Nearly 700 CAIR-Philadelphia supporters and invited guests filled the Springfield Country Club ballroom on March 15 for our chapter’s 8th Annual Banquet. It was a joyous affair for all who attended. The evening program began with a welcome by our…
On March 16th, the day after the Annual Banquet, Staff Attorney Ryan Tack-Hooper and I traveled to Washington DC to participate in CAIR’s Annual National Council Meeting. Over 80 staff and board members from CAIR’s 30 chapters attended. It was a wonderful opportunity to meet in person with people from around the country I have been emailing with for the past six months. During the meeting we shared ideas and strategies with each other on issues such as fundraising, grant applications, legal tactics, lobbying government officials, chapter growth, and building interfaith coalitions. Ryan and I were warmly received and made to feel part of the CAIR extended family.
Last week on Monday and Tuesday, following the CAIR National Council Meeting, CAIR staff and activists headed to Capitol Hill to meet with our elected representatives about two pieces of legislation of vital concern to the Muslim American community. Executive…
The essence of xenophobia is to extend to an entire group the actions of the few. Prof. Ira Sharkansky of Hebrew University, in his article “Muslims, Jews, See the World Differently” (San Diego Jewish World, Feb. 24) follows this simplistic and bigoted line of discourse to conclude that valuing “human life” and opposing “bloodshed as a means of settling disputes” are just not “Muslim ways or perspectives.”
Salam Alaikum, It should come as no surprise to any of you when I write that Muslim Americans and the Muslim community are facing a number of great challenges today Discrimination in the workplace by both our government and private…
Last week a federal judge in New Jersey dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights and Muslim Advocates challenging the New York City Police Department’s spying on the Muslim community in New Jersey. Judge William J. Martini dismissed…
The Olympics and Sochi. As we all gather around the TV each evening to be thrilled by ice dancing and another exciting match of curling, we should remember the repressive conditions that Sochi’s 20,000 Muslims live under. Muslim leaders have been pushing for permission to build a new mosque since 1996. “I'm so tired of writing letters—whole files—it just drags on and on,” a Muslim organizer told the Norwegian news organization Forum 18 in 2006.
As of January 31, 2014, attorney Amara Chaudhry-Kravitz, who has served as CAIR-Philadelphia’s Legal Director since September 2011, will be moving into a new “Of Counsel” role in which she will continue to serve CAIR-Philadelphia in a limited capacity while…
On Tuesday, February 25, Amara Chaudhry-Kravitz will be giving a presentation at Villanova University titled “Is Brown the New Black: Are American Muslims Being Racially Profiled?” This event is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. All are welcome, and specific…
