CAIR Pittsburgh hosted their annual Iftar dinner during Ramadan for people of all faiths. The theme was Living Our Faith: Defending Freedom with speeches by, Nadia Khawaja, Shahum Ajmal, and Jamal Craig and a Quran recitation by Khadija. The audience of about 120 people responded well and enjoyed a buffet style dinner after Maghreb prayer.
On April 14, 2018 CAIR Pittsburgh organized a movie screening of “Out of Cordoba.” Executive Director of CAIR Philadelphia and producer/director of the documentary, Jacob Bender, facilitated an interactive group discussion after the movie screening. More than 30 people attended the event, the movie depicted Jewish, Muslim, and Christian co-existence.
On March 17, 2018 CAIR Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh’s Muslim Student Association (MSA), and Emgage co-sponsored a Civic Engagement Workshop at Pitt’s campus. After the workshop, CAIR Pittsburgh board member, Ishfaq Ahmad conducted a Know Your Rights Jeopardy Game. MSA members were divided into two teams, and they actively participated.
On March 16, 2018 CAIR Pittsburgh organized a Know Your Rights Jeopardy game at Attawheed Islamic Center. Board and staff members, Ishfaq Ahmad and Sister Noor Un Nahar, and Zohra Lasania were present at the event. Brother Walid of Attawheed masjid gave out the prizes, in addition to a dinner provided by the masjid as well.
On March 9, 2018 CAIR Pittsburgh organized a Know Your Rights Jeopardy game at MAP masjid. Board member, Ishfaq Ahmad conducted the game. It was well received by the audience, and the participants were given amazon gift cards as prizes.
By, Zohra Lasania
Muslim sisters in hijabs are frequently subjected to bigoted religious and racial slurs. At CAIR Pittsburgh we receive reports of such hate regularly. Some sisters prefer to ignore and walk away, to avoid escalation. But some sisters handle it well with a response that could educate the attacker.
We received one such report from a hijab wearing Muslimah who was at a Dollar General store check-out line. Consider that this sister is a native born American, and does not even look like an “immigrant”. A bigoted lady standing behind her got impatient and uttered a nasty remark about her hijab and asked her to go back to her country.
Our Muslimah, remained calm, and replied: “Maam, it is you who needs to get out of this country, because it seems you do not understand the rights of people in this country.” And she explained – “I am American born and raised here, and my country gives me the right to practice my religion. If you did not accept this, then you do not have a right to stay here. And you need to go back to where your ancestors came from. Your ancestors were immigrants themselves.”
Fortunately for our Muslimah, the manager of the store intervened, and apologized to her for the incident and walked the hate-spewing lady out the door.
We commend this sister for standing up for her rights, and giving a befitting reply in the face of bigotry and hate.
Our reminder to all Muslims, that if you are confronted with such a scenario, always remember your rights in this country under the Constitution of the United States; religious practice is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution, and protected further by the Civil Rights Act.
Also remember that this country was built by immigrants. So being an immigrant is normal.
And always remember to report such incidents to CAIR Pittsburgh at -412-606-3601.
