Director's Desk by Ahmet Selim Tekelioglu, PhD.

A Message from Your New Executive Director

Serving a civil rights and advocacy organization in Philadelphia, a historic site for American-Muslim life, brings a great deal of responsibility. In my new position as the Executive Director of CAIR-Philadelphia, I will work hard to further deliver on this responsibility and develop CAIR-Philadelphia’s capacity to serve our communities.

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CAIR-Philadelphia Staff at 2022 Islamic Heritage Festival in Philadelphia

A Busy Weekend with our Communities!

On Friday evening, CAIR-Philadelphia Civil Rights Attorney Timothy Welbeck and Deputy ED & Education and Outreach Director Ahmet Tekelioglu joined the Zubaida Foundation community in Yardley, PA for a Know Your Rights Workshop…

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Director’s Desk: On this 9/11…

This past Saturday, the 20th Anniversary of the attacks on the US on September 11th, 2001, Jacob Bender spoke at the official Philadelphia memorial service for the First Responders — 343 NYC firefighters and paramedics, 23 NYC police officers, and 37 Port Authority police officers. 

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Director’s Desk: Justice for Sanaa!

Under a blistering sun, I joined nearly 100 activists and religious leaders from the Muslim, Jewish, and Christian communities who had gathered yesterday on the steps of the Montgomery County Court House to voice support for Sanaa Beaufort, an African American Muslim student at North Penn High School in Montgomery County.

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Director’s Desk: Thoughts about Juneteenth

Slavery made this nation rich. At its height, slavery was a $3 billion-plus industry and a major engine of the U.S. economy. Industries throughout the states both supported, and were supported by, slavery. By 1850, 80% of American exports were the product of slave labor. The estimated value of enslaved people increased 500% between 1790 and 1860, from $200 million to around $3.059 billion.

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Photo by Brandi Redd on Unsplash

An Open Letter to the University of Delaware

At CAIR-Philadelphia, we are committed to our mission of promoting justice and mutual understanding! To that end, we are sharing this letter from Students for Justice in Palestine (SPJ) – UD with our communities. We applaud all students and community advocates for speaking up against inconsistent policies and for selective engagement with students who advocate for Palestine.

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Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

On the afternoon of the 4th day of April

I was on the way home from school when I heard on the radio about the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis. Walking into our family home, I found my father sitting in front of the television, watching news of the assassination, his body already racked by the spreading cancer that would kill him exactly one year later. He was crying. It was the only time I ever saw my father cry.

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Views and opinions expressed in this blog belong solely to the author and do not represent the positions of institutions, organizations, or individuals that the author may be associated with in a professional or personal capacity, unless explicitly stated.