{"id":4368,"date":"2016-02-04T16:52:01","date_gmt":"2016-02-04T16:52:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/crcc\/president-obama-lifts-up-young-muslim-activists-including-amcli-alumni\/"},"modified":"2024-10-14T23:01:15","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T23:01:15","slug":"president-obama-lifts-up-young-muslim-activists-including-amcli-alumni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/crcc\/president-obama-lifts-up-young-muslim-activists-including-amcli-alumni\/","title":{"rendered":"President Obama Lifts up Young Muslim Activists, Including AMCLI Alumni"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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President Obama Lifts up Young Muslim Activists, Including AMCLI Alumni<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n
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\n\n \n Commentary\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n By<\/span>Nick Street<\/a><\/strong>\n \n February 4, 2016<\/span>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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Just before President Obama made his public remarks at the Islamic Society of Baltimore this week<\/a>–his first visit to a mosque as President–he met with a dozen Muslim leaders from across the U.S. in a closed-door roundtable.<\/p>\n

The diverse gathering of leaders included Ibtihaj Muhammad, of the U.S. fencing team, who will make history at this summer’s Olympic games as the first American Olympian to compete in a hijab; Emtithal “Emi” Mahmoud, a student at Yale University (originally from Darfur, Sudan) and the winner of the 2015 Individual World Poetry Slam Championship; and Rami Nashashibi, executive director of Inner-City Muslim Action Network, a community organization in Chicago’s southwest side.<\/p>\n

\"Sarah<\/a>Sarah Jawaid, an alumna of CRCC’s American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute<\/a> (AMCLI), also participated in the roundtable. AMCLI has provided training programs for more than 200 young American Muslims who have taken on leadership roles in their faith communities and non-profit organizations.<\/p>\n

Sarah Jawaid and fellow AMCLI alum Umar Hakim, for instance, are both organizers with LA Voice<\/a>, an interfaith community organization. They were instrumental in mobilizing support for California’s Prop 47<\/a> in both the Latino and African-American Muslim communities in South Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

“I was reluctant to accept the invitation at first,” Jawaid said of the event with the president. As a South Asian working in Latino and African American communities, she said, “I wondered if I was the right person to represent the community that I work and walk with. But I felt better when I learned there were going to be other people of color at the table. I was happy to see such a diverse group of participants.”<\/p>\n

That spirit of dynamic inclusivity animates many young Muslim American leaders today. All 12 participants in the presidential roundtable also were united in a commitment to issues of social justice at the intersection of race, class, religion and gender in the United States.<\/p>\n

In his speech President Obama highlighted that civic-minded spirit when he recounted his experience at the roundtable.<\/p>\n

“I just had a chance to meet with some extraordinary Muslim Americans from across the country who are doing all sorts of work,” he said. “Some of them are doctors; some of them are community leaders; religious leaders. All of them were doing extraordinary work not just in the Muslim community but in the American community.”<\/p>\n

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#Leadership<\/a> #collaboration<\/a> with inspiring #amclisummit<\/a> peers! Thank you @usccrcc<\/a> for supporting #faith<\/a> based service pic.twitter.com\/9Rd6EztitI<\/a><\/p>\n

— Dr. Anisha I. Jogee (@DrAnishaJogee) February 3, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n