Why and How to Work With the Muslim Community: YCLUSA Midwest Conference Workshop Proposal

(Workshop proposal for 2006 YCLUSA Midwest Conference in St. Louis, Missouri)

A. why work with the Muslim community

1. show how targetted domestically and internationally by the ultra-right and so are a reliable ally because of their national and class interests

2. show rise in working class resistance among Muslim communities in the US (e.g. factory protests by Muslims for religious rights)

3. show how current participation within coalitions is severely limited (e.g. short of turnout potential, working class and rank-and-file being excluded)

B. who is the Muslim community: nations, classes, history in the US

1. national composition: South Asian, African American, Arab

2. converts: majority African-American, female

3. multi-class composition, significant low-income/working class segment

4. surveys of geographic destribution

5. history in the US

- Muslims in US before independence, participation in revolutionary war and civil war

- 14% African-Americans from slave trade were Muslim including Muslim ruling class, continuity to today

- South Asian revolutionaries established communist

organization in West Coast in early 1900s, targetted by Palmer raids, working-class leadership

- formative role in 60s civil rights movement

- closet Arab-Americans, closet American Muslims

C. approaching national and local organizations for coalition work

1. description of major national organizations and international affiliations

2. implications for decison-making structure of local mosques

3. using a national mosque directory to figure out pros and cons of coalition partners

4. key committees and staff/officers to approach without violating process

5. mosque as a mass institution: rank and file relationship to staff/leadership, composition, working with mass events: friday prayers, holidays, community festivals

6. approaches of non-Muslim national organizations in the environment: ACLU, NLG, Gamileal Foundation

D. practical issues of sensitivity

1. male/female interpersonal relations, implications for organizing meetings

2. norms of mosque behavior: dress, shoe removal, prayer time behavior, month-of-fasting behavior

3. addressing GLBTQI equality, women's equality, coalition work outside Muslim community

4. community policies on media relations

E. practical examples from Pittsburgh

1. Free Getu Coalition (www.freegetu.org)

2. immigration cases: special registration, deportation, documentation problems, freeing people secretely detained by the federal government

3. housing discrimination

4. labor rights: women workers' right to wear hijab, on-the-job discrimination

5. ensuring a rank-and-file, working-class, oppressed nationalities approach to community organizing