If the first thing you ask a Muslim woman is if she's American, you might be a bigot

my oped in response to the Heritage Foundation event, published in The Guardian on June 18th, 2014 

It took one American Muslim law student, Saba Ahmed, making one mild criticism during a conservative panel discussion of Benghazi, to get people foaming at the mouth at an event co-hosted by a conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation.

What could she have said to deserve an upbraiding from the stage? "We portray Islam and all Muslims as bad, but there’s 1.8bn followers of Islam. We have 8 million-plus Muslim Americans in this country and I don’t see them represented here." 

Watching the video of the panelists respond to Ahmed on Monday afternoon, you can almost hear the wheels turning in their heads: How dare this young American Muslim law student – in a hijab, no less – talk back to us? How out-of-line for her to assert that the majority of Muslims in the world are peaceful people and that society should not use a broad brush to demonize an entire faith based on the acts of a very tiny minority! Read more

Justice NOT Just-Us

     Sisters and brothers - what I am about to share with you is ‪#‎realtalk‬. I hope you are enlightened and accept my words as sound analysis, encouragement and advice to advance our causes and our community. This comes from a place of love. Please open your heart and mind, absorb, reflect.

     We are watching in horror as fellow human beings are being massacred by the scores in Gaza. We are outraged. We feel helpless. We continue to chastise our government for supporting such atrocities. We ask ourselves where is humanity, why are our leaders looking the other way. What are we doing wrong and how can we alleviate the suffering of our people.

     While we work to bring morality back to society and in to the political arena - let us keep in mind it is a slow and enduring process. We live in a country in which slavery was legal. Some people were seen as sub-human. The dehumanization of Blacks allowed slavery to continue for more than two centuries. It took blood, dead bodies, lynching, protesting, risk taking to recognize (first) a Black man as human and a citizen. This did not come over night. We went through segregation, Jim Crow South, The New Jim Crow/mass incarceration and remnants of it still remain.

     Brothers and sisters - every few years Gaza/Palestine comes under attack. Hundreds lay scattered in the streets, thousands injured, entire neighborhoods leveled to the ground. We rise up - we become outraged, conflict continues for a few weeks. It ends. Then silence.

     Our opposition has two weapons: persistency and consistency. What are we doing every day to build the political power and political will for our causes? Are you a reactionary activist? are you born in time of crisis but when the pictures and videos of dead babies are no longer the first few posts on your feed - you go back to your every day life?

     Our commitment to justice for all is a contract we make every day. If you want to fight injustice you must step up and keep your head in the game. We will not win against injustice if we only rise when the injustice is against us. As my friend Fahd Ahmed articulately says all the time: Its about JUSTICE not JUST-US.

     We need to see the liberation of the Palestinian people connected to the liberation of all oppressed people. We must build solidarity across communities, issues and causes. We must be sincere in our work to build these relations.

For those in Detroit that are outraged over Gaza: Did you attend rallies to stand in solidarity with your fellow Americans who have been without running water? Did you join rallies for Renisha McBride who was murdered in cold blood after she knocked on a White man's door for help?

For those in Chicago: Have you ever joined a rally as City Hall shuts down schools in poor communities by the dozens? Have you stood side by side with communities of color denouncing gun violence that take the lives of young people every day?

For those in Arizona: Have you stood against Sheriff Arpaio, a man who terrorizes immigrant communities, where the prisons he runs have hundreds of human rights violations, a man who supports profiling of those who are suspect of being undocumented (which means most of you on my FB list)?

For those in New York City: Have you stood with the countless families who have lost their loved ones at the hands of the NYPD like Eric Garner, Ramarley Graham and Sean Bell? Stood side by side with families whose loved ones have been deported by the Obama Administration for "not having papers"? Stood with workers denied basic rights?

     Have you stood against the massacres in Syria? Against the oppression and persecution of Ahmaddiya Muslims? Shias? Persecution of Christians in Iraq? Killing of Muslims in Central African Republic? Burma? Stood to reform our nation's draconian immigration laws that tear families apart? discriminatory police practices? Drones? Guantanamo. The list goes on. You don't have to do it all. These are food for thought.

     Solidarity, building alliances are key to fighting injustice in all its forms and creating powerful coalitions that are multi-racial, multi-ethnic, interfaith and cross sector. This is POWER. This is where the shift begins.

     Mass mobilization. We need to be in the STREETS. We need to get out of the comfort of our homes, offices, neighborhoods and take it to the streets. We need to use mass mobilization to educate our fellow citizens about what is happening, about the injustice we are fighting against, and be clear about what we want and what people can do to join the fight. Mass mobilization sends a message to our government that we are angry and we won't take it anymore.

     Boycott Divestment Sanctions. It worked to end Apartheid in South Africa - why would it not work to pressure Israel to recognize the Palestinians, end military occupation and apartheid in Palestine?

     Electoral participation. How many of you have written an email to your Congressperson just to have your blood pressure rise? You angrily post about their response, you begin threatening them about reelection, then elections come around - what happens? Participating in elections are ONE WAY and a part of the larger puzzle. IT IS AN IMPORTANT PART of building power. If participation of communities of color wasn't something that threatened the political power dynamics - we would not be fighting voter suppression laws and practices across the country. The perfect candidate will not come during one election or in 4 years, it will take decades of organizing our community, our votes and our money. We have to be in it for the long haul.

     What I am saying Sisters and Brothers - stay engaged. Attend mass mobilizations, teach-ins, meet with your elected officials throughout the year not just when they are doing something wrong or a crisis is happening in the world, register to vote and VOTE on election day. Let's be reminded that our sisters and brothers in the Arab and Muslim world are being massacred for the chance at freedom and democracy - something that I cherish here in the United States as an American. By no means are we risking the same here. Shame on us when we let those few vote against our interests.

     For too often we stayed in our own bubbles. We lacked the strategy and the know-how to build new and fresh leadership and maintain momentum. Times are changing. Our time is now. Shift is happening. Don't walk away. Keep talking, keep walking, keep educating, keep building. The movement needs all of us.

     I want to take the time out to commend those who have invested so much in building the movement, committed themselves to justice and equality, sacrificed time with their families to make our world a better more just place. Your work does not go unnoticed. Gratitude and love to you all.

     It is now time to use our privileges and freedoms to be consistent, persistent, strategic social justice change makers. We have it in us. We need to RISE UP, STAY UP and not come down till everyone is able to RISE UP.

#Gaza #Palestine #changetheNYPD #timeisnow 

Huffington Post Live "Women Making News" w/ fellow guest @FeministaJones

Check out this awesome episode of Huffington Post Live on "Women Making News" where we discuss anti-women bills across the country w/ a focus on Ohio, a new controversial documentary about violence against women in Muslim majority societies funded by an islamophobic group - The Clarion Fund,  a NY Times piece that proposes a "salary negotiating guide for women" that tells us how we need to be feminine about it (WTF), and the departure of Chelsea Handler from late-night television.

http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/segment/women-make-news/5332fdbafe3444478c00009f

Being Arab or Muslim is Not Probable Cause for NYPD

By: Linda Sarsour (reposted from MSNBC Melissa Harris-Perry Blog)

I learned a few days ago that the New York Police Department’s Intelligence Division labeled my non-profit organization a “Terrorism Enterprise.”

That organization is the Arab American Association of New York, a social service and advocacy group serving predominantly Arab immigrants looking to make a better life for themselves and their families. Among the services we provide: 

• English as a Second Language schooling for immigrant women 
• After-school enrichment programs for elementary and middle school age students 
• Legal and immigration services 
• Domestic violence prevention and intervention 
• Young adult empowerment 
• Leadership development 
• Advocacy campaigns on issues that affect our community 

So why would the NYPD consider us a terrorist threat? Why would the NYPD feel the need to spy on us? Read More...

Would Martin Luther King, Jr., Have Supported Immigration Reform?

In the backdrop of the 50^th Anniversary of the March on Washington, the immigrant rights movement is the civil rights fight of the century and our generation.  Martin Luther King, Jr. didn’t address immigration directly but his words in the “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, hinted at the importance of immigrants and all who live within the United States when he wrote,

“Moveover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about that happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial “outside agitator” idea. Anyone who lives inside of the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.”

For many Arab Americans, the United States was a place of refuge from oppression, conflicts and war, political persecution and poverty that many endured in the Arab World. The United States was the opportunity to make a better life for themselves and their families. Their aspirations were to work hard and attain the American dream. To realize this dream for our communities, Arab Americans across the country join the call for immigration reform legislation that keeps families together, provides a pathway to citizenship and respects the civil and human rights of all people. Members of our community are directly impacted by our very broken immigration system. Delays in family reunification applications have left husbands without their wives and most often children without their parents for years at a time, backlog due to background checks, programs such as NSEERS (National Security Entry and Exit Registration System) that have targeted members of our community based on ethnicity and national origin, lack of anti-profiling language that includes religion and national origin as protected categories are just some of the fundamental issues we have with the current immigration system.

The time is now. We can’t wait any longer. Our families continue to be torn apart by unjust deportations, local small businesses and religious institutions raided by immigration enforcement agencies, police departments who are too busy profiling those perceived undocumented instead of catching real criminals and states running rouge passing anti-immigrant legislation across the country.  This must end.

If Martin Luther King, Jr. were alive today he would be at the forefront of the fight to pass just and humane immigration reform. King would not have stood by idly watching record number of deportations and the unjust treatment of undocumented workers. He would have joined our marches, engaged in civil disobedience, and educated the masses. That is why in his honor and the anniversary of the March on Washington we should realize a dream for many undocumented Americans by passing an immigration reform bill that treats them fairly and provides an earned pathway for citizenship.

Life is Like a Nascar Race

By: Linda Sarsour and excerpts from an essay by her son, Tamir Judeh

"My life is like a Nascar race. My life's engine shuts down. But I have to go in the pit to fix it. A tire goes flat, we go in to the pit to fix it. After all that I always go the right way" wrote my son in an essay for his eighth grade English Class. Today we attended his first high school interview for his school of choice. He was asked to bring a copy of his most recent report card, a graded English paper and to complete an essay on why he wants to attend this school and what strengths he would bring to the school community. The graded paper that was given to him by his teacher to use for the interview was one I had never seen before, it was part of a class assignment. I read it on the way to the interview and cried the whole way there. It pulled at every part of me because after all this time working to combat Islamophobia and raise awareness on the impact of hate and discrimination on the Arab and Muslim American community, never once did I think that it would or was directly and personally affecting my own children.

My son is like any other typical teenager. He loves sports and his future aspirations are to become a renowned sports broadcaster. His favorite teams are the New York Yankees, Knicks and Giants. He loves playing sports games on his Xbox 360 with his cousin and friends. His life flashed before my eyes remembering the day when he was born when I was just a teen and how blessed I felt to become a mom to such an incredible little human being. Reading my son's essay took me inside of his heart and mind and made me realize that the psyche of our youth is far more wounded than one can ever imagine. Our Arab and Muslim American youth don't have to be beat up or bullied consistently to feel alienated, marginalized and misunderstood. My son was too ashamed to share with me his thoughts so he wrote them down in hopes that this would be his "pit stop".

Excerpts from my son's essay:

"Sometimes my culture is portrayed as the evil culture. But we are probably the most down to earth people anybody would know. One way people have put me down is only knowing my people as "The Terrorist". A Second way is that they won't let us speak on our behalf. My last reason is because my experiences show people are ignorant. 

My first reason is many people portray Muslims as terrorists. None of us are like that. One time in the fourth grade I got an extremely challenging question right. Nobody else got it. So when the teacher said I was right a kid shouted "He is going to use an equation to build a bomb." At that age, I didn't know how to react so I just smiled. But now I knew I should have been angry.

My second reason is people won't let let my people share their ideas of what people think. In sixth grade we were talking about the terrorist attacks on nine eleven. Everybody got a chance to speak out but when it was my turn it was on to the next subject. 

My last reason is that a lot of people are ignorant and biased. One time I was in an argument about Muslims. There were people around us that I knew changed their minds but that one person I was arguing with stayed with the same state of mind. 

Sometimes my culture is portrayed as the evil culture. But we are not that at all. I hope you read this essay and have felt what I felt."

His teacher commented on the paper and wrote "I am sorry this happened to you. Tamir, you have tackled very significant issues in your writing - I can feel your passion and writing from the heart is the best way to go." My question to ourselves is what is it about our society that this young boy is made to feel this way. My son could be any one's child and he feels different and its evident by his usage of words like "my people". Almost 12 years since 9/11, the Arab and Muslim Americans are living in one of the most hostile civic environment that they have ever experienced. Our youth are confused about their identities and trying to find common ground between being Muslim and American and trying to come to terms with whether or not they are mutually exclusive. 

It is our responsibility as a society to embrace, encourage and celebrate our youth. They are the future of our country and world. We as adults need to put our differences aside as hard as it may be sometime to ensure that we are creating an environment where our children and grandchildren will thrive together. We need to have the courage to stand up to those in our communities and outside of our communities who incite hate. Just two weeks ago a Hindu man was pushed in to the train tracks by a woman who said she hates "Hindus" and "Muslims". A few weeks earlier, a Muslim elder in Queens was almost beaten to death after he responded to a question about whether he was Muslim. This my friends is not the New York I want my kids to grow up in.

Most recently extremely offensive advertisements went up in NYC train stations that had pictures of the burning twin towers with a quote from the Quran that read "Soon shall we cast terror in to the hearts of the unbelievers." Other than the fact that the quote is mistranslated and taken out of context, the intention behind it is to equate Islam, Muslims and our holy book with terrorism. The ad wouldn't bother me as much if I didn't know how traumatic they are for those who lost loved ones on 9.11 or experienced that devastating day firsthand. How they impact the Muslim community is explained best by Ayisha Irfan, Arab American Association of New York's Youth Organizing Fellow in a recent facebook status,

"I just glanced over Pammy's new ads. Even though it's been over 11 years since 9/11, I am now a woman in my mid 20's training youth leaders to never be afraid and I embrace their identity as American Muslim activists, I can't help but have my heart race as I look at a picture of the Twin Towers burning. I can't ignore the very obvious fact that when 9/11 is even MENTIONED I get a tight feeling in my chest. I can't explain my need to SAY something yet my want to entertain a conversation about 9/11. This is the narrative of my generation. We have an inherent sense of guilt for something we had nothing to do with. Every year as the 9/11 anniversary rolls around it hits us again and again that we might never be seen as American enough."

My son and Ayisha are but many experiences of youth across the country. Read their words, absorb them, feel them  and let's build the moral courage together to stand up against hate when it's against your child or mine. Let's live up to our name as New York City - the capital of the world, the best place to live on earth (maybe I made up the last part - but why not? We need to be the best). Let's do what's right for our children. And to use my son's profound analogy about life being a Nascar race - as a city, a country let's say enough to Islamophobia, Xenophobia, and Homophobia and get ourselves in to the pit stop. Educate ourselves, open our hearts and souls and extend our hands to our neighbors. Once we do that, we can get back in to the Nascar race. 

I would like to commend the many selfless people out there who dedicate their time to combatting hate and racism. I salute you. I love you.

My Wishes for the New Year w/ Odyssey Networks 

Check out the video here: My New Year Wishes