October 18, 2013
When the 16-day federal government shutdown finally came to an end yesterday, President Obama immediately made it known he will not be wasting any time and laid out three areas requiring immediate attention, including immigration reform. “We should finish the job of fixing our broken immigration system,” Obama said. “There's already a broad coalition across America that's behind this effort of comprehensive immigration reform, from business leaders to faith leaders to law enforcement.”
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READ MOREOctober 11, 2013
Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attempted to reach out to Iranian youth during a BBC Persian TV interview by saying, “If the people of Iran were free, they could wear jeans, listen to Western music and have free elections.” Apparently, Netanyahu did not do any research on Iranian youth or get the memo on effective ways to speak to young people. After his BBC interview, hundreds of Twitter users from Iran posted pictures of Iranians in jeans and holding pop album covers. -
READ MOREOctober 7, 2013
Last Thursday, Oct. 3, more than 150 people gathered in Washington, DC, for the Muslim Public Affairs Council’s first “Empowering Voices” dinner honoring Rashad Hussain, the U.S. Special Envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and Paul Monteiro, Public Engagement Adviser for the White House Office of Public Engagement, for their dedicated work to public service and empowering the American Muslim community. -
READ MOREOctober 4, 2013
Amidst the ongoing upheaval in the Arab world which has been marked by violence, an important piece of good news has emerged from the “motherland of the Arab Spring.” Tunisia’s ruling Ennahda party last week agreed to step down as part of an agreement reached with opposition forces. The move comes in the wake of heavy public opposition to the Islamist party, a string of terrorist attacks, as well as recent assassinations of two leftist leaders that left the party’s reputation badly tarnished and the country in a state of political paralysis. -
READ MOREOctober 2, 2013
Tuesday, Oct. 1, at 12:01 a.m., our nation experienced its first federal government shutdown in 17 years. The shutdown has far-reaching consequences, with more than 800,000 federal workers facing furlough. MPAC stands with the thousand of workers having to maneuver through this troubling time and the millions who will suffer from the rippling effect it will have on their lives. The government shutdown is an inexcusable act by a government that is the strongest in the world. -
READ MORESeptember 27, 2013
With the latest attacks in Nairobi, Kenya, by the al-Qaeda-affiliated group Al-Shabaab, American national security circles are once again turning their attention to the Somalia-based group and the threat it poses both domestically and internationally. Media pundits also have shifted their focus from research to rabble-rousing. -
READ MORESeptember 26, 2013
On Tuesday afternoon in New York, the presidents of the Muslim Public Affairs Council and the Islamic Society of North America, Salam Al-Marayati and Imam Mohamed Magid, joined other prominent American Muslim leaders for a meeting with the new president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, to discuss the growing violence in Syria and sectarian tensions which inspired MPAC’s “Intra-faith Code of Honor.” -
READ MORESeptember 23, 2013
Aisha Iqbal is currently a sophomore at the George Washington University pursuing a dual-degree in international affairs and economics and is MPAC's new fall intern in the Washington, DC, office. -
READ MORESeptember 22, 2013
MPAC condemned the actions of extremist who have killed hundreds over the past two days in Pakistan, Kenya and Iraq. This abhorrent violence has taken the lives of innocent women, men and children as they were engaged in daily activities in houses of worship, malls and even funerals. -
READ MORESeptember 20, 2013
This week, our nation’s capital witnessed a horrific mass shooting by a man with a past of violent outbursts and worsening mental health issues. Aaron Alexis shot and killed 12 people at the Navy Yard in Washington, DC, and although the incident took place near the U.S. Capitol, lawmakers have remained eerily silent about gun control. Have mass shootings every few months become the new normal for our country? Will we have to wait for an even larger tragedy before our policy makers have the political will to implement common sense gun control policy? -
READ MORESeptember 17, 2013
MPAC proudly announced the launch of its national campaign for comprehensive immigration reform with the release of its immigration policy paper and community toolkit. “A Nation of Immigrants: Realizing Comprehensive Immigration Reform” stresses the critical need for immigration reform and addresses the key issues being raised in the ongoing Congressional debate while the toolkit outlines opportunities for Muslims to get involved in supporting immigration reform. -
READ MORESeptember 12, 2013
On Tuesday night, President Barack Obama outlined the reasons for the U.S. to intervene in Syria referencing haunting images of innocent civilians gassed during World World I and the Holocaust. The President asked Congress to consider, from a national security perspective, to engage in a targeted military strike against Bashar al-Assad’s regime. -
READ MORESeptember 11, 2013
Earlier this month, Edina Lekovic, Director of Policy & Programming, and Cherif Abou El Fadl, Community Outreach Fellow, met with the Islamic Education Center of Orange County for a follow-up meeting to the first “I Am Change” workshop held a month before. -
READ MORESeptember 6, 2013
We support decisive and quick military action with important conditions. MPAC today released a position paper that outlines in detail our deliberations and why we support a conditional strike to deter future use of chemical weapons. -
READ MOREAugust 30, 2013
Two years after the AP exposed the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) mass surveillance of Muslim communities and the department scrambled to provide answers, Americans learned this week that nothing has changed. On Wednesday, ironically the same date as the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream Speech,” we learned the NYPD secretly labeled entire mosques and community groups as terrorist organizations. -
READ MOREAugust 28, 2013
Sara Zamani is MPAC's Summer 2013 Government Intern. She has been living in the U.S. for less than 3 years and is majoring in religious studies at Claremont Graduate School. -
READ MOREAugust 23, 2013
As the conflict in Syria escalates, the peace talks between Israel and Palestine move forward and Egypt’s internal crisis continues to be unsettled, our nation’s foreign policy conversation has been silent on Iran. As Iranians transition into a new administration with President Hassan Rouhani, the U.S. must also shift diplomatic tactics toward Iran. -
READ MOREAugust 22, 2013
Today MPAC denounced the use of chemical weapons in Syria and called for the protection of Syrian civilians who are facing this brutal crime against humanity. -
READ MOREAugust 16, 2013
After 11 years of violating New Yorkers’ constitutional rights, a U.S. District Judge issued a ruling this week declaring the NYPD’s Stop and Frisk program unconstitutional. Judge Shira Sheindlin described the program as a form of institutional racial profiling – which civil liberties groups realized long before the ruling. -
READ MOREAugust 14, 2013
The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) today condemned the Egyptian government’s deadly use of force against pro-Morsi protestors and imposition of emergency law for the next 30 days, which suspends the right to a trial or due process. So far, at least 275 people have been killed and hundreds more have been injured. In response to the violence, interim Vice-President Mohamed ElBaradei resigned from his position stating that the crisis should have been dealt with through “peaceful means.”
