If you are like me, you may be making phone calls and marching to end genocide but still feel helpless. Another small minority in America felt like us over a century ago, but they turned their frustration into energy for their empowerment.
On 13 May 1939, more than 937 Jews including women and children fled the Holocaust in Germany aboard the SS St Louis. None of them were allowed to land in America. Turned back to Germany, almost 30% of those Jews were killed by the Nazis. Three months before the ship sailed, a bill failed to pass in the Congress that would have admitted 20,000 Jewish children to America. This despite the fact that there were at least 4.9 million Jews in the USA at that time, that is 3.7% of the US population and were a financial success.
Can you imagine US refusing any Jewish refugees entering USA today? Is it possible Congress not passing a bill benefiting Israelis or Jews today? Most likely not. How did Jewish-Americans transform their helplessness into such a power in America that Israel refuses now to comply with the US requests for a ceasefire while the Israeli lobby continues to ensure the supply of bombs to Israel for its genocide?
A thoughtful strategy, along with a solid, consistent investment of time and money has allowed them to achieve this power.
Muslims in America, Alhamdu lillah, are one of the most professional and educated communities of Muslims anywhere in the world. We also live in the most powerful country in the world. We must empower ourselves so that not only American Muslims and Jews continue to live here as equal citizens with full rights but live as equal citizens with equal rights in Palestine and elsewhere as well.
With this in mind, here are some considerations for you to think about and adopt for your 2025 plan.
1. Plan Now For 2025
Your personal success is critical for you and the Ummah. Allah will hold each one of us accountable about what we do (Quran 17:36). He states very clearly in the Quran that you will get nothing except what you strive for (Quran 53:39). So let’s first audit our life in 2024. And here is a tool for it. Once you are done with your self-evaluation, then sit down with your family to plan for 2025. Here are our suggestions for planning for the next year. Planning allows you to thoughtfully use our time and money. Otherwise, it goes back to a default, purposeless life without clear goals or a mission.
2. Let Your Time and Money Power Your Plan
Once a plan is in place, divide your time and money based on it. We are suggesting a different matrix for 2025. While Muslims are rated the most generous faith community in America, our priorities so far have been our Masjids and disaster relief.
Masjids are critical for building community. This is our base. However, we need to rethink Masjids and Masjids need to rethink their priorities and budget.
Disaster relief organizations are multiplying in the community. Sometimes it feels that every month, a new organization pops up. Many influencers and Imams work on commission for these relief organizations, which have thousands of employees raising funds from America. We see these images and are naturally moved by them.
The Jewish community, on the other hand, has a different model which empowers them. They invest in public relations, media, and politics in the USA. This allows them to use public funding through our tax money to maintain an infrastructure of power. This, in turn, at the federal level, provides funding for Israel. In my view, this was a better model for a community which was once so weak that it could not get America to accept 937 Jews fleeing the Holocaust and failed to get the Congress pass a bill to allow 20,000 Jewish children to enter the USA.
I recommend the following model described in these infographics to use your time and money.
3. Empower Yourself With 3 Prophetic Cs For Success
In view of the drastic changes coming to the U.S. government in 2025, with the possible detention and eventual deportation of millions of undocumented workers, massive tax cuts, deregulations, and a rollback of the safety net, poverty and hunger is bound to rise in the United States. We already have at least 38 million Americans living at or below the poverty line. This is why the Muslim community needs to urgently enhance its social service so it can serve our neighbors efficiently. We also need to encourage our interfaith partners to scale up their social services. Faith communities in the U.S. have always been at the forefront of helping neighbors in need. They play a critical role as first responders in disasters. And a disaster is in the making right now.
This is where we can consider insights from the 3 Prophetic Cs for success. It is the need of the hour.
- Care For Humanity: If, as promised, the military is deployed to round up immigrants to detention centers, they will be using profiling as a method on our streets just like it was used post-9/11. If President-elect Trump deports a million people in the first year, it means at least 4 million family members will be impacted. And if he deports 12 million, it will impact about 48 million people. But the profiling dragnet might capture many “others,” - these include those who Trump has targeted in the past, including “dog-eating” Haitians, foreign-looking “Moslems” etc. We must all enhance our human services for our neighbors by increasing food pantries, opening up soup kitchens, offering legal services, and of course protesting. Yes, protesting. America stood up against the Muslim ban. We must stand up against this deportation of mostly Latinos.
- Coalitions And Networking: Muslim Americans are just one percent of the population in the U.S. We cannot stand alone. There is an urgent need for Muslims to guide interfaith, the main networks Masjids have to help the hungry and homeless. Latinos are in need. We must all reach out to them. Latinos are organized as Latino organizations, immigrant rights organizations, labor unions, and through Catholic churches. We must reach out to them and work with them.
- Communication: “Newspapers and magazines commonly printed anti-Semitic articles and cartoons”; Christian Bible says Jews killed Jesus, God’s peace and blessings be upon him. But do you see any media today saying Jews killed Jesus on Good Friday, the day Christians believe was crucified.
Jews historically faced massacres by Christians because of this belief. Americans eventually stopped stereotyping Jews. It took time, but it was Jewish investment in the art of media and public relations that paid off. Now, the Jewish community is rated the best community by Americans.
No one has stopped Muslims from mastering the art and communication technology, public relations, and most importantly, telling our story, as part of the fabric of humanity in America. It might also help us bridge the huge gap between the approval rating of Muslims and the approval of Islam as a faith. The approval of our faith is 20% lower than the approval of Muslims in the United States.
4. Additional Ways of Helping Palestine
- The U.S. presidential elections are over but Israel’s genocide of Palestine continues. While almost all American Muslims had Palestine in mind while voting, only four percent of Americans said they chose the presidential candidate based on foreign policy issues. Also, only 31% of Americans according to surveys consider US support for Israel as being too strong. There is a great need for America to know how Palestinians suffer under Israel’s occupation, apartheid, and genocide. The fight for freedom and liberty is as American as apple pie. This, however, is the first time, young Jews and young Muslims are working together for freedom of Palestine along with other young people. Younger Americans are more sympathetic to the cause of Palestine. It is their commitment to the future of Palestine that is nightmarish for Zionist politicians. Here are some things you can do to change this.
- Develop a local media watch: Malcolm X Shaheed was right when he said: “If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.” Join Justice For All’s media watch team. Better yet, establish a local media watch group. Justice For All will train you on how to do it. Journalists, editors, and others in the media are human beings. They will respond to your engagement. Sign up here.
- Develop a local boycott group: Why do we keep buying items from companies which are supporting genocide? We have found that even Masjids in America and Canada are using products which Muslims in other parts of the world are boycotting. Some of these directly support the Israeli military. Please join a local boycott group by signing up here.
5. All politics is local
- While many of us were focused on the U.S. presidential elections, there were hundreds and thousands of other races across America for which votes took place. Some seats went unopposed, and on other seats, no contested for tem. Some of these small local positions can be won by your extended family voting for you.
- So run for office yourself. In many cities and villages across America, the next election is in spring 2025, which is quickly coming soon. If you are not interested in running yourself, why not form a small local village/town/suburban network of Muslims to think together about how your group can encourage someone to run for office or come together in support of someone else?
- Don’t know how to run for office, how to raise funds for it, and how to organize a campaign? Sound Vision can help. Sign up here for a training workshop.
- Invest in the party you voted for. Voting once in a while will not empower you. Developing relationships with those you vote for is critical for your empowerment. Here are some thinking points in this regard.
6. Seek Help with Sabr and Salat for Success:
When Muslims around the Prophet Muhammad, God’s peace and blessings be upon him, were few and being persecuted and tortured, they were advised to seek help with Sabr (perseverance) and Salat (prayer). Allah controls the world and we don’t. God wants us to remain connected with Him through talking to Him and submitting ourselves in Salat, although Allah notes that it is difficult for people unless they believe they will meet their Lord.
God also asks us for Sabr. Sabr is not patience which involves giving up. It is perseverance, endurance, and persistence. Again, it is God Almighty Who controls the world, we don’t. Allah chooses the best timing to rotate good and bad times among people (Quran 3:140). God also says that He does not change the state of the people unless people change what is within them (Quran 13:11). Allah knows what oppressors any and everywhere are doing and says that He will let them until He gets them (Quran 14:42).
What matters for us is real success. Allah defines real success in the following terms:
They want to extinguish the light of Allah with their mouths, but Allah will perfect His light, although the disbelievers dislike it.
It is He who sent His Messenger with guidance and the religion of truth to manifest it over all religion, although those who associate others with Allah dislike it.
O you who have believed, shall I guide you to a transaction that will save you from a painful punishment?
[It is that] you believe in Allah and His Messenger and strive in the cause of Allah with your wealth and your lives. That is best for you, if you should know.
He will forgive you your sins, and admit you to Gardens beneath which Rivers flow, and to beautiful mansions in Gardens of Eternity:
that is indeed the Supreme Achievement.
He will also grant you the other favor that you love: help from Allah and a victory that will come soon. Share this good tidings with the believers.
(Quran 61:7-13)
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