Muslim Organizing Update - July, 2013

PICO National Network

“People, We created you all from a single man and a single woman, and made you into races and tribes so that you should

recognize one another.” - The Qur’an

Surah Hujarat

Calgrafiti Art by El Seed

on the tallest minaret in

Tunisia - 2012

“We decreed to the Children of Israel that

if anyone kills (an innocent person)it is as if he kills all

mankind, while if any saves a life it is as if

he saves the livesof all mankind.”

- The Qur’an 5:32

- A young girl who survived the December 2009 US missile strike in al Majalah, Yemen, where 40 people

were killed including 14 women and 21 children- Photo credit - Dirty Wars by Jeremy Scahill

“The Triple Evils of POVERTY, RACISM and

WAR are forms of violence that exist in a vicious cycle. They are interrelated, all-

inclusive, and stand as barriers to our living in the

Beloved Community. When we work to remedy one evil, we affect all evils.

The issues change in accordance with the political

and social climate of our nation and world.”

1 - Islamophobia is US Led

• $43 Million Dollars Spent on Islamophobic propoganda campaigns, trainings and outreach from 2001-2012

• Ideologically centered in the US with Robert Spencer, Pamela Gellar and David Horowitz

• These bloggers and foundations have a global reach

Constantly producing Islamophobic material

2 - Islamophobia as a Global Reality

- Anders Breivik murders77 people in Norwayinspired by US based

Islamophobes Robert Spencer and

Pamela Geller

- American WhiteSupremacist Wade

Michael Page Murderssix at the Sikh Gurdwarain Oak Creek, Wisconsin

3 - The Policing of Amerian Muslim Identity - From Malcolm to wrapping ourselves in the American flag hijab

The US led, Global discourse of ‘Security‘ - The Threat of Race

What has been justified using - the spectre of terrorism - The reality of the US War Machine

• From the Church Commission and COINTELPRO from the 1940’s to 1973 and the CIA Assassination Programs

• To the legalization of COINTELPRO spying and tactics under the USA Patriot Act of 2001 and the rise of the Imperial Presidency and the Joint Special Operations Command

The World is a Battlefield

• 2001-Present wars in: Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Libya, Yemen, Pakistan

• “The world is a battlefield and we are at war. Therefore, the Joint Special Operations Command can go wherever they please, and do whatever it is they want to do in order to achieve the national security objectives of whichever administration happens to be in power.” ~Anonymous JSOC informant, #DirtyWars

FBI COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program) 1919 - 2013

15,000 paid informants

45,000 ‘unofficial ones’

10 times the size of the largest COINTELPROprogram in the history of the United States

NYPD Spying

Mapping Muslims:NYPD Spying and

its Impacts on American Muslims

58% of Terror Trials had aninformant at the center of the case

The Reality of the US War Machine

The Cost of War

US Drone Strikes in Pakistan

$4 Trillion Dollars on War 2001-2013

NSA Spying - ‘Boundless Informant’

War, and War Profiteering Related to Each of our campaigns

•Lifelines to Healing

•Campaign for Citizenship

American Muslim Demographic Data - 2012

• Numbers vary greatly on total Muslims in the US - Conservative estimates are between 2.6 Million and 10 Million - 250,000 Muslims in the Bay Area

• Islam is the 2nd fastest growing religion in the United States

• Almost 2/3rds of American Muslims are 1st generation immigrants (Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia)

• 37% of Muslims were born in the United States (Majority African American)

• 1 out of 5 American Muslims is a Convert

• Median age of Muslims throughout the world is 28 Years old, 60.4% of the global Muslim population is under the age of 29

Global Muslim Demographic Data - 2030

• 2.2 Billion Muslims in the World - 26.4% of the worlds population or 1 in 4 people on the planet

• Nearly 60% of this population will be concentrated in the Asia-Pacific region

• In the United States the population is expected to almost triple in size over the next twenty years

• Total population growth in the United States expected to triple

• The Median age of the global Muslim population will be 30 years old

• 50.4% of the global Muslim population will be under 29 years old

Community Organizing Groups

Educational Organizations African American Majority Organizations

Warith Deen Muhammed Community

Political/ Advocacy Organizations RIS

National/ Conference based organizations

3rd Space

- Think Tank

International Aid Interfaith

National Muslim Organizations

Muslim Organizing around Race and Identity - Example SF Bay Area

• African American/ Converts - Warith Deen Muhammad Community, the Nation of Islam, Zaytuna College, Ta’leef Collective,

• Arab - Arab Resource and Organizing Center, Arab Cultural and Community Center (San Francisco)

• South Asian - DRUM - Desi’s Rising Up and Moving, Bay Area Solidarity Summer

• Afghan - Afghans for Peace, Afghan American Muslim Outreach

• Yemini - California Yemeni Youth for Change

• Major Organizing also in: Egyptian, Tunisian, Libyan, Iranian, Tunisian, and Somali

Regional Muslim organizing training at Zaytuna College

Imam Zaid Shakir - Co-founder, Zaytuna College

How we are thinking about this work moving forward

• Critical that we understand the moral dilemma of what the Muslim community is facing and how that effects all of us as people of faith

• Need to face down fear about multi-faith and Muslim organizing within the network

• Do network wide webinars on Islam and American Muslims - with accompanying curricula available to all federations

• Muslims are not denominational meaning we should organize regionally and not by congregation - can have strong clergy and mosque lead a number of mosques regionally related to organizing

• Build out regional mapping in key areas: Bay Area, Southern California, New York, New Jersey, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Texas and Chicago

• Majority of Federations have at least one mosque or Imam relationship

• Support work going on in the Muslim community throughout the Network

Ideological Differences Amongst Muslims

Religious Identity Views Dominant Racial Group

Traditional Sunni Moderate, can be cultural Majority of Groups except Iranians

African American Moderate, traditional African American Politics

AA - Warith Deen Muhammad Community

Salafi/ Wahabi Most Conservative Community

Arab and South Asian, some African Americans

Shi’a Moderate and often culturally Persian Persian/ Iranian

Sufi Moderate and Spiritual Mixed, West African, Moroccan, Converts

Secular/ Liberal Most socially liberal of all, often only Muslim by name All Groups

Previous Movements with Similar Size Populations

•Undocumented/ DREAMer Movement

•New Jim Crow - Formerly Incarcerated People

•LGBTQ Movement

•By re-framing the narrative, focused leadership development, focused financial investment and the growth of on the ground organizing

•Each of these movements has been able to change or is changing the story about their communities and are shifting power