I also wish for franchisees to operate with the same standards as we do, so the development of this will take time as a lot of nurturing and guidance is needed from us.

Over time, I hope Qaiser Darussalam can grow to be a full-fledged academy producing quality and well-rounded hafiz and hafizah.

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