This document provides information about organizing efforts within the American Muslim community. It discusses the impact of Islamophobia which is largely led from the US and has global consequences. It also outlines the realities of US surveillance and national security policies that disproportionately target Muslims. Demographic data on the American and global Muslim populations is presented. Examples of Muslim organizing groups in the San Francisco Bay Area are given to show the diversity. The document concludes by discussing approaches to building out regional Muslim organizing networks across the country.

1. Muslim Organizing Update - July, 2013
PICO National Network

2. “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

3. “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 lives
of 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

4. “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.”

5. 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

6. Constantly producing Islamophobic material

7. 2 - Islamophobia as a Global Reality
- Anders Breivik murders
77 people in Norway
inspired by US based
Islamophobes
Robert Spencer and
Pamela Geller
- American White
Supremacist Wade
Michael Page Murders
six at the Sikh Gurdwara
in Oak Creek, Wisconsin

8. 3 - The Policing of Amerian Muslim Identity -
From Malcolm to wrapping ourselves in the American flag hijab

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

10. 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

11. 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

12. FBI COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program)
1919 - 2013

13. 15,000 paid informants
45,000 ‘unofficial ones’
10 times the size of the largest COINTELPRO
program in the history of the United States

15. NYPD
Spying
Mapping Muslims:
NYPD Spying and
its Impacts on
American Muslims

16. 58% of Terror Trials had an
informant at the center of the case

17. The Reality of the US War Machine

18. The Cost of War

19. US Drone Strikes in Pakistan

20. $4 Trillion Dollars on War 2001-2013

21. NSA Spying - ‘Boundless Informant’

22. War, and War Profiteering Related to
Each of our campaigns
•Lifelines to Healing
•Campaign for Citizenship

23. 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

26. 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

27. 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

28. 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

34. Regional Muslim organizing training at Zaytuna College

36. Imam Zaid Shakir - Co-founder, Zaytuna College

37. 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

38. 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

39. 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