Excerpt:
“Faith Led, Justice Driven” was the theme of the 24th Annual Gala of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, San Francisco Bay Area (CAIR-SFBA). The gala sold out, drawing more than 1,300 Bay Area Muslims, friends and dignitaries to the Santa Clara Convention Center on Oct. 27 to uplift their faith community and raise funds to support CAIR programs for justice.
Underlying the festive occasion, however, was the sobering news from Pittsburgh, PA, that a Jewish synagogue, the Tree of Life, had been attacked earlier in the day by an apparently lone gunman. The massacre killed 11 Sabbath worshipers and wounded six, including four first responders, in a hate crime against the Jewish community.
“It’s important to have a sense of community in this political climate, especially because places of worship and religious communities feel so compromised in terms of their safety these days,” said Los Gatos resident Khadijah Khokhar, attending the CAIR banquet with her mother.