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Election season is in full swing and there’s a new organization that’s aiming to empower Black Muslim voters.
The first in the nation Black Muslim Leadership Council (BMLC) launched in Philadelphia back in March. Council leaders hope to connect political leaders with Black Muslim voters to hear about community concerns such as affordable housing, disparities in Black maternal health, economic growth and education policies. They said the issues affecting Black Muslims are no different than issues that affect everyday people.
“The issues that affect Black Muslims are issues that affect lots of other folks,” Pennsylvania State Sen. Sharif Street said about the organization’s establishment back in March to The Philadelphia Tribune. “Black people’s journey to Islam is one that cannot be separated from the civil rights movement and our journey to civil rights. Often those who are least educated, most likely to be affected by mass incarceration, most likely to be shot, most likely to have all the problems other folks have, and also those who are most likely to have the highest levels of education because Islam grew in the Black community, both in colleges and in prisons.”
Black Muslims are the second largest population of American Muslims. Group leaders said they no longer want to feel neglected from a larger political conversation. Black Muslims have always played an active role in advocacy, especially during the Civil Rights Movement. BMLC will place a special emphasis on energizing voters in swing states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia.
“The Black Muslims have also become a significant voice,” Salima Suswell, founder and chief executive of the BMLC, said. “When it comes to voting and advocating to drive those voters to the polls, their voices will be instrumental in ensuring a greater turnout to the polls and to our voting system.”
The BMLC has a political action wing that will endorse political candidates and a nonprofit arm for nonpartisan activities such as voter turnout drives and election education classes. The hope is that U.S. political leaders take notice and engage with the group.
“We not only want to just get people registered and educated but also people actually out to the polls, making sure they’re actually voting and instilling that sense of duty in our people,” Idris Abdul-Zahir, board chair of the BMLC’s nonprofit arm, told NBC News. “The Black Muslim voice, for several reasons, has kind of been drowned out over the years. And we want to, while respecting other backgrounds and other people, make sure that our folks, Black folks, Black Muslims, and Muslims in general as well, that our voice is a critical voice at that table.”
Black Muslim Leadership Council Hopes To Empower Black Muslims To Take Political Action was originally published on elev8.com
