November 2022 Resource Roundup

Our monthly Shoulder to Shoulder Community & Congregational Network Call is an opportunity to convene and connect with interfaith and community organizations and leaders throughout the country who are, in some capacity, addressing anti-Muslim discrimination in the U.S. In our meetings, members share resources, problem solve, and reflect on this important work. The notes below are a selection of public resources and events shared by network members and our various partners and friends. If you’re interested in learning more about our S2S Community Network, contact us and/or check out our website.

S2S Programmatic Updates

• Welcome our NEWEST Community and Congregational Network Member the Maine Council of Churches
• Please fill out this survey to help shape a toolkit for writers to cover Muslims and Islam in the media better. Tasmiha Khan is a Reynolds Journalism Institute Fellow, trying to carve out better coverage of Muslims and Islam. To create the most effective and well-rounded toolkit, she wants to reach out to a range of writers and learn what features they find the most useful. Fill out the survey to help guide the project.

Resources & Upcoming Opportunities

Shared from various partners and friends:

Events

• India and the Rise of Islamophobia — Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs November 21 Virtual
• FREE Nonprofit Security Program Webinar for nonprofits facing threats to their building’s safety and security to prepare and position themselves to successfully apply when the RFP in each state is issued. Speakers: Mark Silveira, Senior Advisor, Office of Grants Administration of FEMA’s Grants Program Directorate, Nate Looney, JFNA Director of Community Safety and Belonging and other experts. November 22nd, 1:30–3:00 PM EST online. YOU MUST RSVP at: https://form.jotform.com/222988419186976?utm_campaign=webinar
• Stop Antisemitic Harassment December 14, 7 pm, Right To Be — formerly Hollaback in collaboration with T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, created a free training to discuss forms of antisemitism that the Jewish community faces right now, from microaggressions to violence and give people ways to take safe, effective action. Standing in solidarity is ultimately greater than any hatred, violence, or harassment! Register Here
• Stop Islamophobic And Xenophobic Harassment December 15 at 1 pm ET Right To Be — formerly Hollaback This one-hour, interactive training will teach you Right To Be’s 5Ds of bystander intervention methodology. We’ll start by talking about the types of disrespect that Muslims and those who are perceived to be Muslim are facing right now — from microaggressions to violence — using a tool we call the “spectrum of disrespect.” You’ll learn what to look for and the positive impact that bystander intervention has on individuals and communities. We’ll talk through five strategies for intervention: distract, delegate, document, delay, and direct; and how to prioritize your own safety while intervening. We’ll have time at the end for practice, and you’ll leave feeling more confident intervening the next time you see Islamophobic and Xenophobic harassment online or in person. Register here for December 15 Training
• The Future of Islamic Art & Culture Digital Festival November 28 & 29 https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-future-of-islamic-art-culture-digital-festival-tickets-419653764707
• White Christian Nationalism and the Capitol Riot: How Did We Get Here and What Comes Next? January 6, 2023 In this online forum, taking place on the second anniversary of the Capitol Riot, Brad Onishi will talk about his new book, Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism — and What Comes Next, in which he maps the origins of White Christian nationalism, with its steady blending of White grievance politics with evangelicalism, and traces its offshoots. Matt Taylor, ICJS scholar, will lead the conversation. Register for the Friday, January 6, conversation.

Jobs/Fellowships

• Program Associate to support our Catalyze Fund, Pillars’ signature grants program for Muslim-focused community organizations. This position is remote, so we’ll be accepting applicants from across the country. If you know anyone who you think would be a good fit for this role, please send them our full job description to learn more about applying! Applicants can also email us at careers@pillarsfund.org with any questions.
• Positions with the Othering & Belonging Institute: Campus Bridging Project Assistant (Open to UC Berkeley graduate or undergraduate students only); Research Associate; Field Strategy & Research Analyst; Housing Policy Associate; Equitable Planning Analyst
• Are you an emerging #interfaith leader looking to develop your bridge-building skills? Interfaith America’s Emerging Leaders Mentor program connects you to experienced leaders that can help guide you in your development as an interfaith leader. Learn more and apply today: https://t.co/W5LheJtEv4
• Are you passionate about building bridges of interfaith cooperation? Do you have strong project management skills? If so, apply to be #InterfaithAmerica’s new Program Manager! Learn more and apply here: https://bit.ly/3WxlIgf
• Muslim Power Building Cohort: We welcome new organizers and community builders seeking to deepen their organizing skills and racial equity practices and expand political education and analysis of power rooted in Quranic ideals that center on allyship, human dignity, and the belief that systems of oppression can and should be changed
• Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans open positions: Civic Engagement Organizer, Youth Organizer, Public Relations & Fundraising Manager. All of the positions are posted on our website, www.panasd.org/jobs.
• Islamic Scholarship Fund’s Congressional Policy Summer Internship is accepting applications until January 30th! This is your chance to work on Capitol Hill through a paid two-month internship! Apply Now: http://islamicscholarshipfund.org/internship
• Ramadan Tent Project is building a team to work together on realising a wonderful series of events for our Ramadan Festival 2023 which will celebrate RTP’s awe-inspiring decade. Full details on available roles, and to apply: https://ramadantentproject.com/join-our-team/
• Hiring a Senior Manager at Building Movement Project and Solidarity Is! We are looking for someone with deep relationships to movement groups and facilitation/training skills. Movement weavers and storytellers are especially encouraged to apply by December 2. Learn more about the position here.

Resources

Toolkits

• The Interfaith Immigration Coalition’s new Winter Toolkit highlights various holy days, holidays, and special events occurring this winter and how you can observe them. Covering Las Posadas, Hanukkah, Epiphany, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and much more, we hope this toolkit serves as an educational resource as well as a tool to mobilize you in seeking justice this season.
• December Holidays Fact Sheet from the Tanenbaum Center https://tanenbaum.org/2022/11/15/december-holidays-2/
• Counteracting Dangerous Narratives in Times of Uncertainty: From OverZero
• Resilience-Based Approaches to Preventing Political and Identity-based Violence: From OverZero
• Dismantling Antisemitism: A 2020 Message Guide — In 2020, in deep collaboration with Jewish organizing partners around the country, Bend the Arc: Jewish Action worked with Uprise to develop Dismantling Antisemitism: A New Message Guide as a tool to help stop the increase in antisemitism and imagine a future in which Jewish people — and all people — can live free and safe in a thriving multiracial democracy.
• The Truth Shall Set us Free: Countering Disinformation and Misinformation in 2022 — Faith in Public Life
• Guidance for reporting on extremist groups and threats. OverZero created this document for journalists. You can use it to inform yourself, shape your communications, and help with any work you may be doing to reach out to local media.
• Faith on the Frontlines for Democracy Narrative — Faith in Public Life
• Countering Political Violence with Faith — OverZero Video hosted by Faith in Public Life
• Resources on Christian Nationalism — BJC For Religious Liberty
• Talk of ‘Christian nationalism’ is getting a lot louder — but what does the term really mean?
• Five Ideas For Healing Our Divides Through Faith https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/five-ideas-for-healing-our-divides-through-faith/

Books

• Social Change Now: A Guide for Reflection and Connection. By Deepa Iyer

Reports

• CAIR, Jetpac Release First National Directory of Local, State and Federal Elected Muslim Officials and Judges
• A Christian Theology of Multi-Faith Partnership by Multifaith Neighbors Network

Articles/podcasts/videos

• At the Institute for Islamic, Christian, & Jewish Studies (ICJS) 2022 Manekin-Clark Lecture at Al Rahmah mosque, guest lecturer Dalia Mogahed shared a surprising finding: #Islamophobia is prevalent among American #Muslims. Dalia points to messaging in US media & politics that may explain why this is the case. https://t.co/Xqza22L8r9
• What the Data Says About Getting Gen Z Involved in Pluralism Work — The Aspen Institute
• An Act of Worship | Season 35 | Episode 3511 | PBS In An Act of Worship, Muslim-Americans recount the past 30 years of pivotal moments in U.S. history and policy from their own perspective. Weaving together observational footage of activists who came of age after 9/11, community-sourced home videos and evocative recollections from individuals impacted by incidents of Islamophobia, the film opens a window into their world through collective memory.

Closing Reflections:

My Grandmother Washes Her Feet in the Sink of the Bathroom at Sears

BY MOHJA KAHF

My grandmother puts her feet in the sink of the bathroom at Sears to wash them in the ritual washing for prayer, wudu, because she has to pray in the store or miss the mandatory prayer time for Muslims

She does it with great poise, balancing herself with one plump matronly arm against the automated hot-air hand dryer, after having removed her support knee-highs and laid them aside, folded in thirds, and given me her purse and her packages to hold so she can accomplish this august ritual and get back to the ritual of shopping for housewares

Respectable Sears matrons shake their heads and frown as they notice what my grandmother is doing, an affront to American porcelain, a contamination of American Standards by something foreign and unhygienic requiring civic action and possible use of disinfectant spray

They fluster about and flutter their hands and I can see a clash of civilizations brewing in the Sears bathroom

My grandmother, though she speaks no English, catches their meaning and her look in the mirror says, I have washed my feet over Iznik tile in Istanbul with water from the world’s ancient irrigation systems I have washed my feet in the bathhouses of Damascus over painted bowls imported from China among the best families of Aleppo

And if you Americans knew anything about civilization and cleanliness, you’d make wider washbins, anyway

My grandmother knows one culture — the right one, as do these matrons of the Middle West. For them, my grandmother might as well have been squatting in the mud over a rusty tin in vaguely tropical squalor, Mexican or Middle Eastern, it doesn’t matter which, when she lifts her well-groomed foot and puts it over the edge.

“You can’t do that,” one of the women protests, turning to me, “Tell her she can’t do that.” “We wash our feet five times a day,” my grandmother declares hotly in Arabic.

“My feet are cleaner than their sink. Worried about their sink, are they? I should worry about my feet!”

My grandmother nudges me, “Go on, tell them.”

Standing between the door and the mirror, I can see at multiple angles, my grandmother and the other shoppers, all of them decent and goodhearted women, diligent in cleanliness, grooming, and decorum

Even now my grandmother, not to be rushed, is delicately drying her pumps with tissues from her purse

For my grandmother always wears well-turned pumps that match her purse, I think in case someone from one of the best families of Aleppo should run into her — here, in front of the Kenmore display

I smile at the midwestern women as if my grandmother has just said something lovely about them and shrug at my grandmother as if they had just apologized through me

No one is fooled, but I hold the door open for everyone and we all emerge on the sales floor and lose ourselves in the great common ground of housewares on markdown.

Mohja Kahf, “My Grandmother Washes Her Feet in the Sink of the Bathroom at Sears” from E-mails from Scheherazad. Copyright © 2003 by Mohja Kahf. Reprinted by permission of University Press of Florida.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/54253/my-grandmother-washes-her-feet-in-the-sink-of-the-bathroom-at-sears