Islamic religious leaders have traditionally been people who, as part of the clerisy, mosque, or government, performed a prominent role within their community or nation. However, in the modern contexts of Muslims minorities in non-Muslim countries as well as secular Muslim states like Turkey, Indonesia and Bangladesh, religious leadership may take a variety of non-formal shapes.

The Caliph (Arabic: خليفة‎ ḫalīfah/khalīfah) is the head of state in a Caliphate, and the title for the ruler of the Islamic Ummah, an Islamic community ruled by the Shari'ah. It is a transcribed version of the Arabic word  خليفة Khalīfah (help·info)   which means "successor" or "representative". Following Muhammad's death in 632, the early leaders of the Muslim nation were called "Khalifat Rasul Allah", the political successors to the messenger of God (referring to Muhammad). Some academics prefer to transliterate the term as Khalīfah. The title 'Khalifatu Rasulil-lah'. was first used for Abu Bakr, who was elected head of the Muslim community after the death of the Prophet.

Khalid Yasin (also known as Abu Muhammad and Abu Muhammad Khalid Yasin) (born in 1946) is an American convert from Christianity to Islam who lectures in the United Kingdom and elsewhere.Yasin lives in Manchester, England and has operated a "da'wah" organization which has had various names. It was dissolved in 2010.Yasin frequently travels overseas to spread his faith. He has called himself a "media-bedouin," remarking that the bedouins are willing to settle wherever there is "water and shelter". Yassin is outspoken about a variety of issues in his speeches and media appearences.

Yasin was born in Harlem, New York and raised in Brooklyn as a Christian along with nine siblings. Although not an orphan, he grew up in foster homes from the age of three, along with some of his siblings, until he was fifteen. He describes each foster home as having a different Christian denomination, so he covered a wide spectrum of Christianity. He was put up for adoption due to his family's financial state.

Yasin has described his youth in "the ghetto", where it was "Me and my two brothers Sam and Julius, against the world. We had nothing but converting and accepting Islam now we have everything". When first reading about Islam, he often used Encyclopedia Britannica as a reliable source on Islam and its concepts. Yasin felt the grief of African-American people, and he was especially influenced by the turbulent 1960's and figures like Malcolm X.