August 28, 2017

Photo by: John Ramspott (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Press Release

(8/28/17, Washington, DC) - The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), a national public affairs organization working to promote and strengthen American pluralism by increasing understanding and improving policies that impact American Muslims, today filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for records pertaining to the Trump administration’s decision to shift the DHS CVE program away from one that addresses all forms of violent extremism to one that is ideologically driven to target Muslims.

“The recent events in Charlottesville and Barcelona highlight the need for our government to have a comprehensive and holistic approach to dealing with all forms of extremism,” said Salam Al-Marayati, President of MPAC. “We cannot ignore the growing threat hate groups and white supremacy pose to our country and we cannot deprive communities the resources they need to implement programs, projects, and activities that address recruitment or radicalization.”

Earlier this year, DHS awarded MPAC a CVE grant to expand its Safe Spaces Initiative to more communities. Safe Spaces is a community-based alternative to government-led CVE programs that empowers communities themselves to promote civic engagement, healthy identity formation, and to prevent violent extremism.

In June of this year, after a review by the new administration, a revised list of grantees were announced and MPAC along with other community groups were omitted from the list.

Based on MPAC’s communications with DHS officials, media reports and a comparison of the June grantees to the January grantees, MPAC is concerned about the shift DHS has taken in its CVE program, specifically in regards to it focus on targeting violent extremism when it relates to Muslims only, all the while ignoring the growing threat of other forms of domestic terrorism.

Among other things, MPAC wants public understanding of the DHS’s CVE programming goals and operations, as well as the actions that led to the shift in approach.

A copy of the FOIA request can be found here.

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ABOUT MPAC

Founded in 1988, the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) is a national public affairs nonprofit working to promote and strengthen American pluralism by increasing understanding and improving policies that impact American Muslims. Over the past 30 years, MPAC has built a reputation of being a dynamic and trusted American Muslim voice for policymakers, opinion shapers, and community organizers across the country.

MEDIA CONTACT

Rabiah Ahmed, Media and Public Affairs Director at 202-439-1441 or rabiah@mpac.org.