Dr. Mudusar Raza was a bit surprised when fellow board members forming the Maryland Chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations chose him last August to be president.
CAIR, as it is known, is a nonprofit dedicated to protecting the civil rights of American Muslims.
Raza, a Frederick County resident and the former president of the Islamic Society of Frederick, said he had been the last to join the chapter’s fledgling board, yet they felt his familiarity with Muslim culture, as well as his having grown up an American who served in the military, made a good fit for the role.
Founded in 1994, the nonpartisan civil rights group that Raza describes as the “Muslim ACLU” has close to 30 chapters across the country.
Raza, in his 30s, said he’d been following their work since his college days.
The group tackles issues like discrimination in the workplace, at school or by law enforcement, he said. They also try to educate people about their rights and about Islam and the tenets of the faith, a subject of apparently endless confusion.
“I think it’s a wonderful organization,” he said. “We don’t shy away from controversial topics; that’s what I really admire about CAIR.”
CAIR joined others in October to condemn a controversial ad placed in the Washington Metro by Pamela Geller’s conservative group the American Freedom Defense Initiative that reads, “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel, Defeat jihad.”
CAIR countered with its own Metro ad that reads, “Show forgiveness, speak for justice, avoid the ignorant,” a quote taken from the Quran, Raza said.
The group has called for Montgomery County schools to implement an Eid holiday for students, as well as develop a concrete method to determine how the system should implement religious holidays, he said. CAIR has done anti-bullying campaigns and joined an interfaith vigil for the massacre in Newtown, Conn., Raza said. In January, CAIR members protested the Maryland Conservative Action Network’s daylong political conference in Annapolis, specifically its decision to invite Geller as a speaker, he said.
CAIR attempted to meet with Frederick County Commissioners President Blaine Young, among other legislators, at the conference, but were unsuccessful, he said.
“They didn’t respond to us,” he said, but CAIR members did get a chance to speak with counterprotesters against them.
“We see other people’s side,” he said. “We need somebody to tell our side.”
For more about CAIR, visit http://md.cair.com.