World Environment Day: Greening our Ramadan

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Last week, President Trump's withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord put the United States at odds with facts, scientific consensus, moral responsibility, and nearly every country in the world implementing the Paris Accord to limit global devastation already being caused by climate change before it's too late.

Today, CAIR-Philadelphia commemorates World Environment Day, with a call to action, reaffirming the Muslim-American commitment to local solutions that protect our earth and help the community, reflecting the Islamic principle of stewardship.

CAIR-Philadelphia Condemns Murders in Manchester and Portland

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On this Memorial Day, The Philadelphia Chapter of CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) condemns in the strongest terms recent acts of horrific violence committed in Manchester and Portland.

Jacob Bender, Executive Director of CAIR-Philadelphia, said, “Whether done in the name of a warped and distorted understanding of Islam, as in England, or as a manifestation of the vile ideology of white supremacy, as in Oregon, there can never be any justification for these evil acts of extremist violence. The Qur’an is explicit in its condemnation of murder: ‘Whoever kills a person [unjustly] … it is as though he has killed all mankind.’” (Qur’an, 5:32)

Walk for Green Jobs and Justice

CAIR-Philadelphia has endorsed the Power Local Green Jobs campaign led by our friends at Earth Quaker Action Team and Power Interfaith.

Walking through five countries throughout the Greater Philadelphia area, this direct action encourages PECO, Pennsylvania’s largest utility company, to make a major shift to locally-generated solar power that benefits low income communities and communities of color. This addresses three critical issues locally and for humanity at large: underemployment, crumbling infrastructure, and climate change.

In Defense of Free Speech

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Last week Robert Spencer spoke at Gettysburg College, at the request of the Young Americans for Freedom, an activist group with conservative views. Robert Spencer espouses extreme anti-Islamic views. According to Southern Poverty Law Center, his work was cited numerous times by the Norwegian terrorist that murdered over seventy people, and he has been deemed an extremist by the U.K. and thus barred from entering the country.

March on Harrisburg: #endPAcorruption

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Last spring was the beginning of a historic movement to end political corruption and restore democracy in the United States. The Democracy Spring movement began at Liberty Bell in Philadelphia and led a ten-night march to Washington, DC. Tens of thousands of people participated in non-violent direct action, garnering the support of over a hundred national lawmakers.

American-Muslim Advocacy on Capitol Hill

Last weekend, CAIR-Philadelphia members marched alongside over 100,000 Americans at the People’s Climate March on Washington with an additional 100,000 taking part in local actions around the United States. We demanded the government shift to clean energy, create green jobs, and take action to prevent human suffering caused by pollution and climate change.

A Weekend of Marching

This past weekend, following a series of Muslim community conversations organized by CAIR-Philadelphia exploring what would be a meaningful Islamic response to the imminent dangers posed by human-caused climate change, staff and supporters of CAIR-Philadelphia travelled to our nation’s capital to participate — along with over 200,000 of our fellow Americans — in the People's Climate March on Washington.