Letters-to-the-editor, articles and media responses by MERI members and partners:

MERI Members in the Media:

– Protests Over Immigration Planned Across the Country Saturday, Including in NC. The News and Observer. June 26, 2018.
Excerpt: “Manzoor Cheema, one of the founders of Muslims for Social Justice, called the Supreme Court’s decision an attack on people of color.
“This country was founded (by) people escaping religious persecution, violence, economic hardship,” Cheema said. “(They) found refuge in this country. But if they happen to be black, brown and Muslim somehow they become illegal human beings.“”

– Durham Jews Honor Our Ancestors by Rejecting Racism. The Herald-Sun. April 13, 2018.
Excerpt: “Seventy-five years ago, our people, Ashkenazi Jews, were ethnically cleansed from Eastern Europe. Now, as white Jews in the United States, we benefit from white supremacy and recognize we live on land stolen through genocide. Durham rests on the land of the Eno and of the Occaneechee Band of the Saponi Nation.

In honor of our ancestors, we are proud to be part of the Demilitarize! Durham2Palestine campaign to end the deadly exchanges between U.S. law enforcement and Israeli security forces. This campaign is part of a larger project of challenging state violence and discrimination in both countries.”

– Group in NC Fight Islamophobia With Education. July 10, 2017.
Excerpt: “With incidences of violence against Muslims occurring in some parts of the country, some North Carolina groups have decided to fight the trend with knowledge. 
One such group is United Electrical Workers Local 150. The union is starting in the workplace, educating employers and co-workers about the Islamic community and offering tips for showing respect to members of the Muslim faith.
UE President Nathanette Mayo says it’s a natural fit for a union that already champions workplace rights and social justice issues for public service workers.”

– Anti-Sharia Rally is Met With Counterprotest at the State Capitol. The News and Observer. June 10, 2017.
Excerpt: “A social justice group is demanding the release of Mosa Hamadeesa, a Palestinian from the West Bank who faces deportation after federal immigration officials arrested him outside his Raleigh home last week.
Muslims for Social Justice, a North Carolina group, will gather in front of the Wake County Justice Center in downtown Raleigh at 3 p.m. Wednesday to support Hamadeesa.
“Public pressure is the only way things are going to change,” said Manzoor Cheema, co-founder of Muslims for Social Justice, a North Carolina group. “We want to make it more public and shed a light on this, but we also want people to know that it’s not just one case – this is happening to many people.””

– Anti-Sharia Marchers will be Two Blocks away from Anti-Islamophobia Rally Saturday. The News and Observer. June 9, 2017.
Excerpt: “Supporters of an organization considered by some to be extremist and anti-Muslim plan to march Saturday morning in downtown Raleigh, while a second group of marchers demonstrates against Islamophobia nearby.
The “March Against Sharia” is scheduled for 10 a.m. at the North Carolina State Capitol, and is being organized by ACT for America. The Raleigh ACT march is one of more than two dozen scheduled across the country.
Two blocks away at the same time on Halifax Mall, a counter-rally will be held. The North Carolina-based Movement to End Racism and Islamophobia is holding the counterprotest because “all people have the right to live in dignity, without fear of violence,” it said in a release.”

– June 10: Rally in Raleigh Against Islamophobia and Racism. Spectacular Magazine. June 9, 2017.
Excerpt: “Hundreds of North Carolinians plan to rally 10AM Saturday at Halifax Mall in Raleigh at the United Against Islamophobia and Racism rally; uniting Muslim organizations and community allies against Islamophobia, racism, and white nationalism emboldened by Trump’s administration.
The counter-rally is organized by local activist groups, Muslims for Social Justice, Movement to End Racism and Islamophobia, and North Carolina Asian Americans Together. It takes place during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, a time of spirituality, contemplation, and celebration for Muslims.
The United Against Islamophobia and Racism rally will take place at the same time as an anti-Muslim gathering at the State Capitol in Raleigh, part of a national action organized by “ACT for America” in 27 cities across the country. Considered an extremist hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, ACT for America targets Muslim communities and demonizes Islam as a fear mongering tactic. Its founding member, Brigitte Gabriel, was quoted as saying that Islam is “a natural threat to the civilized people of the world.””

– Durham Teacher Gives Kids A Little Faith. The Herald-Sun. June 9, 2017.
Excerpt: “In Kernersville, the FBI is investigating anti-Muslim activists who held a meeting this winter where they discussed doing violence against those practicing Islam. One week in February, the Lerner Jewish Community Day School in Durham was one of 11 Jewish community centers across the nation to receive bomb threats in a wave of anti-Semitism. Just two years ago in Chapel Hill, a local man killed his three Muslim neighbors in what many have called a hate crime. In parts of the U.S. and North Carolina, fear reigns and religious hate-crimes have spiked.
It’s not only teachers like Annie Harrison who are trying to do something about it. Groups like the Movement to End Racism and Islamophobia (MERI-NC) and N.C. United for Refugees and Immigrants have been holding educational and advocacy events across North Carolina.”

– Father of Nine-Year-Old Being Treated at Duke for Rare Tumor Faces Deportation. The Herald-Sun. June 7, 2017.
Excerpt: “A social justice group is demanding the release of Mosa Hamadeesa, a Palestinian from the West Bank who faces deportation after federal immigration officials arrested him outside his Raleigh home last week.
Muslims for Social Justice, a North Carolina group, will gather in front of the Wake County Justice Center in downtown Raleigh at 3 p.m. Wednesday to support Hamadeesa.
“Public pressure is the only way things are going to change,” said Manzoor Cheema, co-founder of Muslims for Social Justice, a North Carolina group. “We want to make it more public and shed a light on this, but we also want people to know that it’s not just one case – this is happening to many people.””

– Defining Sanctuary Cities – And Why That Definition Must Expand. Unitarian Universalist Service Committee. May 3, 2017.
Excerpt: “One clear example is the dozens of state bills introduced in recent years to prevent the fabricated threat of “Sharia law,” a set of Islamic codes guiding moral practice, from being implemented in U.S. courts. Anti-Muslim hate groups claimed that radical Muslims aimed to take over the justice system, but the bills’ originator, attorney David Yerushalmi, suggested an ulterior motive: “If this thing passed in every state without any friction, it would not have served its purpose.” It needed to attract controversy to render Muslims more suspect in the public eye. Notably, as Muslim Anti-Racism Organizer Manzoor Cheema explains, “80 percent of these laws were introduced by legislators that also introduced anti-gay marriage laws, anti-abortion laws, voter suppression laws, anti-immigrant laws, and right-to-work (anti-union) laws.”
Similarly, North Carolina’s infamous anti-transgender bathroom bill of 2016, HB2, also included provisions that revoke workplace discrimination protections based on race, religion, sex, and age. HB2 was a profoundly intersectional bill, raising to light how justifying oppression against one community opens the doors for oppression against all people treated as “other.””

– Building Communities Rooted in Justice. The Huffington Post. April 11, 2017.
Excerpt: “As a member of JVP’s Network Against Islamophobia (NAI), I went to two productive workshops on challenging Islamophobia facilitated by chapter leaders from New Haven, Boston, Chicago, Portland, and Triangle-NC. Some chapters are engaging in community education with the NAI curricula and resources and are canvassing with posters in different neighborhood stores with messages like “Standing with Muslims Against Islamophobia and Racism,” “Stop Profiling Muslims,” and “We Stand with Our Muslim, Arab, and Immigrant Neighbors.” Others are insisting that Jewish organizations stop funding Islamophobia, such as in Chicago, where the JVP chapter is spearheading a defunding campaign targeting the Jewish United Fund, the funding arm of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago. And many are participating in coalitions like the Movement to End Racism and Islamophobia in North Carolina and others that are rooted in the leadership of Muslim and other targeted communities.
Critical to NAI’s work is making deep connections among Islamophobia, the so-called “war on terror,” and Israeli apartheid. JVP Chicago chapter and NAI leader, Lesley Williams, who skillfully moderated the panel on “How Palestine Liberation and Challenging Islamophobia are Inseparable,” opened by stressing that “Islamophobia is not just a side issue in our fight for Palestinian liberation but is deeply imbedded and a key aspect of fighting for Palestinian liberation.” Human rights attorney and public defender Bina Ahmad, who has helped to guide NAI’s work, further articulated this issue when she spoke about Islamophobia having long-standing roots. She said: “Islamophobia is so core to what is happening. It’s the oil that gets this larger war machine going. It’s really about “othering” Muslims in order to facilitate not only supporting Israel but also to support imperialism and US wars.””