Protest Against Charleston Massacre

Muslims for Social Justice is proud to be part of the movement to end white supremacy. It was great hearing powerful young Black leaders Desmera Gatewood, Ajamuito Dillahunt, Lamont Lilly and many more during protest against racist terrorist attack in Charleston that was organized in Durham, NC, on June 20, 2015. Thank you Qasima Wideman for speaking on behalf of Muslims for Social Justice. Sister Shafeah TrayvanMartin M'Balia's speech on Black worker rights and political prisoners was powerful. We are proud to have her as co-founder for Muslims for Social Justice. It was great meeting many allies during the protest - Bryan Perlmutter, Nadeen Bir-Zaslow, Mari Caldwell, Mousa Shehadeh, Anastasia Kārkliņa. Thank you Durham Solidarity Center, Dante Strobino, Jillian Nicole, Lamont, Ben Carroll, Felicia Arriaga and friends for organizing this important protest.

Here are pictures from the event:

Forum on racism and Islamophobia

Muslims for Social Justice along with six partner organizations of MERI (Movement to End Racism and Islamophobia; MERI.org) co-organized a forum titled Challenging Racism and Islamophibia at Pullen Memorial Baptist Church on Monday, June 15, 2015. 

MERI is a North Carolina based network that is made of Muslims for Social Justice, Jewish Voice for Peace - NC, Black Workers for Justice, Abrahamic Initiative on the Middle East, NC Justice Center, Methodist Federation for Social Action - NC Chapter and Peace Committee of Chapel Hill Friends Meeting. 

The forum was co-sponsored by many local organizations including NC Council of Churches, Congregations for Social Justice, Chapel Hill Friends Meeting, Muslim American Public Affairs Council (MAPAC), Coalition for Peace with Justice (CPWJ), Fr. Charlie Mulholland Catholic Worker House, Quaker House of Fayetteville NC, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom - NC (WILPF - NC), Durham Solidarity Center, North Carolina Stop Torture Now, Balance and Accuracy in Journalism (BAJ), Southerners on New Ground (SONG), Peace and Social Concerns Committee of Raleigh Friends Meeting and Triangle Interfaith Alliance.

 

During the panel discussion, panelists covered areas of Islamophobia & racism (Manzoor Cheema), war on Black workers, women, and political prisoners (Sister Shafeah M'Balia), Israel's role in Islamophobia (Beth Bruch) and connections between Palestine and African American liberation (Ajamuito Dillahunt). This was followed by a break out session where attendees were asked about their experience and strategies to counter racism and Islamophobia. Naveed Moeed gave closing remarks. Fruit of Labor Singing Ensemble offered cultural performances at the beginning and end of the forum.

 

MERI plans to offer similar forums and workshops on racism and Islamophobia in the future. To learn more, contact info@MERINC.org.

 

Here are pictures from the forum:

 

 

 

 

Muslims for Social Justice Statement on AME Massacre

Muslims for Social Justice is deeply shocked and saddened at the murder of nine worshippers at the historic Black church - Emanuel African Methodist “Mother Emmanuel” Church in Charleston on June 17, 2015. We pray for the victims of this unbelievable tragedy. While authorities have called it a “hate crime”, we emphasize that this was a white-supremacist and terrorist attack. The murderer's picture donning Apartheid South African and racist Rhodesian regime flags indicate his allegiance to the racist ideology. Based on news quote from a survivor, terrorist yelled “You rape our women. You're taking over our country. You have to go,"” before he killed his victims. The terrorist reportedly left a survivor unharmed so she could recount the story of his terror to others. The Charleston massacre is a continuation of more than two hundred years of attacks, lynchings, shootings, bombings and burning of Black sacred spaces - historical tactics deployed by white supremacists to terrorize Black communities. One has to be reminded that the date of this massacre, June 17^th, 2015, coincides with the 193^rd anniversary of slave rebellion plot orchestrated in the same church by black leader Denmark Vesey.

The Charleston massacre comes at the heels of a global racist assault where Haitian descendants in the Dominican Republic are being forcefully deported from the country where they have lived for generations. Haiti was founded after a slave rebellion that had deep resonance on the U.S. South. Mr. Vesey had plans for a slave rebellion to free slaves in the US South and migrate to Haiti in 1822. That slave rebellion was crushed by the slaveholders and Haiti was punished by imperialist forces for centuries. The ugliness of white supremacy in the U.S.A. and the plight of the Haitians in the Dominican Republic reinforce the need for a global movement against racism.

In the holy month of Ramadan, Muslims for Social Justice believes Muslims should increase resolve to ending white supremacy and all forms of oppression. We support a call by the Muslim chaplain and activist Kameelah Mu'Min Rashad that Friday, June 19, 2015, should be a day when imam and khatibs throughout the USA should deliver khutbahs (Friday prayer sermons) that include prayer for Mother Emmanuel AME Church victims and moblize all Muslims to become an active part of the #BlackLivesMatter and anti-racism movement. We also urge Imams and khateebs to elaborate on the history of slavery and racism in the USA, especially the 150^th anniversary of ending of slavery (Juneteenth) that will be commemorated on June 19, 2015. This history is also relevant in the USA since slaves were the first to celebrate Ramadan in this nation. We believe there is a need to go beyond education and practical steps are needed to end all vestiges of racism within the non-Black Muslim community and in the broader non-Muslim community.

Muslims for Social Justice has launched a series of forums to challenge the twin evils of Islamophobia and racism in the USA. We plan to offer workshops on racism and Islamophobia in the future. We call on Muslim community to join us in challenging white supremacy in all its forms, whether murders of black and brown people by police, school-to-prison-pipeline, prison-industrial-complex, environmental racism, gentrification or the war on poor. It is essential to merge our struggles, ranging from Palestine freedom, justice for Rohingya Muslims, Islamophobia in the USA to #BlackLivesMatter movement and ending all forms of oppression in the USA. 

“O ye who believe, stand out firmly for justice". Sura An-Nissa, verse 135

Muslims for Social Justice Statement on #Baltimore

What we're witnessing in #Baltimore is called in Arabic "intifada." A mass popular uprising: throwing stones, resistance against an occupying force, people collectively saying we're fed up and putting their lives on the line because they know their lives and the lives of their loved ones are at stake

Literally intifada means a shaking off. Shaking off all the collected trauma, collected through our ancestors to this moment. Shaking off grief and rage. Shaking off the boot of the oppressor on our backs.

Intifada Hata Al Nasr, intifada until victory, because we have a duty to win

What we're a part of is a global uprising. The struggle for black liberation is a struggle for the liberation of all people in the world. The Palestinian intifada, anti-imperial struggles worldwide, depend on the liberation of Black folks in this country.   

We recognize that there is and always has been a war on Black America and white supremacy is  at the root of the problem in all its forms. We stand here in solidarity to say we are at war with white terror, murders by racist police, the prison-industrial complex, environmental racism, gentrification and attacks on the poor. We stand here to say, stop killing us!

I come here at a moment where Muslims are increasingly the bogeyman for increased state surveillance and expansion of the police state, torture, wars. I take this in stride in also knowing that our liberation and struggle has come with a legacy of black Muslim leaders who have taught us the insidiousness of the police and military state that has always targeted us and our communities. 

Down the road in Chapel Hill, we recently witnessed the murder of Yusor, Razan, Deah at the hands of a white vigilante. Tragic deaths. Tragic deaths we've carried, held, embodied  (Jesus "Chuy" Huerta, Freddie Grey, Rekia Boyd and many more). What I'm not gonna talk about are how the deaths of Yusor, Razan, Deah were especially tragic because of their degrees, or their work, or their status. Their lives weren't more important because they were dentists, because they were light skinned, educated, didn't have a criminal record. What's tragic is imagining that the path of respectability, that the path of somehow working your way up the system will bring some kind of liberation, when the best it will do is make you a lackey for white supremacy. 

My goal isn't to show you I'm a respectable Muslim, that I'm your moderate Muslim, that I'm not a threat. I stand here a threat to the status quo. I stand here in solidarity with Baltimore, Ferguson, Palestine, low-wage workers, the displaced, those in revolutionary love, and all those who literally have no choice but to get free. I'm not here to beg for the killing, the exploitation to stop. I'm here to demand it, to take power for ourselves.

I call upon the Merciful one, the Just, the Subtle to guide us on our struggle toward truth and justice. I call upon the strength of the martyrs, the ancestors, and the friends of God. Protect us from the plots of satan, the devils among us, that cover up and deceive us from our calling to our freedom.

This statement was read by MSJ member Ahmad Jitan at #Baltimore May Day rally in Durham on May 1st, 2015. This rally was organized in response to a national call of action from Baltimore People's Power Assembly. See pictures from that rally below.

Ahmad Jitan is speaking on behalf of Muslims for Social Justice 

                                                                  #Baltimore May Day Rally participants 

                                                   UNC Chapel Hill Students Anisha Padma and Nicole Fauster 

                                                        Youth leader Desmera Gatewood is speaking at the rally

  

                                                          Artist and queer activist Laila Nur spoke at the rally 

 Youth Organizing Institute activist Qasima (Q) Wideman spoke at the rally

Ajamuito Dillahunt represented Black Workers for Justice

Fighting Racism and Islamophobia at UNC Chapel Hill

When David Horotwitz was invited by UNC College Republicans to speak at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill just two months after the murders of three Muslim youth in Chapel Hill, it caused alarm among the Muslim community and their allies at UNC and the greater Triangle area. Mr. Horowtiz has been documented as a prominent Islamophobic speaker in the USA by SouthernPoverty Law Center and The Center for American Progress. During his speech at the UNC, Mr. Horotwitz characterized Arabs as racist, linked student organizations Muslim Students Association (MSA) and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) to terrorism, and implied Palestinians should be attacked with nuclear weapons.

Muslims are living in an environment of extreme demonizing and dehumanizing by American media. Hatred against Muslims is further promoted by a well-funded Islamophobia network as identified in a report “Fear Inc.” by The Center for American Progress. Fanning Islamophobia has serious consequences on the well being of people. Many Muslims and even people who appear as Muslims have been murdered by people who later confessed to killing “Muslim” as a revenge against “terrorism”. During February and March 2015, Washington based Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) documented multiple Islamophobic attacks, ranging from graffiti at an Illinois school “All Islam will be killed in this school” “F*** Arabs”, “Kill all the Arabs”; notes left in public in Revere, MA, saying "We must kill all Muslims in America"; and a high school in Washington State being vandalized with graffiti "Muslims get out" and a Hindu temple in the same town vandalized with Nazi Swastika and "Get out" sign. A mosque was burned to ground in Houston, TX, on February 12, 2015, in an alleged Islamophobic attack. A retired Houston firefighter tweeted “Let it burn...block the fire hydrant”.

In the context of rising Islamophobia in the country and the murders of three Muslim youth in Chapel Hill, Horowitz's speech added insult to injury. His talk at UNC has mobilized Muslims students in Chapel Hill and their allies to launch #NotSafeUNC campaign. UNC students have shared stories such as, UNC faculty's insensitivity toward Muslim students psychological trauma in the wake of Chapel Hill tragedy, or UNC security guard suspecting a Muslim woman for carrying a bomb to the Dean Dome. Farris Barakat, brother of Chapel Hill murder victim Deah Barakat, supported #NotSafeUNC campaign by tweeting that his brother was murdered because "freedom of speech has been used to defame Muslims through lies. Speak up."

A broad movement that challenges all forms of oppression is essential to ending Islamophobia. UNC community organized an action titled “People of Color Takeover ofthe Quad” on April 24, 2015, that mobilized diverse allies – Muslims, Palestinians, African Americans, Asians, LGBT activists, feminists, Triangle area social justice activists and many more. One of the actions included dropping a banner on Saunders Hall to rechristen it “Hurston Hall”, thus changing its name from a KKK leader to the first Black student at UNC as part of the #KickOutTheKKK campaign.

As members of Muslims for Social Justice and a network fighting racism and Islamophobia in North Carolina, we fully support UNC community in their fights against bigotry and oppression. Hatred will win only if demagogues divide us by fear. As a coalition of forces working against all forms of hatred – either based on race, ethnicity, gender, religion or sexual orientation, we will not let the forces of hate prevail.

32nd Annual Marting Luther King Support for Labor Banquet

Muslims for Social Justice was honored to attend the 32nd Annual MLK Support for Labor Banquet on April 11, 2015. Keynote speaker, Alicia Garza, provided a very important perspective about ‪#‎BlackLivesMatter‬ and Black Liberation Movement.Cultural performances by Fruit of Labor were thrilling. Awardees and commemoration of fallen leaders (presente) were very inspiring. Congratulations to MSJ and BWFJ member Sister Shafeah M'Balia for achievement award!

Here are video and pictures from the banquet: