On Wednesday October 9, 2019, Timothy Welbeck, CAIR-Philadelphia Staff Attorney, moderated a discussion at Temple University with Dr. Yusuf Salaam and Mr. Raymond Santana, Jr. of the “Exonerated 5” (formerly known as the “Central Park 5”). Joining them on the panel was Mr. Jharrel Jerome, who recently won an Emmy for his portrayal of Mr. Korey Wise in Ava DuVernay’s Netflix Series When They See Us.
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Please join us at the Pennsylvania State Capitol building for our 4th Annual Muslim Capitol Day (MCD IV) in Harrisburg, PA on Wednesday, October 30th, 8:30 am – 2:30 pm. Event is free, but registration is required.
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CAIR-Philadelphia wishes L’Shanah Tovah to the Jewish community in Philadelphia and beyond. May the new year 5780 bring justice and good to our world and many more fruits to our work together.
Continue readingMy mother, Sabell Bender, died two days ago at the age of 92 after many years of painfully declining health. Even in her final years, when her assembly of medical conditions had left her immobile and robbed her of her booming and unforgettable voice, she clung to life with all the dedication and exuberance and yes, stubbornness, with which she had lived her nine decades on the Earth. Sabell was a born director and a force of nature, who, while acknowledging that she was a product of her times, also believed with all her heart that her abundance of talent and creativity made it possible for her to influence the times in which she lived.
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Looking back at the human carnage and geopolitical disaster wrought by the American invasion of Iraq, you might conclude that there were no heroes to be found in this quagmire. You would be wrong, however.
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Earlier this week, a federal judge ruled that the FBI’s watchlist of “known and suspected terrorists” violates the constitutional rights of US citizens placed in the database. Judge Anthony Trenga, a United States District Judge of the Eastern District of Virginia, ruled the federal government has failed to honor constitutional rights and liberties for individuals placed on a “watchlist” without notice and opportunity for the individuals to challenge that status in his decision for the case Elhady v. Kable.
Continue readingBack2School: CAIR-Philadelphia Offers Resources for Students and Parents Back-to-School can be a stressful time for Muslim parents and students. CAIR-Philadelphia
Continue readingUntil recently, many immigrant and first-generation Muslims lived in mostly white suburban communities without facing discrimination or hostility, said Jacob Bender, executive director of the Council of American-Islamic Relations in Philadelphia, a civil rights organization that advocates for Muslim Americans…
Continue readingApproaching the ordering counter, Mr. Aziz ordered and paid for three iced-drinks and when asked, gave his name as “Aziz.” When the drinks were ready, a barista at the pick-up counter called out the kind of drinks, rather than the name of the customer, which is the customary procedure, as any regular Starbucks customer can attest to. CAIR-Philadelphia finds Starbucks’ behavior in this incident exceedingly deficient. After the incident in 2018 when two African American men were arrested in another Philadelphia Starbucks, one would have expected a greater commitment to religious and racial diversity from Starbucks staff.
Continue readingThe Philadelphia Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today condemned President Trump’s support for the Israeli government’s denial of entry to two U.S. Congresswomen (both of whom are Muslim), preventing one from seeing her grandmother and both from acting as firsthand congressional observers of Israel’s anti-Palestinian policies and visiting one of the holiest sites in Islam.
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