Sacramento Banquet Focuses on “Our Collective Strength: The Future of Muslim Power”
By Ras H. Siddiqui

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) Sacramento Valley/Central California (SV/CC) Chapter celebrated its more than 20 years of activism with a well-attended Annual Banquet held on Saturday, September 21, 2024, at the SAFE Credit Union Convention Center in Downtown Sacramento. This banquet is possibly the largest non-religious annual Muslim event held in our region where political activism takes a front seat, and the community takes stock of its current challenges and accomplishments in the all-important capital city of California.

In the backdrop of the war on Gaza which seems to be expanding regionally, bringing great pain and suffering to the Palestinian people (including women and children) and its impacting viewers sitting in Western living rooms via television news and on worldwide social media with contributions from citizen journalists, the local CAIR chapter has been busier than ever. The storm of awareness that the Palestinian cause has generated recently has been unprecedented in America and many other parts of the world. Young people of conscience have stepped forward leading street protests supported by surprisingly some members of the Jewish community. Gaza continues to bleed while Palestine increasingly becomes a global issue.

This year’s CAIR Banquet theme “Our Collective Strength: The Future of Muslim Power” started with our man with the golden voice, emcee Dr Masood Cajee calling everyone to attention. He also highlighted the importance of this event and shared the knockout lineup of speakers present. Cajee’s first action was to request Sheikh Abdullah ElSharkawy to come onto the stage to present the invocation which was delivered with a beautiful recitation from the Holy Qur’an.

ElSharkawy was followed by a short address by CAIR-SV/CC Governance Board President Andrew Li. The Board President thanked Allah (SWT) for his blessings and asked for recognition of all who worked tirelessly to get us to where we are now, including Br Basim Elkarra and outgoing Board President Sister Khydeeja Alam. Li also stressed that one main goal here tonight was to achieve unity. 

A break for Maghrib prayers held in an adjacent hall followed, and dinner was served during that time to the non-Muslim guests and the rest upon their return. Attendees were also shown a video that charted CAIR’s activities during the past 20 years including the Bush-Cheney era challenges, the Lodi case, Black Lives Matter (Stefon Clark case), standing with the Sikh community which has faced many hate crimes, and the overturning of the Hamid Hayat case in 2019 plus fighting Trump’s Muslim Ban, to name just a few. And now the biggest challenge: genocide in Gaza.

All through this time a very tall young man from a family background in Gaza-Palestine was present as he was hired on as CAIR-Sacramento’s Executive Director. We are referring to Basim Elkarra here who has now moved on to take on another task with CAIR ACTION after leading CAIR-SV/CC for the past 20 years. It will be hard to imagine this CAIR Chapter without Executive Director Basim, but he said that he would continue to reside in the area and make himself available if needed. Basim took to the stage at this event and proceeded to recognize elected public officials present (too numerous to mention here), including many Muslims.

Interim local CAIR chapter Reshad Noorzay also came up to the stage and thanked a long list of sponsors without whom this event would not have been possible. Basim Elkarra returned to conduct the awards ceremony with a twist (to be explained later). The first series of awards were presented posthumously (In Memoriam) to Saleem Akhtar Khan, Mrs Fariha Saeed, and Muhammad Tufail. Family members of these recently departed individuals accepted the awards. All three have left a rich legacy and it was great to see them being recognized. The next awards were very special too.

The CAIR-SV/CC 2024 Youth Leadership Award was presented to Habiba Darwish whose Sacramento region high school yearbook story on the Gaza war which she described as genocide, generated a lot of interest and attention not only in this area but nationally. Habiba bravely stood her ground despite all the pressure that the interest in the article had generated. She is a brave young lady.

Two area Islamic Centers, namely the Muslim Community of Folsom (MCF) and Tarbiya Institute were also recognized on stage with the 2024 Distinguished Service Award for their commitment to serve the area Muslim community specifically and for educating the wider community on Islam. Congratulations to both and we are looking forward to hearing some good news about the planned MCF expansion soon.

The 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Eyas Abdeen, a tech professional (and state employee) who has been an active member of the Sacramento community for over two decades. Since 2011, he has been serving on the Al-Arqam Islamic School board of trustees as their CFO. Eyas Ayas was also Treasurer for the CAIR-Sacramento Valley Governing Board in 2012, and then in 2015, CAIR-Sacramento President from 2016 to 2018 and later in 2021 joined the CAIR-National Board of Directors. It is always great to meet him, and he certainly deserved this honor.

The last recipient was Basim Elkarra himself (the twist mentioned earlier) who received the “20 Years of Leadership and Service Award” which was presented to him by  Hussam Ayloush-CEO and Executive Director of CAIR Greater Los Angeles Area. Since this writer has been covering CAIR-Sacramento (later SV/CC) ever since it started, it has been great to see both Br Basim and Br Hussam having a permanent presence at all prominent events that have been held locally for the past two decades. As Br Basim leaves CAIR-SV/CC in his official capacity as Executive Director if was only befitting to recognize him for his many years of devoted service and activism with this award.

It became almost official here as it was announced by Br Basim that Interim Executive Director Reshad Noorzay is now the Executive Director of CAIR-SV/CC. Reshad returned to address the event. Noorzay was born and raised in Los Angeles. His parents came to the US from Afghanistan. Reshad also has a technology background.

The fundraising segment followed, and it was once again conducted by Imam Siraj Wahhaj of Al-Taqwa mosque in Brooklyn, New York, and leader of the Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA). The Imam is a very popular figure in the American Muslim community, and he came armed with his usual wisdom and a great sense of humor which enabled many people to part with their money and donate to CAIR-SV/CC.

Last but not least, author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges ended the event with one of the saddest keynote speeches that we have ever heard. The most alarming part of his delivery was that it was all true. Hedges described the situation in Gaza in horrific detail. It reminded this writer of the title of an old book by Colombian Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, “Love in the Time of Cholera”. The disturbing content that Chris Hedges so eloquently shared about the plight of defenseless Gaza Palestinians could easily be titled “Looking for Traces of Humanity in a Genocide.”