Yesterday evening, President Trump addressed the 115th Congress on the State of the Union. Some, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and others, have described the address as a departure from President Trump’s polarizing, tumultuous, and chaotic first year in office. Notwithstanding, as Greg Sargent writing for The Washington Post noted, “The real core of the speech was his effort to rhetorically recast the key elements of that approach as unifying and conciliatory, without moving past them at all.” Thus, while President Trump’s State of the Union address did not feature the sort of flagrant Islamophobic remarks he has made in the past, his rhetoric, past and present, has emboldened many who share his distorted worldview.
CAIR-Philadelphia’s first multi-day Muslim Youth Leadership Program (MYLP) was a great success. Hosted by the Muslim Youth Center of Philadelphia (MYCP) between December 27-29, more than 25 young Muslims aged 9-18 participated in this intensive MYLP experience.
CAIR-Philadelphia is offering—all free of charge—numerous courses, seminars, and workshops to educational, religious, and social institutions in and around the Philadelphia region. Many of these exciting and timely educational offerings are suitable for both Muslim and general audiences, and to a range of age groups, and are organized into four tracks:
1) Understanding Islam
2) American Muslims
3) Youth and Parents
4) Civil Rights
Calling all Muslim teens, ages 13-18! Join us for the very first CAIR-PA Muslim Youth Leadership Program at MYCP! Space is limited, so reserve your spot now! Program is free of charge.
White supremacists and neo-Nazis have lauded President Trump as a champion of their causes, and have regularly celebrated his vile stances. Indeed, President Trump has made his worldview clear both as a private citizen, and as the occupant of the nation’s highest office. He did so again earlier this week with a series of inflammatory tweets meant to disparage Islam.
It should come as no surprise to this audience that today, across the country, the immigrant Muslim community is a community living in fear. But first, some background. Over 200,000 Muslims live in the city of Philadelphia, and contrary to the distorted discourse in the public arena, over 85% of these are not immigrants, but American-born Muslims, African Americans, some of whom are second, and third, and fourth generation Muslims. These statistics should contradict the prejudicial perception of Islam as a foreign faith attempting to foster the “Shariaization” of America upon an unwitting public. And while African American Muslims certainly face anti-Muslim prejudice, that bigotry pales in comparison to the original sin of white supremacy embedded into all facets of American life.
CAIR-Philadelphia president Osama Al-Qasem, an advisory board member, and staff members Timothy Welbeck and Ahmet Selim Tekelioglu traveled to Harrisburg to meet with community leaders and mosque representatives from the Harrisburg and Mechanicsburg area communities. The meeting was kindly hosted by Islamic Society of Greater Harrisburg (ISGH) and brought together more than 15 community leaders.
It is easy to get depressed these days, and become weary at the thought of four more years under this Administration, as we struggle to defend all the social justice progress of the past century.
Yet I remain an optimist. I am filled with hope at the presence of our courageous Mayor and other elected officials here among us; I am filled with hope at the sight of thousands of our fellow Americans streaming into airports across the country to defy the bigoted Executive Order of the President; and I am filled hope because of the warm welcome that I, a Jew, have received from all quarters of the Philadelphia Muslim community since coming to work for CAIR three years ago.
[Download PDF Format] A Letter from Osama Al-Qasem President, CAIR-Philadelphia Dear Friends and Supporters: As-salamu alaykum! As 2015 draws to a close, I would like to review some recent events with you, especially as this has been a difficult year…
