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The President “shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” Article II, Section 3, Clause 1

Last night, President Joe Biden delivered his first State Of The Union address and in doing so, fulfilling a constitutional requirement.

At the Muslim Public Affairs Council, we too believe in the idea that we as American Muslims should evaluate our State of the Union and what recommendations should be put forth to lawmakers and the Administration.

The country has been heartbroken by the developments in Ukraine and focused on a number of issues brought up by the President including protecting our own Democracy. However, an event that took place yesterday didn’t get nearly enough attention.

The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee held a hearing entitled “Discrimination and the Civil Rights of the Muslim, Arab, and South Asian American Communities”.

This is nearly unprecedented.

Instead of analyzing recommendations that were made or commenting on the proceedings, I would rather share that I was encouraged by the fact that it was Subcommittee Chairman Steve Cohen who called for it.

He is a Jewish Congressman who represents Memphis, Tennessee– a very red state. It was his idea and desire to single out this specific topic in the hopes of shedding light on improving the lives of our community and those who share a similar ethnic background.

It would have been hard to imagine such a hearing twenty years ago, in the aftermath of 9/11, yet here we are. Perhaps even more importantly, there were two Muslim Members of Congress who testified on the first panel and after them, Maya Berry– a prominent American-Muslim leader and former senior staff member in the House of Representatives. We look forward to the next such hearing and hopefully with an even more significant American Muslim presence.

There are an infinite number of metrics and ways to evaluate where, as a community of American Muslims, we stand in our nation.

There will never be a day where we stop striving for a better society for ourselves and our children and their children. There will never be a day where we give up hope for ourselves and our children and their children, regardless of what's happening. But there should be days where we recognize milestones like having a hearing on Capitol Hill that's specific to the American Muslim experience. This is where we are now and this is where we start to build from tomorrow.

In service,

Mohammad H. Ali

Director of Policy and Government Relations

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