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Sponsored by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center and created by filmmaker Frank Chi, this short film features letters that young Japanese Americans in World War II incarceration camps sent to Clara Breed, a librarian in San Diego.
Excerpts from the letters are read by contemporary Muslim American youth standing beside Japanese American camp survivors. The survivors remain silent as the young people read stories that parallel their own hopes and fears.
This video will be featured in the center’s event “CrossLines: A Culture Lab on Intersectionality,” on May 28 and 29 at the Arts & Industries Building. Learn more at http://smithsonianapa.org/crosslines/
This past year, we have seen a recent rise in Islamophobia in both politics and media. This dangerous shift in rhetoric, from marginal groups to presidential debates, constitutes a dangerous future for the Muslim community. The Muslim community will be in a great disadvantage if we do not respond and actively participate in the upcoming elections; both local and national.
Bob Bennett spent his last days letting Muslims know how sorry he was that an Islamophobe had become his party’s all-but-certain nominee.
Former GOP senator Bob Bennett lay partially paralyzed in his bed on the fourth floor of the George Washington University Hospital. He was dying.
Not 48 hours had passed since a stroke had complicated his yearlong fight against pancreatic cancer. The cancer had begun to spread again, necessitating further chemotherapy. The stroke had dealt a further blow that threatened to finish him off.
Between the hectic helter-skelter of nurses, doctors, and well wishes from a long-cultivated community of friends and former aides, Bennett faced a quiet moment with his son Jim and his wife Joyce.
Source: World Religion News – April 1, 2016
By Elisa Meyer
Reema Ahmad, the director of Project Mobilize, a political action nonprofit organization dedicated to the betterment of Muslim American community, understands the importance of this year’s U.S. Presidential election. Nowadays, she regularly stands outside mosques for the purpose of recruiting new Muslim voters, and to convince potential voters to register by making them understand what is at stake this election.
Her strategy to make the reluctant voters listen to her is by just wondering aloud what would happen if Donald Trump becomes the President of America. This usually gets her almost everybody’s attention. According to Ms. Ahmad, if you are not at the dinner table, you are on the menu.
In the United States, only 1% of the total population constitutes Muslims. However, it has not discouraged the civil rights groups, and organizations like the CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations), the U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations, and the Islamic Circle of North America in their effort to register as many Muslim voters as possible.
In fact, CAIR and the other organizations are urging the mosques to turn themselves into voter registration centers. It is their aim to register at least one million new voters by November. The Muslim population is higher in states like Florida and Ohio. The Muslim organizations and the civil rights groups are hoping for that potential tilt that may swing the election in their favor, with their 1% Muslim votes. Registration is expected to drive up in the month of June, during the Ramadan festival period.
According to Ibrahim Hooper, a CAIR spokesman, there has never been a period in the American history, when the apprehension and fear in the U.S. Muslim community have been this high. Recently, there has been an increase in violence towards Muslims and mosques. As per the parents of Muslim children, their kids are being bullied at school. Websites like Creeping Sharia are openly criticizing the participation of Muslims in American politics, in the wake of Muslim organization’s voter registration campaigns.
It is not only Trump who is going against Muslims, nowadays. Even Ted Cruz is making headlines with his controversial proposals. In the wake of the ISIS terrorist attacks in Brussels last week, Cruz demanded that the authorities patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods.
Naeem Baig, President of the Islamic Circle of North America, said that the fitting answer to all these anti-Muslim sentiments is getting more engaged in the political process.
The USCMO initiatives include: a One America Campaign to enhance understanding of American Muslims and Islam; a Million Voters Registration Drive prior to the 2016 presidential election; and a National Open Mosque Day designed to help increase interactions between American Muslims and citizens of other faiths and backgrounds. Another initiative planned by the national Muslim coalition includes the formation of new and strengthened alliances with interfaith partners, social justice groups and other minority communities that have faced or continue to face similar challenges.
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