Many of our readers know that I was born into a Jewish immigrant home, my parents and grandparents having migrated to this country to escape the anti-Semitic persecution and poverty of Czarist Russia. This experience, as well as the commitment to justice that lies at the heart of Jewish tradition, contributed to my family’s engagement with social justice activism across four generations.
We believe the shooting death of Jeffery Dennis was an inexcusable homicide. It is our belief that the investigation presently conducted by the Attorney General’s office will arrive at a similar conclusion. Notwithstanding, some have attempted to justify the killing of Mr. Dennis by signaling he was the potential target of a police investigation at the time of his death.
If all goes according to plan — and that’s a big “if” given the unprecedented absurdism of the current presidential administration and its chief executive — this Thursday, a lonely woman will walk into Room 226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building in our nation’s capital to be questioned by, among others, a clique of white men determined to prove her a liar and destroy her reputation before the eyes of the world. I do not believe it is an exaggeration to say that the fate of American democracy may hinge upon how Dr. Christine Blasey Ford responds to her tormentors.
The United States of America is the oldest constitutional republic in the world, launching its “improbable experiment in democracy” nearly two and a half centuries ago; however, the nation has only granted its most sacred right — the right to vote — to all of its eligible citizenry for several decades. The Nineteenth mendment, which granted women the right to vote, is less than a 100 years old. African Americans did not receive the unencumbered right to vote until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
On Friday August 24, CAIR-Philadelphia -- together with two other American Muslim organizations: Emgage Pennsylvania and MPower Change -- organized a voter registration drive as part of National Muslim Registration Day (#NMVRD #mymuslimvote). The drive took place at Islamic Society of Chester County in West Chester, and CAIR-Philadelphia Executive Director Jacob Bender and Outreach and Education Director Ahmet Tekelioglu spent the afternoon registering many new Pennsylvania voters arriving for Jumma (Friday afternoon prayers).
As part of National Muslim Voter Registration Day, a national grassroots campaign to reach and register U.S. Muslim voters, three organizations (the Philadelphia Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Emgage Pennsylvania, and MPower Change) will tomorrow conduct a voter registration drive at the Islamic Society of Chester County in West Chester, PA.
The Philadelphia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today condemned the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist organization, and its leafleting of moviegoers attending screenings of “BlacKkKlansman,” director Spike Lee’s new feature film. The offending leaflets, rife with crude anti-Semitic anti-Black, sexist, and anti-immigrant stereotypes, were left on cars in the parking lots of movie theaters in York, PA, and in several locations in Maryland.
CAIR is urging American Muslims to take advantage of the upcoming August recess -- during which members of Congress return home to spend time with their constituents -- by requesting meetings to advocate on state and national issues of importance, including: dismantling President Trump's "Muslim Ban" executive order; opposing limits on campus free speech and boycotts; protecting immigrant communities by supporting Dreamers, TPS holders and opposing new restrictions; and, recognizing the accomplishments of U.S. Muslims.
Officials at CAIR-Philadelphia said these acts represent a pattern of anti-Muslim bullying in schools that has been on the rise since 2014.
Since August, the organization has received more than a dozen complaints of anti-Muslim bullying targeted at 15 to 20 students in 13 schools and colleges in the region, said Timothy Welbeck, the civil rights attorney for CAIR-Philadelphia. By comparison, there was one complaint of bullying for 2014, two for 2015, and nine for 2016.
