Major Community
Organization Campaign Launched
By Hazem Kira
Dr. Agha Saeed |
New York: The American Muslim
Alliance (AMA), a national civic education organization with
101 chapters, has recently opened a new office in New York,
which will help coordinate its activities in northeastern
states, particularly in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
The AMA- New York is located at 36-01, 37 Avenue, Long Island
City, Queens. The centrally located AMA-NY office, 10 minutes
drive from Manhattan, has already become a hub for local political
activities such as town hall meetings, press conferences,
coalitional politics, and candidates’ forums.
The AMA-NY office was inaugurated by it national Chair Dr.
Agha Saeed. “The aim for the AMA”, he said, is
to strategically mobilize the American Muslim voters at the
local, state and federal levels, with primary focus on key
races in congressional and council districts. We must bring
about the widest possible sharing of political knowledge,
skills acquisition, resources, and build a nationwide network
of contacts.”
The newly opened office has been tasked with setting up a
major precinct-by-precinct GET-OUT-TO-VOTE community outreach
and mobilization network. Accomplishing this goal could make
800, 000 New York Muslims a noteworthy constituency in the
upcoming mayoral election scheduled for Nov 2005, political
observers believe.
Speaking at the inauguration of the AMA New York Office, Shafqat
Chaudhary, President AMA-NY said: “The opening of this
office will allow the community to develop a political infrastructure
at the district, county, and state level. Only by physically
being on the ground, can we maximize our potential, and bring
forward any substantive change.” The AMA-New York office
will enable us, he said, “to participate in political
campaigns and coordinate with other Muslim organizations to
promote American Muslim objectives of Muslim self-empowerment.”
The AMA has hired veteran Pakistani-American journalist and
columnist Mr. Afzal Mohsin as the Executive Director for its
New York Office. Mr. Mohsin comes to AMA with thirty years
of media experience.
The new Executive Director will be responsible for a number
of activities which include ensuring regular two-way communication
with the AMA members, the Muslim community and the mainstream
press; writing regular event reports for the media, issuing
press releases; publishing a quarterly e-newsletter; organizing
civic education and leadership training programs in the tri-state
area; organizing and conducting monthly, quarterly, special
and annual meetings; and setting up a city/statewide election
machine. Mr. Mohsin will also represent AMA-NY at various
mainstream meetings and conferences.
For over ten years, the AMA has been dedicated to educating,
organizing and mobilizing American Muslims in the political
process. During the 2004 presidential election, the AMA-National
had conducted seven town hall meetings just in New York.
These meetings are primarily designed to provide civic education
and to help build citizen efficacy through skills acquisition
and capacity formation as well as to seek direct input from
community members and activists for policy decision regarding
the overall American Muslim goals and strategies.
The AMA has recently decided to expand the scope of its town
hall meetings by informing and engaging the Muslim community
about the neocon agenda with the aim to defeat it and prevent
the neocons from dividing the Muslim community by provoking
internal conflicts.
In the next six months the AMA-NY office will focus on getting
Muslim New Yorkers registered to vote, meet and negotiate
with mayoral and city council candidates, volunteer for various
political campaigns, and get-out-to-vote in large numbers.
“One of our goals is to create a Muslim bloc vote at
the city level and connect it with a set of clearly-defined
goals,” Imam Baqi, Vice President of AMA-New York chapter,
said. “We will support those candidates who support
civil rights and inclusion for all.”
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