Even in the early years
when we hadn’t nailed down our strategy, the winning was in the trying. It wasn’t about getting everything right immediately, it was about giving ourselves a place to move forward from—because we knew, even then, that legacy is driven out of action.
Very early on, we recruited well-respected lawyers, like retired Navy Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, to fight cases where Muslims were being unfairly targeted. Charlie defended Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden’s driver, being accused of conspiring as a terrorist, despite having taken the job simply to support his family.
With more than 500
terrorism-related prosecutions targeting Muslims, with no end in sight, it was becoming clear that the scope of the government’s overreach would require a more comprehensive response.
Charles Swift would later go on to become one of the founders of the Constitutional Law Center for Muslims in America (CLCMA), MLFA’s grant-funded boutique law firm.
