“This is a very important event today to us,” she said.

Mumin, who came to America in 1996, said she is a student at Minnesota State University. One of her children attends classes there, too, and she’d like to own a house in that area. She also wants to live near others from Somalia to help preserve their culture.

Mumin and a friend who told them about the speaker, Habiba Elmi, agree that Ijaraloans.com has a solid method for buying homes.

One man in the audience voiced concern that the Ijara method supports banks, which obviously charge interest in other transactions. But Sharieff responded that Muslim scholars agree that it’s only important that an individual’s own transactions be interest-free, and it doesn’t matter what someone else does with your money.

Dean Wellner, a senior mortgage loan officer for Mankato-based Minnesota Valley Federal Credit Union, said his company has done loans using this trust mechanism, but for reasons unrelated to the Islamic faith.

He said he hasn’t heard about the demand in the Muslim community for loan products such as the Ijara method.

“We certainly want to help those people buy homes,” he said.

Warren Anderson, a Minneapolis Realtor and Midwest director for Ijaraloans.com, said the Ijara process makes no difference to a lender.

But “from a customer’s perspective, it’s very different.”

Alasow agreed, saying “peace of mind” about the afterlife is important.

“This is our faith.”