About 280 Muslim delegates met with members of Congress Monday in a “historic” gathering on Capitol Hill.
According to a press release on the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) website, the first-ever National Muslim Advocacy Day enabled nearly 300 Muslim delegates representing several organizations to visit 200 congressional offices Monday – one third of the House and about half of the U.S. Senate.
The event was put together by the U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO). These were their priorities according to the release:
- Calling on Congress to urge the U.S. Department of Justice to amend its racial profiling guidance for federal law enforcement by removing any existing loopholes that continue to permit profiling in the name of national security, domestic surveillance and policing the border. Many of these programs have disproportionately targeted Latinos, Muslims and other minorities, and raise serious due process concerns.
- Congressional support of federal legislation that prohibits any federal, state, local and Indian tribal law enforcement agency from engaging in profiling on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, national origin or religion.
- Support of federal legislation that addresses the problems our nation is facing with youth violence by strengthening after-school programs.
USCMO is an umbrella group of Muslim organizations which include: American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA), Muslim American Society (MAS), Muslim Legal Fund of America (MLFA), Muslim Ummah of North America (MUNA), and The Mosque Cares (Ministry of Imam W. Deen Mohammed).
“This kind of event has several key elements to it. The first is they’re trying to declare the U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations is a Muslim political party in the United States and that candidates are going to have to be vetted by them,” John Guandolo, a counterrorism expert, said on Newsmax TV Monday.
It’s a flexing of the muscle in the political realm. It’s also a demonstration to the Muslim community in the U.S. and outside the U.S. that they have a very heavy hand inside our leadership realm and inside Washington, D.C.