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Dear Friend,
Assalaamu-alaikum and Ramadan Mubarak!
We hope you are in good health and good spirits. At Muslim Advocates, we are grateful for the generosity and support of our community that allows us to work to fulfill our mission to fight bigotry against American Muslims and other marginalized communities.
Since our founding, your support has allowed us to work to protect the civil rights of American Muslims and all Americans regardless of race, religion, sex, place of birth, ability, income, education, gender identity, sexual orientation, sect of worship or level of religiosity.
2021 was a year of transition for Muslim Advocates’ leadership. We are now in a new chapter, under the interim leadership of Muslim Advocates co-founders Farah Brelvi [[link removed]] and Asifa Quraishi-Landes [[link removed]] , and soon a new permanent executive director, that will ensure our work for the rights of American Muslim communities never stops.
We want to share with you some of Muslim Advocates’ work over the past year that your 2021 Ramadan support made possible. None of this could have been achieved without your generosity and trust in us, and for that we are extremely grateful.
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NO BAN Act work : We celebrated President Biden’s Executive Order rescinding the Muslim Ban. We worked hard to ensure that the NO BAN Act–designed to prevent future immigration bans–would be included in his day-one immigration bill by leading a coalition of 400+ civil rights and community groups and 300+ religious leaders that played a key role in the House passage of the NO BAN Act. Our coalition continues to fight to pass the NO BAN Act in the Senate.
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Working against congressional anti-Muslim bigotry : The Jan. 6 insurgency at the Capitol increased white nationalist threats and intensified the urgency to identify and combat religious, racial and social injustices. Racism and anti-Muslim bigotry from members of Congress continued to rise, and when Rep. Lauren Boebert repeatedly attacked Rep. Ilhan Omar, calling her a suicide bomber, Muslim Advocates, in partnership with Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, filed a formal demand for an ethics investigation of Rep. Boebert, launching a campaign to pressure Republican leaders to hold her accountable and strip her of her committee assignments.
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Civil rights litigation for Muslims : We sued the Virginia Department of Corrections following numerous complaints of abusive treatment from Muslims who are incarcerated; filed an amicus brief in the case of Saifullah Paracha, a 73-year-old man detained at Guantanamo Bay for 18 years with no charges and no evidence that he is a threat; and continued to fight for American Muslim communities’ basic rights—including the right to bury their dead—by representing a Muslim nonprofit blocked by a Virginia county from building a cemetery for the needy resulting in the county ordinance being rescinded and our clients winning a $500,000 settlement.
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Working for police accountability : We supported the family of Muhammad Muhaymin, Jr.—a Black, disabled American Muslim man arrested and killed by police officers in Phoenix, AZ after he tried to bring his service dog into a public restroom. After the city failed to hold the officers accountable, Mr. Muhaymin’s family sued. A judge decided to seal the records of that lawsuit from the press and the public and Muslim Advocates intervened to unseal the court records, which a new judge agreed to do. We also helped the Muhaymin family connect with the U.S. Department of Justice, which then announced a broad investigation into the actions of the Phoenix Police Department.
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Combating religious litmus tests for Muslim nominees : When American Muslim business leader Dilawar Syed was nominated to be deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration, his confirmation would have made him the administration’s highest-ranking American Muslim. However, Senate Republicans on the Small Business Committee circulated an anti-Muslim memo attacking him for being Muslim and foreign-born, and repeatedly refused to show up for the committee vote, effectively preventing his nomination from moving forward. This was the first time in the committee’s history that a nomination was stalled in such a manner.
This unconstitutional religious litmus test was rooted in anti-Muslim bigotry, and we believe it placed all future Muslim nominees at risk. In response, we led a National Day of Action with Jewish, Asian American Pacific Islander, Muslim, civil rights and other community organizations and demanded that the committee give him the courtesy of a vote. Our goals were to have a vote to confirm his nomination and if the committee quorum continued to be withheld, to ask Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to bring the vote directly to the Senate floor. Our coalition launched a toolkit, website, email and social media campaign to fight the anti-Muslim attacks against Mr. Syed.
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Coalition work against state enshrinement of sectarian religious doctrine : As the Supreme Court considers the Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women’s Health case challenging Mississippi’s abortion ban, we signed an amicus brief opposing the Mississippi law in coalition with other minority religious groups, and then led and galvanized American Muslim organizations to support an open letter explaining why American Muslims should be concerned that the U.S. Supreme Court may severely restrict reproductive rights.
We saw a unique opportunity in Dobbs to explain that by gutting reproductive rights based upon one segment of one religion’s interpretation, the Supreme Court could do the same for other civil rights in the future. The coalition signing our letter included: KARAMAH: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights, HEART Women and Girls, American Muslim Bar Association, Muslim Wellness Foundation, American Muslim Health Professionals and Muslim Public Affairs Council.
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Educating American Muslims about their rights to Ramadan accommodations : [[link removed]] Muslim Advocates launched an effort to distribute the knowledge and tools necessary to ensure that Muslims are able to observe Ramadan and Eid at school and in the workplace. Our expert legal team put together “Know Your Rights'' fact sheets and drafted template letters that can be used to request a wide range of accommodations for Ramadan (and beyond) to help you reach an agreement with your employer, college or school that enables you to practice your religious beliefs in a manner that does not unreasonably interfere with your employment or education.
In 2022 we ask you to continue your generous support of Muslim Advocates. For charities like Muslim Advocates who rely so much upon our Muslim donors, Ramadan is the most important time of year for us to make sure that we can financially sustain our work and build a better future for all. We hope you will once again contribute towards the efforts of Muslim Advocates.
Please consider making a Ramadan gift to Muslim Advocates:
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Thank you for your generosity, your trust and your support so that together we can work to build a better future for everyone.
Wishing you and yours a blessed Ramadan,
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Farah Brelvi [[email protected]] and Asifa Quraishi-Landes [[email protected]]
Interim Co-Executive Directors
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P.O. Box 34440
Washington, DC 20043 United States
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