My USA Club – Muslim Youth of the United States of America

Muslim youth of the United States of America

MY USA-CLUB BACKGROUND

As early as 2015, anti-islamic rhetoric got a serious boost from the political discourse in our country. Since reported violence against Muslims skyrocketed, we can infer that non-reported violence rose dramatically as well. Physical violence, verbal abuse, discrimination in schools, colleges, workplaces, airports, visa offices, bullying, and micro aggression have increasingly become normalized. How do we, as American Muslim youth, combat this campaign of false narratives and misinformation? We do it by building meaningful relationships and connections with our neighbors through service. In doing so, we debunk the misconceptions surrounding Muslims and Islam, while we actively strive to create that iconic American ideal: E Pluribus Unum, out of many, one.

Bullying against Muslim students is happening all across this country. It is real, it is ugly, and it is happening way more often than you might think. According to a 2020 survey by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, 51 percent of Muslim families reported that their child had been bullied because of their faith. And 56 percent of Muslim students feel unsafe, unwelcome, or uncomfortable in school. If we learned anything in teacher college, it’s that students who don’t feel safe at school can’t learn. And we know from long experience the negative effects of bullying on mental health and overall well-being.

“Someone asked me if I was going to blow up the school and if I was reading a book on bombs.”

“People made fun of my religion and my name. I would go home and tell my mom and cry in my room.”

“I have had my hijab pulled off by a classmate for no reason.”

MUSLIM STUDENTS ARE BEING BULLIED Source: Islamic Networks Group. Article: Kimmie Fink, We are Teachers 2/9/22 web

Alongside their population growth, Muslims have gained a larger presence in the public sphere. For example, in 2007, the 110th Congress included the first Muslim member, Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn. Later in that term, Congress seated a second Muslim representative, Rep. Andre Carson, D-Ind. The current 117th Congress has two more Muslims alongside Carson, the first Muslim women to hold such office: Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., first elected in 2018.

Reference: Besheer Mohamed is a senior researcher focusing on religion at Pew Research Center.

As their numbers have increased, Muslims have also reported encountering more discrimination. In 2017, during the first few months of the Trump administration, about half of Muslim American adults (48%) said they had personally experienced some form of discrimination because of their religion in the previous year. This included a range of experiences, from people acting suspicious of them to being physically threatened or attacked. In 2011, by comparison, 43% of Muslim adults said they had at least one of these experiences, and 40% said this in 2007.

A series of Pew Research Center surveys conducted in 2014, 2017, and 2019 separately asked Americans to rate religious groups on a scale ranging from 0 to 100, with 0 representing the coldest, most negative possible view and 100 representing the warmest, most positive view. In these surveys, Muslims were consistently ranked among the coolest, along with atheists.

Though many Americans have negative views toward Muslims and Islam, 53% say they don’t personally know anyone who is Muslim, and a similar share (52%) say they know “not much” or “nothing at all” about Islam. Americans who are not Muslim and who personally know someone who is Muslim are more likely to have a positive view of Muslims, and they are less likely to believe that Islam encourages violence more than other religions.

Our Mission

It’s up to us to correct our neighbors’ perceptions of us. How do we do that? Simply by being who we are. By building relationships with our neighbors through service, we can effectively debunk the false narrative that Muslims are terrorists or somehow, un-American. Our faith requires us to engage in service to others. MY-USA is a part of that service. As we help and get to know our fellow Americans, questions about Islam will inevitably come up. People are curious by nature and want to learn. This gives us the perfect opportunity to talk openly and accurately about Islam. We don’t need to initiate conversations about ourselves or our faith. As we volunteer to help our non-Muslim neighbors, we are building meaningful connections and learning about them. They, in turn, are learning about us. These relationships build the cultural literacy that as United States citizens, we all need.

Pennsylvania Chapter: Internet Access for Communities in Need

Through his start up, BuildaPC.org, Elias began building PCs for gamers during COVID. While gamers were keen to upgrade during COVID, Elias realized the huge disconnect that separates those with and without internet access. He began to focus his passion for PC building on charitable causes. He reached out to Jan Deruiter, the Director at the Philadelphia Children’s Foundation, phillykids.org, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting 21st century skill-building for economically disadvantage youth and their communities. Elias raised enough money through Gofundme for a PC which he delivered to the director in October, 2021.

The PC was used to create a publicly accessible mini-lab at New Pathways Project in North Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. New Pathways Project is an important resource for residents as they work to overcome various challenges in their lives.

The New Pathways Project is affiliated with Public Health Management Corporation

“Thank you so much for the computer!!! Our participants at New Pathways Project are homeless adults who are challenged by substance use and mental illness in North Philadelphia. We support them as they start their recovery process and begin to accomplish their goals. Since we now have a community computer, the participants have been able to use it for multiple purposes. People have accessed important public benefits for financial stability. We’ve had participants apply for jobs and update their resume. They’ve also been able to engage with recovery support groups via Zoom to strengthen their own recoveries. The computer has helped them take an important step to having more stability in their lives. Our participants truly appreciate their new computer!”

Best,

Hannah Dickey

Case Manager, New Pathways Project

About public health Management Corporation

Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC) is a nonprofit public health institute that builds healthier communities through partnerships with government, foundations, businesses and community-based organizations. It fulfills its mission to improve the health of the community by providing outreach, health promotion, education, research, planning, technical assistance, and direct services.

PHMC has served the Greater Philadelphia region since 1972 as a facilitator, developer, intermediary, manager, advocate and innovator in the field of public health. With more than 2,500 employees, 350 programs, a network of subsidiary organizations, 70 locations, sites and close to 350,000 clients served annually, PHMC is one of the largest and most comprehensive public health organizations in the nation.

Pennsylvania Chapter: Community Garden

Elias has volunteered along with family at his local community soup kitchen, Zubaida Foundation, since 2016. Pre-Covid, hot meals were served indoors and take-home staple items were distributed to patrons by volunteers on two Sundays each month. Beginning March 2019, with the onset of Covid, serving food in the house was no longer an option. Instead, large canvas bags were used to collect and distribute vital food to an even broader community in need monthly.

Bagging food was and still is done outside of the building. Most food groups are represented in the bags with one notable exception: fresh produce. So last summer (2021), Elias planned on supplementing the distribution by adding organic produce to the mix over the summer months. He planted cucumbers, tomatoes, and zucchini squash on site, which are all high yielding crops. The first year yield was small due to poor soil quality and verticillium wilt, despite treatments of his home-made, organic wilt concoction.

This summer (2022), he plans on doubling the planting area by starting an additional garden at another location, amending the soils, and providing fencing to protect crops from deer, groundhogs, and rabbits. Growing vegetables is always a work in progress and he looks forward to sharing produce with soup kitchen patrons again this year, and increasing yields going forward. Elias will transport any additional yields harvested during non-Zubaida Soup Kitchen weeks throughout the summer to the Trenton area Soup Kitchen (TASK) as well.

About Us

We are a grassroots national service organization of teens across the country volunteering to make USA a better place for all of us. We come from a multitude of ethnic backgrounds ranging from Norwegian to Ethiopian, just like every other American. We sincerely believe it’s important to counter the negative and false stereotypes of Muslims and Islam in our country and make meaningful contributions in the lives of our fellow Americans. Please join us!